The Senate voted on Thursday to include a proposed $30 billion lending program in a package of aid for small businesses, as two Republicans joined with Democrats to support the amendment.

The vote was 60 to 39, with Senators George LeMieux of Florida and George V. Voinovich of Ohio, delivering crucial support despite harsh criticism of the proposal by some of their fellow Republicans who derided it as a “bailout” and a mini version of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the huge government rescue of the financial system.

The Senate must still vote on the overall small business measure, which also includes more than $12 billion in various tax breaks and an expansion of several other government lending programs. Republican leaders are pressing to offer amendments to the bill and it is not yet clear if it will be approved.

Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana and chairwoman of the small business committed, waged a fierce fight in support of the $30 billion lending program, which would be administered by the Treasury Department through local community banks.

“This is something that we want to do to help Main Street, to help small business,” Ms. Landrieu said in one of a series of floor speeches. “This isn’t about Wall Street. It’s not about bailouts. It’s not about troubled assets. It’s not TARP. It’s a small business lending fund, a strategic partnership with community banks.”

Procedural wrangling over the amendment and other issues delayed the Senate vote until after 10 p.m.

The $30 billion lending program was so controversial that on Wednesday, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, removed it from the base text of the small business bill and instead proposed it as a separate amendment, in hopes of keeping the legislation alive even if the amendment failed.

Supporters of the lending program said that it would help community banks increase lending to small businesses and that the banks would potentially be able to leverage the $30 billion into $300 billion in loans. The Treasury Department helped design the program.

Critics said the program would encourage banks to make risky loans. “I believe this is the same old song and dance, expand the reach of the heavy hand of government,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee. “Like TARP, this program does not lend money directly to small businesses; it would have the government take ownership interest in hundreds of banks.” He added, “This is TARP-2.”

But Mr. LeMieux, the Florida Republican, said that was not the case. “TARP went to the big banks who were failing at the end of 2008, a lot of whom were selling mortgage-backed securities and other exotic investments that they shouldn’t have been selling,” he said in a floor speech. “This has nothing to do with that. These are small banks. This is the banker you know down the street – the banker who’s at your rotary, who you see at church or synagogue. This is not some Goldman Sachs banker. This is the community banker who loans to the tailor, to the construction business, the folks that employ people in your hometown.”

Alvin Greene, the Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina, who emerged at a public campaign event for the first time last weekend, is now out with his first campaign video. The video, called, “Alvin Green Is On the Scene,” is a 3-minute hip-hop mix, featuring extensive footage of LeBron James — perhaps an allusion to how Mr. Greene intends to make the Nov. 2 election a slam dunk.

Mr. Greene credits himself as producer, director and editor, and lists “Dad” as “first camera” and himself as “second camera.” Music, the credits say, is by “MC Grassroots feat, The Real Americans, mixxed by Defeat Demint Posse” (with the double-x in mixed and that reference to his Republican opponent, Senator Jim DeMint).

Warning: “I say ‘Alvin,’ you say ‘Greene,’” may be ringing in your ears for days after tuning in — and Mr. Greene can only hope that if you live in South Carolina, it will remain with you as you go into the voting booth in November.

On the same day that Senate Democrats rolled out a more limited energy proposal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she didn’t think it was a mistake to push a comprehensive climate change bill through her chamber last year.

At her weekly briefing on Thursday, Ms. Pelosi said the House had “staked out a bold position” and rattled off a number of reasons why she said it was “absolutely essential” to pass the measure – including to help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and to be competitive in producing green jobs.

“We’re very proud of it and we look forward to taking it to conference,” Ms. Pelosi said of the bill, which passed by a narrow margin last June with the support of eight Republicans and included a so-called cap-and-trade system. (The speaker was talking on Thursday as word of the Senate Democrats’ narrower approach was spreading, but before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid briefed reporters on it.)

For their part, Republicans sharply criticized the House measure and are trying to use it against Democrats as the midterm elections approach.

Representative James R. Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and a quadriplegic, will preside over the House for the first time on Monday, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I think it sends a powerful message that the United States House of Representatives is open and inclusive and is welcoming to all those who want to serve,” Mr. Langevin said at a Thursday news conference.

