Conor Kenny's News Articles

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (Nov. 10–16, 2007)

by Conor Kenny — November 13, 2007 - 11:29am
  • Topics: This Week In Congress

    • Bills, bills bills: The big order of business for Congress this week is to continue passing the federal budget for the 2008 fiscal year (which started on Oct. 30), including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The big farm bill and legislation aimed at the mortgage crisis are also on the front burner.

    Last week Congress sent the first two 2008 appropriation bills, on domestic and defense spending, to President Bush (twelve must eventually be passed). Congressional Democratic leaders abandoned plans several weeks ago to attach $50 billion in "bridge" funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (about 1/4 of the $196 billion Bush requested for 2008) to the Defense appropriation bill. They now plan to offer the same $50 billion in the Senate this week with language being tied to the money that would require the draw-down of combat forces within 2 weeks of passage, with a complete withdrawal complete by Dec. 15, 2008. If Republicans block that bill, Democratic leaders have vowed to make Bush pay for the wars out of the regular budget until they are allowed to pass such language.

    On the domestic side, the $151 billion budget for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services was vetoed, so Democrats will be working their Republican colleagues this week looking for enough votes to override. The House will be the battleground, since the roll-call there was several votes shy of a veto-proof majority.

    The $51 billion Transportation-HUD spending bill faces a similar fate: Bush has promised to veto it as well. Debate is expected to continue this week on the nine other remaining measures.

    Partisan differences over amendments offered on the 2007 farm bill will likely keep the measure off the Senate calendar again this week. Work on a new energy bill might relieve some of the pressure on the farm bill, since Sen. Energy Committee ranking member Pete Domenici wants to include alternate fuels language in whichever bill moves forward.

    Finally, with the stock market still feeling the effects of the housing credit crisis, lawmakers are working on a bill to place new regulations on lenders. The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007 would require lenders to prove borrowers could repay adjustable-rate mortgages, and increase the oversight responsibility of federal banking regulators.

    Have something to say about these bills? Each Congresspedia profile on members of Congress has phone numbers to their DC and Washington offices. Find your senator or representative and speak out.

    Click through the jump to a full listing of this week's committee schedules.

    Congresspedia Review: Last Week in Congress (Nov. 2–9, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — November 9, 2007 - 1:56pm

    This week saw two big battles between Congress and President Bush, over the nominated attorney general and a vetoed bill, with wins for each. The House approved a defense spending bill with 1/4 of the money Bush has requested for Iraq and Afghanistan for the year, with the rest to come after another vote, and a bill barring employers from discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation.

    Guest Post: Is This the Best We Can Do For Global Warming?

    by Conor Kenny — November 7, 2007 - 2:56pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, U.S. Congress

    • This is a guest post by Donny Shaw, who runs OpenCongress. A joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, OpenCongress lets you research, track, and understand legislation in Congress.

    (That's not a rhetorical question.)

    As expected, the Senate has chosen to move forward with the the most lenient global warming bill among the several it had to choose from. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner's (R-VA) cap-and-trade bill, the America's Climate Security Act of 2007 was marked up favorably by the Private Solutions to Global Warming Subcommittee by a vote of 4-3. It will now move to the full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for a vote before going to the Senate floor.

    The bill would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by about 63 percent below present levels by 2050 through setting limits on the emissions that manufacturers and utilities can release. It would also establish a carbon-trade market to encourage polluters to clean up their operation in the name of profit, but it contains loopholes that would give away many of the carbon credits instead of selling them at auction, thus severely weakening the incentives for reducing pollution. Another bill that has been competing for traction with Lieberman-Warner calls for mandatory reduction of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, closer to what many consider to be the scientific consensus as to what needs to be done to avoid the worst effects of global warming. And that bill would sell the carbon credit rather than give them away.

    Congresspedia Review: Last Week in Congress (Oct. 29 - Nov. 2, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — November 2, 2007 - 4:22pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Health, U.S. Government

    • Over the last week in Congress the effort to dramatically expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program hit another roadblock, several media reports on controversial earmarks were released, two members of Congress announced retirements and minor movement was seen on everything from an overhaul of the tax code to warrantless wiretapping and more Democratic investigations into Bush administration officials.

