Senate

Washington, D.C. -

The Senate today, passed a $9.7 billion Sandy relief bill that will now go to the President for his signature. The passage follows the House of Representatives approving the same measure, on a 354-67 vote, with all 67 no votes coming from republicans.

The senate had hoped to pass a $60 billion relief bill, but the house had failed to take up the measure, and was forced to re-start new legislation after the new year.

Washington, D.C. -

Senate republicans have blocked a democratic bill that would have made it easier to find out what pay range their co-workers are receiving and to help reduce the pay difference between women and men in the workplace.

The vote fell short of the 60 needed to allow the legislation to move forward in the senate for full debate and a final vote.

President Obama has said he strongly supports this bill and Mitt Romney's campaign has only said he supports pay equality, but Romney himself has not come out either way on the subject.

Washington, D.C. -

The U.S. Senate has failed to pass a procedural vote on keeping the federal student loan interest rates from going up. Borrowers will see their interest rate on student loans double from 3.4% to 6.8% if congress fails to pass legislation keeping it lower by July 1st.

The vote failed along party lines, with 52 democrats voting for it and 45 republican senators voting against it. The vote needed 60 votes to move forward.

Both republican and democrats agree they need to keep the subsidized rate low, but can not agree on how to pay for it.

[Breaking News]

The House of Representatives is set to approve the short term two month payroll tax cut that they initially said no to with House Speaker John Boehner calling it "kicking the can down the road." The bill has already passed in the Senate.

The House initially send the bill to a sub-committee, which in effect would have killed the bill without have to vote on it because payroll tax cuts were set to expire Dec 31st if no bill reached the president and in a sub-committee the bill would not have passed on time.