Government Executive - Authors - Dan Friedman

Shape of a fiscal cliff deal emerges

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:25:27 -0500

emerged encouraged from a Friday White House meeting in which Republican leaders did not explicitly reject the suggestion they accept a Senate-passed bill that would allow tax rates to rise on top earners, leadership aides said.

Democrats hope their bill, which would need to pass only the House, can serve as a “down payment” this year in a deal that would include agreement on a mechanism to enact tax and entitlement reforms next year.

“The real development from our standpoint is that we said we are absolutely clear that we are sticking to our position that the Senate bill is what is [going to] happen between now and Dec. 25th,” the Democratic aide said. “Notably, Republicans didn’t shoot that down.”

The bill the Senate passed freezes rates for households under $250,000 and patches the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. spokesman Don Stewart mocked the suggestion GOP leaders' silence on Democrats’ suggestion is significant. “We didn’t rule out unicorns,” Stewart said. “We didn’t rule out building a cheese factory on the moon and Democrats didn’t rule out abolishing the EPA.”

Still, rather than flatly rejecting Democrats' suggestion, GOP leaders said that their staffs would work in the coming week on binding proposals to reform the tax code and get savings from entitlement programs, staffers said.

An aide to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, earlier Friday said the GOP’s goal for the coming weeks “is to settle on long-term revenue targets for tax reform as well as targets for savings from our entitlement programs.” With targets agreed on, “we can create simple mechanisms, in statute, that would achieve those revenue and spending goals,” the aide said. “They would be in place unless or until more thoughtful policies replace them.”

The Democratic leadership aide did not dispute that description, except to say it overlooks action to be taken in December. When considered along with Republicans’ muted reaction to Democrats’ proposal to pass the Senate tax bill, the aide argued the upshot of the meeting is the probability the GOP will accept, in December, an increase in taxes on top earners in exchange for agreement on binding tax and entitlement reform mechanisms next year.

“That is basically where we’re headed,” the aide said. “We’re gonna win.”

McConnell and Boehner have publicly said they will not agree to any increase in tax rates.
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Obama meets with Senate majority leader on fiscal cliff

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:13:57 -0500

The meeting between Reid and Obama was unannounced until Reid referenced it during a Senate floor speech Tuesday evening. It came before a widely publicized meeting Friday in which Obama will huddle with Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. A Democratic leadership aide said topics included the fiscal cliff and a cybersecurity bill Democrats hope to advance. The aide said the Tuesday meeting was not secret, though it was not announced. Further details were not immediately available.

“I left the White House an hour or two ago,” Reid said at around 5:15pm Tuesday. “The president of the United States believes the cybersecurity bill is one of the most important things facing the country now, not next Congress.”

Senate Republicans this summer blocked that bill over concerns about its impact on businesses. Reid said he expects them to block it again in a test vote that he said he will force before the chamber adjourns for Thanksgiving next week. Reid said the Senate will then move to a National Defense Authorization bill, but will not try to pass that measure until after the holiday.
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Lawmakers confident on deficit deal but differ on the details

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:00:00 -0500

Lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday that Republicans’ willingness to accept new tax revenue from the elimination of some tax deductions could form the basis for an agreement to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" of budget cuts and tax increases scheduled for January.

But lawmakers differed on the necessary components and even the timing of such an agreement.

“There is a basis for deal,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said on Fox News Sunday. Corker said Democrats “finally accept” that “Republicans are willing to put revenues on the table.”

But Corker said Republicans in exchange will demand cuts to entitlement spending.

President Obama has said he will veto any legislation extending tax cuts for people who earn more than $250,000 in household income a year. Republicans are hoping he will blink on that position and accept a deal that cuts tax deductions while reducing rates, a solution some Democrats say is insufficient to cut the deficit without hammering the middle class.

Obama appears to have leverage after his reelectoin, causing many on both sides of the aisle to argue Democrats have the upper hand to force their preferred solution. “I think we’re going to an Obama-type budget deal,” said the Weekly Standard’s William Kristol. “Elections have consequences.”

On Sunday, top Democrats stopped short of a flat refusal to consider a deal based on new revenue from sources other than increasing tax rates, but argued against that position.

“The starting point should be going back to rates as they existed under President Bill Clinton,” said House Budget Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he believed a deal can be reached during the lame duck session. But Conrad suggested a partial solution under which lawmakers agree to a down payment on the deficit; task committees of jurisdiction with finding new cuts; and impose a “backstop” of deeper reductions later if the panels don’t produce an agreement. That is an approach worked on by the “Gang of Eight” senators, including Conrad, who are drafting a plan based on the conclusions of the Simpson-Bowles Commission commissioned in 2010 by the president to address fiscal issues.

“You can’t deal with every detail in a few weeks,” Conrad said.

Conrad , who is retiring after the lame-duck session, said better-designed cuts than those scheduled for implementation would create a more effective backstop.

Corker argued that “it would be a travesty for our country if the reason we don’t go over the cliff is we kick the can down the road.”

Corker on Friday faulted the Gang of Eight. The senator said he had shelved his own deficit plan so that talks between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, take precedence.

“Now is not the time for any of us, Republicans, Democrats, groups or gangs, to be publicly promoting our own plans,” Corker said in a statement.

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Senate leader says he's ready to deal, suggests House speaker is too

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:09:16 -0500

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is ready to compromise on taxes and budget cuts, and he's hopeful that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is also set to deal following a "pleasant" Wednesday morning conversation with Boehner.

Reid called Tuesday's election results a signal that Americans are "tired of partisan gridlock."

"I am going to do everything in my power to be as conciliatory as possible. We want to work together," Reid said at a Wednesday news conference, while warning Democrats refuse "to be pushed around."