Mr. Langevin, a 46-year old first elected in 2000, will use a mechanical lift system to gain access to the speaker’s rostrum. He was joined on Thursday by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Steny H. Hoyer, the House majority leader who was a driving force in pushing the disabilities act through Congress two decades ago.

Signed into law on July 26, 1990, the legislation forbids discrimination against those with physical or mental disabilities, in employment, public accommodation and other areas. The Times described it as “the most sweeping anti-discrimination measure to be approved since the Civil Rights Act of 1964″ after Congress sent the bill to then-President George H.W. Bush’s desk.

At Thursday’s event, Mr. Langevin — who was paralyzed roughly three decades ago after being shot in a freak accident — praised alterations that have made the Capitol more accessible since he became a congressman and said he hoped his presiding over the House on Monday would serve as encouragement for young people with disabilities.

“I remember as a young 16-year old laying in a hospital bed, and wondering what the world was going to be like, and what opportunities I might have,” said Mr. Langevin, the first quadriplegic to serve in the House.

Colorado’s Republican Senate primary has gotten dirty – all the way down to the bottom of the candidates’ shoes.

The only woman in the race, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, has pounced on a video clip that went viral Wednesday showing her rival, Ken Buck, the Weld County district attorney, attacking her for wearing high heels.

“Why should you vote for me?” Mr. Buck is seen asking at a party last week. “Because I do not wear high heels. She has questioned my manhood. I think it’s fair to respond. I have cowboy boots.”

As for their soles? He described what they’re covered in, using a hardly lady-like term for bull excrement.

Ms. Norton fired back Thursday, releasing this advertisement that plays on tensions bubbling within the Republican Party, highlighted most recently by Sarah Palin’s endorsement of the country’s “Mama Grizzlies.” Mr. Buck has a large Tea Party following and when Ms. Palin spoke in Colorado in May, she surprisingly did not endorse Ms. Norton.

Even though Mr. Buck has the lead in recent polls, the flap could be particularly damaging in Colorado, where Republican women are more likely to vote than in other states.

The primary – for the seat currently held by Senator Michael Bennet — is Aug. 10, so only time will tell whose boots will do the walking.

Before beginning their long-planned summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, America’s first family will head to Florida’s oil-stricken Gulf Coast.

The White House announced Thursday that President Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, will travel to the Gulf Coast for the Aug. 14 weekend, just days before their planned Martha’s Vineyard escape.

No details yet on where exactly they’re going, but the trip was pretty much a foregone conclusion after Mr. Obama last month called on Americans to visit Gulf resorts to help out the struggling tourist industry there.  The first family’s quick vacation to Bar Harbor, Maine, last weekend also drew criticism.

And Pensacola in August? Who can resist?

The Democrats’ strategy to preserve their House majority became clearer Thursday as the party made a $28 million investment in television advertising for the final weeks of the fall campaign, a plan that is designed to build a firewall to protect freshmen and longtime incumbents.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reserved television time in 40 districts across the country, including those of Representatives John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, chairman of the Budget Committee, and Ike Skelton of Missouri, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. The committee also reserved time to help Representative Chet Edwards of Texas, who is seeking his 11th term in November and is among the party’s most vulnerable members.

The advertising decisions, which were confirmed by party strategists and local television stations, help define more precisely the battlefield on which the two parties will vie for control of Congress over the next four months as Republicans work to reclaim the majority. Democrats are playing defense in districts in every corner of the country, hoping to use their fund-raising advantages to preserve control. The $28 million in advertising commitments represents the bulk of the $34 million in cash that the Democratic campaign committee has on hand.

“I feel very confident about the ability of my members, who are the greatest salespersons in America, to go into their districts and make the case for what we did,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday, adding that the party’s accomplishments in Congress would ultimately prove to be winning issues in November.

Many of the 40 districts are represented by Democrats who have long been viewed as ripe for a Republican takeover, but others provide the first sign that the ranks of vulnerable Democrats may be deeper than previously acknowledged. The collection of districts is hardly set in stone, with Democrats able to add or subtract as the campaign goes along.

The Democratic House campaign committee has a $17 million advantage over its Republican counterpart, so Democrats can afford to invest in far more districts. And the list that emerged on Thursday was being carefully studied by Republicans for any head-fakes – districts where Democrats were trying to entice Republicans into spending their limited resources.

