U.S. jobless benefits debate ends
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The Senate ended a long partisan stalemate Tuesday, voting to end debate and clearing the way to give millions of out-of-work Americans a benefits extension.
The New York Times reported the procedural vote on the bill affecting those unemployed for six months or more passed on a 60-40 vote with Maine's two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, siding with 56 Democrats and two Independents. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., voted with the Republicans, who objected to the $34 billion bill on grounds it would add to the federal deficit.
The measure could provide a financial safety net through November for as many as 4.9 million Americans whose benefits have run out after 26 weeks, Politico reported.
The Democrats needed every vote they could muster since the Republicans had blocked three final votes previously.
"Finally, finally, finally," Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., however, expressed the GOP concern that "the federal debt has grown to an alarming level, where it is threatening the future of our children and grandchildren."
The bill still needs final Senate approval, which was possible later in the day, and that of the House, which is expected Wednesday, and then the signature of President Barack Obama, who has strongly endorsed it.
The Senate vote came shortly after Carte Goodwin was sworn in to take the seat of West Virginia's Robert C. Byrd, who died last month.
Goodwin's first vote as a U.S. senator brought rules-breaking applause from the visitors' gallery, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I could not feel more privileged than I do to cast my first vote as a member of the United States Senate to have it be a vote that helps millions of Americans," Goodwin said after the vote. "These are real issues that affect real West Virginians and real Americans in very real ways, and I feel privileged to have played a small role in helping to move this legislation forward."
Senate panel approves Kagan nomination
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 Tuesday to approve Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, sending it on to a full Senate vote.
The vote was largely along party lines, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham the only Republican on the panel supporting Kagan, The Washington Post reported.
Graham praised Kagan's performance during the hearing and said she would serve "honorably" though he disagrees with her "liberal" views and she would not have been his own choice, The Hill reported.
The full Senate will consider the nomination after an upcoming energy debate, probably later this month or in early August, the Post said.
The Judiciary Committee conducted four days of hearings on Kagan's nomination before Congress took its Fourth of July recess.
If approved by the full Senate to fill the seat of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, Kagan -- the current solicitor general -- would become the fourth woman to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, joining Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor on the current court.
Obama, Cameron discuss range of issues
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- A meeting of the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom underscored the "special relationship" between the two countries, the White House says.
U.S. President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron held a joint news conference after their meeting Tuesday during the British leader's first official trip to the United States.
The pair discussed a range of issues in their meeting, including the global economy, the Middle East peace process and the situation in Afghanistan, the president said.
Both leaders agreed that they have the right strategies for these issues.
Cameron said they also discussed the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that he understands the anger and calling it a "catastrophe." Cameron said he believes it is BP's role to clean up the Gulf Coast and compensate for the damage.
Cameron addressed the role BP may have played in the release last August of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a Libyan who served eight years of a life sentence for his role in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died, including 189 Americans.
Al-Megrahi was released for compassionate reasons because it was believed he was near death. He is still alive.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has decided to hold hearings July 29 so BP officials can explain the company's role in lobbying for a Libyan-British transfer and Libya's ratification of an offshore oil agreement company officials have said could be worth $20 billion.
The release decision was wrong, Cameron said, but the Scottish government, not BP, made it. He has seen no evidence that BP had any connection to it, he said, and is determining whether additional information should be published.
He does not favor a governmental investigation, he said, because "I don't need an inquiry to tell me it was a bad decision."
"As leader of the opposition I couldn't have been more clear that I thought the decision to release al-Megrahi was completely and utterly wrong," he said.
Cameron's two-day visit also will involve meetings in New York with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Wall Street executives, officials said.
Summit commits to 2014 Afghan role
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 20 (UPI) -- International leaders have reaffirmed their support for a complete transition of security and budgeting responsibility to the Afghan government by 2014.
But doubts over whether Afghanistan can assume those responsibilities without continued infusion of foreign aid and the presence of a significant number of foreign troops were underscored by the vague language describing the timeline for handing over security responsibility, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The 2014 transition goal, outlined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year, is non-binding and essentially unenforceable, though more specific plans will be developed later this year, the newspaper said.
Karzai told the international summit in Kabul his country's forces would be ready to assume security duties within four years.
The timeline was endorsed in a communication by American, European and other foreign leaders participating in the conference, which includes all of the major troop-contributing nations in the coalition fighting insurgents, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I remain determined that our Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014," Karzai told the delegates meeting in the Afghan capital.
Participants included U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Karzai proffered the goal of a security handover by 2014 in November when he was inaugurated for a second presidential term.
President Obama's administration set a target of July 2011 to begin drawing down nearly 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. However, military and administration officials stressed the drawdown will depend on conditions on the ground.
Leaders speaking at the conference stressed that the 2014 timeline would depend on the Afghan police and army showing their ability to handle security province by province.
"I welcome the road map agreed on today on transition to an Afghan lead in security," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "But transition will be based on conditions, not calendars."
Conference participants also endorsed plans to funnel at least half of the $13 billion in international aid through the Afghan government, the Times said. Now only a fifth of such assistance is channeled through Afghan ministries.
In exchange, Karzai pledged to fight corruption in his government.
Gates wants soldiers' input on gay policy
SEOUL, July 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. secretary of defense says soldiers' input is vital as the military considers changes to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
Robert Gates, speaking to U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea, urged them to complete a survey sent to 400,000 active and reserve service members as part of a Defense Department review of the policy, a department release said Tuesday.
"If the law changes and we are told to implement it -- and we will, if the law changes -- then how do we do this in a way that makes sense?" Gates said.
"How do we identify beforehand the problems, the issues and the challenges that we're going to face? The kind of training requirements we're going to need, the kinds of changes in regulations, the impact on benefits -- all of these things need to be addressed in advance," Gates told the soldiers.
"And that's where we want to hear from you all."
Noting the Senate has passed a bill to change the law, Gates said the changes must be addressed properly.
"I've told the Congress -- I've been pretty blunt with them -- there are two ways to carry out change: There's a smart way, and there's a stupid way," he said. "If the law changes and we carry out this change, I'm determined that we do it smart, and in a way that has the least possible impact on our force, on our families and on unit cohesion."
Gov. Manchin to run for Robert Byrd's seat
CHARLESTON, W.Va., July 20 (UPI) -- West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said Tuesday he plans to run in a special election this year for the late Robert Byrd's Senate seat.
Manchin, a Democrat, named Carte Goodwin, his former chief counsel, last week to serve out the rest of Byrd's term, which ends in January 2013. Goodwin was scheduled to be sworn in Tuesday.
But the state Legislature passed a bill Monday requiring a special election this November with a primary Aug. 28, Politico reported. Candidates have until 5 p.m. Friday to file for the race.
Manchin is the only candidate to come forward so far. U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a possible Republican candidate, would be able under the special election law to run for the Senate while also running for another term in the House.
Byrd died June 28 at 95. He was first elected in 1958 and at the time of his death was the oldest serving senator and had spent longer in the upper house than anyone else in history.
Manchin paid tribute to Byrd in his announcement, saying, "I would have loved nothing more than for Sen. Byrd were here, to be able to work with him until the end."