Reid suggested he expects Boehner, at his own news conference this afternoon, will strike a more conciliatory tone than he did in a recent assertion that House Republicans will oppose any revenue increase as part of an agreement to avert the so-called fiscal cliff of tax increases and budget cuts set to hit in January.

"He is not drawing any lines in the sand. I am not drawing any lines in the sand," Reid said.

Reid said an agreement must include added tax revenue and seemed to suggest Boehner was not personally ruling out that option, though he is restricted by his conference.

Reid, who also said he spoke Tuesday night with President Obama, rejected assertions that the election left Washington's balance of power unchanged. In addition to Obama's resounding victory, "we picked up seats in the Senate; we picked up seats in the House," Reid said.

"That's not the status quo."

Reid offered little about his legislative plans, but said he planned to test calls to soften the stance on immigration with multiple votes in the next Congress on unspecified immigration reform proposals.

Reid said he expects the government will not hit the federal debt ceiling during the lame duck. And he said he hopes for a comprehensive deal addressing the fiscal cliff. "I am not for kicking the can down the road," he said. "I think we've done that far too much."

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Independent senator-elect from Maine likely to caucus with Democrats

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:00:04 -0500

Maine Senate electee, Angus King, an independent former governor, looks likely to announce within weeks that he will caucus will Senate Democrats.

At a news conference Wednesday in Maine, King said he may make a decision on caucusing by the end of next week, when he will be in Washington for freshman orientation, or after Thanksgiving, according to King spokeswoman Crystal Canney.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in his own news conference Wednesday, said he had "several conversations in the last 24 hours" with King. Reid said he expected King would reach a decision soon.

Canney, who said she was aware only of one congratulatory call Reid made to King Tuesday night, said Reid suggested that King consult with fellow New England independent Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and and Joseph Lieberman, I.D.-Conn. , about how they have been treated in the Democratic Caucus.

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Analysis: Expect more of the same from the 113th Congress

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:09:51 -0500

If you didn’t like the 112th Congress, you will hate the 113th.

Derided as dysfunctional and panned for partisanship, the brawling, divided Congress is back, but more so.

With a Republican House, Democratic Senate, and President Obama reelected, things are superficially similar. But behind those similar contours, Congress is changed.

In the House, the parties retrenched toward partisan corners, with regional divisions sharpened. In stark result, Republicans were shut out in 21 House races and four Senate contests in New England. Blue Dogs lost seats, and Republicans increased their stranglehold on the South.

The 87-member, ardently conservative class elected in 2010 was mostly returned intact, bolstered by a big new class of GOP freshmen. After a cycle that saw a 20-year high of seats without incumbents seeking reelection, at least one-third of the 113th Congress will feature House members with less than three years of experience, as The Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman wrote.

The hardening of political lines means more obstinate party leaders yoked to the will of their conferences. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has a more liberal conference to run; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has already declared the GOP's retention of the House majority a mandate for opposing any tax increase despite Obama's win.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday night the election results provide an opening “to put politics aside, and work together to find solutions.”

“The strategy of obstruction, gridlock, and delay was soundly rejected by the American people,” Reid said. “Now, they are looking to us for solutions.”

Obama can bank on strong support for his tax and deficit plans from energized Senate Democrats—at least next year. In a remarkable result, Democrats, once expected to lose Senate control in this election, gained two seats. But Senate’s dynamic may not change much. A handful of candidates, including Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,and Dean Heller, R-Nev., and, it appears, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, won despite running in states easily carried by the other party’s presidential candidate.

But more candidates, including Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., Linda McMahon in Connecticut, former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, former GOP Rep. Heather Wilson in New Mexico and Democrat Richard Carmona in Arizona, could not overcome the partisan deficit in their states, despite running what were generally seen as strong races.

The result is a more partisan Senate, and a more anonymous one. Twelve new senators will join the 113th Congress. That continues a rapid pace of turnover in the body unmatched since the 1978 and 1980 elections. Senior members and committee leaders are departing, leaving a large pool of relatively new members yet to distinguish themselves.

An important question in coming weeks will be whether former Maine Gov. Angus King, an independent, will caucus with Democrats. King has said he may not caucus with either party, but the expectation is that King will work with Democrats. Regardless, his voting record will likely be to the left of that of retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe, the famously moderate retiring Republican he replaces.

Retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman, I.D.-Conn., who usually voted with Republicans on defense issues and backedSen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2000 for president, will be rsucceeded by Rep. Chris Murphy, a more reliable Democratic vote.

Gone next year will be moderate Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Energy Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

Retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is no moderate, but she is pragmatist who was more inclined to work with Democrats than her GOP successor, Sen. Ted Cruz, likely will be. As ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Hutchison has worked closely with Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Her likely successor as the panel’s top Republican is Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who has argued repeatedly that the GOP should not compromise with Democrats.

Tonight’s results offer a pill of bitter disappointment for Republicans and might generate internal backlash against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas over the party’s Senate-race strategy and tactics.

Cornyn was contrite in a statement early Wednesday. “It’s clear that with our losses in the presidential race, and a number of key Senate races, we have a period of reflection and recalibration ahead for the Republican Party,” he said. “While some will want to blame one wing of the party over the other, the reality is candidates from all corners of our GOP lost tonight. Clearly we have work to do in the weeks and months ahead.”

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Democrats poised to retain control of Senate

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:35:06 -0500

ABC News and NBC News called Maine's Senate race for former Gov. Angus King. King is an independent, and he has not said if he will caucus with either party. But both sides expect him to join the Democratic Caucus.

