Blog - June 2009

Following on their success in adding a gun-rights amendment to the credit card bill, Senate Republicans are working with several pro-gun gay groups on adding the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act to the hate-crimes bill.

The provision to block the FOIA disclosure of torture images has been dropped form the war supplemental. Congress may have passed up their chance to enact real financial regulatory reforms. Senator Grassley rocks Twitter. And people question whether cap-and-trade can take down mess up the economy. That and more and today's roundup of links on Congress.

Later this year, Congress will take a stab at reforming the financial regulatory system that pretty much failed to address any of the sketchy, unsustainable and fraudulent activities in banking that led to our current financial crisis. The House making an initial, small move this week to improve oversight at the regulatory agencies by helping their inspector generals remain objective and independent.

The Hill has obtained a discussion draft of the first section of Sen. Edward Kennedy's [D, MA] big health care bill that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning to begin work on this month. Download the 167-page .pdf here....

Behind the fairly long shadow cast by growing interest around immigration and continued interest in firearms legislation, here are a handful of bills that have been heating up this week for voters and viewers on OpenCongress. This analysis is based on information from the OpenCongress Battle Royale, which gives an overhead view of what bills, senators, representatives and issues are popular in Congress.

Earlier this week I wrote about a special provision that the Senate had stuck inside the Iraq/Afghanistan war funding supplemental to block, at the discretion of the Pentagon, the public release of photographs of detainee torture. Now liberal House Democrats are threatening to block the bill - and funding for the wars - unless the photo suppression provision is taken out.

More details emerge on Wall Streets investment in Washington. Fed Chariman Bernanke warns of giant deficits. Liberals spar over the value of "Buy American." And Cornyn comes and says flat out what we all suspected: the GOP can't filibuster Sotomayor. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress (and beyond).

A single vote in the House yesterday against "Recognizing and commending the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on its 75th year anniversary" (H.Res.421): Rep. Robert Berry [D, AR-1]...

For months, the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act held the number one most-viewed bill slot on OpenCongress. But all of a sudden two bills, both dealing with immigration issues, but from starkly different angles, have surpassed it. The Reuniting Families Act is now the most viewed bill on OpenCongress.

Sonia Stotomayor visits the Senate. Majority Leader Reid hopes he doesn't have to read any of her opinions. Obama names a Republican Representatives to a high-ranking Army position. And opposition to Conyers' radio royalties bill has become virtually unstoppable. That and more in today's roundup of links on Congress.

I highlighted this in yesterday's link roundup, but I think it deserves a bigger mention here. Salon's Glenn Greenwald found buried in the Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental funding bill a provision to override FOIA laws, retroactively, and block the public release of all torture photos. Here's an excerpt from his post, which was also posted to Boing Boing today: The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman - called The The Detainee P...

You would think that any talk of antitrust laws in Washington these days would have to do with too-big-to-fail banking. Not so. The Senate today is poised to take up legislation that would apply new antitrust rules to a different industry -- the railroads.

* In the supplemental: FOIA override for torture pics. * Next steps for the climate bill. * Sestak talks strategy. * Cash-for clunkers will get a vote this week. * Some Senate Dems wanted Clinton out. * Mapping the "King of Pork." * How the Burris transcipt got out. * Senate committee wants the rest of the Burris tapes. * Coburn will run again in 2010. * Senator Levin has seen the torture documents Cheney wants, says they prove nothing. Have a link to share? Send it ...

Should the TSA be able to see your whole body, underneath your clothes, as a primary means of airport security? That's the question Congress will tackle later this week when they vote on an amendment to the TSA authorization bill that would ban the use of whole body imaging technology unless another method, such as a metal detector, shows that it is necessary.