Congress

Hold the Phone: House Passes FISA Sans Telecom Immunity

After weeks of threats, arguments and a secret session thrown in for good measure, the House on Friday passed a controversial bill to renew the administration's electronic surveillance program. Unlike the Senate-passed version, however, the lower-chamber's proposal would not give the phone companies amnesty for crimes they may have committed in cooperating with the program in past years without a judicial order. The House vote was 213 to 197.

 

House and Senate leaders now must meet to hash out the differences between the two bills. But as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) pointed out this afternoon, even Democrats don't believe the immunity language is likely to survive the process.

 

The White House has said that legal immunity is vital to entice the telecom industry to participate in the program in the future. Roughly 40 lawsuits have been filed against the companies on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and others who argue that the warrantless wiretapping program violates the Fourth Amendment. Despite the threat of those suits, however, all the companies have agreed recently to cooperate in the program.

If We Arm the Terrorists, Who Detains Us?

It's not often that Washington Republicans will go out of their way to attack the world's largest oil supplier and Bush administration ally, Saudi Arabia. But that's precisely what three GOP House members did yesterday in an attempt to prevent a planned $123 million arms sale to the strategically placed monarchy.

McCain Hesitant to Support GI Bill for Post-9/11 Vets

While Sen. John McCain is busy bolstering his friend-of-the-military image in the Middle East this week, Democratic Sen. Jim Webb is calling on the GOP presidential nominee to show similar troop support at home by endorsing a proposal to update the GI Bill, The Hill's Roxana Tiron reported today.

While 50 senators (including nine Republicans) have joined Webb in supporting the proposal, McCain has yet to do so, despite entreaties from Webb. Webb spokeswoman Kimberly Hunter said that having McCain on board would "bring more Republicans over to support the bill."

Michigan Democrats Staying Quiet On Primary Options

As Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) made headlines Thursday for floating the possibility of a Democratic primary do-over, Michigan's Democrats are approaching the topic with similar gravity but lighter steps.

 

Both Michigan and Florida bumped their Democratic primaries forward this year, and both suffered the wrath of the Democratic National Committee, which stripped them of their nominating convention delegates. Nelson responded Thursday with a letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, asking that either Florida's delegates be reinstated or the national party fund another primary election. If neither request is met, Nelson warned, the Democrats would run a greater risk of losing the state in November's presidential race.

On GI Bill, Obama Hopes to Draw Distinction from McCain

As presidential hopeful Barack Obama shifts his focus from the primary contest to the general election, he's trumpeting his support for a congressional proposal to extend education benefits to post-9/11 vets -- and reminding voters that the likely GOP nominee, John McCain, opposes the same plan.

'The Mind' Disturbs Peace of Mind in Minnesota Senate Race

The possibility that former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura could step into this year's tight Senate race is worrying state GOP officials, the Minnesota Monitor reported yesterday.

Ventura -- a former professional wrestler, sometime actor, sometime author, and all-around character -- is currently promoting a new book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." But he's made clear that he's satisfied with neither the incumbent, Sen. Norm Coleman (R), nor his challenger, former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken (D).

In an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on Monday, Ventura skewered both candidates as unfit for the job:

BLITZER: Let's talk about Minnesota, your home state. You were the governor of Minnesota. There's a very important Senate contest that's going to happen this year, Al Franken, the comedian, now a serious Democratic politician, vs. the incumbent, Norm Coleman. Who do you support?

A War, a Democracy and a Vice President

By Mike Lillis 03/24/2008

Lest anyone think that criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney's now-infamous contempt for public opinion surrounding the Iraq war is a partisan contrivance, former GOP congressman Mickey Edwards had a revealing piece in The Washington Post Saturday, arguing that executive branch recognition of public sentiment in wartime is not just in everyone's interest, it's also the administration's constitutional duty.

And on the Sixth Day, the Intelligence Programs Plunged Into Uncertainty

By Mike Lillis 02/22/2008 | 3 Comments

For House Democrats, who left Washington last week without acting on legislation to expand White House spying powers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has a few words of caution: The nation's intelligence programs, he wrote in a Feb. 22 letter (pdf here) to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), are now officially plunged into uncertainty due to your inaction.

