Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 10 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security, immigration and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below. You can also follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.
Immigration
Yesterday, President Obama called Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and reportedly told him that Senate Democrats are moving forward with an immigration overhaul in a month.
The general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which helped draft the language of Arizona’s harsh immigration bill, says he has been approached by lawmakers from four other states looking to enact similar legislation.
The Farmers Branch City Council in Texas voted unanimously Tuesday night to appeal a federal court ruling that its renters ordinance targeting illegal immigrants is unconstitutional.
Health Care
Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, Kaiser Permanente, and Humana have joined “the growing list of insurers who are offering to continue health insurance for young adults graduating from college or aging out of their parents’ plan.”
“More than 4 million postcards were mailed Monday to small-business owners, touting a tax credit in the new healthcare law that many of them are eligible to receive.”
“An attempt to nullify the federal health care overhaul in Louisiana, by declaring no one can be mandated to pay a penalty if they don’t have insurance, edged out of the House Insurance Committee on a 5-4 vote Tuesday.”
Climate Change
“At least 11 people were missing and seven injured after an explosion and fire at an oil-drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
In the wake of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, a former miner is telling lawmakers to “Break down these criminal enterprises like Massey Energy.”
Sens. Lieberman, Kerry, and Graham, who plan to release their long-awaited energy legislation this month, are “expected to give the power companies that account for about 40 percent of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions more free allowances compared with the House cap-and-trade bill and impose a ‘hard price collar’ that gives the industry greater certainty on what its costs will be over the environmental program’s four-decade lifespan.”
Economy
“Key Senate Republicans on Tuesday began to back away from their sharp criticism of proposed new financial regulations and expressed optimism that a bipartisan” deal could emerge.
Goldman Sachs’ filled lawmakers political warchests with “nearly $300,000” in March. Politico reports that, “The Goldman Sachs Group Political Action Committee shelled out $167,500 to Republican candidates and political entities and $123,000 to Democrats.”
“General Motors is expected to announce Wednesday that it will pay off $5.8 billion in government loans ahead of the June deadline,” a sign that the automaker is rebounding from its collapse last year. GM “will repay $4.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury and $1.1 billion to the Canadian government.”
National Security
The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington’s blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability.
There has been a sharp drop in the number of pirate attacks on ships during the first quarter of 2010, says the International Maritime Bureau(IMB).
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri denied Wednesday that Hezbollah had received long-range Scud missiles from Syria and said the allegations were concocted by Israel to threaten his country.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.