The fight for Senate control shifted sharply from 2011, as Republican ambitions of capturing a majority -- fueled by the 23-10 Democratic-to-GOP disparity in incumbents up for reelection -- gave way to GOP hopes of merely simply gaining seats. With superior recruiting, better candidates, and stronger party discipline, Senate Democrats went into Election Day with just one incumbent, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., without better than even odds of winning. Democrats have legitimate hopes of gaining Senate seats.

That would be a pill of bitter disappointment for Republicans and might generate internal backlash against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas over the party’s Senate-race strategy and tactics.

Still, Republicans have another good shot at winning Senate control in 2014, when 20 Democratic seats are in play versus 13 Republican ones. An Obama win would boost congressional GOP odds in the 2014 midterm elections.

If Obama wins tonight, he can bank on strong support for his tax and deficit plans from energized Senate Democrats -- at least next year. If Mitt Romney prevails, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his conference look ready to block a GOP agenda at every chance. Reid on Friday called “laughable” Romney’s assertion that Senate Democrats would work with him on Republican proposals.

At least 10 new senators, and probably at least a few more, will be elected on Tuesday night. That continues a rapid pace of turnover in the body unmatched since the 1978 and 1980 elections. Senior members and committee leaders are departing, leaving large bodies of relatively new members yet to distinguish themselves. Gone next year will be Foreign Relations ranking member Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Energy Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., as well as long-serving Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
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Long list of unfinished Senate business includes defense policy bill

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:41:47 -0500

Below is a list of unfinished legislative items created by staff in the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The length of the list ensures many items will not be completed in this Congress.

Sportsmen's
Boxer-Menendez
SAFER and FIRE Grants
Cybersecurity
Defense authorization
Russia trade
Judges
Farm bill
Disabilities treaty
Tax extenders
FISA reauthorization
VAWA conference
Congressional review
Credit union lending
Intel authorization
Water Resources Development
Rural housing
TAG program (FDIC insurance)
Children¹s Hospitals GME reauthorization
Tax treaties
A public lands package
The Law of the Sea treaty
Miscellaneous Tariff Bill
Carcieri Fix
Doc fix/health extenders
2001/2003/2009 tax cuts

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Sen. McCaskill veterans' event irks legionaires

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:55:49 -0400

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.—A routine campaign stop by Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill at an American Legion Hall on Wednesday ultimately irked veterans and forced the McCaskill campaign to apologize after officials from the nonpartisan legion said they did not know beforehand that the event would be political.

In one of two public events yesterday, McCaskill appeared at American Legion Pony Express Post 359 here with Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who grew up in the city, to tout her efforts to reduce contracting waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hall Coordinator Janet Traylor and other legion officials said they granted McCaskill’s campaign free use of the facility because they were under the impression that the event would be a nonpolitical discussion of veterans’ benefits, similar to one McCaskill, with aides from her Senate office in tow, held there in 2010. Legion officials’ personal political preferences varied, but none called themselves McCaskill supporters or Democrats.

Before McCaskill’s remarks Wednesday, Post Commander Bernie Swartz, and District Post Commander Jerome Goolsby left the room, and Swartz said he scraped a plan to lead attendees in the pledge of allegiance.

Traylor, Goolsby, Swartz, and other legion officials said they were surprised and dismayed when they realized they were hosting a McCaskill campaign event. The American Legion is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, and officials said they are prohibited from appearing at political events in legion attire or from allowing legion identification to appear in pictures or video or the event.

“When they slapped that [campaign] sign on, we scattered like roaches to clean everything up,” Traylor said. “We feel we were misled. I don’t appreciate as a hall coordinator being put in that position,” she said.

Legion officials said had they known it was a political event, they would have required the campaign to pay to use the hall.

The backlash was immensely awkward for the campaign because it threatened to undermine McCaskill’s effort to use the appearance to highlight her support for, and from, veterans. McCaskill last week traveled Missouri in what her campaign dubbed a “Vets for Claire” tour.

Webb, a former Marine, decorated Vietnam veteran and onetime Navy secretary, said during his remarks that he felt awkward talking politics in an American Legion post.

Traylor said that McCaskil's campaign outreach director, Justin Vail, who set up the event, left her with the impression the event would be nonpartisan when they arranged it.

McCaskill aides declined to discuss conversations with legion officials on the record, but attributed the snafu to a communication failure, not false information. An e-mail that Vail sent to Goolsby on Tuesday evening clearly described the event as organized by McCaskill’s campaign.

“We’re incredibly sorry that any miscommunication might have occurred,” said Erik Dorey, a campaign spokesman. “Claire takes her relationship with Missouri's veterans very seriously, and we would never do anything to put veterans' service organizations in an uncomfortable position.”

Vail also personally apologized to legion officials on Wednesday after learning of their concerns; the apology seemed to partly mollify the officials.

“Senators need to know they can come here, but there are correct policies and practices that they need to follow so we can be a proper host for them,” Goolsby said. “So either they didn’t know it or they didn’t consider it, and we’re not happy about that, but they apologized for it, and it’s fine.”

Another legion official, Ron Rice, who helped arrange the event, downplayed the matter after speaking to Vail. “It was just was just a simple misunderstanding, and we’re not irritated at all and we’re not upset at all,” he said. “We just can’t endorse any political party.”

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Senate likely to punt on spending bills until November

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 08:49:24 -0400

In February, a bipartisan group of senators congratulated each other on an agreement made among party leaders and top members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The hope: to pass all 12 fiscal 2013 appropriations bills under regular order.

This week, Senate Democrats are acknowledging they will probably not pass any of the annual spending measures before the November elections.

Addressing reporters Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faulted House Republicans for drafting appropriations bills under an overall spending cap -- $1.028 trillion, lower than the $1.047 trillion level agreed on last year's Budget Control Act. "That makes it hard to do these appropriations bills," Reid said.