The 40 districts that Democrats selected, based on polling, candidate fund-raising and the strength of Republican opposition, include five seats in Ohio, four in Pennsylvania, three in Arizona and in Virginia, and two each in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York and Texas.

Several of the decisions signal new signs of worry from Democratic Party leaders, including Representatives Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, Betty Sutton of Ohio, Allen Boyd of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Gerry E. Connolly of Virginia and Jerry McNerney of California.

“The D.C.C.C. is going to aggressively use every tool – media, voter contact programs, and research – to retain the House,” said Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the committee. “Voters will have a clear choice this November.”

The television time was reserved by the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic committee. Their Republican counterpart intends to make its first television advertising decisions in August.

“If you want to get an idea of what the Democrats’ strategy is this fall, just follow the money,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “The political environment has become so toxic that Democrats in Washington are gearing up to spend millions of dollars to defend what were once perceived as some of the most entrenched incumbents in Congress.”

After a meeting of Senate Democrats, party leaders on Thursday said they had abandoned hope of passing a comprehensive energy bill this summer and would pursue a more limited measure focused on responding to the gulf oil spill and tightening  energy efficiency standards.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a champion of comprehensive climate change legislation, called the new goal “admittedly narrow.”

At a news conference, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, blamed Republicans for refusing to cooperate. “We don’t have a single Republican to work with us,” Mr. Reid said.

Democrats said they would continue to pursue broader climate change legislation.

“This is not the only energy legislation we are going to do,” Mr. Reid said. “This is what we can do now.”

Senate Democrats had already scaled back their plans to pursue limits on greenhouse gas emissions, like those in a bill approved by the House last year. Instead, Senate Democrats had said they would seek a cap on carbon emissions only for power plants. But even that proved overly ambitious.

“We know where we are,” Mr. Reid said. “We don’t have the votes.”

While Mr. Reid criticized Republicans, it is clear he did not have sufficient support in his own party for a broad energy bill. A number of Democratic lawmakers from manufacturing and coal-producing states were expected to oppose such a bill.

The administration will spend another day picking up the pieces from a scandal turned not-so-scandalous.

The Department of Agriculture employee who was forced out of her job after conservative bloggers pushed a misleading video clip of her making racially charged remarks says she is “thinking” about taking the new job the administration has offered.

Meanwhile, pretty much everyone else has egg on his face, The Times’s reporters write today. The administration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the blogosphere and members of the mainstream media are trying to figure out where they went wrong.

This calls for a wine summit.

Presidential Daybook: President Obama will sign the Improper Payments legislation today in the State Dining Room at 11:25 a.m. The bill is designed to reduce the money agencies waste on improper payments to individuals, organizations or contractors due to fraud or something as simple as a typo.

He’s also expected to announce a goal of reducing these misdirected payments by $50 billion by 2012, The Associated Press reports. In 2009, the government sent nearly $110 billion to the wrong people, the highest amount to date. (Yikes.)

In the afternoon, Mr. Obama will meet with Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of American troops in Iraq, and Christopher R. Hill, the United States ambassador to Iraq, in the Oval Office and then separately with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

Arizona Goes to Court: A federal judge in Arizona will hear arguments today from lawyers for Gov. Jan Brewer, the federal government and civil rights groups over the state’s new immigration law. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are already in training to put the new law into action next week.

Playing Nice: The White House and House Democrats seem to be playing nice after a scuffle exposed fierce intraparty tension and election hysteria, Politico reports.

Economy on the Hill: The Fed chairman, Benjamin S. Bernanke, will testify before the House Financial Services Committee today at 9:30 a.m. on the state of the American economy. He gave a less than uplifting assessment to senators on Wednesday, saying that the unemployment rate would probably  stay well above 7 percent through the end of 2012 and that the Fed had no immediate plans to provide additional support to the economy.

Read more…

There was a stir in the Reception Room just outside the Senate chamber, and it had nothing to do with unemployment benefits.

“Oh my,” Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, said with a squeal. “I can’t believe I’m meeting you! I watch ‘The Nanny.’ I am a huge fan.”

The object of Mrs. Lincoln’s affection and admiration, of course, was Fran Drescher, the actress, comedian, writer, and television director and producer, best known for playing the nanny, Fran Fine, on the 1990s sitcom on CBS.

