Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) soundly defeated challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) in the Texas gubernatorial primary yesterday, successfully avoiding a runoff by getting more than 50 percent of the vote. With “nearly all of the state’s more than 8,000 precincts reporting, Mr. Perry had 51%, while Ms. Hutchison had 31%.”
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) will likely step down temporarily from his post as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee as dozens of Democrats joined a Republican call urging him to do so. The House ethics committee found that Rangel “broke congressional rules by not properly disclosing trips to the Caribbean that were paid for by companies.”
Yesterday, Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) became the 34th senator to commit to supporting the public option through reconciliation. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee previously announced that it would begin to run ads in his home state encouraging him to get on board the effort.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) “will announce an ambitious set of reforms” today to “change many of the rules under which” the Senate works, “including an effort to restrict earmarks and limit the filibuster.” Bennet “will propose eliminating anonymous holds, banning private-sector earmarks, freezing pay and budgets for members of Congress, and barring lawmakers from lobbying for life.”
“Senate Republicans are waging a pre-emptive strike against the Senate’s parliamentarian,” charging that he is biased towards Democrats. Parliamentarian Alan Frumin’s ruling on reconciliation “could determine the fate” of health care reform. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) said, “I think clearly the majority leader has [Frumin's] ear.”
“The Obama administration is weighing the merits of taking China’s censorship of Google Inc. to the World Trade Organization as an unfair barrier to trade, a move that could further raise diplomatic tensions,” Bloomberg reports. “The U.S. Trade Representative’s office is consulting with industry groups about China’s Internet policies,” said spokeswoman Carol Guthrie.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) yesterday sharply criticized Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) plan to place a proposed consumer protection agency inside the Federal Reserve, instead of creating an independent organization. “I was incredulous,” Frank said. “The Fed’s such a weak engine, so let’s give them consumer protection? It’s almost a bad joke.”
A new report from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund finds that payday lenders, profiting from “a surge in emergency loans to people struggling through the recession,” are spending millions on lobbying legislators to avoid regulation. The industry spent $6.1 million lobbying last year, double what it spent the year before.
The U.S. Postal Service reintroduced proposals to cut costs yesterday, including closing post offices, raising rates, and eliminating some services, such as Saturday delivery. The service is facing “growing deficits and rapid erosion of its business” and without “drastic changes,” it will run deficits of $238 billion over the next decade.
And finally: “Bunning” is the hot new lingo being bandied about on Capitol Hill these days. “As in, ‘You got bunninged!’ or ‘Hold the doors, don’t bunning me!’ or ‘That guy’s always bunning at work.’” Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) joined in the fun yesterday. “I’m not trying to pull a Bunning or anything,” Corker joked to reporters as he retreated to the elevator with the doors closing on reporters’ noses.
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