Fast Track Filibuster Fails
Cloture vote sets up final fast track passage in Senate today. The Hill: "Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday’s vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory. [Past supporter] Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) voted against the procedural motion ... After the Senate votes Wednesday on final passage for fast-track, it will take a procedural vote on a package that includes TAA..."
House Dem opposition to TAA may be softening. Politico: "At this point, it looks as if a number of House Democrats who voted against Trade Adjustment Authority when it was linked to fast-track are now open to backing it. Democrats say some labor officials who gave them a pass on the first round are urging them to support it ... If House Democrats vote against TAA and it’s defeated a second time — which seems highly unlikely — it would put Obama in the awkward position of deciding whether to sign a fast-track bill without government help [for displaced workers.]"
Senate Aims For Long-Term Transportation Jobs Bill
Sens. Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe introduce six-year transportation funding bill. The Hill: "...the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act, calls for appropriating nearly $43 billion per year ... contingent upon lawmakers coming up with a way to pay for it ... The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion annually."
Senate Finance Committee working on funding measure. Roll Call: "'I’m doing everything I possibly can, and we’ve got some ideas, but we’ll just have to see,' Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch said Tuesday. That panel has a hearing on transportation financing set for Thursday..."
Ex-Im Bank reauthorization could be attached to it. Roll Call: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday the highway bill would be the 'obvious place' for a vote to keep the bank alive."
Breakfast Sides
Sen. Chuck Schumer floats carbon tax compromise, in future. The Hill: "Republicans, Schumer argued, will advocate for a national sales tax, or value-added tax (VAT), to get more money into federal coffers. 'We won’t be for a VAT, that’s regressive. But there’s one sort of VAT that Democrats might be for, and that’s a carbon tax,' Schumer said ... 'I think in 2017, people in both parties might come to that as the best way to fund the government.'"
Syriza members rebel against emerging bailout deal. NYT: "[Government spokesman Gabriel] Sakellaridis told Greek television that the prime minister expected a 'governmental majority' for any final deal, noting that a failure to achieve one would mean calling snap elections, throwing Greece into disarray ... 'This makes life worse for ordinary citizens,' said Despoina Charalampidou, a Syriza lawmaker who is now a deputy speaker of Parliament. 'The measures constitute austerity.'"
