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.

After weeks of debate on amendments and typical GOP obstruction, the Senate has finally passed its version of regulatory reforms designed to avert another financial crises and more bailouts. Some progressives don’t think it goes far enough, but like with health care reform, ultimately most voted in favor. The House of Representatives passed its version last year and now they will work out the differences in conference. The White House is hoping to sign a final bill into law by the July 4th recess.

The Senate continued to work on the financial reform bill, passing several notable amendments including  one limiting the ability of Wall Street firms to shop around for favorable ratings from now-discredited credit rating agencies, one to audit the actions of the Federal Reserve, and one that would force credit card companies to charge businesses less for debit card transactions than for credit card payments., among others. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to call for a cloture vote to end debate on Monday, but Republicans will try to thwart – as always.

Also, Republican Senator Murkowski of Alaska blocked a bill that would raise the liability caps for oil companies from $75 million to $10 billion in response to the damage caused by BP’s oil spill in the Gulf. And Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman also finally unveiled their delayed climate change/energy bill, but its prospects of passing may be only slightly better than that of immigration reform…

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives derailed a technology bill by attaching an amendment that effectively eliminated some of the key initiatives in the technology bill while inserting language supporting the firing of government workers who view or download pornography on the job to make those opposed to the cuts vulnerale to attack ads claiming they supported pornography on the government’s dime. Democrats scuttled the measure for now.

The Senate worked through several amendments to the financial reform legislation this week. Passing were amendments to ban the use of taxpayer dollars for bailouts and an elimination of the $50 billion liquidation fund included in the original legislation. Failing were amendments to break up the six largest banks and a Republican-lead effort to considerably weaken the powers of a proposed consumer protection agency. An amendment to audit the Fed is expected to pass next week an effort to reimpose the Glass-Steagal wall may see the light of day. An effort is also underway to attach an amendment to address the “secret holds” problem that has crippled Senate action on Obama nominees at a record level.

Several Senators also looked to respond the oil spill and Times Square bomb scare. Sen. Bill Nelson is saying that an offshore drilling  expansion is “dead on arrival” in Congress. And Sens. Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown has introduced obviously unconstitutional legislation (even Rep. John Boehner questioned it) that would strip citizenship of American citizens simply accused of terrorism, even as others showed opposition to a bill that would keep people on the F.B.I. terrorist watch list from buying guns and explosives.

The House of Representatives passed a bill dubbed “cash for caulkers” that will make homeowners elgible for thousands of dollars in rebates for renovating their homes to be more energy efficient.

Lastly, the “will they, won’t they” debate on whether or not Congress will take up immigration reform continues as President Obama now says he’d like to see work begin this year.

UPDATE: With White House support, Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman are pressing forward with their climate change/energy bill despite Sen. Graham’s bellyaching. They will introduce the legislation on Wednesday.

After blocking it three times this week, Senate Republicans finally relented on opening debate on financial regulatory reform. A group of Senate Democrats also unveiled a “framework” for immigration reform, though President Obama has said their may not be an “appetite” to get to it this year. We seem to be getting mixed signals on whether this is going to happen or not. I contend that Dems should go for it (as they should everything on their agenda), but climate change-energy legislation should be put first because it is closer to being passed.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would give Puerto Rico a path to statehood or independence. A House panel is mulling a bill to ease the Cuban embargo and “conferees” were appointed to work with the Senate on new Iran sanctions.

Finally, Democrats in both chambers introduced a bill to address the Citizen United ruling that opened the floodgates for corporate campaign cash.

Congress passed a bill providing benefits to veterans’ caregivers that will go to President Obama. The Senate confirmed Judge Denny Chin to fill an opening on a New York-based appeals court.; he will be the only Asian-American currently serving on a U.S. Court of Appeals. However, there are 23 judicial nominations still pending on the Senate calendar. This is just some of the massive obstruction perpetrated by the GOP.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen has introduced the first in what could be a series of legislative attempts to undo some of the damage of the the Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling to campaign finance reform. The bill is picking up at least some Republican support. Also, Congressional Democrats have begun pushing legislation giving government regulators greater authority to block big increases in health insurance premiums, in what is sure to be one of many legislative improvements to health care reform over the next few years.

And thanks to Sen. Russ Feingold, Congress is likely to wisely deny themselves pay raises this year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has filed for a cloture vote to take place on Monday for the financial regulatory reform bill. At least one Republican vote is needed, but with Republicans seemingly seeing that the momentum is against them on this issue, it’ll be a big test to see if they can hold firm in opposition. In any case, the bill is likely to pass soon and a conference version will likely be ahead of schedule, with the original thinking being that President Obama would sign this into law around September and the anniversary of Lehman Brothers, etc. Now that they will probably have more time to work on other legislation, a debate is now brewing on what the Democrats should tackle next.

The White House originally indicated their next priority was energy/climate change legislation, but Harry Reid (whom is facing a tough re-elected race in Nevada) and some Latino Democrats are pushing for immigration reform. While some fear taking up such a controversial issue in an election year, they argue that Democrats ought to show Latino voters they care about their issues and not take their votes for granted, especially in light of the draconian immigration law that encourages racial profiling that was passed in Arizona. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham have introduced a bill in the Senate, and Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that if the Senate can get it done the House would follow.

My personal preference, however, is to go with the climate bill. A version already passed the House and Sens. John Kerry, Graham and Joe Lieberman are introducing “compromise” legislation in the Senate on Monday, so it’s already closer to getting done. Plus, I think immigration reform might actually be more moveable with a potential Republican Congress next year than climate change… But hey, why not shoot for both? The Democrats ought to get as much of their agenda passed as possible while they have the votes.

UPDATE: A bad sign for the energy bill,  but it doesn’t look good for immigration reform either. Reid says he’s committed to both and Kerry says the EPA is studying the climate bill.

UPDATE II: A compromise to move both along?

Congress finally passed an extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies (which President Obama immediately signed) after being blocked several times by Senate Republicans. Congress also passed a Haiti debt relief bill.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are paving the way for a Wall Street reform bill , a version of which passed the House of Representatives last year. Senate Republicans are having trouble getting the votes on their side to block it. And as early as next week, the House may bring back a bill to give D.C. residents a representative who can actually vote on bills.

Sen. Kerry is also about to introduce a new climate change/energy bill that has the support of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The House passed a version last year, but unfortunately, it’s unlikely Congress will get back to it before the midterms either because they lack the time or because it’s an election year, as is the issue with immigration reform. That’s too bad since whether the Republicans can flip either chamber or not, Democrats almost certainly won’t have as many seats in the next Congress and it’ll be even harder to get such legislation passed.

UPDATE: It looks as if the D.C. voting rights bill is dead.