Asked if any appropriations bills will pass the Senate this year, Reid said they will not, not "until the Republicans get real."

Since House Republicans have no intention, until January, to adjust their spending cap, Reid's statement affirms the increasingly obvious. The Senate will not attempt any regular order appropriations this year. The chambers in September are expected to hammer out a continuing resolution that pumps a major budget fight into the lame duck session.

Senate Democrats have put fiscal year 2013 appropriations measures, potentially in combinations of three, dubbed minibuses, on their internal list of legislation that could reach the floor during the summer work period. But a Senate Democratic leadership aide, speaking privately, said none of the measures have a realistic chance of moving this summer, and are listed only to appease Senate appropriators urging they get floor time.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed 9 of 12 measures, with all but two winning bipartisan support.

In February, eight senators, including two Democrats, touted their intention to pass the bills this year.

"There are many important reasons we should do that but basically it is our constitutional responsibility to do it, to appropriate money," Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said at the time. "It is a time when we need to save every penny we can, and this is our best opportunity for oversight, and it's also good management and it would put the Senate doing what the Senate ought to do."

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Stopgap highway bill leaves pension provisions in limbo

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:40:00 -0400

The Senate passed a bill on Thursday to extend federal surface transportation authority for 90 days, preventing a shutdown that would have put 130,000 federal highway projects at risk. The bill now goes to President Obama.

Passage of the stop-gap measure came after a failed last-ditch effort by Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to attach the two-year, $109 billion highway reauthorization passed by the Senate to the extension. Boxer argued a short-term extension leaves too much uncertainty over federal highway funding.

House Republicans have been unable to unite around a long-term highway bill, opening the door for Democrats to press House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to bring up the bipartisan Senate bill and allow it to pass with Democratic votes.

Leadership aides said the staffers for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Boehner are negotiating to set up a House-Senate conference committee to seek agreement on a long-term bill. Those talks will continue into the pending two-week recess.

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Congress votes to curb insider trading, require federal employee disclosure

Dan Friedman and Charles S. Clark, National Journal — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:52:00 -0400

The Senate approved a House-passed bill aimed at preventing insider trading by members of Congress and thousands of executive branch officials. The legislation now goes to President Obama for his signature.

Senators agreed to discard a more extensive version of the bill they passed last month in favor of the House measure. That meant dropping amendments including measures to require people engaged in “political intelligence activities” to register as lobbyists and to help prosecution of public corruption.

The STOCK Act seeks to clarify an ambiguity in the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act by prohibiting members of Congress and their staffs from trading on information they obtain from their work that is not available to the general public. It would require disclosure 30 days after any securities trade of more than $1,000 and would compel all disclosures to be available electronically.

But both the House and Senate versions included a provision to compel all disclosures to be available electronically. Confusion over how many federal employees would be required to disclose information emerged in February after an amendment from Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., broadened the language to cover thousands more lower level federal employees. Under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, high-level federal appointees must make their financial disclosures public, while a vaster universe of mid-level employees must disclose confidentially to their agency ethics officer.

The House version now headed to President Obama would cover only the smaller group of top officials, some 28,000, according to the Office of Government Ethics. Soon after it passed the House, Senior Executives Association President Carol A. Bonosaro and General Counsel William Bransford wrote a letter to Senate leaders saying the act’s “extensive, burdensome and public reporting requirements will have a chilling effect on those employees considering entering the SES.”

Passage of the bill on Thursday completes a process that senior lawmakers in both parties considered unnecessary as policy but an important public relations exercise in response to reports of lax restrictions on insider trading by members. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he moved the House measure because Republicans blocked a conference committee to reconcile differences between the chambers’ measures. But Reid chose to quietly move the House bill rather than force a fight, to the chagrin of some senators.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., who sponsored the political intelligence amendment, said he voted against cloture on the bill to protest its exclusion. “The majority leader’s heavy-handed tactics leave few options for restoring the provision this go-round,” said Grassley, who pledged to try again.

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Republicans to ask Justice about Obama's recess appointments

Dan Friedman, National Journal — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Senate Republicans want the legal justification behind President Obama's decision to make appointments despite the Senate remaining in pro forma session, but the White House so far refuses to detail the legal advice Obama received. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was set to send a letter as soon as Thursday asking Attorney General Eric Holder whether the White House sought advice from the Justice Department on the appointments. Justice's Office of Legal Counsel previously opined that presidents cannot make recess appointments during Senate breaks of less than three days, a view that would at least complicate the president's assertion of recess authority on Wednesday.

"The president needs to make clear why there was a change in position and what rationale the White House counsel used to overturn more than 90 years of Justice Department precedent," Grassley said on Wednesday. "The White House should make the rationale public." White House spokesman Jay Carney attributed Obama's decision to make recess appointments to advice from the White House counsel's office. Carney and other White House officials have declined to say what, if any, advice the Justice Department provided. "We routinely consult with the Department of Justice on a range of legal matters, but we also routinely don't delve into the specifics of any confidential legal guidance the president or the White House in general would receive in the course of those consultations," Carney said on Thursday. "So I mean, I think that's just standard operating procedure."

While the White House may not be required to consult the department, lawyers critical of the White House's move argued that failure to do so would mark a sharp break with normal practice for major legal questions. "I don't think any White House has ever avoided the Department of Justice like this," said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush. "Ignoring DOJ and the Office of Legal Counsel is really a bridge too far." Separate clauses in the Constitution give the president power to make appointments when Congress is recessed, and bar either congressional chamber from recessing for more than three days without permission from the other. Although the Constitution does not define a recess, a 1993 Justice Department memorandum said the two clauses suggest the president lacks power to make appointments if the Senate does not recess for three days or more.

