amendment news stories on Newser

Romney Wrangles With Town-Hall Questioner

Matt Cantor — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:46:05 CDT

In a town-hall kerfuffle caught on tape, Mitt Romney trades heated words with a questioner in discussing a balanced-budget amendment he supports, notes Mediaite . When the questioner suggests that Romney is telling his audience “what (it) wants to hear,” adding that it’s “shameful” to pretend we don’t “benefit” from government...

GOP's New Crusade: Balanced Budget Amendment

Matt Cantor — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 07:56:03 CDT

Emboldened after the debt limit fight, Republicans are shifting energies to their quest for a balanced budget amendment—but such a measure faces major hurdles, the New York Times reports. John Boehner has called on congressional Republicans to spend their August recess convincing the public of the importance of such...

GOP Support Grows Ahead of START Vote

Matt Cantor — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:56:43 CST

Things were looking bleak yesterday for the New START arms treaty—but that was yesterday. Following a closed-door meeting, GOP Sen. Scott Brown said he’d vote for the treaty and two other Republicans said they would likely support it, giving supporters enough votes to push it through as voting begins...

Coburn Forces Hours-Long Reading to Stall Debate

Harry Kimball — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:25:00 CST

The Senate GOP has stalled floor debate on the health care reform bill with a demand that the entirety of a 767-page amendment be read aloud, a process that could take between 8 and 12 hours. The amendment’s sponsor, Independent Bernie Sanders, called the move by Tom Coburn a “bit...

GOP: Congress, Prez Must Go On Public Option

Harry Kimball — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:28:22 CST

In the circus that is the Senate these days, a couple of anti-public-option Republicans—Tom Coburn and David Vitter—rolled out an amendment to the health care bill Friday requiring members of Congress to enroll in any such plan that might come to pass. When Dems didn’t object—Sherrod Brown,...

Pelosi Won't Put Final Health Care Bill Online

Kevin Spak — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:49:27 CST

The Weekly Standard is beating up on Nancy Pelosi for backing out of her promise, made to a Standard reporter in September, to put the final House health care bill online 72 hours before it’s voted on. With the vote expected tomorrow, It seems Pelosi and the Standard have different...

GOP Indulges in Health Amendment Free-for-All

Harry Kimball — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:15:01 CDT

Reasoned debate is all well and good, but the more than 300 amendments offered to the health care reform bill by finance committee Republicans are “dangerously close to a parody,” Dana Milbank writes. Or maybe they’re already there. Take Orrin Hatch’s request for “transition relief for the excise tax on...

564 Amendments Await Baucus Bill Next Week

John Johnson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:24:00 CDT

Well, this should zip right along: Members of both parties on the Senate Finance Committee have drafted no fewer than 564 amendments to be considered when the panel takes up chairman Max Baucus' health care bill next week, reports Bloomberg. Expect to hear the phrases "public option"—Democrat Jay Rockefeller...

2 Words Could Clean Up 'Death Panel' Mess: Parker

Matt Cantor — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:38:02 CDT

Sarah Palin went way too far in suggesting “death panels” would kill her loved ones—but the wording of the House health bill authorizing payment for end-of-life consultations is worrisome, writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post . “A simple amendment would do much to cool tempers.” The current wording lets...