Skip to content

Senate Leaders Confer With Their Teams

Senate leaders met with their respective parties on Tuesday to chart the way forward on the bailout plan and the quickest path toward adjournment.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met Tuesday morning with Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on what to do to get the rescue plan to the Senate.

Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who was also in the meeting with Reid, said participants worked through several options to get the bill passed but nothing has been decided yet.

“Obviously, that is a possibility, but no conclusions have been made,” Conrad said of the Senate bringing up a bailout bill first and then sending it over to the House later in the week. “There’s a lot of people that have be talked to.”

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met in his office midday with several colleagues, including Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Budget ranking member Judd Gregg (N.H.), who served as the GOP envoy in the negotiations over the weekend. McConnell said a vote should happen this week.

“No action is not a solution. We’re not going to sit around and point fingers. We’re going to get the job done and we’re going to get the job done this week,” McConnell said.

Recent Stories

Cherfilus-McCormick violated ethics rules, subcommittee finds

Competing claims on SAVE America Act disenfranchising voters

Senate passes bill to fund most of Homeland Security Department

Trump intervenes to pay airport security workers amid standoff

Rewritten air safety legislation moves out of House committees

House panel advances bill on temporary US attorneys