Blog - May 2009

Fewer and later than usual, here are today's leftover links on Congress: * The top 10 climate-change lobbyists. * Once again, the Senate fast-tracks electronic filing. We'll see. * An update on all those hundreds of climate change amendments. * Arlen backs Pelosi. * The House passed a bill to help veterans start businesses. * Harkin putting on the pressure for an EFCA compromise. * Pecora 2.0 is law. * What the Pecora 2.0 commission is instructed to investigate. Have a ...

The Senate voted today, 90-6, to take out $80 million from the Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental that was included for the Obama administration to manage the closing of the Guantanamo detention center and to prohibit any funds in the bill from being used to transfer detainees to the U.S. Click through for a list of the six senators that voted to keep the funds in the bill.

That guns-in-parks amendment that was attached to the credit card reform bill in the Senate isn't a done deal. Huffington Post: The House Rules Committee decided by voice vote Tuesday evening to split apart the credit card bill passed by the Senate Tuesday, slicing out an amendment added by Senate Republicans that would allow possession of firearms in National Parks. That gun amendment will be voted on separately and then will be recombined with the bill before it goes to the White House. ...

The credit card/guns in parks bill moves one step closer to law. More Democrats call out the CIA's memo on their 2002 torture briefings. Democrats give up on funding Guantanamo closure in the supplemental. And Sen Bunning calls Minority Leader McConnell "a control freak." That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

Over in the House Homeland Security Committee today Republicans used the relatively rare "resolution of inquiry" procedure to try to get documents from the Homeland Security Department related to their report issued last month, "Right-wing Extremism Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

Is Nancy Pelosi be susceptible to a congressional coup? Should environmentalists support the Waxman-Markley climate change bill even if it gets even more watered down? The Department of Justice releases a new report on wiretapping numbers. And Sen. Dodd takes up the unlikely cause of campaign finance reform. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

House Democrats introduced a gigantic cap-and-trade climate change bill to Congress last week and it's getting it's first big action TODAY. At 1 pm EST, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will begin the mark-up process. You can tune in to a live broadcast here. This committee work is where the most important tweaking takes generally place. Follow Congress Matters for mark-up liveblogging. Apparently, Republicans are planning on submitting 450 amendments during the markup. A lot of them lo...

Somebody - NYU Prof. Thomas F. Cooley to be exact - is taking the unpopular position of opposing Rep. Ron Paul's bill (H.R.1207) to bring some transparency to the Federal Reserve. Here's an excerpt from his, recent Forbes column:

Firearms

A new bill would require car companies to give owners the info they need to fix their own car. Cramdown dies in the House. An earmark investigation gains support. And Nancy Pelosi skips the talk shows to spend time with her family. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

Here's a new piece of legislation that combines the most loathed issue on OpenCongress, gun control, with one of most notorious examples of mismanaged bureaucracy in recent years. The No Fly, No Buy Act, which was introduced into Congress by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4] on May 13, would take all the names that appears on the TSA's No-Fly list and put them automatically into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database.

The House of Representatives approved billions more for the wars. Senator Specter suggests the Employee Free Choice Act is not totally dead. Senator Cornyn says he expects his co-senator to resign. And Minority Leader Boehner endorses the 72-hour rule. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

There were a few interesting votes in the Senate yesterday that are worth mentioning -- on gun rights, capping credit card interest rates and publicizing national debt data. All on amendments to the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009. Click through to see how your senators voted.

The Senate may or may not be considering a new tax on soda. Jimmy Carter warns Congress about the importance of energy independence. And gun rights mucks up the Senate's work on credit card reform. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

Looking at the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009, which is being debated right now in the Senate, I see that I missed something interesting in the voting from when the bill went through the House. The vote to pass the bill in the House was strongly bipartisan, with 82 percent voting in favor, including 105 Republicans. As I look back at the vote now, the thing that surprises me is that the Democrats were not unified in their support of the bill. A single Democrat voted against it -- Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin [D, SD-0].