Congresspedia Review: This Week in Congress (July 20-26, 2008)

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In the last week in Congress, the major housing and mortgage crisis bill passed and is headed to President Bush, Republican senators blocked legislation targeting oil speculators because the bill failed to expand drilling, Republican representatives blocked a bill to bring down oil prices by tapping into the federal government's strategic reserve, and former representative and CIA director Porter Goss was appointed to the House's Office of Congressional Ethics, despite having resigned under a cloud of controversy surrounding the Duke Cunningham corruption case.

The biggest event of the week was the passage of the housing and mortgage crisis bill by the Senate on Saturday. The bill's major provisions include $4 billion in community block grants for local governments to purchase, rehabilitate and sell foreclosed homes; a program to help about 400,000 borrowers whose homes are worth less than their mortgage by offering government backing of their loan to the bank in exchange for a reduction in amount of the loan and high interest rates; and an unlimited backing of government sponsored mortgage resellers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The final bill was opposed by 13 Republicans in the Senate and 3/4 of those in the House, with most citing the cost of the bill, the unlimited line of credit from the Treasury to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the principle of bailing out irresponsible lenders and lendees. President Bush, however, dropped his veto threat after his requested backing of Fannie and Freddie was included in the bill, so it is almost certain to become law. It is unclear how much the bill will actually help the economy, with about 5.5 million homes forecast to go into default by the end of next year.

Though six former lawmakers were appointed to the recently formed Office of Congressional Ethics, ex intelligence director Porter Goss is the one making news. Goss, a Republican who once represented Florida’s 14th district in Congress, served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee between 1997 and 2005. He was then named the Director of Central Intelligence by President George W. Bush.

As outlined by the Sunlight Foundation’s Paul Blumenthal, when Goss took the position as DCI he promoted an associate, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, to be executive director. The promotion was done against the objections of senior staff at the intelligence agency.

Foggo was subsequently linked to Brent Wilkes, who bribed then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) for defense contracts. Cunningham is now in jail, after pleading guilty to federal bribery, fraud and tax evasion charges. Wilkes is also behind bars, serving a 12-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy. Meanwhile, Foggo remains indicted for his alleged role in the scandal.

Goss’s nomination to the Office of Congressional Ethics may be a problem for an entity that is already charged with being ineffective. The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has called the OCE "another layer of bureaucracy," and called out lawmakers for limiting the power of the new board.

Congressional Democrats were running into problems with energy legislation this week. Senate leaders called three cloture votes on a measure to end oil speculation – the latest cote was rebuffed this week. The bill (the Energy Markets Emergency Act of 2008), directs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to limit the speculation on the futures market for crude oil. Republicans wanted to amend the bill to allow a vote on off-shore drilling, and successfully blocked the overall bill.

In the House, Democrats failed in a bid to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The legislation was rushed to the floor, and therefore needed a two-thirds majority to prevent the addition of amendments. If approved, the legislation would have required the sale of 10-percent of light sweet crude oil — about 70 million barrels — contained in the stockpile. The proceeds would have been used to purchase cheaper heavy crude oil. Proponents said the oil released from the SPR would help ease supply constraints.

Finally, the House on Thursday passed a bill re-upping the funding for the global AIDS program to the tune of $48 billion. The Senate had previously rejected attempts by Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to dramatically cut the level of funding. Full details on those votes can be found on the bill's Congresspedia page.