This evening, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attached an amendment with funding to preserve teachers’ jobs and to provide much-needed Medicaid funding to states to a Federal Aviation Administration bill. The amendment is fully paid-for, and the FAA bill is just a vehicle. Reid filed cloture, meaning the More…
Yesterday evening, the House passed a stripped-down supplemental war funding bill, providing the administration with $59 billion for continuing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama is expected to sign the bill today. The vote was 308 to 114, with 148 Democrats and 160 Republicans in support and 102 More…
So much for stimulus.
Just before the July 4 congressional recess, the House passed a massive piece of legislation: a war-funding bill with billions in funding for domestic programs included, and a budget enforcement resolution attached. The bill moved on to the Senate, where Democrats hoped to preserve More…
This entire interview with Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), the head of the House Appropriations Committee and a powerful veteran member of Congress, who is retiring this year, is worth a read. But one passage is particularly striking. Obey is discussing his proposal to divert funds from the Obama administration’s More…
Economic realities like the widening wealth gap and growing income inequality aren’t terribly popular topics on Capitol Hill, where most lawmakers still prefer to spout claims that merit and hard work – not family wealth and connections — are the surest dictators of success in More…
Echoing the recent message from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters today that the middle of an employment crisis is no time to be slapping people with a new tax to fund the war in Afghanistan.
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Republicans are fuming at the thought, and some Democrats say it can’t pass in this stormy economic climate, but Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) today told CNN that a proposed war surtax is simply the fiscally responsible way to share the sacrifice of the country’s ongoing wars. More…
We ran a piece this morning examining some lawmakers’ concerns about the future of the $2 billion that was plucked from a renewable energy loan guarantee program to extend cash for clunkers.
But at least one lawmaker has no such worries. Not only will the $2 billion be More…
President Obama disappointed a lot of health care advocates earlier this year when, contrary to campaign vows, he declined to include in his budget the elimination of a decades-old ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, which have been shown to prevent blood-borne illnesses like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis More…
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