Washington Week

Senate Wounds ObamaCare
The Senate Democrats unknowingly outfoxed themselves on ObamaCare. When Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) didn’t have enough votes to pass the Omnibus appropriations bill Dec. 16, he removed it from Senate action. But in doing so, he, in effect, killed more than $1 billion in funding for ObamaCare. The immense year-end, pork-laden Omnibus Bill had $8.3 billion to pay for 6,714 Earmarks, according to a tabulation by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla). The hateful earmarks were such an embarrassment ...

Watching Too Closely
If Obama succeeds, as is now expected, in getting the New START Treaty ratified, he'll put a beautiful cap on a stunningly effective and productive Congress. It all started with the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and the bills just kept coming. One of the best was certainly the Credit Card Act of 2009. Where is the love for this awesome piece of Legislation? We are still celebrating the Repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, but don't forget that last year we were celebrating passage of the...

Sexual orientations ignored by lame-duck Democrats
The lame-duck Congress has now passed the Obama-endorsed Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" – by a vote of 250 to 175 in the House and 65 to 31 in the Senate. In the House, the 250 votes in favor of recruiting self-announced Homosexuals into our Armed Forces contrasted with 175 votes against it. When the newly elected House convenes next month – so many of those Democrats who voted for Repeal will be gone – having themselves been repealed by an overwhelming majority of the v...

Reid is gaga for Gaga
From Holly Bailey: Is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid secretly a Lady GaGa superfan? On Saturday, Reid twice messaged the pop star on Twitter — shortly before the Senate voted to Repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning gays from serving openly in the Military and immediately after. In fact, his first Twitter message after the vote was to Gaga, who had previously lobbied him and other senators via Twitter to overturn the Controversial policy. “We did ...

Cloture New Math
Until the relatively recent past, a Filibuster was a rarity. A Senator who opposed a pending bill or a nominee but did not feel that the issue was overwhelmingly important would vote for Cloture and then against the bill or nominee on the merits. As we have seen beginning some years ago but with greater frequency during the first two years of Pres. Obama's term, the threshold for a Filibuster has lowered to the point at which opposition to a bill or nominee almost automatically translates into o...

The Tea Party Shoots Down a Lame Duck
Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was forced to withdraw his almost 2,000-page omnibus spending bill. This bill would have cost Taxpayers more than $1.2 Trillion—or twelve hundred billion dollars....

Monday Briefing
START, DADT Repeal top the agenda in PressSec's session with reporters. "The White House believes that before Congress leaves town, the Senate will ratify the New START Treaty." Obama, Biden have been making calls to "communicate" with Senators on treaty. Repeal is "significant accomplishment" for those who thought, like Obama, that the law was "unjust." Get The Page delivered to your inbox. newsletter today!...

Food safety bill passes Senate again, clerical error nullifies earlier passage
In a surprise Sunday night vote, the Senate unanimously approved a Food Safety bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration greater authority in dealing with food contamination throughout the country. The Senate previously passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act on Nov. 30 by a 73-25 vote, but a clerical error that was found later meant it could not be signed into law. A portion of the bill that would impose fees on importers, farmers and food processors whose food was recalled bec...

Why we don't need lame-duck Congresses any more
The Washington Post looks at the history of the lame-duck sessions. The Twentieth Amendment set the date for when the new Congress needs to be called into session. That was ratified in 1933. There is even less need today to have a lame-duck Congress. All but a few seats are decided on Election Day. Give a couple of weeks for close Elections and the new Congress could be sworn in by Thanksgiving or maybe the following Monday. Sure it takes time for the new congressmen to get their staffs set up a...

Lawmaker seeks to block gays from Va. National Guard
Del. Robert G. Marshall says he will seek to bar gays from serving in the Virginia National Guard. The Republican lawmaker from Prince William County argues that the U.S. Senate vote to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. Military will weaken recruitment and increase pressure for a draft. "After 232 years of prohibiting active, open Homosexuals from enlisting in our military, President [Barack] Obama and a majority in Congress are conducting a social experime...

Quiet deal allows some of Obama's judge nominees to get through Senate
WASHINGTON — After a months-long Blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama's noncontroversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among the four is Goodwin Liu, a Law School dean seen as a potential future Supreme Court pick, whose current nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court...

Cuccinelli Supports Repeal Amendment
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch Cuccinelli Supports Repeal Amendment By: Jim Nolan Published: December 20, 2010 11:48 AM No surprise here, but Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has thrown his support behind an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution, which would allow two-thirds of the states to repeal any law or Regulation of Congress. Cuccinelli, a rising conservative star who has championed challenges to newly-enacted federal Health Care reform and EPA regulations on greenhouse gas emiss...

Chris Weigant: Thank You, Joe Lieberman
Both houses of Congress have now passed the bill which Repeals the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (DADT), which did not allow gay Americans to openly serve their country in Military uniform. President Obama has scheduled a signing ceremony for the repeal bill this Wednesday. While this is a significant achievement on the Civil Rights/Gay Rights front, it is also a significant political achievement. And one man stands out as the driving political force behind the successful effort to repeal thi...

