Congress

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Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings Start July 13

Senate judiciary chair: it's a 'reasonable schedule'

(Newser) - Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will convene on July 13, says the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. Patrick Leahy said the date represents a "reasonable schedule" that would give committee members several more weeks to prepare. President Obama has urged the Senate to vote before it leaves...

Pentagon Drops Ball on Contractor Oversight: Report

Says tens of billions in contracts lack decent US supervision

(Newser) - Though US defense contracting has reached “unprecedented proportions” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department isn’t adequately monitoring the contracts, according to an independent watchdog. A report to be presented to Congress tomorrow says the government lacks central records showing the identities, activities, and pay of some 240,...

Treasury to Let 10 Banks Repay $68B in TARP Loans

(Newser) - The Treasury Department has given 10 banks—including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, American Express, and Capital One—permission to repay their TARP loans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The government will recoup $68 billion faster than anticipated, but the money won’t go back into the public coffers; Tim Geithner...

Report Seeks More Bank Stress Tests

First round may have underestimated unemployment

(Newser) - The US should run a second round of bank stress tests if it turns out the government was overly optimistic about the economy in the first round, says a report to be presented to Congress today. The Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the bailout, applauded the tests thus far, but...

Obama: I'm Wading Into Health Debate

(Newser) - Worried that his preferred health care fixes are losing ground, President Obama has decided to wade into the debate with speeches and town-hall-style meetings, the New York Times reports. Reversing his plan to leave health care up to Congress, Obama plans to push for broad principles, not policy points. But...

Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress
 Obama's Strategy: Play Nice 
 With Congress 
Analysis
Jun 6, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress

(Newser) - Barack Obama believes he has a big advantage when it comes to passing health care reform. Though he ran as an outsider, he’s “quietly but methodically assembled the most Congress-centric administration in modern history,” writes Matt Bai in the New York Times Magazine. Unlike Clinton, who rode...

Kennedy Floats Health Bill to Make Employers Pay

(Newser) - Employers would be required to offer health care to employees or pay a penalty, and all Americans would be guaranteed health insurance, under a draft bill being circulated today by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's health committee. The bill would provide subsidies to help poor people afford care, and give patients...

Dems Rip GOP for Sharing Interrogation Secrets

House Republicans go on record after closed-door briefing

(Newser) - Democrats are seething today after Republicans told the press about classified intelligence gleaned in a closed-door briefing about interrogation techniques. GOP members told the Hill they were informed that harsh techniques led to information that prevented terrorist attacks. That led Democrats to blast their rivals for disclosing secret information, triggering...

Black President, Sure; Alabama Governor? We'll See

(Newser) - In the post-Obama political landscape, a young congressman is attempting a feat perhaps more difficult than putting a black man in the White House, writes Robbie Brown in the New York Times. That would be putting a black man in the Alabama governor’s mansion. “Yes, it will be...

House to Post Expenses Online
 House to Post Expenses Online 
Jun 4, 2009 1:21 AM CDT

House to Post Expenses Online

Pelosi orders info on lawmakers' spending be made easier to access

(Newser) - The House is planning to put lists of lawmakers' expenses online in an effort to share more information with the public, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move, announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday, will give taxpayers easy access to details on lawmakers' expenses, which run up to $1....

Reagan Statue Unveiled on Hill

Bronze statue graces Capitol rotunda

(Newser) - An overjoyed and teary-eyed Nancy Reagan watched with delight as a bronze statue of her beloved late husband Ronald Reagan was unveiled at the US Capitol today. Reagan-era policymakers also looked on in the Capitol's Rotunda as blue cloth was pulled to reveal a 7-foot statue that casts the 40th...

Bernanke Sees Slow Recovery, Despite Positive Signs

Still hopes economy will grow by year's end

(Newser) - The US has a long way to go before the economy returns to full health, despite hopeful signs, Ben Bernanke told the House budget committee today. “Recovery will only gradually gain momentum and that economic slack will diminish slowly,” the Fed chairman said. With businesses cautious, “the...

Cheney Championed Interrogations Before Congress

Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy

(Newser) - Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post. The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture....

Universal Health Care Plan Looks Likely

Compromise bill may include an 'Orbitz for insurance'

(Newser) - Barack Obama's overhaul of the American health care system is quietly taking shape, and Democrats and Republicans both say a consensus plan looks likely. Politico reports on what the health reform bill, which must be passed by August, might look like: Guaranteed insurance for all Americans, who will probably be...

US Taxpayers, Too, Billed for Lawmakers' Cars, Cameras

Taxpayer groups criticize Congress for making expense info hard to get hold of

(Newser) - No moat-cleaning, but there were cameras, TVs, and fancy cars among the expenses members of Congress have charged to taxpayers recently, a Wall Street Journal investigation inspired by the British expenses scandal finds. House members are given up to $1.9 million a year and senators get up to $4....

Kennedy: An Outline for Health-Care Reform

Sen. offers 5 key elements of coming legislation

(Newser) - The US health-care system that “shortchanges millions of Americans” is “about to change,” writes Ted Kennedy in the Boston Globe. The senator lays out five key elements of legislation he’s working on with “colleagues on both sides of the aisle”:
  1. Americans will have “better
...

Pinning Burris for Perjury Difficult: Experts

Senator says he was just placating Blago brother in taped calls

(Newser) - Controversy surrounding Roland Burris' appointment to the Senate has heated up after the release of his conversations with Rod Blagojevich’s brother, taped by the FBI, but a criminal case against him is still iffy, Politico reports. The possibility of perjury charges over inconsistencies in Burris’ statements is slim, experts...

Hyperbolic Newt's Antics Highlight Desperate GOP

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich is back, and he’s here to stay. “It’s Gingrich time,” Paul Waldman writes for  the American Prospect. That’s not a good thing, for the Republicans or the country. “This is Newt's time again not only because there's a leadership vacuum in the...

Policymakers Float Federal Sales Tax Idea

American VAT long rejected as politically impossible policy

(Newser) - A federal sales tax has long been seen as politically off-limits, but the massive deficit has some in Washington pushing for it. “It's common to the rest of the world, and we don't have it,” a tax analyst tells the Washington Post. In dire times, “fundamental tax...

Congress Mulls Tighter Offshore Drilling Rules

Natural-gas firms currently exempt from clean-water laws

(Newser) - A bill pushed by Dick Cheney 4 years ago freed natural-gas drillers from clean-water laws, but pollution concerns are driving congressional Democrats to rethink the matter, ProPublica reports. They’ve drafted legislation that would end the natural-gas exemption and require drillers to reveal the chemicals they use in their work,...

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