"Cram-down" bankruptcy and mortgage reform being marked up in House Judiciary committee: Just yesterday came the final word that "cram-down" bankruptcy mortgage reform was not going to be in the stimulus package. However, the House is not wasting any time pushing it through as separate legislation, and it is already being marked up in the House Judiciary committee. No word on the chances of this legislation passing the Senate just yet, but the rapid turnaround in the fortunes of this legislation is welcome.
Broadband grants pass with Net Neutrality intact: There was a lot of worry in the media reform community that the new grants for broadband would happen only with a gutting of regulations on network neutrality. Fortunately, from what I have heard, this aspect of the stimulus appears to have passed through the committee markups in the House and Senate with the Net Neutrality regulations intact. There is still worry that the $6 billion for broadband in the stimulus will turn into corporate welfare, though. Tim Karr has more on this at the Huffington Post.
Timothy Geithner is confirmed as Treasury Secretary. By a vote of 60-34 in the Senate, Timothy Geithner has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary. Four members of the Democratic Senate caucus voted no: Robert Byrd, Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders. Feingold's no vote is surprising, as he rarely votes against Presidential appointees. Ten Republicans voted in favor of confirming Geithner. While I would have been fine with him being defeated, this is really a "meh."
John Conyers continues investigation of Bush administration. While discussion of investigation the Bush administration has often been couched in hypothetical terms, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers today showed that such investigations are currently ongoing. A few hours ago, Conyers subpoenaed Karl Rove, as part of an ongoing investigation of Karl Rove, former Attorney General Michael Mukaksey, former White House consul and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and former White House Cheif of Staff Josh Bolton that was actually written into the judiciary rules package. So much for hypotheticals, or for looking forward rather than back. Let the investigations continue!
In advance of tomorrow's action to try and push the DeFazio amendment to increase high-speed rail funding in the stimulus package, I was wondering if anyone had a list of legislative directors for Democratic members of the House Rules committee. For that matter, a complete list of House legislative directors would be extremely useful. The reason for this is that, as I am coming to understand it, citizen lobbying is far more effective if it is aimed at legislative directors rather than simply leaving comments with the front desks of congressional offices. It is worth noting that the Rules committee also appears to contain many progressives, and should be fertile ground for our action.
Lots of action in Capitol Hill, and also in the White House. Isn't it great to actually be governing? :)
We received word this afternoon that Rep. DeFazio's amendment that would have provided $2 billion in assistance to transit agencies was required to be withdrawn. We'll post more as we learn it, but had something to do with parliamentary issues.
If you called Rep. Slaughter on the Rules Committee today, we thank you very much for your support and effort to get that crucial funding included in the economic recovery package. (And we point out that calls to her should no longer be made.)
Frak. I didn't act fast enough on this one. Still learning about how these things work.
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