Congress

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Waters Helped Get Funds for Bank With Family Ties

Critics see major conflict of interest

(Newser) - Maxine Waters is getting lots of unwanted attention about her role in helping a bank with family ties get a helping of TARP money. Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have stories raising questions about whether the California congresswoman used undue influence to get aid for...

Lawmakers Sour on Governors Filling Senate Vacancies

Post-Blago, some push special elections

(Newser) - Soured by the taint of the Rod Blagojevich scandal on a US Senate seat, members of congressional judiciary subcommittees considered a Constitutional amendment that would fill interim vacancies in the body by election, rather than by gubernatorial appointment, the Washington Post reports. The selection by governors is “not only...

Dems Keep Distance From Possible 2nd Stimulus

GOP says talk of new bill is admission of failure

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi said this week “we have to keep the door open” to the possibility of a second stimulus bill—but most lawmakers, including fellow Democrats, are allergic to the idea, Politico reports. “If there’s appetite, there’s not in my office,” said one. “Enough...

TARP Manager: Let's Not Micromanage
TARP Manager: Let's Not Micromanage
Mar 11, 2009 3:15 PM CDT

TARP Manager: Let's Not Micromanage

Banks can't make bad loans for lending's sake, says Kashkari

(Newser) - Neel Kashkari, the man who manages the Troubled Asset Relief Program, doesn’t think the government ought to try to make decisions for the banks it helps, he told lawmakers today. “However well-intended, government officials are not positioned to make better commercial decisions than lenders,” he insisted. He...

GOP: Spare Us Stimulus Sequel

Republicans court Blue Dog Dems to fight further spending

(Newser) - Talk of a second stimulus proves the first one isn't working, Republican leaders said today in blasting the possibility. “We don't even know what was in the first stimulus yet,” one senator said, while Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that Congress had spent “$1 billion an hour”...

Obama Loses High-Level Intel Pick
Obama Loses High-Level
Intel Pick
Mar 10, 2009 7:26 PM CDT

Obama Loses High-Level Intel Pick

Freeman, criticized as anti-Israel, withdraws from NIC post

(Newser) - Relentless criticism has forced another of President Obama's high-level appointees to drop out, the Hill reports. Charles Freeman, in line to be head of the National Intelligence Council, drew strong opposition for perceived anti-Israel views and financial ties to Saudi and Chinese governments. Freeman dropped out just hours after his...

Senate Clears $410B Spending Bill

(Newser) - Senate Democrats tonight finally got the votes they needed to pass a $410 billion appropriations bill to keep the government running through September, Politico reports. The measure passed 62-35 over strenuous GOP arguments that it had too much pork for such dire times. President Obama is expected to sign the...

Pelosi Says Another Stimulus Is Possible

(Newser) - These days, $787 billion just doesn't go as far as it used to. A meeting of House Democratic leaders and their economic advisers today has raised the prospect of a second stimulus package, the Hill reports. “We have to keep the door open,” Nancy Pelosi said after the...

Earmarks? No, 'Crank' Mac Warrants Earplugs

(Newser) - Most also-ran candidates slip off quietly once the presidential campaign is over, and yet the media is still interested in what John McCain has to say. The attention is undeserved, Paul Waldman writes in the American Prospect. McCain’s signature issue, earmarks, is “as substantively empty as could be,...

Top Dem Dogs Ready to Retool Obama's Budget
Top Dem Dogs Ready to Retool Obama's Budget
ANALYSIS
Mar 10, 2009 10:00 AM CDT

Top Dem Dogs Ready to Retool Obama's Budget

Prez lets lawmakers take the lead—and they have their own ideas

(Newser) - To clear Congress, President Obama’s budget is going to have to survive committee turf wars and parochial interests—and that’s just the Democrats. The New York Times reports that key committee chairmen in the House and Senate have ideas of their own on health care, energy, and taxes....

Dems Hit With Revolt in the Ranks

Line-by-line lawmaking drives wedge into plans

(Newser) - Congressional Democrats figured Obama's aggressive legislative agenda would face challenges from the GOP, but they've been surprised by squabbling within their own party that's broken out even before they've gotten to the new initiatives, the Washington Post reports. Among the people holding up the $410 billion spending bill leftover from...

Event Planners Slam Kerry's Bank-Party Ban

Killing big bashes would zap jobs, complain critics

(Newser) - Event planners say Sen. John Kerry's legislative push to prevent bailed-out banks from throwing big bashes could end up bashing the economy even more, the New York Post reports. It could "hurt a lot of the people the government is trying to help," says an industry rep of...

Obama Stem Cell Order Won't Cover All Embryo Research

Stem cell order will not tell Congress to allow creation of new lines

(Newser) - Barack Obama is set to lift the Bush administration's restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but his announcement today won't cover all such experiments, the New York Times reports. The president's action will allow scientists to do research using existing stem cell lines, and those embryos left over...

Decisions Make Obama 'Abortion President': Rep

(Newser) - A Republican congressman who fiercely opposes abortion and embryonic stem-cell research has called Barack Obama the “abortion president” for decisions affecting both issues, Fox News reports. Obama will lift the federal ban on new stem-cell research along with a Bush edict allowing caregivers to refuse abortion on moral grounds....

'Dealmaker' Role Suits Reid
 
 'Dealmaker' Role Suits Reid 
profile
Mar 7, 2009 9:24 AM CST

'Dealmaker' Role Suits Reid

Under Obama, Majority Leader no longer needs to be attacker

(Newser) - When George Bush was boss, Harry Reid had to play attack dog—but with Barack Obama in office, the Senate majority leader has returned to a role more comfortable to him, writes Shailagh Murray in a Washington Post profile. These days, he’s a “dealmaker”—like Obama, he...

Limbaugh Predicts Kennedy's Death, to Outrage

(Newser) - A Democratic official rebuked Rush Limbaugh today for suggesting a health-care proposal will be named in memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer. On his radio show, Limbaugh said President Obama's proposed revisions will be championed by "the liberal lion Teddy Kennedy. Before it's all over,...

Obama to End Stem-Cell Ban Monday

(Newser) - President Obama will overturn the Bush administration’s ban on federal funding for stem-cell research Monday, Time reports. The move fulfills a campaign promise and Obama’s pledge to bring science back to the fore in America, and will precede legislation expected later this year preventing future presidents from banning...

Minn. Court Rejects Franken Bid to Be Seated

(Newser) - The Minnesota Supreme Court today rejected Democrat Al Franken's petition for an election certificate that would put him in the US Senate without waiting for a lawsuit to be resolved. Franken is ahead of Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes. Coleman's ongoing lawsuit argues some uncounted absentee ballots were wrongly...

Congress Passes Stopgap Bill to Avoid Shutdown

(Newser) - With a $410 billion catchall spending bill stalled in the Senate and a midnight deadline looming, Congress rushed through stopgap legislation today to keep the government running for another five days. With most Republicans denouncing the bill as too costly and a few Democrats opposing it as well, Majority Leader...

House Homeowner Bill Lets Judges Reset Mortgages

Measure would allow bankruptcy judges to ease mortgage terms

(Newser) - The House has passed a homeowner rescue bill over the strenuous objections of the financial industry that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages, the Washington Post reports. Judges could cut the principal on mortgages, extend terms and reduce interest rates under terms of the "cramdown"...

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