More common to the Senate, GOP obstruction spread to the House Thursday as Republicans blocked legislation to pay to care for those who have fallen ill due to their exposure to debris during the clean-up after the nation’s worst terrorist attack. The House voted 255 to 159 for H.R. 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, short of the two-thirds margin needed for passage for this bill. Some 155 Republicans voted against the legislation, which would provide...
Monthly Archives: July 2010
After Vote, Speaker Tells GOP: Stop Playing Politics With Border Security
The House Wednesday approved a standalone border-security spending bill in an attempt to overcome obstruction to an earlier attempt by Senate Republicans on a day when the issue of immigration was heating up. Lawmakers approved legislation authored by Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) which would fund 1,700 new Customs and Border Patrol agents and officers to go to the Southwest U.S. border to address ongoing threats from Mexican drug cartels and improve operations at U.S. ports of entry. Total funding...
Dems Slam Republican Senators For Hypocrisy Over DISCLOSE Act Filibuster
Angry Senate Democrats are calling out Republicans as hypocrites for obstructing a bill that would enhance the transparency of burgeoning special-interest spending on American elections. A united Senate GOP Tuesday mounted a successful filibuster of the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act, or DISCLOSE Act, which is intended to give Americans a window into the expected increase in corporate influence on elections coming as a result of the Supreme Court’s January Citizens United decision...
Pelosi Enlists ‘Most Eloquent, Persuasive Voices’ To Persuade GOP To Support Economic Aid
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a direct appeal Monday to state lawmakers to convince Republican senators to drop their obstruction of initiatives aimed at shoring up state and local economies nationwide. Senate Democrats repeatedly attempted to pass legislation to provide federal subsidies to help states struggling with dramatic losses in a tax revenue, which in turn, threatens economic recovery nationwide, according to analysts. Specific provisions include so-called FMAP funding to help states support their Medicaid health programs, legislation aimed...
Senator Asks: Why Should We Trust BP’s Damage Assessment?
The federal government is relying too heavily on BP to help assess the damage the company itself has caused during the monster oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to to a Senate subcommittee chairman. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) expressed his concern in a letter last week in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ahead of a hearing the lawmaker intends to hold Tuesday within the Senate Environment and Public Work Committee’s water and wildlife subcommittee which...
Shining the Light of The New Colossus Into Arizona
Two things are assured this coming week. One is that Arizona will do its best to put into practice its controversial anti-immigration bill. The other is that a federal district court will rule whether that law is constitutional. The Arizona law requires all law enforcement officials who stop anyone for any reason to determine if that person may be an illegal resident. If the person can’t produce documentation, the police are required to detain the individual and to notify...
The Pillars of the Earth: A Brief, Literary, Interlude
That was back in the days when the Kansas City Star still had a robust "Books" section, a remnant of a bygone, literate age...
Unemployment Benefits To Start Flowing Again, But Congress Left Some Economic Help Undone
Although unemployment benefits will once again start flowing to millions of jobless Americans, Congress failed to follow through on crucial pieces of their plans to aid the ailing economy. President Obama Thursday signed hard-fought legislation Thursday that extends the emergency unemployment compensation, or EUC, program and full federal funding of state extended benefits through November 27. Because the law is retroactive, eligible claimants now may be paid for weeks of unemployment after the previous law expired on June 5....
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