Pro forma sessions, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used in 2007 and 2008 to block recess appointments and which Republicans forced in this Congress, aim specifically to trigger that three-day prohibition. The administration has not specifically rejected the three-day limit. Instead, White House officials argued generally on Wednesday that the pro forma sessions intended solely to block recess appointments do not count as interrupting a recess, because the Senate conducts no real legislative business while in pro forma and cannot act on nominations. The White House argued the Senate has effectively been recessed since Dec. 17.

A problem with that claim, Senate Republican staffers noted on Thursday, is that the Senate has conducted significant legislative business in recent weeks. While in pro forma session on Dec. 23, the Senate by unanimous consent passed a two-month extension of a reduced payroll-tax rate, federal unemployment insurance, and a reimbursement fix for physicians who accept Medicare. The chamber also appointed members to a payroll-tax conference committee while in pro forma session last week. The White House, which celebrated passage of the two-month payroll-tax bill last month, has not addressed how those steps affect claims that the pro forma sessions exclude legislative business.

Julia Edwards contributed to this report.

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Senate strikes deal on short term payroll tax cut package

Dan Friedman — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The bill would also include a short extension of unemployment benefits and a so-called "doc fix" preventing Medicare physicians from taking a 27-percent pay cut next year The House is set to take up the measure when it returns Monday morning. The Senate will also approve a massive spending bill that funds the bulk of government operations for the rest of the fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. The House approved the measure Friday afternoon before adjourning for the weekend.

The temporary payroll-tax measure would include a House-passed provision requiring a White House decision on whether to allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days. Absent would be a provision delaying regulations on industrial boilers - the so-called Boiler MACT rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. President Obama last week said he would not accept the Keystone provision but Democrats said they will argue, as Republicans have, that it does not actually bind the White House, allowing it to put off the project if the president declares it not to be in the national interest.

The White House signed off on the package in a statement Friday night. "The President said that Congress cannot go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million hardworking Americans, and the deal announced tonight meets that test, stated Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director. "This is an important step towards enacting a key provision of the President's American Jobs Act and a significant victory for the American people and the economy, because as independent analysts have said, failing to extend this tax cut would have had a damaging effect on our recovery and job growth. The President urges Congress now to finish up their business for the American people."

The shift to a two-month bill came just hours after Democratic aides said they were close to a deal on a longer-term extension.

The Senate on Friday night also unanimously approved a House-passed 24-hour continuing resolution funding most government operations, despite Senate leaders' assertion Friday morning that none was needed to avert a partial government shutdown. The CR was slated to expire expire at midnight Friday.

Aides in both parties said the larger deal broke down because the sides were unable to agree on offsets to cover the total cost of the bill. Rather than haggle into next week, Democrats decided to recess and "fight another day," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Even as they blamed Republicans for the failure to reach a longer deal, Democrats argued they derive a political advantage from continuing the debate. The issue is set to loom large in February.

"We feel that two months from now we're in really good shape because now the fight is on the payroll tax, which is something where we have strength," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who heads Senate Democrats' policy and messaging office. "People want the payroll tax reduction. And if [Republicans] keep opposing it and opposing it, it's gonna hurt them."

Schumer said Democrats will renew a push for a surtax of incomes of more than $1 million dollars a year, despite their decision this week not to insist on the "millionaire's tax" as a way to pay for the payroll-tax cut extension.

"That is a going to come back and back and back," he said.

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Deal reached to avert government shutdown

Dan Friedman — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

An abrupt shift by Democrats ended the stalemate. By late Thursday, congressional leaders had almost resolved how to extend the payroll-tax cut and federal unemployment insurance as well as prevent doctors who accept Medicare from taking a pay cut. A temporary deal lasting two months, in case a deal for a one-year package doesn't completely gel in time, was also in the works.

Negotiations now focus on how to pay for those measures.

"The more difficult challenge is, how you deal with offsets?" said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., a Finance Committee member.

Senate Democrats are eyeing a Saturday vote on the package.

The breakthrough moved the stalled omnibus spending bill. The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had blocked passage of the measure that rolls up the nine remaining fiscal year 2012 spending bills until a payroll deal was reached. The current stopgap measure funding most government agencies expires at midnight on Friday.

Democratic conferees finally signed the appropriations package on Thursday night after withholding their John Hancocks to gain leverage in the payroll-tax cut debate. The House was set to take up the report on Friday after the House Rules Committee met late on Thursday night to set the parameters of its debate. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., got the omnibus ball rolling earlier on Thursday when he acceded to White House and Democratic requests to reopen the mammoth measure.

The shift was striking. On Wednesday, Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., exchanged shots and parliamentary maneuvers aimed at driving talking points on the Senate floor while the administration planned for the possibility of a shutdown. By Thursday morning, the two leaders were confidently predicting Congress would complete both bills and head home for Christmas with a few days to spare and the government still open.

The change appeared to reflect an abrupt decision on Wednesday by Democratic leaders and President Obama to jettison a political fight they had picked with Republicans over the payroll-tax cut and focus on compromising. In a fight in which Republicans oppose Democrats' efforts to extend unemployment benefits and the temporary payroll-tax cut-expiration of which would slap the average worker with $1,000 tax hike-Democrats calculated that they win politically. Because many Republicans agree with that assessment, GOP leaders have said they are on board-as long as they approve of how the measures are paid for.

The latest developments mean that a deal was always achievable and likely. Democrats just postponed it by forcing votes on proposals that linked the payroll tax holiday to a surtax on incomes of more than $1 million a year. Democrats knew Republicans would balk and believed that on the campaign trail next year they could paint GOP opposition to a tax increase on millionaires as coming at the expense of the middle class.

Democratic leaders, long expected to eventually drop the surtax, finally did so during a Wednesday meeting with Obama.

