Click on Logo to Visit Our Website |
Congressional
Climate Bill Tracking |
|
Greetings!
Please enjoy today's issue of the Congressional Climate newsletter, brought to you by Keys to the Capitol! |
|
Today's Hill Action:
THE SENATE:
The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. ET and will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R.3183, Energy and Water Appropriations.
SENATE COMMITTEES:
House (Select) Intelligence (2:30 p.m.): Closed hearings to consider certain intelligence matters. S-407 .
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation (2:30 p.m.): Hearings to examine the nominations of Erroll G. Southers, of California, to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Patrick Gallagher, of Maryland, to be Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce, and Paul K. Martin, of Maryland, to be Inspector General, and Elizabeth M. Robinson, of Virginia, to be Chief Financial Officer, both of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. SR-253 .
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (10 a.m.): Hearings to examine domestic partner benefits. SD-342 .
Senate Foreign Relations (10 a.m.): Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection - Hearings to examine drought, flooding and refugees, focusing on the impacts of climate change. SD-419 .
Senate Finance (10 a.m.): Hearings to examine the nominations of Jim R. Esquea, of New York, to be Assistant Secretary for Legislation, Ellen Gloninger Murray, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary for Resources and Technology, and Bryan Hayes Samuels, of Illinois, to be Commissioner on Children, Youth, and Families, all of the Department of Health and Human Services. SD-215 .
Senate Judiciary (10 a.m.): Business meeting to consider S.448 and H.R.985, bills to maintain the free flow of information to the public by providing conditions for the federally compelled disclosure of information by certain persons connected with the news media, S.369, to prohibit brand name drug companies from compensating generic drug companies to delay the entry of a generic drug into the market, and S.379, to provide fair compensation to artists for use of their sound recordings, and the nominations of Jacqueline H. Nguyen and Dolly M. Gee, both to be a United States District Judge for the Central District of California, and Edward Milton Chen and Richard Seeborg, both to be a United States District Judge for the Northern District of California. SD-226 .
Senate Foreign Relations (2:30 p.m.): Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues - Hearings to examine United States international broadcasting into the war zones, focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan. SD-419 .
The House meets at 10:00 a.m and will consider the Conference Report on H.R. 2892, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010.
HOUSE COMMITTEES:
House Ways and Means (10 a.m.): Full Committee. On approval of the reconciliation letter to the House Budget Committee. 1100 LHOB..
House Veterans Affairs (10 a.m.): Health Subc. On identifying the causes of inappropriate billing practices by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dept. and public witnesses. 334 CHOB..
House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming (9:30 a.m.): Full Committee. On investigating a series of fraudulent letters that were sent to Congress on clean energy and climate legislation. Public witnesses. 210 CHOB..
House Natural Resources (10 a.m.): Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife Subc. On H.R. 3644 - Bay-Watershed Education and Training Regional Program and National Environmental Literacy Grant Program Act. Dept. and public witnesses. 1324 RHOB..
House Foreign Affairs (10 a.m.): Full Committee. On policies for Afghanistan. Public witnesses. 2172 RHOB..
House Energy and Commerce (10 a.m.): Full Committee. Markup of pending legislation. 2123 RHOB..
House Armed Services (8 a.m.): Defense Acquisition Reform Panel Subc. On the relationship between contractors and the Department of Defense. Dept. witnesses. 1310 LHOB..
House Energy and Commerce (1 p.m.): Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subc. On enhancing the prospects for success at the Minority Business Development Agency. 2322 RHOB..
House Energy and Commerce (1:30 p.m.): Oversight and Investigations Subc. On the problem of underinsurance. 2123 RHOB..
House Foreign Affairs (2 p.m.): Western Hemisphere Subc. Markup of H.R. 2134 - Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act, and on assessing the U.S. drug policy in the Americas. MC's and public witnesses. 2172 RHOB..
House Oversight and Government Reform (2 p.m.): Full Committee. Markup of H.R. 1506 - To provide that claims of the United States to certain documents relating to Franklin Delano Roosevelt shall be treated as waived and relinquished in certain circumstances, and several other commemorative resolutions. 2154 RHOB..