Ms. Drescher was being escorted through the Capitol by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, and she was quickly surrounded by a number of Mr. Lautenberg’s colleagues. “I’m coming to be a groupie,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, sidling up to the star guest.

“We’re both cancer survivors,” Ms. Drescher said repeatedly, gesturing to Mr. Lautenberg, and explaining that she was visiting in support of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, which was introduced by three House Democrats on Tuesday and is being championed in the Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California.

While Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, gave Ms. Drescher a polite greeting and chatted with her seriously about the goals of the safe-cosmetics legislation, other lawmakers, including Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, were visibly excited as they walked over to say hello.

“You know John McCain?” a senator asked, as Mr. McCain, the former Republican presidential nominee, headed quickly toward the chamber. Mr. McCain stopped short to shake Ms. Drescher’s hand. “He doesn’t use any cosmetics,” Mr. Lautenberg said.

Ms. Drescher, a survivor of uterine cancer and an active Democrat, is the author of a book, “Cancer Schmancer,” and the founder of a nonprofit group by the same name. Mr. Lautenberg, who at 86 is now the oldest member of the Senate, recently completed treatment for lymphoma of the stomach and announced that he was cancer-free.

“Let’s get carcinogens out of our daily lives,” Ms. Drescher said as she asked one senator after another if she could meet with them again to press for the bill.

“I think that’s great,” Ms. Collins said.

“I’m going to come visit you people,” Ms. Drescher warned, releasing her trademark growly laugh.

With her cackles echoing, Senator Tom Carper, Democrat of Delaware, came into the Reception Room with Senator Carte Goodwin, Democrat of West Virginia, who was sworn in just the day before as the temporary replacement for the late Senator Robert C. Byrd.

Mr. Carper and Mr. Goodwin walked past without paying much notice to the hubbub. But Mr. Udall, gesturing to the crowd, suggested that they go over and say hi. After exchanging pleasantries, Ms. Drescher congratulated Mr. Goodwin, who at age 36 is now the youngest senator, on his appointment and asked him how things were going.

Mr. Goodwin looked at the celebrity actress and replied, “It has been an interesting day.”

Richard G. Lugar of Indiana has become the second Republican senator to back President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

“I have concluded that Solicitor General Elena Kagan is clearly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court and that she has demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of court history and decisions,” Mr. Lugar said in a statement posted to his Web site Wednesday. “I believe that she has had a distinguished career in both education and public service and is well regarded by the legal community and her peers.”

Mr. Lugar is the first in his party to publicly pledge his support of Ms. Kagan since Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, joined the 12 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee in the vote to forward her nomination to the full Senate.

The full Senate will vote on the nomination before the summer recess, which begins Aug. 9. Here’s an account of how other Republicans are expected to vote.

Representative Shelley Moore Capito may not be running in this year’s special Senate election in West Virginia – but at least one of Gov. Joe Manchin III’s fellow Democrats is.

Ken Hechler, a 95-year-old former congressman and West Virginia secretary of state, has filed for the election scheduled to fill the seat long held by Robert C. Byrd. (For the record, Mr. Byrd was 92 when he died last month.)

A devoted opponent of mountaintop removal mining, Mr. Hechler was arrested – along with the actress Daryl Hannah, among others – at a protest of the method last year. “A vote for me is not a vote for Ken Hechler — it’s tantamount to a vote against mountaintop removal,” the candidate told The Charleston Daily Mail.

Mr. Hechler served nine terms after being elected to the House in 1958 –- the same year Mr. Byrd was elected to the Senate. He served from 1985 to 2001 as West Virginia’s secretary of state.

Ms. Capito, considered the Republicans’ best candidate for Mr. Byrd’s former seat, said this morning that she would not jump into the Senate race. Mr. Manchin, meanwhile, announced his candidacy on Tuesday and is favored to take the seat.

Members of the freshly minted House Tea Party Caucus spent their first official day trying to quash accusations that they represent a racist movement.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who leads the new Congressional group, introduced black and Hispanic Tea Partiers to counter the criticism.

One of them, Tito Muñoz, a Colombian immigrant who is the host of a Spanish-language conservative radio show, criticized lawmakers for dismissing the movement and its concerns.

“They have called us racists,” said Mr. Muñoz,  of Woodbridge, Va. “They have called us many names and they have insulted the Americans who are against big government and socialist policies. We do not want a socialist democracy. We want a constitutional republic back to the basics of how it was founded.”

