Page 7 - John Cornen News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

And you're looking live at the senate judiciary committee. that's jeff sessions of alabama, who is holding court right now. they are holding a hearing on a bill that could overhaul parts of the criminal justice system in this country. it's aimed at mandatory minimum laws, in reducing federal prison time for low-level drug offenders. it would also create new mandatory penalties for certain terrorism and domestic violence crimes. what's unusual about the bill is bipartisan support in a congress that rarely has members crossing party lines these days. republicans such as chuck grassley, and john ...

About this as an attack on women's health care or another war on women. this is how they're rolling it out today. they're saying they're making it clear they aren't taking away any dollars. no funding levels are going to change for women's health. they want to redirect the dollars that have been going to planned parenthood to other options, like community centers and hospitals. >> i want to make clear that there will be no reduction in overall federal funding available to support women's health. >> reporter: here's the thing. republicans will have to get 60 votes to actually move this bill for...

The bad weather across the country i is having a big impact on work in the nation's capital. a key senate vote was delayed until today after 17 lawmakers had travel problems yesterday. that vote scheduled for 10:30 a.m. eastern time, an hour from now. a vote tally shows it will be close. 55 democrats and four republicans back that. that's one vote shy of 60 votes needed for a filibuster. jim is in washington with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you could say this polar vortex has frozen the debate of extending the unemployment benefits for the jobless. last night, harry reid was...

The senate, john cornen went over to reid and said let's have a timeout. 17 senators couldn't make it to washington yesterday because of weather and travel delays. here's what the senator had to say. >> this is a serious issue. if this was anything other than a political exercise, we would have rescheduled the vote. >> the majority leader. >> i ask the vote be scheduled for tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. >> is there objection? >> without objection. >> reporter: so already a partisan fight in the nation's capital. they want budget cuts to off set the costs of extending benefits for roughly a million or s...

Heard congressman barton, somebody you have known and served with for years when you heard what he said yesterday. >> obviously, it caught me by surprise. at the same time, really, our focus at that point was on the ceo that we had in front of us who had been responsible for the activities on a rig that killed 11 americans. so, i got to say my focus was more on the business at hand. >> do you think congressman barton should resign? >> no, no. you know, any one of us are capable of making a statement that we really wish we could have back afterwards. this may be one of the times for joe barton....