CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Feb. 29, 2012 – 10:30 p.m.
Senators Look to Reconcile Insider-Trading Bills With House
By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff
Senate Majority Leader
Reid, D-Nev., and Lieberman, I-Conn., met Feb. 28 to map a road forward. The leaders are weighing whether the Senate should accept the House-passed version or send a revised measure back to the House that includes one or both of two Senate-passed provisions that House Majority Leader
Reid’s “first choice is to send it to conference, but the question is whether he can do that. And if he can’t do that, it’s the other choices, one of which is to accept the House bill,” Lieberman said. “The other choice is to take the House bill, amend it and send it back.”
Lieberman said Reid remains undecided about whether to try to revive both stripped Senate provisions — an amendment by Sen.
The contrasting measures have been in limbo since the House passed its version (
Reid has been trying to reach a consent agreement with senators amid some opposition to restoring either one of the two scrapped Senate sections. Reid is pressing to complete action on the bill by the end of March, a senior Democratic aide said. He has not reached out to Cantor and it remains unclear whether he will.
Another factor keeping Reid from calling for a conference is that it will require as many as three procedural votes to appoint negotiators, consuming vital floor time when he is trying to steer the Senate toward completion of a two-year, $109 billion surface transportation bill (
Lieberman and
Collins and Lieberman would also back adding Leahy’s amendment to the House version and sending the revised bill back to the House for a final vote, they said.
There is far less certainty about whether the Senate would restore the disclosure requirement for political-intelligence groups despite heavy lobbying from good government groups. Lieberman said he was undecided and Collins said she was opposed, citing concerns that the provision could infringe First Amendment rights.
Despite such opposition, Grassley vowed to fight to get his provision in the final bill, though he has not said he would stand in the way of calling for a conference.
Leahy has been working with
Sen.
Senators Look to Reconcile Insider-Trading Bills With House
“We can tackle the culture of corruption that exists among federal, state and local public servants” by restoring the Leahy provision, wrote Kirk and Quigley, citing the phrase effectively used by House Democrats during the 2006 elections to draw attention to the ethical lapses of House Republican leaders.