"That's gone," Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said on Thursday.

After returning from the White House, Reid requested a meeting with McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, GOP leadership aides said. A Democratic aide said Republicans rejected prior requests by Reid this week for similar meetings. After that meeting and further conversations with McConnell, Reid instructed his staff to begin working with McConnell's staff on a bill designed to win Senate GOP support, leadership aides in both parties said.

Boehner changed Reid's calculations when he filed a bill on Wednesday night that would allow him to bring to the floor the remaining spending measures without an official conference report.

By Thursday morning, Reid, less than a day after saying that multiple issues with the omnibus remained-echoing a White House refrain-called the issues "resolvable" and "really small," while requesting the House not move its new spending bill, which was actually three separate bills that included all the contents of the conference report.

While the outlines of the looming deal were set by Reid and McConnell, Baucus said the Finance Committee is "putting together" the deal.

Specifics of the pending agreement were fluid on Thursday, but Democrats signaled they would accept some changes to the federal unemployment insurance program included in a House-passed bill. A Senate Democratic leadership aide said Democrats will likely accept provisions that tighten requirements and give states opportunities to experiment with job training. But more onerous changes, such as requirements that beneficiaries at least pursue a high school diploma or GED and submit to drug tests, will not be included, the aide said.

The aide said Democrats do not want a provision requiring a White House decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in the compromise bill, but GOP aides said McConnell was pushing hard for its inclusion, and some staffers said the sides were exploring whether the language can be tweaked to give the White House more flexibility.

The Democratic leadership aide said the bill will be mostly paid for with mandatory savings provisions that do not affect health care. Most of those provisions, such as an increase in fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders to guarantee mortgages, and sale of new radio spectrum, were discussed by the congressional super committee and are relatively noncontroversial.

Democrats said a provision imposing a means test on Medicare recipients will not be included in the compromise bill.

But cuts to hospitals are still in the mix to cover the cost of putting off a 27 percent cut to Medicare doctors' pay, even though many Democrats loathe the idea. House Republicans have insisted the "doc fix" be paid for with other health care funding. House Republicans passed legislation with a two-year "doc fix" this week, partly covering the cost by slashing more than $21 billion in Medicare payments to hospitals.

Hospitals have lobbied Senate offices hard against the reductions, but options that are acceptable to both sides of the aisle are slim. A one-year doc fix also costs $21 billion. Some of the cuts have the backing of the independent experts on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which also gives Congress political cover. Democratic aides say it is likely any compromise measure to put off the doctors' pay cut will include hospital reductions.

Major Garrett, Meghan McCarthy, Kelsey Snell, and Ben Terris contributed to this report.

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House approves $915 billion spending plan

Dan Friedman and Shane Goldmacher — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The vote came after a week of legislative maneuvering had left the bipartisan spending blueprint frozen in the broader political conflict over whether to extend a payroll tax break for 160 million American workers. That fight continues. But the spending plan logjam broke late Thursday, when Democrats agreed to advance the package after Republicans made minor concessions over funding for a financial watchdog agency and to drop additional travel restrictions to Cuba.

The measure passed the House floor less than 24 hours later. As with previous spending packages this Congress, a bloc of hardline Republicans opposed the measure, with more than 80 members voting against it.

The biggest portion of the appropriations package, $518 billion, goes to the defense budget, which rose by $5.1 billion despite a broader retrenchment of spending. Few other areas were spared the budget knife.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Friday that the Obama administration had indicated the package's passage in the House would be sufficient - for now - to allow the government to continue to operate normally. A current stop-gap funding measure expires at midnight.

"The administration takes the view that if it's passed one House there will not be a government shutdown," McConnell said.

The Senate is expected to take up the $915-billion appropriations plan on Saturday, after Reid said Friday his chamber would consider the plan in the "next 36 hours

Meanwhile, Speaker John Boenher, R-Ohio, said that rank-and-file House members would be heading for the airports. "The members will go home, and if there's a need to come back to finish our work, we will do so," Boehner said

Negotiations continue over the payroll tax package, which also includes efforts to extend unemployment insurance benefits and protect physicians that treat Medicare patients from a rate cut.

The House has already approved payroll package, but included in it a provision to force the Obama administration to decide whether to allow controversial oil pipeline expansion, known as Keystone XL. Senate Democrats have said that plan is unacceptable.

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Congress now shooting for weekend wrap-up

Dan Friedman and Major Garrett — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

If their optimism proves founded, they will avert a partial government shutdown for the third time this year.

Congress needs to approve a catch-all spending bill that encompasses the remaining nine annual appropriations bills and a package that extends the payroll-tax holiday and federal unemployment benefits before leaving Washington for the holidays. Some even predicted Congress would pass both by Friday night.

"That's my best guess," Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said on Thursday afternoon.

Manchin's prediction comes as a development out of the House signaled that an agreement has been struck on the outstanding issues that were holding up both measures.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., will reopen the pending omnibus spending package that had been shelved earlier this week and rewrite language that sought to reinstate the President George W. Bush-era travel ban to Cuba, a move designed to address White House concerns and win the backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., according senior Republican and Democratic staffers.

Rogers was reluctant to make the move and is doing so, Republicans say, with the understanding from Reid that if the Cuba travel and gift language is dropped and President Obama's existing travel policy is protected, Reid will release the conference report for full House and Senate consideration. Rogers worked with Reid's staff late into Wednesday night and continued talks on Thursday morning. A deal announcing this arrangement is anticipated soon.

Conferees came within inches of an agreement on the spending bill Monday, but Democrats refused to sign the conference report in order to get more of what they want out of the payroll-tax bill. In response, on Wednesday night, Republicans took the contents of the conference report and released a separate package that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, intended to bring to the floor.