House Transportation and Infrastructure (10 a.m.): Full Committee. On the status of the Clean Water Act after 37 years. 2167 RHOB..
House Veterans' Affairs (2 p.m.): Economic Opportunity Subc. On a status report from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the implementation of the post-9/11 G.I. bill. Dept. witnesses. 334 CHOB.. |
House Votes to Allow Guantanamo Bay Prisoners Into United States:
The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to US soil for trial, boosting President Barack Obama's efforts to close the notorious facility.
The green light came in a 42.7-billion-dollar 2010 spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security, which cleared the House by a 307-114 margin, setting the stage for a political battle in the Senate.
Obama vowed on his second day in office to shutter the facility, a magnet for global criticism of US tactics in the "war on terrorism," by January 22, 2010, though White House aides say they face an uphill fight to keep that promise.
Of the roughly 220 people still held at the controversial prison camp, which then-president George W. Bush opened in January 2002, about 80 are waiting to be released and a further 60 are expected to be prosecuted.
The House-approved measure forbids the release of detainees at the US naval base in Cuba onto US soil, and requires a detailed assessment of the possible security risk before they can be brought to trial in the United States.
The assessment would have to include details of the dangers involved, steps to diminish the possible threat, the legal rationale for the transfer, and assurances to the governor of the receiving state that the individual poses little or no security risk.
The legislation also says the detainees cannot be sent to another country unless the president gives Congress the name of the detainee, the destination, a risk assessment, and the terms of a transfer.
The measure would also allow the Pentagon to block the release of photographs showing abuse of suspected terrorists in US custody.
The bill did not address whether the Obama administration can hold prisoners indefinitely without charge in the United States and left unclear what the fate would be of those who may be tried and acquitted.
The government team tasked with assessing the detainee cases has struggled to persuade other countries to take some of the captives, with only a trickle of prisoners -- some 27 -- transferred since Obama's inauguration in January.
Prosecution, even by a special system of military commissions created for that purpose by the US Congress, has been dogged by problems, including charges of evidence tainted by abuse, and criticized for allowing hearsay evidence.
Obama's Republican foes have opposed bringing detainees to US soil for trial or detention -- even if the detainees were contained alongside serial murderers and rapists in high security federal prisons.
US prisons already house a number of inmates convicted on terrorism charges, such as Al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the attacks of September 11, 2001, who is serving a life sentence in Colorado.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who says he favors closing the facility, has proposed legislation blocking trials on US soil for five Guantanamo detainees suspected of connections to the September 11th attacks.
KTC |
Senate Looking to Extend 8K First Time Home Buying Tax Credit: 
Hoping to keep the precarious economic recovery on track, the Senate is considering a plan to extend and expand a stimulus-package provision giving first-time homebuyers an $8,000 federal tax credit.
One idea now being discussed is to combine the homebuyers' credit with legislation, strongly backed by the Obama administration, to extend federal assistance to the millions of people in danger of exhausting their unemployment insurance benefits. That bill is likely to reach the Senate floor next week.
While the White House says there will not be a second stimulus package following the $787 billion economy booster enacted last February, extending the homebuyers' credit and unemployment benefits are among several primary means being pushed to help people get through the prolonged economic downturn.
Others include continued subsidies for laid-off workers trying to keep their health insurance and a proposal by President Barack Obama to provide seniors and others with a $250 payment to make up for the lack of a Social Security cost of living increase next year.
"There is a point in time when we owe it to our country, we owe it to our economy, we owe it to mainstream America, where we know we have a proven program that works, to extend it and buoy the marketplace," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who is sponsoring a homebuyers' credit extension with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
The stimulus-package credit allows first-time homebuyers to reduce their federal income taxes by 10 percent of the price of a home, up to a maximum of $8,000. It is set to expire Dec. 1.
The Isakson-Dodd proposal would extend the credit to June 30, 2010. It would also remove the first-time homebuyer requirement and raise the eligibility income limit to $150,000, or $300,000 for a couple.
The senators are trying to attach their proposal as an amendment to a Senate bill that would extend unemployment insurance benefits for the nearly 2 million jobless workers who are due to exhaust their benefits by the end of the year.