    Following the president's veto of the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the House last week passed a revised version designed to secure more votes from House Republicans. However, bill backers (almost all Democrats and a few dozen Republicans) failed to secure enough votes to override Bush's veto. This week, a bipartisan group of senators had been trying to find a compromise version of the bill with President Bush, but the deal broke apart on Thursday when Republicans forced a vote on the House version of the bill. The bill, while approved, fell 3 votes short of a veto-proof majority, leaving its future uncertain. Funding for SCHIP, which has already been extended past its Sept. 30 expiration, ends on Nov. 16, and the expansion bill's future is uncertain.

    How did your senators and representatives vote? This week's featured participatory project is to record their votes in their "permanent record" - their Congresspedia profiles. No special knowledge or expertise is necessary and it only takes a few minutes. Full instructions can be found on the project page.

    More details about the week in Congress are after the jump.

    Preview: Congress This Week (October 29-November 2, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — October 29, 2007 - 1:41pm
  • Topics: This Week In Congress, U.S. Congress

    • Looming debates over the 2008 Budget will take center stage this week, as Democrats prepare a $700 billion spending bill package for most of the discretionary budget. The package, containing such priorities as Defense, Veterans Affairs, Labor and HHS, could be hard for President Bush to veto. Several remaining budget bills might be placed in a second package, while others will see individual fights between Congress and the White House.

    In other business, the Senate will once again vote on the $35 billion SCHIP expansion. The House passed a revised version of the bill last week, amid Republican complaints that the vote was poorly timed while wildfires raged in California. House lawmakers will turn their attention to an overhaul of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which assists workers whose jobs move oversees.

    Here are the committee hearings scheduled for this week in Congress:

    Hearings Schedules:

    Preview: Congress This Week (Oct. 22-26, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — October 22, 2007 - 4:22pm
  • Topics: This Week In Congress, U.S. Congress

    • Here are the committee hearings scheduled for this week in Congress:

    Hearings Schedules:

    Preview: Congress This Week (October 8-12, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — October 9, 2007 - 2:49pm
  • Topics: This Week In Congress, U.S. Congress

    • Hearings Schedules:

    "Wiki the Vote" Project on Congresspedia Profiles Congressional Candidates in the 2008 Election

    by Conor Kenny — October 9, 2007 - 1:51pm
  • Topics: Citizen Journalism, U.S. Congress, Democracy

    • On Tuesday, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Sunlight Foundation launched a new collaborative, citizen-driven project on Congresspedia to build profiles on the hundreds of challengers for congressional seats, which will compliment the existing profiles on every member of Congress. The project is non-partisan and, in true open-source fashion, is free for anyone to participate -- even the candidates themselves.

    Even for official party nominees, information on challengers is usually woefully inadequate and information on primary challengers is often nearly non-existent. The explosion of citizen blogging in the last few years has created a wealth of individual opinions and perspectives, but what has been lacking is a central repository of collaboratively produced, in-depth and accurate information. The Wiki the Vote project, due to its easily editable wiki format, will be just that.

    Congresspedia Review: Last Week in Congress (Oct. 1 - 5, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — October 9, 2007 - 5:33am
  • Topics: Iraq, This Week In Congress, U.S. Congress

    • The big two issues in the 2008 elections - health care and the war - dominated the news out of the Capitol dome this week while (of course) more federal investigations into members of Congress slowly moved forward and yet another senate Republican announced his retirement.

    President Bush vetoed the significant expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but Democrats have vowed to pass it again, this time with a veto-proof majority.

    Preview: Congress This Week (October 1-5, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — October 1, 2007 - 4:58pm
  • Topics: This Week In Congress, U.S. Congress

    • The big issues this week include whether President Bush will carry through on his threat to veto the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion, which had broad support from Republicans in addition to all Democrats. Congressional Democrats are also likely this week to respond to Bush's request last week for an additional $42 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which brings 2008's total to $190 billion.

    For information on what's happening in the committees, see below for a full listing of committee hearings, courtesy of GovTrack.us.

    Hearings Schedules:

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