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Kayaking a flooded Healdsburg 12/11/14
The Press Democrat is a newspaper in Santa Rosa California covering Wine Country, Sonoma County and the North Bay.
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Kayaking a flooded Healdsburg 12/11/14 - Video
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio will be the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)Sherrod Brown, a critic of large banks, will be the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee when the new Congress takes office.
The Ohio senator had been expected to be elevated to ranking member, making him the Democratic leader on the committee. Typically, ranking member and chairman positions are decided among Senate leadership.
Chairman Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, announced his retirement at the end of the current session. Republicans will have the majority, and thus the committee chairmanships, when the new session begins in January.
Brown became the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee after more-senior senator chose not to become ranking member or seek leadership positions on other committees.
Brown has been seen as a critic of large financial institutions.
Hes somebody who really sees the financial sector and who really believes the financial sector should work for the broader interest of the public, said Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.
Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama is expected to become chairman of the committee. Like Brown, Shelby has been expected to address the issue of too-big-to-fail banks.
Brown collaborated with Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana on legislation to prevent taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions.
But Brown also negotiated with Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, on legislation that would clarify a rule in the Dodd-Frank law that would allow the Federal Reserve to regulate insurance companies differently than large banks.
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Sherrod Brown to be top Democrat on Banking Committee
Sen. Sherrod Brown will be the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, providing the Ohio Democrat with a bigger stage to make his case that Wall Street banks are out of control and need to be reined in by the government.
On Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced he would pass on the post, which was his for the taking under seniority rules, so he can concentrate on his party leadership duties as the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate.
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Schumers announcement ends months of speculation in Washington and New Yorks financial communities over who will be the lead Democrat on the panel.
While the issue has lost relevance now that Democrats will not control the Senate next year, it still means an outspoken critic of the countrys biggest banks will be the lead Democrat on a panel that oversees Wall Street rather than a senator whose home state includes the countrys financial center.
For Schumer, it was a dilemma to decide whether to take the Banking top spot. If he took the job, he likely would have felt pressure from panel liberals, such as Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to take an aggressive stance toward his home state industry. If he didnt, he risked alienating a constituency that would be key to the possibility of him one day becoming Senate Democratic leader.
Wall Street officials, meanwhile, would have been looking for a lighter touch from their home state senator, who has often turned to the industry in search of campaign dollars to help both himself and fellow Democrats in elections.
The fact that Brown would get the job if Schumer passed on the post put increased attention on his decision.
In recent years, Brown has emerged as one of Wall Streets fiercest critics in Congress.
Last year, he teamed up with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on a bill that would require the biggest banks to meet much tougher funding rules in what the industry saw as a de facto attempt to break up the largest Wall Street institutions.
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Wall Street critic Brown to be top Democrat on Banking
Sen. Patty Murray will become the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next year, just as the GOP gains control of the Senate with plans to redouble its attention to the federal health law.
Ms. Murray is taking the committee seat being vacated by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who is the panels current chairman and is retiring after nearly 40 years in Congress. With GOP takeover, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will be HELP Committee chairman.
Ms. Murray, of Washington state, is a member of Senate Democratic leadership, manages the Senate floor and heads the Budget Committee. She said in a Friday statement that she plans to fight as hard as I can to make sure that that the voices, values, and priorities of students, workers and families, are heard loud and clear. She listed several education priorities, including overhauling the No Child Left Behind law, student loan debt and early childhood education, but also said she was hopeful Congress would be continuing to improve health care access and affordability.
On the Budget Committee, Ms. Murray gained prominence by working with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) on a compromise budget law that raised spending caps for fiscal 2014 and 2015, finding rare bipartisan agreement on fiscal policy. She said Friday that she would remain a member of the Budget panel. This past summer, she led an unsuccessful Democratic effort to challenge a Supreme Court decision that allowed some employers to omit contraception coverage in workers insurance.
Mr. Harkin has been a long-time advocate for public health, and in recent years thats included vocal support for a disease-prevention fund in the Affordable Care Act.
Ms. Murrays move is one of several committee switches by Democrats for the new Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, will become ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Democratic Steering Committee announced Friday afternoon. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida will be the top Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, succeeding West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who is retiring. And Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut will become the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee.
For the HELP role, Ms. Murray leapfrogged Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who has been Appropriations Committee chairwoman and will remain with the committee as its ranking Democrat.
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Patty Murray to Become Top Democrat on HELP Committee
A few months ago, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked a number of Internet providers to vowthat they'd never set up controversial Internet "fast lanes" where some Web sites would get sped up over others. So-called "paid prioritzation," he said then, would divide the Internet into haves and have-nots. The ISPs should commit to swearing off such fast lanes, Leahy said.
But in their responses, the companies Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Charter didn't give him the promisehe was looking for. So now, the Vermont Democrat is calling them outfor an "unfortunate" failure to comply.
"This is disappointing," Leahy said in a statement Friday. "I was disappointed that some Internet service providers in their responses brushed aside these concerns dismissively."
Although the ISPs told him they didn'tcurrently have plans to engage in paid prioritization, they declined to rule out starting such programs in the future, as Leahy asked.
Leahy's requestwas unlikely to ever lead anywhere significant; the whole reason broadband companies are fighting federal regulators on net neutralityis becausemany wouldlike the freedom to engage in paid prioritization if theywanted to. It wouldn't make sense for them to box themselves into a corner. So the chairman's move was largely symbolic.
Still, the ISPs' silence on paid prioritization speaks volumes about their intentions.
Read Leahy's full statement here. Here also are his initial letters to the Internet providers, and their responses. I've asked the companies involved to comment, and will update if and when they reply.
Brian Fung covers technology for The Washington Post, focusing on telecom, broadband and digital politics. Before joining the Post, he was the technology correspondent for National Journal and an associate editor at the Atlantic.
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A top Democrat is trying to shame Internet providers for not renouncing fast lanes