Also at the caucus meeting was Ana Puig, who moved to the United States from Brazil in 1986.

“What I see going on is exactly what has taken place in Latin America under dictators such as Lula in Brazil and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela,” Ms. Puig said. “We are going down the same path, and it’s called 21st-century Marxism. We have to turn the tide around now, in 2010, by electing conservative candidates.”

Their words were echoed by a parade of white male House lawmakers — a collection of the first 28 members of the caucus.

“That should dispel an awful lot of the rumors about racism,” Representative Dan Burton of Indiana said. “We have people of all different backgrounds here today to talk about how they feel about American constitutional government and more taxes and less spending.”

At the same time, lawmakers tried to clarify exactly who they are — a tricky task when the Tea Party opposes big government and the caucus members work in the heart of it.

“We’re not the mouthpiece,” Representative Bachmann said. “We are not taking the Tea Party and controlling it from Washington, D.C. We are also not here to vouch for the Tea Party or to vouch for any Tea Party organizations or to vouch for any individual people or actions, or billboards or signs or anything of the Tea Party.”

“We are the receptacle,” she added.

Receptacle, not mouthpiece. Got it?

The group — made up of 28 House Republicans — is fairly predictable with one exception: Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina, one of three House Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for the financial regulatory overhaul that President Obama signed into law Wednesday morning. Ms. Bachmann said at least one Democrat was interested in joining the group.

The caucus will work against new taxes and government spending in an effort to keep activities of the federal government within “constitutional limits,” Ms. Bachmann said.

She would not elaborate on how the group would move forward; for instance, whether the Tea Party Caucus would offer legislation of its own or work collectively for or against bills put forward by either party.

The group includes three members of the Republican leadership, including Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee is leading the party’s effort to win back the House.

Now that the House leadership has approved the formation of the Tea Party Caucus, Ms. Bachmann had one last request for Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Can we use Skype? Please?

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican minority leader, said Wednesday that the nation was hungry for government to provide a check-and-balance on the administration, but he conceded that he did not know how the two parties would work together if Republicans won in November.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Representative John A. Boehner

“I have a good relationship with the president, but I don’t know which President Obama I’ll be dealing with,” Mr. Boehner said. “If it’s the one that I’ve dealt with over the last 18 months, while it’s been pleasant, none of the ideas that he’s asked us for, that we’ve provided, have they adopted. They’ve had a go-it-alone approach for 18 months.”

He added, “It’s really going to depend on the administration and what course they intend to follow. I have no idea at this point and for that matter, they probably don’t either.”

Mr. Boehner, whose ambition to become House Speaker rests on his party’s performance in the fall elections, said Congress needed to “break down the scar tissue” created from years of animosity between Republicans and Democrats. He acknowledged that his party shared the blame for the acrimony in Washington, but said lawmakers from both sides needed to learn how to be “legislators again.”

In a luncheon interview with reporters, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Boehner declined to outline the Republican agenda for the fall campaign or the next session of Congress. (That, he said, would come in September.) But he said that the Republican message would revolve around “a smaller, more accountable government.”

“It’s an uphill climb, but it is doable,” Mr. Boehner said of the party’s chances of winning the 39 seats needed to take control of the House from Democrats.

The dominating issue of the midterm elections, he said, was demonstrating to the American people which party would create jobs. Asked for three ways that Republicans would aim to stir job growth, he said: repealing the health care law, blocking cap-and-trade energy legislation and pledging not to raise taxes.

In a 40-minute interview, Mr. Boehner pledged to “run the House differently than it was run in the past.” He said bills would be posted on the Internet three days in advance of debate, so lawmakers could adequately study the legislation. He said he would open Rules Committee meetings and allow cameras inside, providing a greater sense of transparency and whittling away at what he called a secretive and closed system.

“This is not the Congress of old,” Mr. Boehner said.

Mr. Boehner, who has risen through the ranks of Republican leadership since being elected in 1990 from southwestern Ohio, said his goal was to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. He said he did not expect to be challenged by a fellow Republican for the post, but added: “It’s one thing to get elected at home, it’s another thing to get elected by your colleagues.”

He added with a laugh, “I could describe it in a lot of different ways, but I probably shouldn’t.”