EPA head defends ambitious climate strategy against Republican attacks
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy talks with CBS News about navigating a hostile Republican Congress and facing off with critics who say tougher environmental regulations will hurt the economy.
By: CBSNews.com Web Extras
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EPA head defends ambitious climate strategy against Republican attacks - Video
Republican Plan to Cancel Obama State of the Union Gains Traction
The Republican plan to cancel Obama #39;s State of the Union address gains traction http://samuel-warde.com/2014/12/republicans-state-of-the-union-address/ On the Bonus Show: The homeless...
By: David Pakman Show
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Republican Plan to Cancel Obama State of the Union Gains Traction - Video
Sonic Boom Episode 12-Republican State (ft-Oliver)
By: YogurtGames
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Sonic Boom Episode 12-Republican State (ft-Oliver) - Video
The Senate passed a $1.1 trillion bill to fund most of the U.S. government through September and avert a shutdown after defeating an effort by Ted Cruz that previewed a potential 2015 Republican fight over immigration.
The 56-40 vote during an uncommon Saturday session follows House passage of the spending bill on Dec. 11 and sends the measure to President Barack Obama for his signature.
Cruz of Texas, like a number of House Republicans, had sought to use the measure, H.R. 83, to block funding of Obamas actions allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. The bill also drew no votes from Democrats who opposed language easing bank rules and allowing larger financial contributions to political parties.
The measure was poisoned by special favors flagrantly contrary to the public interest, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who voted against the bill, said in a statement.
The vote ended a weeks-long drama over immigration, government spending and banking rules as Senate Democrats prepare to turn the majority over to Republicans in January. Republicans also will have an expanded House majority, and this months fight previewed the partys plans to try to roll back government regulations in 2015.
While Republican leaders insisted they wouldnt allow a government shutdown like the one in October 2013 that stemmed from an effort to defund Obamacare, Congress was just a few hours from a lapse in government funding Dec. 11 when lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to give the Senate time to act.
Thirty-two Democrats and 24 Republicans voted for the spending bill in the Senate, while 22 Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed it.
Shortly before the final vote, the Senate rejected, 22-74, a parliamentary objection raised by Cruz questioning the constitutionality of Obamas action on immigration, which the senator and other Republicans call amnesty.
Cruz said in a statement before the vote that his proposal allows Republicans to show they are committed to ending Obamas amnesty once and for all in the next Congress.
If we agree it is indeed unconstitutional, we have no business funding it when the GOP controls Congress last year, he said.
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Senate Clears Spending Bill as Cruz Abandons Challenge
WASHINGTON (CNN) -
An unlikely ally is offering a glimmer of hope that President Barack Obama can make good on his vow to close Guantanamo Bay before leaving office.
Republican Sen. John McCain, a fierce critic of Obama's foreign policy, is about to take the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. He says it's still possible the war on terror camp in Cuba could be shut down -- but warns that the administration will have to come up with a clear plan to overcome Republican opposition.
Asked in a CNN interview whether he was prepared to help his old political foe, despite a congressional ban on sending detainees to the U.S. mainland, McCain said, "I am prepared to and I think it can be done."
But he warned that ever since he started talking to the administration about Guantanamo Bay in 2009, it had "never come forward with a plan as to how we treat those individuals that have been judged as too dangerous to ever be released, and that is the hangup."
McCain, himself a former prisoner of war, has long favored closing Guantanamo Bay, which critics say stains the reputation of the United States and is a recruiting tool for terrorists. But key players in Congress, including many senior Republicans, have barred funding for the administration to send remaining inmates elsewhere or to build facilities on the U.S. mainland.
Speculation about the camp's future is being stoked by the recent transfers of a group of prisoners to Uruguay last week. The U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 is also back in the spotlight because of the recent release of a Senate report on enhanced interrogation tactics critics say equate to torture.
McCain said he thought that Republican opposition could be overcome, if the administration laid out exactly how it believed it could close Guantanamo.
"If I went to the members of the committee today and said, 'Look they are going to be moved to a maximum security prison in some location in the United States of America and we have a plan for that transfer, I think most of them would be perfectly happy about that," McCain said.
Last weekend, the Obama administration sent six Guantanamo Bay detainees to Uruguay for resettlement as refugees as part of its plan to depopulate the camp prior to its closure.
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Republican opposition can be overcome, McCain says