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Defense Authorization Battle Begins With White House Weakened It's been almost two months since the Senate last held votes on the Iraq war. Since then, pressure from the public to change U.S. policy in Iraq has steadily increased and Senate GOP defections have become a trend, but has the debate reached the tipping point yet? This week, the Senate will once again vote on a series of proposals to alter the U.S.'s policies in Iraq. But for any of the proposals to take effect, either th...

Which GOP senator is Next? "After the recent defection of prominent Republicans on the Iraq war, the big question in Washington is who might be next. More than a dozen Republican senators who are running for re-election next year head the list of lawmakers to watch. But others, too, have expressed concerns that the GOP has grown increasingly vulnerable on the issue. As the clock ticks toward Election Day, voter pressure is building against any lawmaker still standing with President Bush on th...

H.Res.333, Dennis Kucinich's [pictured at right] bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, has been extremely popular on OpenCongress. It became the most-viewed bill in April and has held that position ever since with 10,332 all-time views currently. Now, new polling results are confirming that it's popular with the general public as well. The question was: >Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney? Fi...

Health care reform is abuzz, in presidential politics, in the movies, and, most immediately, in Congress. It's perfect timing. The initial 10-year authorization of one of the government's biggest health care initiatives, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, is scheduled to run out on September 30th, and Congress has been working behind the scenes to reauthorize it. SCHIP is designed to provide health care for children whose families make too much money to receive Me...

Opponents of the Iraq war have been looking forward to the 2008 Defense Authorization bill since late May, when they failed to attach any meaningful provisions to end the war to the supplemental funding bill. When the Senate reconvenes on Monday, they will finally have at it. Congress Quarterly points out why lawmaker's who oppose the war are hopeful that they can do more with this bill: >In unveiling their new Iraq agenda, Democrats showed they are ready to renew the battle. By using the de...

As has been made abundantly clear in the first six months of the 110th Congress, the President holds an incredible power in his ability to block bills passed by Congress from becoming laws. The presidential veto is a tried-and-true part of the system of checks and balances. For the sake of fairness and democracy, Congress is given a chance to override a presidential veto if they have support from 2/3rds of their members. But President Bush has found a way to operate above this system of checks...

First, a quick note: Congress will not be in session this week -- they're on Independence Day recess until July 9th. One step Back to Habeas Corpus Before leaving for recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a favorable report on S.185, the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007. Having successfully gone through the committee process, the bill is ready to be considered by the full Senate at any time. Check out the committee's report for a summary of the bill, a cost estimate, and 33 ...

According to a Senate aide who spoke with The New York Times, it's a proposed tax increase for private equity and hedge fund managers. Actually, there are three separate, recently-introduced proposals in Congress to increase taxes for the managers of these investment funds. The tax-writing committees of Congress -- the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee -- seem serious about moving forward with the tax increases. They've already scheduled hearings on the proposals ...

With immigration reform shelved for the forseeable future, Congress is planning to turn its attention back to Iraq. At a press conference this afternoon, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Harry Reid (D-NV) announced the next stage in their plan to end the Iraq war. >Democratic leaders vowed Friday to keep up the pressure on President George W. Bush to end the Iraq war with more votes next month on withdrawing U.S. troops. > >House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wou...

Just after 11:30 am ET today, the Senate killed chances of passing President Bush's major immigration bill. (Pictured at right are Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) and Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), supporters of the bill.) The AP reports: The bill's supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate. More analysis coming soon h...

Supporters of the Senate immigration bill today successfully killed five of twenty-seven pending amendments before their spree was abruptly cut short by the sixth. The bill's supporters, a small, bipartisan group of senators who are being reluctantly assisted by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV), hoped to dispose of the 27 amendments quickly using a rare parliamentary procedure known as a "clay pigeon." This procedure sets up a limited number of amendments to be considered and, ideally, sh...

* The New York Times: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has blocked appointment of Senate conferees on the stalled lobbying bill, casting doubt on the future of the biggest overhaul of ethics and lobbying legislation in a dozen years." (h/t OMBWatch) More on the lobbying bill here (House version) and here (Senate version). * "the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon subpoenaed the Bush administration's family jewels: information on the origin and execution of President Bush...

Yesterday, 64 senators voted to clear a 60-vote hurdle and take up consideration of the immigration bill. Finding a similar amount of support to bring it to a final vote on passage will be more difficult. If at least 60 votes in favor are still there for that vote on Thursday, the bill will surely pass the Senate because the final vote on passage only requires a 51-vote majority. Before then, the Senate will consider twenty-seven amendments and finding enough votes for it then will be determin...

* The Employee Free Choice Act, the Democrats' big union bill for the 110th Congress, was killed in the Senate today. * "House Republicans are set to vote on a measure Tuesday afternoon rejecting the Senate immigration bill shortly after the upper chamber votes whether to proceed on that debate in yet another hurdle for backers of a comprehensive overhaul." - more at The Crypt. ...

Comprehensive immigration reform is officially back on the table. This afternoon, the Senate agreed by a vote of 46-35 to move forward once again with the immigration debate. They will debate a revised version of the immigration bill that died on a procedural vote on June 7th. The revised bill is numbered S.1639. It has all off the parts that people opposed in the previous bill -- namely a path to citizenship for current illegal immigrants and a temporary guestworker program -- with some ...