That bill would give an additional 14 weeks of benefits to jobless workers in all 50 states, and another six weeks on top of that to people in the 27 states where the unemployment rate is at or above 8.5 percent. The national unemployment rate is 9.8 percent.
Currently, a laid-off worker in a high unemployment state is entitled to up to 79 weeks of state and federal assistance. The average payment is about $300 a week. Supporters of the extension say it is necessary in an economy where 15 million unemployed are competing for 3 million jobs.
Senate Democratic leaders have not decided whether the homeowners' credit issue should be part of the unemployment bill. But there is powerful backing for taking it up in some form.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that she is looking into extending and expanding the popular tax credit, which according to IRS data has drawn more than 1.4 million applications from first-time homebuyers for houses in 2008 and 2009.
Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev., last month joined Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., John Ensign, R-Nev., Debby Stabenow, D-Mich., and Isakson in introducing a bill calling for a straight six-month extension of the tax credit.
One possible obstacle to the more ambitious Isakson-Dodd approach is the cost, about $16.7 billion according to the Joint Committee on Tax.
KTC |
|
Congress Moves to Soften Pakistan Opposition to Aid Package: 
Congress moved Wednesday to soften opposition in Pakistan to a U.S. aid package over conditions for receiving future assistance, including $7.5 billion for civilian reconstruction and job-creation projects over a five-year period.
The bill has already been approved by Congress and is at the White House awaiting President Obama's signature, so any changes to the legislation itself would be next to impossible.
Instead, Congress issued a joint explanatory statement explaining the legislative intent of the bill.
Following a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Sen. John Kerry, a co-author of the legislation, said the statement was issued "to set the record straight."
Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emphasized that the legislation in no way sought to "compromise Pakistan's sovereignty, impinge on Pakistan's national security interests, or micromanage any aspect of Pakistani military or civilian operations."
A Pakistani Embassy spokesman told The Washington Times that the explanatory statement "addresses concerns the government of Pakistan had with language used in the legislation." The spokesman asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The statement says that "no conditions" have been placed on the Pakistani government for delivery of the $7.5 billion - the distinction being that conditions are placed by Congress on the U.S. executive branch.
Mr. Qureshi returned to Washington after a high-profile visit to the U.S. capital last week - in which he praised the bill - to convey the Pakistani parliament's and military's anger over conditions in the legislation.
Pakistan's military is especially worried about conditions in the bill that link the flow of future aid to verifications that Pakistan is delivering in the war against the Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
In an interview with The Times last week, Mr. Qureshi insisted that these conditions reflected Pakistan's own policy.
The secretary of state is required to make periodic certifications of Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against militants.
Rep. Howard L. Berman, California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the statement was "a reflection of our desire to be long-term partners with the Pakistani people." Like Mr. Kerry, Mr. Berman is a co-author of the legislation.
House Foreign Affairs Committee spokeswoman Lynne Weil described as a "myth" claims circulating in Islamabad that the bill conditions assistance upon such factors as promotions of officers in the military.
The language in the bill reflects lawmakers' concerns that U.S. aid is used for the intended purpose.
"We are not in the habit of giving money for people to use as they choose," Senate Foreign Relations Committee spokesman Frederick Jones told The Washington Times.
In a July report for Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government - "U.S. Aid to Pakistan: U.S. Taxpayers Have Funded Pakistani Corruption" - author Azeem Ibrahim said, "it seems that Pakistan's military and security services have for many years been a black hole for U.S. funds."
The report covered the more than $10 billion in U.S. aid given to the administration of former President Pervez Musharraf.
The Harvard report found the Pakistani military did not use most of the funds to fight terrorism. Instead, Pakistan purchased conventional military equipment, including F-16 jets, anti-ship and anti-missile defense systems, and an air-defense radar system that cost $200 million, despite the fact that militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan have no air- or missile-attack capability.
Pakistani officials deny aid was misspent.
President Obama has until Friday to sign the bill, which Congress sent to him on Oct. 5. Under the Constitution, the bill automatically becomes law if the president does not either sign or veto it within 10 days.
KTC |
|
|
Until tomorrow,
Keys To The Capitol |
|
|