Bush Budget Largely Irrelevant In Lame-duck Year

By Mike Lillis 02/04/2008

Bush kicked off the 2009 budget debate with a $3.1 trillion spending wish list that calls for significant hikes in military funding while scaling back on health care, environmental and low-income assistance programs.

Frank's 'Mea Culpa' Over Credit Card Waivers

By Mike Lillis 04/18/2008

A month ago we reported on the silencing of consumer witnesses scheduled to testify before a House subcommittee on credit card reform, charging that it was the GOP minority responsible for the gagging. Yesterday, at a hearing of the same subcommittee on the same topic, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) confused the issue a bit by announcing a "mea culpa" over the incident.

GOP Gags Witnesses on Credit Card Woes

By Mike Lillis 03/14/2008 | 14 Comments

Republicans on a consumer credit subcommittee required witnesses to waive privacy rights to their financial history before testifying about run-ins with credit card companies.

GOP May Push to Keep Abstinence Requirement in Africa AIDS Bill

By Mike Lillis 03/12/2008

Tomorrow morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet to mark up legislation providing roughly $50 billion over the next five years to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. Among the virtues of the bill, according to aid workers and clinicians, is the elimination of a current law requiring at least one-third of all federal AIDS prevention dollars to Africa to go toward abstinence programs.

In Chase v. Udall, the Company Responds

By Mike Lillis 04/25/2008

Yesterday, Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) accused banking giant JPMorgan Chase of violating a confidentiality agreement with one its customers, Susan Wones, who had come to Washington this month to testify on credit card reform. Our post ran in the afternoon before the company had responded.

Mail-In Vote to Cure Florida Primary Woes?

By Mike Lillis 03/11/2008

In the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) proposed what he calls a "practical" way to resolve his state's Democratic primary mess: A revote featuring mail-in ballots.

Pelosi Thumbs China's Eye With Praise for the Dalai Lama

By Mike Lillis 03/21/2008 | 3 Comments

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India,, today, praising the Tibetan spiritual leader for his courage and leadership in the face of Beijing's crackdown on recent anti-China protests in Tibet.

If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet we have lost all moral authority to speak on human rights anywhere in the world. The cause of Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world -- a challenge we can help meet...When we return home we will bring your message and try to meet the challenge to our conscience.

Pelosi to Panderers: Forget About Your Gas Tax Moratorium

By Mike Lillis 05/02/2008 | 1 Comment

As presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue to trumpet their summer gas tax moratorium plan as the savior of the American driver, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) yesterday put the brakes on the proposal:

Reassurer In Chief

By Mike Lillis 02/29/2008

In the face of figures revealing the economy's swirling somewhere near the pit of the latrine, President Bush took the podium yesterday to reassure Americans that their "uncertainty" is certainly temporary.

Rick Santorum and the Art of Racial Profiling

By Mike Lillis 03/12/2008 | 1 Comment

Remember Rick Santorum?
The former Pennsylvania senator, It Takes a Family author and one-time poster-boy for the conservative Christian movement appeared on Fox News yesterday with a few suggestions about how the Western World should go about identifying the terrorists in our midst. And here's a hint: It's got nothing to do with warrantless wiretapping.

 

From the transcript:

The Looming Medicare Crunch

By Mike Lillis 03/03/2008

The New York Times' Robert Pear has been covering health care policy for years, and today he's got a nice succinct piece about the trouble facing Medicare and Medicaid. It's not a pretty picture. As Pear points out, the cost of the two programs last year was $627 billion, constituting 23 percent of all federal spending. In a decade that dollar figure will double, representing 30 percent of the budget.

'New Definition of Lynching'

By Matthew Blake 02/13/2008

Pun of the day so far by Rep. Tom Davis (R-Virg.), regarding Rep. Stephen Lynch's (D-Mass.) questioning of Clemens. Davis said Lynch asked Clemons a bunch of unfair, complicated medical questions about an MRI report that strongly insinuates Clemens took steroids.