Recap: Votes signify big step forward on small-business bill

The votes, as they occurred:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) amendment to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of jurisdiction over greenhouse gases was defeated 50-50.

Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) amendment to exempt farmers and small-business owners from EPA regulations was defeated 7-93.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) plan to delay further EPA climate rules on carbon emissions for two years was defeated 12-88.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) amendment to prevent regulation of greenhouse emissions from power plants and refineries for two years was defeated 7-93.

Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) amendment to ban millionaires from receiving unemployment benefits passed 100-0.

Coburn’s second amendment, to require the Office of Management and Budget to rescind $5 billion in duplicate spending identified in a recent Government Accounting Office report on duplication and wasteful spending, passed 64-36.

Sen. Daniel Inouye’s (D-Hawaii) alternative proposal to eliminate the same wasteful spending over a greater timer period and by a different procedure was defeated by a vote of 57-43.

The Senate recessed at 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday night and is scheduled to reconvene at 10 a.m. on Thursday.