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Senate Democrats reached a deal with Republicans Wednesday to move forward on U.S. President Barack Obama’s fast-track trade agenda, one day after pro-trade Senators stalled the bill by blocking debate, according to Politico and Roll Call. In exchange for their support on a vote for the fast-track trade authority, Democrats will get separate votes on two related bills on currency manipulation and duty-free status to U.S. imports of goods from certain sub-Saharan African countries. “We have to take some of these votes separately or we kill the underlying legislation,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., according to Politico. “It’s...

The trade deal was back on track Wednesday afternoon, just a day after hitting the skids in a Democratic filibuster, after leaders struck a bipartisan agreement to move forward. Democratic senators lost their bid to have four trade-related bills combined into a single measure, but did secure the chance to have votes related to all four bills, giving them the platform they wanted.

It took Republicans three tries to win control of the US Senate and consolidate Congress under their leadership. In the end, the landscape left by the 2008 Democratic triumph left them uniquely vulnerable in the sixth-year midterm of an unpopular presidency. The tables will turn in 2016, warns National Journal’s Charlie Cook, as the gains of 2010 will make Republicans highly vulnerable to losing control of the Senate once again: Today, The Cook Political Report puts two Republican-held seats in the “Toss Up” category—the open seat in Florida and Kirk in Illinois. That toss-up column will certainly grow as...

The Senate lent strong support today to a simply worded resolution calling on Iran to let four Americans come home. The bipartisan resolution from Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) passed 90-0. It states that it’s the policy of the United States that “the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran should immediately release Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Jason Rezaian, and cooperate with the United States Government to locate and return Robert Levinson; and the United States Government should undertake every effort using every diplomatic tool at its disposal to secure their immediate release.” Washington Post bureau chief Rezaian, a California...

ACTION: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Orrin Hatch may soon give the President authority to write gun control restrictions into a “trade agreement.” So click here to contact your Senators –- whether they are liberal or conservative. Urge them to vote against the anti-gun “fast track” bill (S. 995). Will UN-style gun control be rammed down our throats? Gun import bans ... Microstamping of firearms ... Ammunition bans ... The full implementation of the anti-gun UN Arms Trade Treaty ... Illegal amnesty which locks in millions of new, anti-gun voters. This anti-gun wish list could be part of...

Health-care experts call it D.C. insiderism at its worst. The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies. The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter, who has fought for years against the...

John McCain's troubles with conservatives have him in a whole lot of trouble for reelection next year. Even among Republican primary voters just 41% approve of the job he's doing to 50% who disapprove. Only 37% of primary voters say they generally support him for renomination, compared to 51% who say they would prefer someone 'more conservative.' It's his struggles on the right that have McCain imperiled. He gets narrowly positive reviews from both 'somewhat conservative' (51/37) and moderate (50/44) Republicans. But among those who identify themselves as 'very conservative,' just 21% approve of the job McCain is doing to...

In a rebuke to the hawks of his party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated on Tuesday that he will move forward with a Senate bill on the Iran nuclear agreement by limiting votes on amendments that demand more conditions from the Iranians. Though no definitive schedule was announced, Republicans left their weekly luncheon suggesting that no further tinkering would be done to the bill. Speaking to reporters after that luncheon concluded, McConnell would not utter the word "cloture," saying only that he was trying to "move quickly" while considering other, less controversial amendments. In addition to the diminishing...

[SNIP] ".........While the joke goes that every senator looks in the mirror each morning and sees a potential occupant of the Oval Office, senators do have automatic fund-raising bases and little difficulty attracting the spotlight. Still, since 1960, only two — John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois — have risen directly to the White House.... [SNIP] ....For now, Republican Senate colleagues are optimistic about the presidential aspirants’ ability to make it back to Washington for crucial votes, and about the party leadership’s willingness to try to work around their campaign schedules, when possible. “Remember when Obama...

On Tuesday the Republican controlled Senate gave President Barack Obama the green light to sell out our security and place Israel in grave danger. Twelve quislings of the Republican wing of the Uniparty joined the anti-American Democrat wing in voting for an amendment offered by a Republican to insure that the Senate and the American people will have no say in whether Iran gets a nuclear weapons program or not. The Uniparty has again reminded us that the only difference between Mitch McConnell the current Senate Leader and Harry Reid the former Senate Leader is that Harry is the one...

