The Senate voted yesterday (twice) to keep low-wage workers in poverty.* The first vote was on a Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) plan to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour over two years. The measure was an amendment to the FY2007 Defense appropriations bill. The second vote to keep the minimum wage at the 1949 level** was on a Republican bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi’s (R-WY), and would have increased the minimum wage to $6.25 per hour.

Earlier this year we blogged (here and here) about a new program authorized by Congress to allow the IRS to outsource its tax collection to private collection agencies. This program has caught the wary eye of a few folks in Congress, most of all Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ). Rothman recently successfully lead the charge against this policy, blocking the IRS from spending money on the program in the FY 2007 Treasury-Transportation bill recently approved by the House. Now all that is necessary to stop the program is successful passage in the final appropriations bill later this year.

We previously blogged on an effort by Sens. Coburn and Obama (and Carper and McCain) to establish a comprehesive website the public could search for information on federal financial assistance, including federal contracts and grants, by Jan. 1, 2007. OMB Watch has circulated an endorsement letter for the legislation that currently has 32 organizations signed on. The National Taxpayers Union circulated their own endorsement letter, attracting additional support from conservative circles.

This morning’s Senate Budget Committee’s markup session on Judd Gregg’s (R-NH) Stop Over-Spending Act of 2006 saw more Republican hand wringing over the budget deficit, but not much more. Republican senators took turns this morning bemoaning the level of federal expenditures and how that spending has crated the huge deficits we now face.