Wednesday’s Political Roundup

The following is a roundup of political activity going on in Washington and across the nation. It’s courtesy of Scott Wilk, Community Organizer, and Anchor Consulting group. The Beacon will be posting these daily as they become available.

In the House:

• The House will convene at 10:00am for legislative business.
• Fifteen “One Minutes” Per Side
• Complete Consideration of the Conference Report on S.Con.Res. 13 – Setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2010, revising the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2011 through 2014 (Rep. Spratt – Budget)
• H.R. 1913 – Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (Rep. Conyers – Judiciary) (Subject to a Rule)
• Begin Consideration of H.R. 627 – Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 (Rep. Maloney – Financial Services)
• The Following votes will be considered under suspension:
  1. S. 735 – Protecting Incentives for the Adoption of Children with Special Needs Act of 2009 (Sen. Baucus – Ways and Means)
  2. H.Res. 337 – Supporting the observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month (Rep. Granger – Education and Labor)
  3. H.Res. 357 – Supporting the goals and ideals of Financial Literacy Month 2009 (Rep. Hinojosa – Financial Services)
  4. H.R. 46 – Family Self-Sufficiency Act of 2009 (Rep. Biggert – Financial Services)
  5. H.Res. 109 – Supporting the mission and goals of 2009 National Crime Victims’ Rights week to increase public awareness of the rights, needs, and concerns of victims and survivors of crime in the United States, and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (Rep. Costa – Judiciary)

• The House Appropriations Committee will hold the following subcommittee hearings today:
  1. Hearing – Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee
  2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 10:00 AM, 2359 Rayburn
  3. Hearing – Financial Services Subcommittee
  4. Federal Communications Commission, 10:00 AM, B-308 Rayburn
  5. Hearing – Legislative Branch Subcommittee
  6. Library of Congress and Open World Leadership Center, 1:30 PM, H-144 The Capitol

In the Senate:

• The Senate convenes at 9:30am.
• Morning Business for up to 1 hour with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the final 30 minutes.
• Following Morning Business, the Senate will begin the statutory debate with respect to the conference report to accompany S. Con. Res. 13, the concurrent resolution on the budget, notwithstanding the receipt of papers from the House. The Senate will proceed to the conference report when the Senate receives a Message from the House of Representatives.
• Under the statute, there are up to 10 hours for debate with respect to the Budget conference report. We hope to reach an agreement to vote in the afternoon/early evening, notwithstanding Rule 28. Rule 28 requires the conference report to be made public for at least 48 hours prior to action. If we are unable to waive Rule 28, the vote could occur as late as 11:15pm
• Sen. Arlen Specter switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party yesterday, saying, “I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania…I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.”
• Assuming that Democrat Al Franken maintains his lead in the Minnesota Senate race, this would bring Democrats to sixty seats in the Senate, enough votes to end any Republican filibuster.  For his part, Sen. Specter did say in his statement, “I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.”
• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is expected to replace Specter as the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Other News

• On a 65-31 vote, “Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as health and human services secretary as President Barack Obama held the Bible at a White House ceremony Tuesday night.” (Kansas City Star)
• Citigroup, Bank of America, and at least four more of the “19 largest U.S. banks require additional capital, according to preliminary results of government stress tests, people briefed on the matter said.” (Bloomberg)
• As cases of swine flu have now been reported not only here, but in “Canada, Israel, France, New Zealand, Costa Rica and South Korea,” President Obama sent a letter to Congress asking for $1.5 billion to combat the virus, seeking “‘maximum flexibility to allow us to address this emerging situation.’ The letter said the money could go toward stockpiling antiviral medicine, vaccine development, disease monitoring and diagnosis, and assisting international efforts to limit the spread of swine flu.” (LAT)
• Meanwhile, a “23-month-old child in Texas has died from…swine flu, becoming the first U.S. death from the virus, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said on Wednesday.” (Reuters)
• In an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley last night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained “her muted behavior during an initial classified briefing on enhanced interrogation procedures in 2002,” telling Crowley that CIA officials “said they weren’t going to use [waterboarding] and when they did they would come back to Congress to report to us on that.” (Politico)
• As expected, the White House rolled out its latest plan to help save homes from entering foreclosure, with the “federal government giving money to mortgage servicers when they lower homeowners’ monthly payments – and to borrowers when they keep paying their loans and don’t walk away.” (Time)
• The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the New York case of Cuomo v. the Clearing House Association, where “federal and state regulators have squared off over which part of the government should serve as the nation’s watchdog for national banks. The case began four years ago, when Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney general at the time, questioned why some national banks seemed to be making a disproportionate number of high-interest home mortgage loans to black and Hispanic borrowers.” (NYT)
• “During his first 100 days, Obama has moved quickly to strengthen the U.S. economy, refine the American strategy in two foreign wars and reverse Bush-era detention and interrogation policies that have drawn condemnation at home and abroad. But his first weeks in office have also showed a president who, rather than changing Washington, as he pledged during his historic campaign, was being changed by it.” (WaPo)
• President Obama said yesterday “that he doesn’t expect Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to ‘be a rubber stamp’ now that he is switching his political affiliation from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, and said he welcomes Specter’s “counsel and advice, especially when we disagree.” (WaPo)
• “Obama praised Specter for his work on health care, education, expanding America’s manufacturing base and medical research. Pointing out that Specter has battled multiple life-threatening diseases, Obama called the senator ‘one tough hombre.’” (AP)
• In a fundraising appeal e-mailed out last night, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele “went after Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter for having defected from the GOP and attacked Specter and his new allies in the Democratic Party.”  Steele said, “When Benedict Arnold defected to the British, George Washington didn’t fold the tent and give up.” (Salon)

Today in History

• On April 29, 2004, the National World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C., to thousands of visitors, providing what many believed was long-overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war.

Source and thanks to www.anchor-consult.com | For more information, contact Jamie Gregorian at 571-205-1393 or [email protected]