S. 1 (text), the Senate ethics and lobbying bill (now in its second week on the floor), lies in a state of legislative limbo following the failure of a cloture vote, 51-46, late last night. Because S. 1 contains Senate rules changes, a two-thirds vote is required for cloture, rather than the usual 60 votes.

This afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee approved by voice vote the $8.3 billion "Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007," co-sponsored by Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA). The bill provides an array of tax breaks, mostly geared toward small business, and is basically offset with provisions that are principally aimed at corporations and wealthy individuals. (See JCT scoring for details).

Via TAPPED, the Washington Post reports today on budget choices at NASA. Money is being shifted out of programs that monitor climate change and hurricanes and into space exploration. The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.

David Cay Johnston, ace tax reporter, has an excellent story in today's NYT on the norms at IRS concerning audits. To sum up, IRS auditors are more or less discouraged to do thorough audits, letting billions of dollars get away when it's right in front of them. Top officials at the Internal Revenue Service are pushing agents to prematurely close audits of big companies with agreements to have them pay only a fraction of the additional taxes that could be collected, according to dozens of I.R.S. employees who say that the policy is costing the government billions of dollars a year.