Blog - Articles Tagged 'Kit Bond'

Chalk one up for enhanced congressional oversight of secret intelligence programs. In the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2010 that was passed under unanimous consent in the Senate on Monday night and is expected to go through the House of Representatives on Wednesday, there's a provision that would number of lawmakers who have to be informed about covert intelligence operations that the CIA is engaged in.

For a second time, the Senate is expected to vote on an $18 billion jobs bill known as the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment, or HIRE, Act (H.R.2847).

Has a new day dawned in the Senate? On Monday night, five Republicans helped to hand Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [D, NV] a big and much-needed victory by joining with Democrats on defeating a Republican filibuster of his $15 billion jobs bill. The bipartisan 62-30 vote came even after Reid scaled the bill back last week by removing some unrelated tax cuts, which were popular with Republicans, and an unemployment insurance extension, which is popular with everyone in Congress.

The requirement in the Democrats' health care bills that all individuals have some form of insurance coverage has become a prime target of Republican scorn. But, as NPR's Julie Rovner explains, the idea actually originated with Republicans and enjoyed broad bipartisan support until just recently.