Blog - October 2008

Congress seems to be warming up to it a bit, but the public is still against the bailout bill - The Hill: >Voters calling their lawmakers on Thursday were getting busy signals as congressional phone lines jammed with callers voicing their opinions on the financial rescue package the House will vote on Friday. > >The Capitol switchboard and many members’ offices have been inundated with so many phone calls that multiple phone lines in many offices have reached their capacity. That means ma...

OpenCongress was named today in PC World's list of their five favorite sites to boost political awareness. Go check out the other great political sites they mention and become more politically aware than you are right now....

Here are links to all the key bills flying around in Congress right now surrounding the financial bailout, along with some places to take action and learn more.

H.R. 1424 - Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - is the bill that was amended to become the Senate version of the bailout bill that passed last night (Oct. 1st), 74-25. (It was previously known as the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007.) View roll call of the vote, news coverage, blog coverage. Read and comment on the text of the bill at Public Markup.

H.R. 3997 - was the previous version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that was rejected by the House, 228-205, on Sept. 29th. (Previously it was known as the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2007.) View roll call of votes, news coverage, blog coverage, or comments of this (defeated) bill at Public Markup.

For more analysis of the Senate version of the bailout bill and next steps as it goes to the House for a new vote tomorrow (Oct. 3rd), read our full blog post from yesterday, and tell Congress to Read the Bill First.

Barack Obama (D-IL) spoke in the Senate yesterday in favor of the financial systems bailout bill. If he's elected to the White House in November, this is very likely the last speech he will give as a United States Senator. Part 1: Part 2: ...