Sen. Marco Rubio has proposed a change to the Iran nuclear review bill that could unravel a carefully crafted compromise and kill the Obama Administration’s negotiations. MORE Longtime Marco Rubio–Jeb Bush Alliance Fades in GOP Contest How Barack Obama’s Trade Deal Puts Hillary Clinton in a Bind Fight to the Death: Supreme Court Hears Execution Case NBC News Here's a First-Hand Look at Mount Everest Base Camp NBC News New Misery for Nepal? Quake Sets Stage for Cholera NBC News At issue is a one-page amendment from the Florida Republican and 2016 presidential candidate that would certify as part of...

Rawlings-Blake says she's thinking 'long and hard' about whether to run for U.S. Senate By Yvonne Wenger The Baltimore Sun As she weighs a decision to run for U.S. Senate, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday she’s considering whether she can serve Baltimore better in her current job or in Congress. Rawlings-Blake, who is in her first full term, declined to say how soon she would decide whether to run for the seat that will be vacated by longtime Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski. Mikulski announced this week that she will retire at the end of her term after nearly half a...

Reports about a Senate cafeteria worker who makes so little money he is homeless are prompting calls for change from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers led by the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, released a letter Monday urging the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees Senate services, to provide a preference to contractors that pay a living wage and fair health insurance and benefits. […] It followed reports in the Washington Post and CNN profiling Charles Gladden, a 63-year-old who makes about $360 a week in take-home pay doing janitorial work in the Senate cafeteria. He said he...

Senate Democrats still control the U.S. Senate, election results last November aside, an analysis of all the votes taken since Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took over as Majority Leader shows. In fact, with two minor exceptions, every single vote that has passed the U.S. Senate since the beginning of this Congress in January has passed with at least—usually more than—93 percent of support from Democrats. “While Republicans have done nothing to create jobs and help the middle class, on other topics like passing clean funding for Homeland Security and confirming Loretta Lynch, Senator McConnell has done the right thing by...

Voting to confirm an attorney general who won’t uphold the Constitution isn’t a way to inspire confidence among conservatives. Hillary Clinton didn’t have such a bad week after all. Sure, she’s reeling from the latest unseemly revelations about the Clinton Foundation family piggy bank. But they’re only marginally worse than earlier unseemly revelations about the Clinton Foundation. They are roughly on par with the revelations about how Mrs. Clinton obstructed Congress’s Benghazi investigations by purging her unlawful private e-mail system, which was worse than her obstruction of the State Department’s Benghazi investigation. Yet it may not have been as bad...

The answer to this disappointing outcome? Keep fighting, keep demanding the right votes, the proper vision, the full respect for the Constitution. A New Media has arisen to ensure just that. Yes, the Republican US Senate majority just confirmed the racist, gun-grabbing Loretta Lynch. Yes, Ted Cruz voted against cloture, then departed from the US Senate to attend another fundraiser. Once again, a little perspective in the face of this setback. More Republicans are voting against the leadership and paying attention to the will of the voters. Forty-three senators voted against Lynch. Half that number had rejected Holder six years...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate staffer is facing a federal charge after court documents say he bought drugs from China with the intent to exchange them for sexual favors. Senate staffer Fred W. Pagan is facing the federal charge of possession with intent to distribute after court documents say he shipped drugs in from China. Pagan is a staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi.

1.) Dingy Harry Strikes Again Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid’s disdain for his Republican colleagues is on full display as he aims to force a vote on the nomination of Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General. In fact, the former Majority Leader is threatening to hijack the Senate. Given the weakness of the Republican majority, why not! “I know parliamentary procedure around here and we’re going to put up with this for a little while longer, but not much,” Reid said in an interview on MSNBC. “Absolutely we can force votes. If we don’t get something done soon, I will...

Early Thursday morning, ahead of the Senate’s vote on President Obama’s nomination of Loretta Lynch for attorney general, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ranted about current Attorney General Eric Holder, the likelihood of having Lynch as his successor, and the Republican Senate majority. He argued that as bad as Eric Holder has been as the attorney general, Lynch would be just as bad, if not worse. Cruz, who is running for president, posed a tough question to the Senate: what difference would it make whether Republicans or Democrats dominate the Senate, if someone arguably promising to be just like Holder is...

Complete Headline: Republican Senate Confirms AG Who Says Illegals Have Right to Work But Partially Born Babies Have No Right to Life A Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted to confirm an attorney general today who says that illegal aliens have a right to work in the United States but that partially born babies do not have a right to life. The Senate took two votes on the nomination of Loretta Lynch: first, a "cloture" vote to end debate and allow a final vote on confirmation, and, then, the final vote itself. Neither of these votes would have taken place had not...