"It's bicameral, bipartisan, and it's done," Boehner told reporters.

The House Rules Committee is meeting at 3 p.m. to consider the stand-alone bill, but now the hope in top GOP and Democratic circles is the conference report will become the vehicle for consideration. If the deal doesn't mature in time, the Rules Committee will then take up the GOP's three-bill package that incorporates the conference agreement and does not change the Cuba language.

The White House also wants Republicans to reprogram funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, arguing the already agreed-upon level is too low for the CFTC to adequately regulate the $600 trillion derivatives trading market - a new task assigned the agency in the Dodd-Frank financial regulations law. Obama signed the Agriculture Appropriations bill on Nov. 18. It set the CFTC's budget for 2012 at $205 million, a $3 million boost from 2011 and $103 million less than the White House request.

House Republicans consider the matter of CFTC funding closed and have no intention of renegotiating funding for the agency that's already been signed and approved by Obama.

"Things are looking up, and I'm looking up," said Rogers in the House Speaker's lobby, putting his hands together with eyes looking up, as if praying.

"We're making some progress," he continued. "I'm feeling optimistic. I'm optimistic that the senators will be released to sign the conference report. So, we'll have the bill pending as well as the conference report." Asked if that would happen on Thursday, Rogers again said he was optimistic.

"There are just a few things yet to be concluded" in negotiations, he said. He would not detail those items, but said House GOP members will be given an update on the status of talks at a closed-door conference later on Thursday afternoon.

Bringing the conference report to the floor on Friday is "under discussion," Rogers said.

To make that deadline, the House rule requiring that a measure be introduced three days before it is considered on the House floor must be waived.

The continuing resolution funding most the government expires at midnight Friday. Some talk of passing another short-term resolution to keep the government lights on while lawmakers hash through their differences continues but will likely be moot if Congress manages to send the omnibus to Obama by Monday morning.

Progress was also under way on the Senate side, where leaders say they are shifting from public politicking to deal-making.

After meeting with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Wednesday evening, Reid said on Thursday: "The Republican leader and I have been in discussions.... We hope that we can come up with something that would get us out of here at a reasonable time in the next few days."

He said the year-end bill would include a payroll tax extension, extended federal unemployment benefits, tax extenders and a so-called "doc fix" preventing physicians who accept Medicare from taking pay cut.

McConnell agreed with Reid's assessment.

Republicans said the shift on Thursday reflected Democratic concessions. Democrats believe they enjoy a political advantage battling the GOP over extending the payroll-tax cut and unemployment benefits - an assessment many Republicans privately share.

Billy House and Ben Terris contributed to this report.

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Another legislative standoff looms

Dan Friedman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

"We will make sure we pass this tax cut for the middle class and we are not going to go home until we make sure it's complete," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We can do it the easy way or we can do it the hard way." With House Republicans struggling to align behind a bill to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, GOP aides said the House might adjourn by Dec. 16 with no deal if Democrats don't compromise. Democrats want to prevent House leaders from trying such a move by threatening dire political results for the GOP. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats will keep the Senate in through Christmas or New Year's Day if needed. Reid said Obama, in a meeting with the leaders earlier on Wednesday, pledged to put off a vacation until Congress finishes its business. Reid, paraphrasing, said Obama told the leaders "Michelle and the girls will have a great time in Hawaii;they don't need me."

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Aides: Kerry deficit proposal on table; failure announcement still expected

Dan Friedman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

GOP aides and lobbyists described Kerry's offer as informal. It is not on paper. Aides said it includes an annual fix to a reimbursement formula that would saddle physicians who take Medicare patients with a pay cut, a patch preventing the Alternative Minimum Tax from hitting additional households and extensions of unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cuts for workers. Aides in both parties said the GOP is reviewing the offer. They said that prewritten news releases announcing the panel's failure are on hold pending that review.

But two GOP aides described the offer as a public relations ploy by Democrats and said they still expect the committee to announce its failure as early as late afternoon Monday.

It was not clear how much Democratic support the offer has. Republicans said they are unsure if any Democrats beyond Kerry support it.

Republican aides who worked for super committee members have already received what they called an email note thanking them for their work.

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GOP aide mocks Democrats' super proposal

Dan Friedman — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

A day after super-committee Democrats floated a plan to cut $2.3 trillion over 10 years from the deficit, as posted by National Journal, Republicans on Thursday circulated a cheeky, annotated version drafted by a GOP aide.

Noting the Democratic plan includes $650 billion worth of tax increases, the GOP version asks: "A $650 billion tax hanging over the economy like the Sword of Damocles will promote hiring and economic growth how?" Observing that the plan finds $350 billion in miscellaneous savings, the GOP mockup reads: "Only a Democrat would think you can pick up $350 billion from miscellany."

Joking aside, the document illustrates how Republicans view the proposal and highlights the chasm between the 12-member panel's six Democrats and six Republicans as their Nov. 23 deadline for recommending at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reducion over a decade looms.

Committee members were continuing talks on Thursday.

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Democrats deny walking out of super committee talks

Dan Friedman — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Leaders join deficit-reduction talks, aides say

Dan Friedman and Katy O'Donnell — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The three congressional leaders are working with super committee members to hammer out a deal. The question now, according to staff, is whether they will get to $1.2 trillion -- going "big" and shooting for a $4 trillion plan is no longer in the cards. In fact, the group may have to settle on savings less than $1.2 trillion and let automatic spending cuts take care of the remaining balance.

But the group is hardly out of the woods-the committee is still at an impasse over tax revenues, though there is a sense talks are accelerating. The GOP members of the committee met with Boehner and McConnell on Thursday in McConnell's office to try to figure out the next step.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., also indicated the group is stepping up the pace; he said he expects to work through the weekend. He met briefly with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Thursday afternoon in his Capitol hideaway, saying afterward that the two "exchanged ideas."