So long, `don't ask, don't tell'
The U.S. Senate struck a blow for Equal Rights on Saturday by repealing the 17-year ban on gays and Lesbians serving openly in the Military. The 65-31 vote will make it much easier for untold numbers of men and women who want to serve their country to do just that without having to lie about their Sexual Orientation. On the same day, however, the Senate crushed the hopes of hundreds of thousands of Young People here illegally through no fault of their own. The DREAM Act, which would create a pat...

The Real Purpose of the Repeal Amendment
Originally proposed by a Georgetown Law Professor in 2009, the “Repeal Amendment” is getting a lot of press now.  Some have reacted to the idea as a right-wing plot to try to return us to the age of Slavery, but that is a severe misreading of what the Repeal Amendment idea is all about — restraining runaway Federal Government power. Both fed and reflected by a series of Supreme Court decisions over the last two decades, federalism — the idea that federal power is checke...

Senate Republican leader says he'll vote against New START
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) announced that Sunday he will vote against a new U.S.-Russia nuclear-arms accord, a move that could pressure other Republicans in what is likely to be a close vote at the end of Congress's lame-duck session. His statement came as Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the chamber's second-ranking Republican, also said he would not support the treaty unless it was amended. Supporters of the pact played down the announcements, saying they had not expected the backin...

Military will write the rules on repeal of gay ban
WASHINGTON – No public displays of affection. No separate bathrooms. No harassment and no special treatment. As the U.S. Military begins to map out how it will implement the new edict allowing gays to serve openly, the first order of business is drafting the regulations. The rule changes under discussion won't dictate how Troops feel about the change, but will strictly enforce how they act on it. From small wording tweaks and training programs to more complex questions about benefits and...

Lame Duck Wont Create Race-Based Government After All
Good news out of Congress this week (and by good news, I mean they didn’t screw things up any more than they already are):  The infamous Akaka Bill, which would create a “Native Hawaiian” government for purposes of racial preferences and other Unconstitutional goodies, will not be a part of the slimmed-down Legislation that funds the government until Congress gets around to passing an actual Budget.  (For background, see my op-eds here - for which I was att...

Massachusetts Liberal Scott Brown Announces Support For START Treaty
TPM: Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) today announced that he would both vote in favor of Cloture on the START Treaty and for its eventual passage, bucking GOP leadership. Many of his party’s leaders have been complaining that they haven’t had enough time to review the treaty, signed in April, and that last weekend’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal vote “poisoned” the Lame Duck session. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced earlier today that the Administrat...

Russian FM: No Changes to New START Treaty
In a statement which probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out that the New START Treaty, the product of months of tense negotiations with the Obama Administration, was not open for quick alterations. “It cannot be opened up and become the subject of new negotiations,” insisted Lavrov, in the wake of a flurry of last minute negotiations in the Lame Duck US Senate for ratification, in which several Senators have called for revisions...

Senate to review START treaty behind closed doors
Washington (CNN) -- The Senate is set to meet behind closed doors Monday -- in so-called "executive session" -- to resume consideration of the Controversial new nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Democratic leaders, who claim they have the votes necessary to ratify the accord, are pushing to get the agreement approved before the conclusion of the current lame-duck congressional session. Skeptical Senate Republicans, however, are continuing their efforts to push consideration of the trea...

Happy Hour Roundup
* Down to the wire: Obama personally lobbies GOP Senators by phone to support the New START Treaty in advance of tomorrow's Senate vote. * Republican Senators privately concede that New START will pass. If it does, that will stand as more vindication of the Dems' decis...

Obama and Senate Democrats push for ratification of START Treaty
President Obama and Senate Democrats are pushing for the ratification of the New START Treaty before Congress leaves Washington for the holidays. In his latest weekly address, which you can watch by clicking on the video accompanying this article, President Obama called the START Treaty an "urgent national priority." The President is not alone.  The New START Treaty with Russia is backed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush, former Democratic President Bill Clinton, all former Re...

GOP Senate leader won't vote for nuclear arms pact with Russia
Sen. Mitch McConnell says he fears that the START Treaty might hamper American Missile Defenses. WASHINGTON — The Senate's Republican leader said Sunday that he would oppose a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, complicating President Barack Obama's drive to secure a Foreign Policy victory in the final days of the post-election Congress. Democrats still expressed confidence the Senate would ratify the accord and pushed for a showdown vote early this week. The White House and Democrats are de...

DADT Repeal Is An Opportunity For Trans People
(An interesting take. Restrictions on open service by Transgender people aren't based in law but in policy, as will be the case again for gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals after the DADT "Repeal" Legislation is by the President. - promoted by Lurleen) I've seen a shocking amount of resentment coming from different quarters of the trans community over the repeal of DADT that to me is completely unjustified and destructively short sighted. I’ve seen accusations of the trans community being ...