U.S. Congress

TheWeekInCongress (March 19-23, 2007)

by Conor Kenny — March 23, 2007 - 4:35pm

Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

Capitol Hill was on center stage this past week, as Congress took on a number of high-profile issues. This week, as usual, we turn to Robert McElroy's TheWeekInCongress for a thorough look at the bills debated and passed since Monday. Follow the headlines below to the Congresspedia articles covering the respective issues, which in turn link to and heavily rely on McElroy's analyses.

The House narrowly passed a $124 billion supplemental appropriations bill which would require President Bush to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq by September 1, 2008.
The Senate approved a measure stripping the executive branch of its authority to appoint U.S. attorneys without the need for Senate confirmation. The right to do so had been granted through a provision in last year's reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act.
The House debated a bill to provide the District of Columbia with a voting member in the House, though it was stalled after Republicans attempted to attach a provision repealing the city’s handgun ban.
The House passed several bills increasing benefits for military veterans.
The House passed a bill directing federal funds to housing projects in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina and its aftereffects.

MoveOn Moves In With Pelosi

by John Stauber — March 23, 2007 - 2:33pm

Farhad Manjoo of Salon.com examines MoveOn's new role as power-broker for the Democratic Party. "MoveOn, which began with an e-mail petition opposing President Clinton's impeachment in 1998, has grown into one of the biggest and best-known netroots groups on the left. ...

Main Source:

Salon.com, March 23, 2007

Congress to consider spending bills calling for 2008 U.S. combat withdraw from Iraq

by Conor Kenny — March 22, 2007 - 4:30pm

Topics: Iraq, U.S. Congress, Politics, U.S. Government

With the Iraq War now in its fifth year, both the House and Senate are (for the first time) poised to consider supplemental appropriations bills which would call on President Bush to remove U.S. combat troops from the country by 2008. In the House, a vote is expected soon on a $124 billion spending bill which includes a binding provision demanding withdraw by September 2008.

Congressional Corruption Cases at Issue in Attorney Firings

by Conor Kenny — March 21, 2007 - 5:44pm

Topics: U.S. Congress, Politics, U.S. Government

Guest poster: Paul Blumenthal of the Sunlight Foundation:

The controversy around the firing of several U.S. attorneys in December has dominated the news coming out of Congress this week and Congresspedia’s staff and citizen editors have been busy tracking developments on our thorough page on the subject. Of central importance to the controversy is the issue of why those eight particular U.S. attorneys were fired. I’ve been looking into the analyses of the documents released by the Justice Department, and they show that the attorneys were at least partially judged by their willingness to toe-the-line — or, as one internal administration document put it, to be good “Bushies” — and were deemed expendable if they moved too far from administration priorities. In the case of some of the fired attorneys, it appears that the offense committed may have been their investigations into Republican officials, including members of Congress, in the lead-up to the 2006 congressional elections.

Here is a look at four of the attorneys at issue and their respective corruption investigations:

96% of MoveOn Members Did Not Show Support for the Pelosi Bill

by John Stauber — March 21, 2007 - 1:05pm

Topics: Activism, Iraq, U.S. Congress, Politics

(NOTE: See an update on this issue at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6081 )

On Sunday, March 18, Sheldon Rampton and I wrote "Iraq: Why Won't MoveOn Move Forward?", an article now widely circulated online.

Help Us Update the Contact Information of the Freshman Members of Congress

by Judith Siers-Poisson — March 21, 2007 - 9:04am

One of the key pieces of information on Congresspedia's member of Congress articles is the contact information for the member's district and Washington offices. This helps constituents know exactly where they can go to voice their opinions, deliver petitions or send letters. Congresspedia has all the phone numbers and addresses for the incumbents, but we need to update the pages of the freshman members, which now only list campaign offices.

Main Source:

Congresspedia

Sunshine Week: Shedding Light on Government

by Conor Kenny — March 20, 2007 - 6:05pm

Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

Last week was a busy one for our friends at the Sunlight Network as they celebrated Sunshine Week, which was created to promote policies of increased transparency in government. Sunlight Network National Director Zephyr Teachout gave us the following updates on the state of transparency in the federal government and the current legislative proposals for reform.

Congresspedia's "Congress in the News" updates, Feb. 8-Mar. 1, 2007

by Conor Kenny — March 20, 2007 - 1:08pm

Topics: Congresspedia News Updates, U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced his intention to seek the presidency in 2008. (Election Central story)
House Republicans announced that they would attempt to block a bill that would appoint Rep.

The "Friedman" Pundit Punt on the Iraq War Lives on in Congresspedia

by Conor Kenny — March 19, 2007 - 2:16pm

Topics: Iraq, U.S. Congress

Blogger Atrios lamented today that the Wikipedia entry for "Friedman (unit)" has been targeted for deletion through a merger into the "Atrios" article. A "Friedman", in the parlance of pundits and politicians discussing the Iraq War, is six months. Atrios coined the term on his blog to deal with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's constant invocation of "just six more months" to see how things were going in Iraq, something he began doing on November 30, 2003 and continued to do as late as May 11, 2006. While Friedman has lately moved on to saying that the U.S. should stay in Iraq for "10 months or 10 years," many government officials, pundits and politicians continue to move the goalposts on when it is acceptable to ascertain true progress in Iraq, and six months is an eerily common benchmark.

TheWeekInCongress (March 12-16, 2007)

by Conor Kenny — March 16, 2007 - 1:17pm

Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

This past week was an active one in both the House and Senate, as a number of legislative proposals were taken up on the floor. For a summary of the issues which were debated and considered, we at Congresspedia will again turn to TheWeekInCongress, a project by Robert McElroy. His site is a great resource for citizens wishing to keep track of what their members are up to on Capitol Hill, and we urge you to check it out.