The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the 112th justice of the Supreme Court by a 63-37 vote.

The Senate also approved a bill to save hundreds of thousands of state jobs and Speaker Pelosi says she will call the House back from recess next week to pass it. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans stalled President Obama’s intelligence nominee’s confirmation and movement on even the scaled-back energy bill will be delayed until September when they return from break.

After newly sworn-in Democratic Senator Carte Goodwin (a former counsel of popular West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who has announced he will run for the seat in a special election this fall), the Senate finally passed an extension of unemployment benefits which was blocked three times by Republicans and even for another 30 hours after it was obvious it was going to pass. The House of Representatives followed suit today and the checks will go out as President Obama swiftly signed it into the law.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, with Sen. Lindsey Graham again being the only Republican to vote in favor of President Obama’s nominee. According to the Washington Post, the full Senate is expected to take up Kagan’s nomination after an energy legislation debate that should begin next week. A confirmation vote is likely in the first week of August, before Congress recesses.

Speaking of the energy bill, reports today sadly indicate that Democrats will be dropping the climate change measures because they do not believe 60 votes are there for passage otherwise.

After weeks of delay, Senate Democrats were finally able to defeat GOP roadblocks and pass the bill to reign in Wall Street, and hopefully, prevent the 2008 crises from happening again. As the House already passed the final version, the bill now goes to President Obama for signature. The Senate’s next big legislative item will be an energy/climate bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will try to bring to the floor in two weeks. The House passed its version last year, but the Senate will scale back the “cap and trade” provision to only limit carbon pollution to power plans.

A Senate vote on extended unemployment benefits has been put off until next week, when Bob Byrd’s replacement (to be announced by Gov. Manchin tomorrow) will be sworn in, giving the Democrats enough votes. Republicans also delayed a commitee vote on Elena Kagan until next week.

With the sad passing of Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history, the Democrats for now number 58 in the Senate (the Democratic governor of West Virginia will appoint someone in the near future, with a special election taking place in 2012, the same time as the next election was going to be held anyway). As it is tradition that the President pro temp of the Senate goes to the most senior member of the majority party, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii was sworn in.

Since the Democrats lost a member, they had to reconvene conference negotiations on the Wall Street reform bill, removing a bank tax (meaning costs of the bill will now fall back on the taxpayers) to appease Sen. Scott Brown who is still uncommital on his vote, which will now not take place until next week.  The House of Representatives passed the final version, with Speaker Pelosi personally gavelling the vote to a close, as it represents the biggest financial reforms since the Great Depression.

And extension of jobless benefits passed in the House but died once again in the Senate (thanks to Republicans and Sen. Ben Nelson), meaning that the unemployed will continue to suffer through the 4th of July congressional recess. The House also passed a bill that broadens BP’s legal liability for the 11 workers who died in the oil rig explosion.

Gen. David Petraeus was quickly confirmed 99-0 to command the war effort in Afghanistan, replacing Gen. Stanley McChrystal whom was removed by Pres. Obama after controversial remarks to Rolling Stone but will be retiring with four stars. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings this week were decidedly uncontroversial and she is expected to be confirmed.

Congress passed new sanctions on Iran and the House of Representatives passed the DISCLOSE Act, which came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision that severely weakened previous campaign finance laws. Unfortunately, groups like the NRA were exempted from having to disclose its top donors on its campaign ads but would still have to put its own name on any of its spots. The Senate still has to pass the bill, so potentially the bill can be strengthened. But despite the exemptions, this is still a big step in disclosure for campaign contributions.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans again killed a bill to extend unemployment benefits and prevent layoffs of state and local government workers though Congress delayed cuts to Medicare payments for six weeks while they work out the broader bill.

House and Senate negotiators have come to an agreement on financial reform legislation and hope to send it to President Obama by the July 4th recess. A bill has been introduced in Congress to crack down on puppy mills (you can ask your representatives to support the measure here). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to try and attach broader energy/climate change legislation to an oil industry regulation bill to get it fast tracked before the August recess. Speaker Pelosi is fighting for broader congressional oversight of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. And forgotten-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings will begin Monday.

Well, that jobs bill looks dead for now (though the House of Representatives did pass a small business bill), meaning people will go without unemployment benefits and states will likely start laying off teachers. Brilliant! And also thanks to the Blue Dog Democrats, a vote today on new campaign finance legislation in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision was scrapped even though it had already been weakened to exclude groups like the NRA.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate are still in negotiations on final financial reform legislation and Supreme Court nomine Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing are about to begin.

Also, the only possible silver lining to the oil spill disaster is a renewed push from President Obama to get the Senate to pass an energy bill this year. Sens. Bingaman, Cantwell, Kerry/Lieberman, and Boxer made presentations of their bills yesterday but so far they’ve just agreed to another meeting. One idea being floated is that the Senate could pass a version that excludes the House’s “cap and trade” provision, then put it back in during conference during the post-midterms “lame duck session” where Democrats who already won or lost tough races would be more comfortable making a tough vote. But liberal Democrats may not vote for a bill that doesn’t address climate change, so the politics of this are pretty complicated right now.

Lastly, a columnist calls for partial immigration reform (the DREAM Act and AgJobs bill) given that comprehensive reform is probably unlikely to happen this year (especially if they do focus on an energy/climate bill). Makes sense to me.

Yesterday, the House passed a bill to tax 90% of the AIG bonuses, but Republicans are slowing that legislation down in the Senate. Earlier in the week, the House also voted 321-105 to expand AmeriCorps and other national service programs by 175,000 participants. It would also create new groups to help poor communities with education, clean energy, health and services for veterans.

The Senate passed a long-delayed bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness, from a California mountain range to more than 1,000 miles of rivers. The 77-20 vote sends the bill to the House, where final legislative approval could come as early as next week.

The full Senate also confirmed Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative and Elena Kagan as Solicitor General. The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation also unanimously signed off on the nomination of Gary Locke as Secretary of Commerce.