Senator Scott Brown received a phone call from President Obama this afternoon as the president traveled on Air Force One. The White House said the two discussed financial reform and immigration reform, which Obama told Brown will come before the Senate in the coming weeks.
The special phone call signals just how important Brown has become since his election in January -- as the 41st Republican Senator, Brown can make or break Democratic legislation via the filibuster.
Although Brown says he is opposed to the financial reform legislation, he has signaled in the past a willingness to break with his party, by voting for a jobs bill and extension of unemployment benefits. Brown is one of a handful of crucial swing votes in the Senate.
On immigration reform, Brown's spokesperson said the Senator would review any legislation that comes before the Senate, but feels the Congress should be working on jobs and the economy.
Brown had recently been pressured into meeting with a student representative of a group called Student Immigrant Movement , which is pushing for legal residency for unauthorized immigrant students, the Boston Globe reported.
After nine group members staged a sit-in at Brown's Boston office and presented a petition with 300 signatures, Brown agreed to meet with one student from the group who is a US citizen.
That cautious approach demonstrates just how volatile the immigration issue has become, particularly among conservative groups such as the Tea Party, which heavily backed Brown's campaign for Senate.
Comments
Scott Brown the naked senator. He better break with the GOP else he will be rescinded! He came to power b/c of fear and confusion caused by the idiot teabaggers. In a year or so when the scare tactics are gone Kennedy's seat is still liberal.
Brown is not the sharpest tool in the shed but I bet even he will understand this.
AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR SCOTT BROWN
Dear Senator Brown,
Your press release gave your reasons for voting to block open Senate discussion on financial reform – you want to “protect the safety of the financial system and the interests of taxpayers and consumers”…that this bill and its “serious problems” “would leave taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts”, “hurt jobs in Massachusetts, including small businesses” – but no supportive detail re the content of the financial reform bill which guided your conclusion.
I ask because on Jan 10, 2010, in an Op-ed in Boston Globe, you wrote the Stimulus (ARRA) “had not created a single job”. You repeated same on Feb 4 at your signing-in ceremony, and you were disdainful. Yet on Dec 31, 2009, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued a formal report, copy online, detailing that in 3 months alone, Oct to Dec 2009, 13,879 jobs in your state had been created by ARRA! Since then, ARRA has poured more f
Since then ARRA poured more funds & jobs into Mass AND $5.5 billion tax cuts & COBRA/unemployment subsidies.
On financial reform, Sen. Bob Corker (R) already refuted GOP allegations like yours from the Senate floor, asserting how the $50 billion fund which banks must pay, NOT taxpayers, “is anything but a bailout….it is to provide upfront funding by the industry so that if these companies are seized, there’s money available to make payroll and to wind it down while the pieces are being sold off”, thus protecting taxpayers.
Your press release is confusing. As new US senator, when your words raise serious issues we look to you for substantive responses. Could it perhaps be your pro-business, anti-middle-class Republican voting record is getting in the way of your commonsense, since the “serious problems” in this bill will be for Wall St, not taxpayers or small businesses
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