Senate Again Rejects Obama's Jobs Bill

A section of President Obama’s comprehensive jobs package focused on transportation and infrastructure spending failed a key test today in the Senate.

Needing 60 votes to end debate, the Rebuild America Jobs Act only received the support of 51 Senators, most of them Democrats, who have now failed three times to bring some form of the larger bill to a floor vote.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, voted no alongside the 47 Republicans in the upper chamber.

The $60 billion measure includes repair funding for roads, bridges and airports, and also contains money to establish a national infrastructure bank. Republicans opposed the bill because it was paid for through higher taxes on millionaires.

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Dem Leaders Join Legal Fight Against DOMA

The House Democratic leadership as well as over a hundred fellow members are joining the legal fight against the Defense of Marriage Act.

132 members of Congress have filed an amicus brief in Massachusetts v. Dept. of Health and Human Services and Gill vs. Office of Personnel Management, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of language specifically defining marriage as a legal union between members of the opposite sex. The case is currently in the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration announced that the federal government would no longer defend the law, prompting House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), with the approval of the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, to appoint outside counsel.

“The brief makes it clear that the House is not united on this issue,” a statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office reads. “There is no legitimate federal interest in denying married gay and lesbian couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to couples who are married under state law.”

Pelosi: Jobless Rate Would Be Even Higher If Not For Obama

By Lisa Kellman

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters today that America’s high unemployment rate would be even higher had Democrats not passed the 2009 American Recovery and Reivestment Act, otherwise known as the “stimulus law.”

“If President Obama and congressional Democrats had not acted, we would be at 15 percent unemployment,” Pelosi said during her weekly briefing. “No consolation to those without a job, but an important point to make.”

The current jobless rate is 9.1 percent.

Pelosi accused Republicans of not having any plan to put people back to work, and said Democrats acted quickly when they controled Congress during the first year of Obama’s presidency.

“One week and one day after the president made his inaugural address we passed the Recovery Act in the House, and in a few weeks it was in the Senate saving or creating millions of jobs for the American people,” she said.

The House under current Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has passed more than 15 jobs bills as part of the GOP’s “Plan for America’s Job Creators.” However, the bills have yet to be taken up by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

GOP "Crowd Funding" Bill Gets White House Blessing

The White House is backing a GOP bill that would make it easier for people to invest in new businesses.

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, introduced by Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), would allow start-up companies to receive up to $10,000 from investors over the internet without having to first register with the Securities and Exchanges Commission.

The administration on Wednesday released a statement saying that the bill “would enable greater flexibility in soliciting relatively small equity investments” and “will make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital and create jobs.”

The measure represents a rare example of agreement between House Republicans and the White House over how best to grow the economy.

Bidens To Dine With Cantors

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will host House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his wife, Diana, for dinner this evening.

Seems odd, doesn’t it?

Not really, according to USA Today White House Correspondent David Jackson. Jackson reported this morning that the two men share a good, personal relationship and “have in fact said nice things about each other.”

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