The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged house of reps

House Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension

By | 05.28.10 | 1:53 pm

The House on Friday approved legislation to extend the filing deadline for emergency unemployment benefits through November. It does not create new benefits.

The vote was 215 to 204. The bill — which also extends a number of tax breaks set to expire shortly — now moves to More…

Dems Scale Back Unemployment Benefits Extension

By | 05.27.10 | 10:40 am

After hitting a wall of moderate Democrats wary of more deficit spending, House leaders on Wednesday scaled back their sweeping proposal to extend certain tax breaks and emergency unemployment benefits.

While most of the roughly $50 billion savings under the amended bill comes from More…

A Congressional Shout Out to Hemp History Week

By | 05.07.10 | 4:43 pm

Yesterday, to honor Hemp History Week (who knew?), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) used the occasion to promote his proposal to legalize the domestic production of industrial hemp, a genetic but non-psychoactive relative of marijuana. Paul’s sprawling speech touched on more topics surrounding the plant than you knew existed. More…

GOP Rep: We Can Catch Grasshoppers, Why Not Undocumented Immigrants?

By | 04.30.10 | 12:21 pm

Media Matter catches Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) on the House floor last night comparing the capture of undocumented aliens to that of exotic grasshoppers.

Now it seems to me that if we are so advanced with technology and manpower and competence that we can capture illegal grasshoppers from

More…

In Ohio, Dems Rip One of Their Own Over ‘Racist’ Remarks

By | 04.29.10 | 12:17 pm

The congressional race in Ohio’s second district is shaping up to be an odd one. And it’s not just because one Democratic candidate is a self-described “Reagan conservative” and another starred recently on “The Apprentice.”

With the Democratic primary just days away, state and local party leaders are ripping into More…

A Five-Year Medicare ‘Doc Fix’?

By | 04.28.10 | 6:56 pm

So hinted Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who told a crowd gathered this week for an annual meeting of the American Hospital Association that the House might soon introduce such a bill, CQ HealthBeat reports.

The political advantage of that move is clear: The American Medical Association has More…

Senate Passes Short-Term Unemployment Extension

By | 04.15.10 | 6:13 pm

The vote was 59 to 38 on final passage. Three Republicans — Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine) and George Voinovich (Ohio) — joined every voting Democrat in favor of the proposal.

The bill, which now moves to the House,* will provide a two-month cushion for unemployed workers to access More…

House Ethics Panel Proposes to Recognize Gay Marriage

By | 04.15.10 | 3:02 pm

Roll Call breaks the story:

The House ethics committee has drafted rules that for the first time would define gay married couples as “spouses” for the purposes of filling out their annual Congressional financial disclosure forms.

The proposed change is found in new draft instructions for those financial More…

Stupak Cites Passage of Health Reform as Reason for Retiring

By | 04.09.10 | 3:42 pm

Outgoing Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) met with reporters today just a few hours after the news leaked that the 18-year House veteran had decided to hang up his hat at the end of this year. After suffering a barrage of criticisms over his stand on abortion during the health care More…

Spratt in Early Stages of Parkinson’s

By | 03.31.10 | 12:09 pm

Via The Associated Press, Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee who just this week announced his intention to run for a 15th term, says that he’s in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. The symptoms, he told the AP, are “really more of More…