Update 2: On Thursday afternoon, the Senate followed the House in passing the spending bill, 51-46. It now goes to President Bush, who is expected to veto it.
Update: Late Wednesday night, the House passed the $124 billion supplemental spending bill which establishes timetables for a U.S. combat withdrawal from Iraq, 218-208.
Both the House and Senate are in full swing this week, with each expected to consider numerous bills and resolutions. Most notably, both chambers plan to vote on a supplemental spending bill which would provide $95 billion for the Iraq War, but also call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by Oct. 1, 2007 and set a non-binding goal of removing all troops by Apr. 1, 2008 (President Bush has promised to veto the bill if it passes). In addition to legislation, both the House and Senate are again planning to hold a number of important committee hearings. These include one by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee concerning the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, as well as a House Judiciary Committee hearing where the panel is expected to issue a subpoena and grant immunity to former Justice Department Director of Public Affairs Monica Goodling for her testimony regarding the U.S. attorney firings controversy. Here, courtesy of GovTrack, is a quick rundown of all of this week’s House and Senate hearings:
Rain and cold temperatures were not enough this past Monday (April 16) to deter residents of the District of Columbia (including newly-elected Mayor Adrian Fenty) from marching in support of long-awaited voting rights in Congress. An estimated crowd of 3,500 turned out for the largest gathering regarding the issue in decades, which featured a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol.
Our friends at Sunlight have been closely following S.223, a bill which would require senators to file their campaign finance reports in electronic form (as House members already do). The bill, sponsored by Sen.
U.S. Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes' remarks at the "Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy" opened on a militaristic note. "Looking around the room and seeing the quality and the scope of the talent represented here," she said, "I feel like reinforcements have arrived."
After a two-week recess, the House is back in session this week and ready to tackle a full legislative schedule, including a measure which would grant the District of Columbia a voting member in the House. The Senate plans to be active as well, and among other things will consider a bill (passed by the House in January) to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceuticals for Medicare recipients. In addition to legislation, the Senate is again planning to hold a number of important committee hearings, including the highly anticipated testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Judiciary Committee concerning his role in the U.S. attorney firings scandal. Here, courtesy of GovTrack, is a quick rundown of all of this week’s Senate hearings (the House doesn't have easily accessible committee schedules, something the folks at the OpenHouseProject are trying to fix):
With the House out of session this week, there was less news than usual to report from Capitol Hill. The Senate, however, did consider a number of important issues such as stem cell research and funding for federal intelligence agencies. For a thorough analysis of this action, we again turn to Robert McElroy’s TheWeekInCongress. His site is a great resource for citizens wishing to keep track of what their members are up to in Washington, and we urge you to check it out. Follow the headlines below to the Congresspedia articles covering the respective issues, which in turn link to and heavily rely on McElroy's analyses.
With the House out of session and the Senate tackling a lighter-than-usual legislative schedule this week, posting at Congresspedia has been light. There are, however, a number important committee hearings set to take place in the Senate that we wanted to bring to your attention. Here, courtesy of GovTrack, is a quick rundown of them:
While Congress has been out of session this past week, Democratic House Reps. Bob Brady (Pa.) and Chaka Fattah (Pa.) have been busy campaigning in the hopes of becoming Philadelphia’s next mayor. The primary will take place on May 15 and — given the city’s heavily Democratic lean (no Republican has been elected mayor since 1948) — is expected to effectively determine the outcome of the general election.
Guest Blogger: Paul Blumenthal of the Sunlight Foundation
For the past seven years Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) introduced a bill requiring Senators to file their reports of campaign contributions in an electronic format. Currently Senators file these reports on paper with the Secretary of the Senate who then transmits the reports to the Federal Election Commission where the reports are retyped back into computers. The process costs about $250,000 a year and means that a lot of campaign contributions to Senators are not available for public review prior to a November election. This year, Sen. Feingold’s bill, S. 223, finally made it out of committee.
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