Jul 05 2008 - The American
by Norman Ornstein
The expanded use of formal rules on Capitol Hill is unprecedented and is bringing government to its knees.
The slaughter last April of 32 people at Virginia Tech University by a mentally disturbed student using a variety of guns he had purchased brought about an unusual, quick consensus in the political arena: guns should not be in the hands of people who are mentally ill.
Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D–NY), whose husband was shot and killed on a commuter train by a deranged individual, quickly drafted a bill to provide grants to states to put more information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System of those individuals with criminal backgrounds and found by courts to pose a danger because of mental illness. The National Rifle Association endorsed the bill, as did the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. It passed the House unanimously in June, and seemed to be cruising toward enactment—a rare moment of cooperation not just between gun–oriented groups but across party lines in Congress.
Oct 09 2008 - Washington Times
Congressional Democrats are calling on the Bush administration to hold off implementing new rules that broaden the FBI's investigative authority until a new administration can approve them next year.
Oct 09 2008 - American Enterprise Institute
by Karlyn Bowman
My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, Norman Ornstein, along with Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, wrote a book in 2006 called The Broken Branch with the subtitle How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track. These two astute Congress–watchers blamed its parlous state on changes in the committee structure, more uniform and highly polarized parties driven by a permanent campaign, and less loyalty to the institution.
Theirs was an insider's, an institution builder's critique, but the public's outsider evaluation has been equally devastating. Congress' ratings have been low all year, but the latest ones are positively dismal. In a new September CBS News poll, just 15 percent approved of the way Congress is handling its job, the lowest reading ever recorded since CBS began asking the question in 1977. In a March survey by the Center on Congress at Indiana University, more than 60 percent gave Congress a "D" or "F" grade in all seven areas tested––including holding its members to high standards, carrying out effective oversight and conducting business in a careful, deliberate way. The public's judgment today is performance based and deeply negative. It hasn't always been that way.
Sep 29 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
WASHINGTON, (AP) ––House Democrats are refusing to back down in their fight with the Senate on tax policy, increasing the odds that Congress will adjourn without acting to shield millions of people from the alternative minimum tax.
Sep 27 2008 - Washington Times
A grade school metric system error cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars extra for the first purchase of carbon offsets for the House of Representatives' "Greening of the Capitol" initiative, a program designed to counter greenhouse gas emissions created on the government campus.
Sep 25 2008 - Washington Times
The House on Wednesday easily passed a $630 billion stopgap spending bill to continue funding the federal government into March that includes billions for the Pentagon and loans for the struggling U.S. auto industry.
Sep 25 2008 - Washington Times
There hasn't been such a ruckus since salsa surpassed ketchup as the condiment of choice in America. Tortilla sales now top sandwich bread sales across the nation, prompting Congress to declare September as "National Tortilla Month."
Sep 24 2008 - Seattle PI
WASHINGTON –– Democrats have decided to allow a quarter–century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months–long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4–a–gallon gasoline prices this summer.
Sep 24 2008 - Seattle PI
WASHINGTON –– The Senate passed a giant tax package Tuesday that saves more than 20 million taxpayers from the bite of the alternative minimum tax.
Sep 23 2008 - Washington Times
Key congressional lawmakers from both parties on Monday indicated that difficult and bitter negotiations over the financial system bailout could consume Capitol Hill well into next week, and Wall Street didn't respond kindly.
Sep 23 2008 - Washington Times
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged Congress on Tuesday to quickly pass a $700 billion financial bailout, warning that letting problems persist would have dire consequences for the national economy.
Sep 22 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
Washington –– Congressional Democrats on Sunday began to set their own terms for a plan to rescue the nation's financial institutions, including greater legislative oversight of the Treasury Department, more direct assistance for homeowners and limits on the pay of top executives whose firms seek help.
Sep 18 2008 - Washington Times
The federal agency that managed the bailout of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s and 1990s has emerged as the leading model to contain the fallout from Wall Street's current meltdown.
But while the Senate and House financial services committees plan hearings next week, top congressional Democrats say any major overhaul of the government's financial regulatory agencies will have to wait until next year.
Sep 17 2008 - Seattle PI
WASHINGTON –– The House has voted to allow oil drilling off the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree –– but only 50 or more miles out. Republicans called the bill a ruse, saying that's well beyond where most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil are located.
Sep 12 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
WASHINGTON (AP) ––Two months after the White House called a highway trust fund rescue plan a "gimmick" and threatened a presidential veto, President Bush is expected to sign legislation infusing $8 billion into the financially teetering fund that supports road and bridge projects around the country.
Sep 08 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
WASHINGTON (AP) ––Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has brain cancer, will not be on Capitol Hill this week when Congress returns from its summer break. He intends to work from his Massachusetts home this fall and return to the Senate in January.
Sep 08 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
ashington –– Congressional Democrats have scrapped plans for another vote on expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program, thus sparing Republicans from a politically difficult vote just weeks before elections this fall.
Sep 07 2008 - Washington Times
Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken is knocked as anti–worker.
Corporate America is mocked as being run by overpaid fat cats.
As organized labor and its Democratic allies push to change federal rules that would make it easier to unionize, they're squaring off with pro–business groups in one of the most aggressive and expensive ad wars of the election season.
Aug 08 2008 - Seattle PI
PHILADELPHIA – A senator demanded Thursday that the National Rifle Association respond to charges it placed a paid spy in gun–control organizations for more than a decade.
Aug 02 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
Washington –– A bipartisan group of U.S. senators seeking to end the energy wars raging in Congress unveiled new legislation Friday that would allow some offshore oil drilling but also would invest heavily in wind and solar power, electric vehicles and alternative fuels.
Aug 01 2008 - Washington Times
Capitol Hill Democrats are pushing for a second economic stimulus package this year, saying that rebate checks handed out to American households this year helped prevent the country from falling into a serious recession.
