Congress

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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,...

Blago Brother's Talk With Burris Fair Game for Inquiry

(Newser) - FBI recordings of a conversation between Sen. Roland Burris and the brother of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich can be released to the Senate Ethics Committee, a judge ruled today. The committee is investigating Burris’ appointment by the now-impeached governor, made after Blagojevich was indicted, the Hill reports. The...

Obama Already Throwing Weight for Midterms

Takes steps for Reid, Specter, Gillibrand 4 months into term

(Newser) - He’s been in office just a few months—but President Obama’s already working to get Democrats elected in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports. So far this month, Obama has urged a potential candidate to run in North Carolina, battled a primary threat to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, pledged...

Obama: Court Pick Will Go Beyond 'Ivory Tower' Smarts

(Newser) - President Obama said today he would be announcing his nominee to the Supreme Court “soon” and hopes to have the new justice confirmed by Congress’ August recess, Bloomberg reports. In a C-SPAN interview, Obama laid out his criteria, which includes not only “ivory tower learning” but also empathy....

New Foreclosure Legislation May Not Be Enough

Congressional aid to homeowners may need overhaul, not 'patches'

(Newser) - Congress’ Hope for Homeowners plan was aimed at fighting the foreclosure epidemic, and it’s been a success for exactly one person. Now, lawmakers have put “patches” on the legislation—but some worry the fixes aren’t going to do the job, ProPublica reports. Instead, it needs “some...

House OKs Credit Card Bill; Obama Up Next

(Newser) - Congress has sent President Obama a bill with sweeping new rules for the credit-card industry that will affect just about every American. The House approved the measure this afternoon, 361-64. The Senate OK'd it yesterday, 90-5. The new restrictions will protect debt-ridden consumers from many of the surprise charges common...

Pelosi's Stubbornness Turns CIA Smoke Into PR Fire

(Newser) - The CIA debacle engulfing Nancy Pelosi stems from two key mistakes on the part of the House speaker, Jay Newton-Small writes in Time. Pelosi’s dangerous belief that media training is “a waste of her time” was demonstrated when she walked away from her own press conference on the...

Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing
 Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing 
May 19, 2009 12:33 PM CDT

Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing

(Newser) - President Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January, a top Democratic official said today. With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official says Democrats will deny the Pentagon...

Republicans Slam Party-Purist Outfit

Club for Growth backs unelectable righties, say some in GOP

(Newser) - Some in the GOP have had it with the Club for Growth, an organization that identifies Republicans it deems weak on low-tax, small-government values, the Wall Street Journal reports. Party members argue that the Club backs Republicans too far right to win elections. “If their goal is to increase...

Sen. Byrd Hospitalized With 'Minor Infection'

91-year-old 'responding well' to antibiotics

(Newser) - Sen. Robert Byrd, at 91 the Senate's oldest and longest-serving member, has been hospitalized with a temperature spike reportedly caused by a “minor infection,” his office said today. “He is being treated with antibiotics, responding well, and is expected to be released from the hospital in a...

US Frets as Pakistan Rapidly Expands Nukes

Weapons program complicates Obama's Af-Pak strategy

(Newser) - Pakistan is rapidly building its nuclear arsenal even as it struggles to fight a growing insurgency, reports the New York Times. While Washington remains concerned about the security of Pakistan's 80 to 100 existing weapons, the country is producing uranium and on its way to manufacturing bomb-grade plutonium. US legislators...

CIA 'Briefed Truthfully' in '02: Panetta

(Newser) - CIA director Leon Panetta today denied Nancy Pelosi’s claim that the agency misled lawmakers in a 2002 briefing, the Hill reports. In a memo to employees, Panetta said “CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed.’...

Undivided Govt. Means Real Change; Hope We're Ready

If Dems get 60 seats, it will seem almost 'unnatural'

(Newser) - With Democrats seemingly about to take a filibuster-proof Senate majority, the US is finally going to see a government able to carry out campaign promises—which seems “almost unnatural” after ages of gridlock, writes Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post. “High-church moderates” claim a balance of power is...

Graham: CIA Didn't Tell Me About Waterboarding

Ex-senator's stance may help Pelosi

(Newser) - This could help Nancy Pelosi's case: Bob Graham, former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tells the Huffington Post and Plum Line that the CIA never told him about waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques in a 2002 briefing. Graham, a Democrat, also criticized the agency's records as "suspect....

Pelosi's CIA Charges Hardly Jibe With Obama Talk Points

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi’s accusation that the CIA lied to Congress about waterboarding will likely have broad political consequences, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post. In the short term, Pelosi has stolen President Obama’s thunder on credit-card reform and could force the early announcement of a Supreme Court nominee...

Pelosi: CIA Misled Me on Waterboarding

(Newser) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she was not complicit in the government’s decision to waterboard terrorist suspects, and she claimed the CIA misled her about whether the interrogation technique considered torture by many was being used. “To the contrary … we were told explicitly that waterboarding was...

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