In another development that bodes poorly for the chances of a large deal, 33 Senate Republicans on Thursday wrote to the super committee members asking them to include no net increase in tax revenue in any legislation they recommend. The group included all three Republican members of the "Gang of Six" senators who proposed a plan over the summer that included a net increase in taxes while cutting some tax rates.

The 33 GOP senators ask that the bill include "comprehensive tax reform that lowers rates and promotes economic growth with no net tax increase." They also ask that the panel "balance our budget within 10 years," put "entitlements on a path to fiscal solvency," and "avoid any further downgrade of our credit rating."

Meanwhile, amid reports of hopeless deadlock, McConnell and super committee aides tried on Thursday to squash rumors that the group would ask for more time to craft a deficit-cutting deal. It now has less than three weeks to produce a final package.

McConnell told The New York Times on Thursday that the deadline "can't be missed" and that "you would have to pass a new law for this deadline to be changed."

An aide to a Democratic committee member was even more blunt, stressing that the committee is not considering asking for more time, period. "Nobody's discussed it, it's not going to happen, it's a total nonstory," the aide told National Journal.

The latest tempest in a teapot -- over whether the panel would ask for more time -- was touched off by an answer House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., gave to a question about the deadline on Wednesday during his weekly meeting with reporters. That vague portion of a response -- a response that included Hoyer adding that the group would need Congress's approval and that as far as he knew, committee members weren't considering it -- was plucked as evidence that the group may seek more time.

Echoing McConnell, a Republican leadership staffer said a delay is unlikely because of the complexity of the Budget Control Act.

The committee would have to appeal to Congress to grant it more time; it could technically use its fast-track authority for a bill extending the deadline, but the bill would need to include language allowing the group to use fast-track authority again for the final package, since it's allowed to use it on one piece of legislation.

The committee has until Nov. 23 to submit to Congress a final package of deficit savings worth $1.2 trillion over 10 years. But it is past its informal deadline to send that package to the Congressional Budget Office so that it can be scored in time.

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Super committee hears from previous deficit panel chairs

Dan Friedman and Katy O'Donnell — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400

With just over three weeks until the deadline to present its final plan to Congress, the super committee has given little reason for hope. Simpson, who led the president's fiscal commission last year with former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, and Rivlin, who put together a plan with former Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., were summoned with their co-chairs to advise the committee on the best path forward to reach a bipartisan plan worth some $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts over a decade.

The Simpson-Bowles and Rivlin-Domenici plans each achieved roughly $4 trillion in savings over that time period - through a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases - but the expectation that the super committee will "go big" is dwindling as the group plays out what feels like a sequel to this summer's debt-ceiling fight.

Still, Tuesday brought reports that Republicans are softening on revenue and that six members of the committee are trying to broker a compromise that could achieve slightly more than the mandated $1.5 trillion in savings.

The six super committee Republicans and their congressional leaders have thus far declined to consider any tax increases, including ending tax breaks, unless they were linked to broader tax reform. And the GOP has insisted that overhauling the tax code be revenue neutral-a guarantee they want written into law.

But GOP sources confirmed to National Journal that Republican leaders and members of the super committee may work to close some tax loopholes in a new proposal they will present to the deficit-reduction panel's Democrats.

Republicans are willing to consider decoupling loophole closures from an overall tax-code rewrite, and any GOP offer would likely also task committees of jurisdiction with coming up with a revenue-neutral tax-reform plan, said GOP sources familiar with super committee deliberations. They declined to cite specific tax-code changes or their total value.

Spokesmen for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on such a GOP plan.

Committee co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, though, was circumspect during his opening statement on Tuesday.

"Certainly we cannot tax our way out of this crisis," he said, sounding a familiar Republican theme. "We cannot solve it by tinkering around the edges of entitlement programs."

The committee has until Nov. 23 to produce a final package of recommendations; it had given itself an informal deadline to submit its proposals to the CBO for scoring this week.

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Senate confirms Bryson as new Commerce secretary

Dan Friedman — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Some Republicans had objected to his nomination because he was a founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a clean energy advocate.

Bryson's focus on alternative fuels "seeks to increase drastically the price of electricity and gasoline across America." Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., said recently.

While the Commerce secretary handles a range of export, trade, and economic issues, Inhofe argued Bryson's environmental background disqualifies him.

More recently, Bryson spent 20 years as chairman of the utility Edison International before stepping down in 2008. He replaces Gary Locke, who became ambassador to China in July.

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Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Senate offices ends in arrests

Dan Friedman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The now-national effort has mostly targeted financial institutions, but it has also taken aim at the political system. Hundreds of protesters descended on Washington last week, assembling downtown near the White House and K Street but surprisingly avoiding Capitol Hill until Tuesday.

The protesters entered Hart late on Tuesday morning and occupied several floors before unfurling banners and chanting, staffers and U.S. Capitol Police said. Witnesses said one banner said "Cut Military Spending."

The protest took advantage of Hart's 90-foot central atrium, where upper floors look down on the lobby below.

Witnesses were unsure how many demonstrators were on hand, with estimates ranging from three dozen to 100. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, said six people were arrested and charged with unlawfully demonstrating in a Capitol building. They were being processed at Capitol Police headquarters on Tuesday.

The Hart protest is reportedly just one among several planned for Tuesday near the Capitol.

Hart has not seen the end of protests for the day.

Before the Senate vote on President Obama's jobs plan, SEIU and others are planning a 3 p.m. prayer vigil in the building's atrium. Assembled will be "unemployed workers and their supporters," according to an announcement from organizers.

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