Daily Democratic Wire 9-24-2009

George Wenschhof

Today, President Barack Obama will preside over the UN Security Council meeting - he is expected to discuss the need to reduce nuclear stockpiles and slow the spread of nuclear weapons across the world. The Washington Post has more here.

Then, the President is off to Pittsburgh to attend a two day G-20 summit. You can read more here.

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Paul Kirk to be named interim Senator to fill vacant Kennedy seat - Governor Deval Patrick is expected to make the announcement today. Kirk was a long time aide to Kennedy and was former DNC chair. Politico.com has more here.

An interesting twist is the approval granted to the Governor to make the interim pick included a section stating the appointment could not be made for 90 days unless the Governor declared an emergency. Evidently, that is what Governor Patrick intends to do today. TheHill.com has more here.

Democrats need this vote to help pass health care reform. The special election to fill the seat will not be held until January 19, 2010.

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Senate Finance Committee continues mark up of Baucus bill - over 500 amendments have been offered and Republican members of the committee are intent at slowing the process down. Democrats have a 13-10 advantage in the committee so do not expect this process to last more than a couple weeks. Reuters.com has more here.

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Financial system regulations move forward in House - the creation of a consumer financial protection agency is still included in the legislation being considered by the House. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chair of the Financial Services Committee presented an amendment exempting various merchants, retailers and providers of retirement plans. His counterpart in the Senate Chris Dodd favors combining existing federal agencies into one consumer protection agency. Even with health care reform consuming much of the time in Congress, Democratic Leaders are still hopeful for passage by the end of the year. The NY Times has more here.

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New unemployment claims fall for third week in a row - new Labor department figures show a four week average of 553,500 claims, the lowest since January. However, this figure is way above the average of 325,000 claims in a healthy economy. You can read more here.

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