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Sen. Shelby said he will vote against the confirmation of Fed Chairman Bernanke for a second term, as a Senate panel convened his confirmation hearing.

Two centrist senators, Ben Nelson and Joseph I. Lieberman, said that they were opposed the bill as it is currently written, particularly its inclusion of a new government-run insurance program.

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics has closed its inquiry into Roland Burris, clearing the Illinois lawmaker of any legal wrongdoing.

The United States would veto a Palestinian declaration of statehood in the United Nations Security Council, U.S. senators visiting Israel said Monday.

A proposed U.S. law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave would help stop the spread of swine flu and increase productivity, supporters argued on Tuesday.

Vice President Joe Biden's son, who has returned after serving a tour with the Army National Guard in Iraq, says he'll take his time to decide whether to seek his father's Senate seat.

A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders.

Reacting to an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) during the Senate Finance Committee's markup of health care reform legislation on Thursday, committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called his colleague a pawn of the health insurance industry.

"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment," said Rockefeller. "If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."

Paul G. Kirk Jr., the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will replace the late Ted Kennedy in the Senate until a special election is held in January, sources told FOX News.

Ambulances and fire trucks raced to the home of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He was taken to a hospital but has not been admitted.