A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate would bar discrimination on federal juries on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
In a final push to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy barring gay men and women from serving openly in the military before the end of the lame duck legislative session in Washington, the House Wednesday passed a standalone version of the repeal by a vote of 250 to 175. The repeal legislation now goes to the Senate where a version tied to the larger Defense Authorization bill was scuttled last week.
Communications Director Tara Trujillo told the Colorado Independent that Senator Mark Udall, a dogged champion of repeal, is “fairly confident the Senate will take up DADT repeal and he is fighting to ensure that it is passed.”
Republicans successfully filibustered the nation’s defense authorization bill hours ago, edging close to gridlock history. If scotched this year, the bill will be the first of its kind in 48 years to fail to pass. Republicans objected on procedural and philosophical grounds. They resented Majority Leader Harry Reid’s including two controversial amendments with the bill: the immigrant youth “path to citizenship” DREAM Act and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy repeal that would allow gays in the military to serve openly. Many Republicans also believed the two amendments would make bad law.
Today, Congress plans to vote to extend unemployment benefits, which have been held up in the Senate for an unprecedented two months. Lawmakers will reconsider H.R. 4213, also known as the jobs bill or the extenders package, as the vehicle for a $34 billion extension of benefits — retroactive to June 2, when they lapsed, and continuing through the end of November.
WASHINGTON– On Wednesday night, a bare-bones measure to keep federally funded unemployment insurance checks headed to the long-term unemployed failed in the Senate. Moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine had signed on to vote for cloture on the $34 billion bill. But without Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who passed away earlier in the week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — the majority leader who hails from the state with the worst unemployment rate in the country — once again found himself stuck at 59 votes. By the time Byrd’s replacement is in place, in mid-July, two million Americans will have lost their benefits, and the bill extending them will have languished for some 11 weeks.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is telling reporters today that he has won the votes of two Republicans for his extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits. He says he is one vote away from having 60 senators to vote…
The Senate Armed Services Committee goes into room 222 of the Russell building today at 2:30 p.m. to mark up the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill. Until members emerge at 9 p.m., it’s a black box of information for determining the contours of the half-trillion-dollar-plus piece of legislation, including the fate of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) amendment to repeal the military’s ban on open gay service, an amendment strongly supported by Colorado’s Mark Udall. The coalition of LGBT-rights organizations pushing to secure passage in the committee and then later this week on the House floor are trying as hard as they can to lock down votes by mid-afternoon before the Senators gather behind closed doors.
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will drop their climate change bill this month. Although success will depend on action and support from the Senate as a whole, key individuals inside and outside the halls of Congress will shape the legislation and steer it through the political and public relations minefields it will have to navigate successfully in order to pass into law. Here is a list of the ten climate legislation champions at the heart of the battle.
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act named for Matthew Shepard, the young man who died at a Fort Collins hospital in 1998 after being beaten in Wyoming by men who targeted him because he was gay.…
Taking a cue from Talking Points Memo, the Obama campaign put up an interactive map on Friday to track “some of the most toxic attacks” from the McCain campaign in the form of robocalls and printed material in Colorado and other battleground states.
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