Per word confirmed by Senate Minority Leader Reid's office and via the apparent blogo-euphoric Dr. Frist, there now appear to be no current holds now on S. 2590... for now. Meanwhile, OMB Watch joined a broad spectrum of groups yesterday to promote S. 2590 at a Capitol Hill press conference. The Hill has an excellent piece on it today. Also take a look at the joint sign-on letter signed by 82 organizations in support of S. 2590 organized by the National Taxpayers Union and OMB Watch. The letter was sent to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) after the press conference yesterday.

We reported earlier last week that Congress had passed legislation that pushed some Medicare spending for this year into next year. Now the White House might get into the game, too. Budget guru Stan Collender has been hearing rumors that the White House might delay some spending from this fiscal year until the next.

In a must-read survey of the coming month’s Congressional agenda, the Wall Street Journal reports today that “House leaders are considering a pre-election bid to make permanent the $1,000 child tax credit and marriage penalty relief provisions enacted in 2001.’ Really? Tax cuts aimed at the middle class, from the Congress that has flogged estate tax repeal to the point of, well, death, that cannot pass extensions of the welfare-to-work credit and the college tuition deduction? This is deftly explained as follows:

Rebecca Carr of Cox Newspapers is reporting that West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has also had an annonymous hold on S. 2590 in addition to Sen. Stevens. I'm immediately inclined to wonder: Is this characteristic of Senators in their 80's? Unlikely. Here's an explanation from Byrd's press spokesman Tom Gavin for the Senator's hold: