A Curious Eye

The Constitution has always given states with small populations a lift, but the scale of the gap has grown in recent decades.

Female senators remain an anomaly, but with 20 now in office, they have become a new force on important committees and legislation.

Harry Reid must reform the filibuster or resign or be replaced as Majority Leader. It’s time for the Democratic leader in the Senate to be a leader.

There’s a female politician from New York who is beloved by gay rights activists, has amassed a national fundraising network and is viewed by many Democrats as a viable presidential candidate. And her name is not Hillary Clinton.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In the halls of the United States Senate, dozens of Senators congratulated themselves today for having what one of them called “the courage and grit to stand up to the overwhelming wishes of the American people.”

Olympia Snowe, who after serving three terms in the U.S. Senate did not seek re-election last year, said in an interview Friday that as public opinion has shifted on same-sex marriage, so have her views.

“I think obviously this has evolved over time on the whole issue for the whole country and the nations,” Snowe, a moderate Republican, told CNN. “We’ve seen a sea change in society’s whole attitude on this particular issue and it’s only natural for government to be responsive to those changes.”

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against tougher gun laws, clearing the way for a major congressional debate on a package of proposals sought by President Barack Obama in the aftermath of the Connecticut school massacre.

On Friday, the U.S. Senate did something that it rarely does these days. An amendment was offered as an attachment to the Senate budget bill and it not only gained the support of both Republicans and Democrats, it received unanimous support. By a vote of 99-0, the U.S. Senate voted to strip “too big to fail” banks of the taxpayer subsidies they’ve been getting for far too long.

President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats met behind closed doors on Capitol Hill today to discuss a list of legislative priorities ranging from the budget to immigration reform and gun control. Missing from the discussion, however, was one of the last major pieces of federal LGBT-rights legislation.

According to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), neither the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) nor an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from LGBT discrimination were discussed during the nearly 90-minute meeting.

Harkin, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that oversees ENDA, promised last month that action would be taken on ENDA this year. But at today’s meeting, ENDA did not come up.

Asked by Metro Weekly if he believes Obama thinks ENDA is a priority, Harkin said he hasn’t asked, but reaffirmed his commitment to see action taken on ENDA this year.

Lest there was any doubt, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made it loud and clear on Wednesday: The problem of too-big-to-fail banks is still a major threat to the economy.

“Too Big To Fail is not solved and gone,” he said during a press conference. “It’s still here.”

Senators crafting a bipartisan overhaul of immigration laws agree on a path to legal status, aides say, but other hurdles remain.

U.S. Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat serving Montana, just posted to Facebook his support of same-sex marriage. Tester joins Democratic U.S. Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, all who this week declared their support for same-sex marriage.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced the hearing, the first held by the Senate on military sexual assault in nearly a decade, shortly after being appointed chairwoman of the Senate subcommittee on Feb. 19. Details of the hearing were made public Wednesday.

“I am proud of these brave victims who are willing to tell their painful stories and have their voices heard in Congress,” Gillibrand said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “We need to get to the bottom of how to prevent and better prosecute these terrible crimes and I am very pleased that so many members of our military brass will be participating in this hearing as we look for the right answers.”