Friday evening's vote by the Senate was a vital step in the government's reforms and came after three weeks of deliberations and the use of a controversial emergency constitutional measure to speed the bill through the upper house.
Since campaign reform has already passed the Senate in the form of a bill sponsored by Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold, approval of a comparable measure in the House, known as Shays-Meehan, can speed the bill into law.
Though the city has long lobbied for a speed camera bill, proposals have languished in Albany.
In last month's vote, the three senators he mentioned all supported the speed camera bill.
PB Announcing the high speed rail bill is more or less a formality – although conceivably a different government might have scrapped HS2, all major parties backed it.
manufacturers, however, proved a big sticking point that helped speed the bill's collapse, giving environmental advocates a rare victory against the Bush administration, which had made the energy legislation a main objective this year.
In an effort to speed the bill's passage, Senate Democrats had agreed to delay a broader effort to assist troubled homeowners by authorizing up to $300 billion in federally insured mortgages, enough to help as many as 1.5 million borrowers refinance expensive adjustable rate loans into more stable and affordable 30-year loans.
That vote, to give Barack Obama the authority to speed the bill through Congress, comes as the president's own supporters, senior economists and a host of activists have lobbied against a pact they argue will favor big business but harm US jobs, fail to secure better conditions for workers overseas and undermine free speech online.
Constructed by the Democratic-controlled Congress at warp speed, the bill aims to dispense an unprecedented three-quarters of a trillion dollars on immediate, short-term spending.
On Emanuel's Chicago speed cameras bill, signed into law by Gov. Quinn last week, both described the measure as one that would help protect public safety -- even as Cassidy admitted she was "initially very skeptical" of the bill.
