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Ending a three-month-long standoff with the President, Congress on Thursday officially approved $95 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with no strings attached. Congress had already approved the funds once before, but with a timeline for troop withdrawal attached. That offer was vetoed by the President. This time they are providing the funds free of any timeline or other restrictions and the President, of course, will accept the offer. The AP: >Bowing to President Bush, th...

There is a lot of posturing going on over a seemingly simple vote that just went down in the House of Representatives. On the surface, the vote appears to simply set the rules under which consideration of the war-funding bill will take place. However, because of some complicated parliamentary maneuvering, the vote on the rule for consideration is far more significant than the vote on the funding bill itself -- it ensures that Congress will send President Bush all the war funds he requested with...

* "Today is the day House Democrats are expected to vote on Iraq - except, news out of Washington this morning says the leadership has come up with a nifty little trick to try to prevent the public from seeing who voted for giving Bush a blank check, and who voted against it." Full article at Sirotablog. * Surprise: Bush unhappy over U.S. attorney probe, says the probe was "Kind of being drug out." * "Under strong urging by Democratic leaders, the House on Thursday approved mandatory discl...

In an attempt to cover more Congressional news each day, I am going to be putting up daily posts that will be updated throughout the day with links to blog and news stories as they are breaking. * Monica Goodling, the former Director of Public Affairs for the United States Department of Justice, is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today. TPMmuckracker will be monitoring the testimony throughout the day, posting clips and updates. You can watch the testimony yourself on the...

The Senate's compromised immigration legislation was barely birthed from months of strained behind-the-scenes negotiations. Now that it is officially on the Senate floor, it faces another grim battle to actually be enacted and replace our current immigration policies. Dozens of amendments are likely to be proposed to the bill, some of them poison-pills which, if approved, would alter the bill in a way to ensure that, in the end, it would not get the 60 votes it needs to pass. The first of...

I got some stitches in my right hand last night so I am going to type as little as possible (and only with my left hand) so that it can heal a bit. Here is a quick list of links to keep you up to date: First and foremost, the Senate is beginning their debate of comprehensive immigration reform legislation today. The full text of the bill is not up yet on OpenCongress, but N.Z. Bear has it all here, complete with comments sidebars for each section of the bill. The OpenCongress page for the b...

It has been more than a day since the above line-up of senators emerged from their closed-door negotiations to announce that they had struck a deal on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Now that there has been some time to mull over the many facets of the deal, people are beginning to think strategy and take sides on how to proceed. Here is a taste of what is being said in the blogosphere: Greg Anrig, Jr. is categorically against the guest worker program that the bill proposes: ...

Effective inaction: >Democrats plan to let a federal abstinence-education program die quietly next month, demonstrating that pursuit of their legislative agenda can sometimes be passive. > >The authorization for Title V abstinence-education grants expires at the end of June, and those on both sides of the sex-education debate agree that the $50 million-a-year mandatory-spending program — which draws an additional $37.5 million match from the states — stands little chance of winning an e...

In todays markup of two ethics bills, the House Judiciary Committee swapped out a provision to double the current one-year ban on ex-lawmakers taking lobbying jobs right out of Congress in favor of a bill to require bundling disclosure. From subscription-only Congress Daily: >During a markup, Judiciary Chairman Conyers (pictured at right) offered a manager's amendment to a comprehensive lobbying and disclosure bill [H.R.2316] that would keep the one-year "cooling off" period that prohibi...

To the relief of all, a deal on immigration reform has been reached. At a lunchtime press conference, a group of senators who for months had been involved in tense closed-door negotiations announced they had finally settled on a comprehensive immigration reform bill to bring to the Senate floor next week. All parties involved -- Democrats, Republicans, and the President -- needed this agreement. The President and the Democrats in Congress are both looking to improve their low approval rating...

The Senate wants to get an Iraq bill sent off to the President as soon as possible. So, today, instead of spending time debating the bill, they voted on three Iraq-related amendments to serve as guides to conferees. The bill itself will be quickly approved tomorrow after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) offers an amendment that will express "our continuing support for our troops and will serve as a bipartisan vehicle that will allow us to move to conference." The conference committee, whic...

This is suspicious. Just a few days after the House of Representatives voted on an amendment to the 2008 Intelligence Authorization Act that states that the administration must comply with FISA in order to engage in wiretapping, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has begun pressing for Congress to pass a bill that would vastly expand the government's ability to legally eavesdrop on citizens. The bill that the administration is proposing, which they are calling the Intellectual Property Prote...

The ethics bill that was passed by senate Democrats as their first order of business in the majority is now facing an uphill battle in the House. A key provision in the bill -- one that, in fact, has been called "the defining issue of this bill" -- is being left out. Bundling, a lobbying technique wherein contributions are collected from individual donors by a lobbyist and then given to a lawmaker, may be allowed to remain a secretive practice. The Senate's bill would require that the ide...

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) announced on the Senate floor today that he is going to try to bring Russ Feingold's (D, WI) bill "to safely redeploy United States troops from Iraq" to a vote tomorrow. I say "try" because Republicans will almost certainly attempt to filibuster this vote which would force all senators to put themselves on record for or against ending the war in Iraq. The bill, which Reid is co-sponsoring, would require that troop withdrawal begins no later than 120 days afte...

Despite frequent attempts, the Democrats' November election campaigning can't accurately be narrowed down to one issue. The issues varied from race to race. Three issues, however, seem undeniably overarching and common to them all: changing the course of action in Iraq, restoring fiscal responsibility, and ending the "culture of corruption." Progress, however slow and gradual it may be, is being made on the first two issues. The Democrats are working on sending their second attempt at Iraq ...