Posts Tagged ‘House of Representatives’

House Passes $26 Billion Teachers Package

August 10th, 2010 by Nathan Curby

The House of Representatives reconvened from its recess for an emergency session to approve a $26 billion package of aid to states aimed at preventing teacher layoffs and helping to cover the cost of Medicaid.

Democrats claim that the bill is fully paid for by tax changes which they describe as closing a loophole that encourages American businesses to send jobs overseas, and say it will save the jobs of 300,000 teachers and other public servants. But Republicans argue that the bill is a bailout for teachers’ unions and states that have mismanaged their budgets, that the U.S. can’t afford to spend the money, and that the tax changes are just a costly tax raise on businesses.

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Congress Approves War Funding

July 28th, 2010 by Nathan Curby

Pray for safety, success, and mental and emotional strength for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a $58 billion measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite growing opposition to the wars among congressional Democrats. The House passed the Senate version of the war funding bill after the Senate rejected tens of billions of dollars in domestic initiatives that the House had included in its original version.

The measure received broad Republican support, with only 12 Republicans voting against it, but 102 Democrats opposed the bill, more than twice the number who voted against a similar measure last year. “What has changed in my mind is I am so discouraged at the chances of our commitment in Afghanistan succeeding that I think it’s time to say, no more,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).

The vote seemed to be unaffected by the Sunday release of 91,000 secret documents about the Afghanistan war. The documents, however, gave a voice to opponents of the war who say they paint a picture of a war that is rapidly deteriorating. President Obama argued that the documents did not introduce any new information to the debate,  and that they reinforce his decision to make a change in strategy, sending 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan. The bill passed Tuesday will partially go to pay for those new troops.

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Posted in Government & Law, Israel & Middle East, Military & Veterans, Obama & Biden | No Comments »

Senate Financial Reform Bill Headed for Vote

May 19th, 2010 by Nathan Curby

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a motion to limit debate on the financial regulation reform bill, setting up a final vote on the bill later this week.

Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT), the bill’s sponsor, submitted two significant amendments minutes before the deadline at noon on Tuesday. The amendments were aimed at bringing unity on the divisive issue of derivatives trading regulation. A key provision in the bill aims at bringing derivatives under federal oversight, forcing many banks to bring their billion-dollar derivatives business into compliance with new regulations.

Dodd’s amendments would postpone action on the regulations for a period of two years for their potential effects to be studied. The study would be done by a panel of regulators led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Members of the panel have expressed serious reservations about the regulations, and it may well kill them before they go into effect.

Dodd’s amendments have yet to be voted on. Only a handful of the 325 amendments proposed have reached a vote. The Senate unanimously approved an amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) aimed at ensuring U.S. taxpayer money is not used by the International Monetary Fund to bail out foreign governments such as Greece. Another amendment approved on Monday preserves the consumer protection power of the Federal Trade Commission, despite the bill’s creation of a new consumer protection agency.

The bill is supposed to prevent taxpayer money from being used to bail out financial institutions that are thought to be “too big to fail”–in other words, institutions so large that their collapse would have a dramatic negative impact on the whole economy. But the Wall Street Journal reports that despite assurances that the bill will end bailouts, investors are concerned that it will allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to provide 100 percent bailouts to its favorite institutions, while leaving others with severe losses.

The House passed its version of financial reform in December. If the Senate bill passes, it will then go to a joint committee to work out differences between the two bills.

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House Releases Bill for Health Care Vote

March 18th, 2010 by Nathan Curby

The House has posted its bill of revisions to the Senate health care bill on the House Rules Committee Web site. In voting on this 153-page bill, House members will also vote on a self-executing rule to deem the Senate bill as having passed. This bill would still have to pass the Senate, probably through the budget reconciliation process, in order for the amendments to the health care bill to be accepted as law.

The Rules Committee Web site also includes the text of the 2,409-page Senate health care bill, H.R. 3509. The House amendments deal mostly with changes to the distribution of funding within the bill. The Congressional Budget Office released a report earlier today stating the total cost for the package, including the House’s changes, would be $940 billion over 10 years. Democrats were elated since that number falls within the $1 trillion price tag they had estimated, and touted the package as a deficit-reduction measure.

The House will probably vote on the package on Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned for more analysis.

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Democrats to Use Procedural Tactic for Health Care Vote

March 16th, 2010 by Nathan Curby

Democratic leaders are likely to use a procedural tactic to try to pass the Senate health care bill through the House this week. By using a “self-executing rule,” the House would pass a bill with “fixes” to the Senate health care bill which would include a provision to consider the health care bill to have passed. This would theoretically satisfy Democrats who will only vote for the bill on the condition of certain changes, but are wary about waiting for the Senate to pass the changes through budget reconciliation.

The Washington Post reports:

It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.”It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know,” the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. “But I like it,” she said, “because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.”

Democratic leaders are crafting the language for the House bill to try to get a vote this week.

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