TPMDC’s update on the biggest legislative initiatives on the Hill:
- Health Care: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee today to reassure them that they wouldn’t be closed out of the health care reform debate–after reportedly telling committee chairman Max Baucus to stop chasing Republican votes. The upshot? The Finance Committee’s still not ready to set a mark-up date for it’s yet to be unveiled bill. And the early, aspirational, August deadline for completing legislation in the Senate is fast approaching…
- Appropriations: The White House is threatening to veto the Intelligence appropriations bill, working its way through the House, if it contains a provision that would strip the President of the power to determined who in Congress could be briefed on classified information, and give it to the congressional intelligence chairs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports the provision.
- Climate Change: A few weeks ago, Rep. Colin Peterson (D-MN) extracted concessions from climate change leaders in the House and made the Waxman-Markey bill friendlier to agricultural interests. Now, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) wants to see much the same thing happen when the Senate takes up the issue in the coming weeks.
