Cheer up. The Democrats in Congress have already done a lot.
Keep in mind, the mainstream media will not give the Democrats any credit. They are there to discourage the left, and it looks like they've done a terrific job.
Here are some recent headlines, just as a reminder. Links to the articles are at my website:
Senate passes ethics bill. In an 83 to 14 vote, the Senate today joined the House and passed legislation requiring that "lawmakers disclose more about their efforts to fund pet projects and raise money from lobbyists, a move some called the biggest advance in congressional ethics in decades."
House passes four bills to “to improve counseling and care for the tens of thousands of military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.” One “requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide outreach and mental health services to those who served in either campaign.”
House expands children’s health insurance program. The House defied a veto threat from President Bush today and passed SCHIP legislation that would give 6 million children health insurance, "while making deep cuts in federal payments to Medicare HMOs."
Congress Approves 'Massive' Bill Endorsed By 9/11 Commission
Karl Rove subpoenaed.
House bans permanent bases in Iraq.
House Democrats propose legislation that would make it harder for overseas companies to use tax havens to avoid taxes on U.S. profits.
House bans permanent bases in Iraq.
Contempt citations issued. In a 22-17 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved "a Resolution and Report Recommending to the House of Representatives that Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten be cited for Contempt of Congress."
Pelosi promises congressional contempt charge for Harriet Miers.
House Democrats Move To Intensify Battle With Bush Over Health Care
House passes the College Cost Reduction Act, which "would boost college financial aid by about $18 billion over the next five years and cut federal subsidies to lenders," the "single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill in 1944."
Today House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt requesting documents related to political interference with the work of the Office of the Surgeon General.
Sens. Leahy and Specter introduce amendment restoring the habeas corpus protections stripped as a result of last year’s Military Commissions Act. The legislation would restore basic civil liberties to roughly 12 million legal permanent residents of the United States.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is “expected to move swiftly to conduct hearings on the commutation."
Democrats Consider Plan to Cut Funding for Guantanamo Bay Prison, Forcing Its Closure
SENATE SUBPOENAS WHITE HOUSE, VP'S OFFICE
House Judiciary Committee To Hold Hearings On Bush Clemency Powers
Reacting to the Office of the Vice President’s assertion that it is not an “entity within the executive branch,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) announced that he will introduce an amendment to cut off funding to Cheney’s office.
House To Bush Admin: Comply With Subpoenas Or Face Contempt
Senate Judiciary Committee Issues Subpoenas For NSA Domestic Spying Documents
John Conyers (D-MI) announced the launch of a new web page, to respond to the growing number of current and former Justice Department career lawyers and other employees raising concerns about politicization in the Department.” The page “provides a secure method for DOJ employees to communicate what they know to Committee investigators.” See the page HERE.
Congress to investigate Bush’s signing statements.
Congress Passes Major Gun Control Legislation in over a decade, spurred by the Virginia Tech campus killings and buttressed by National Rifle Association help. The bill improves state reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to stop gun purchases by people, including criminals and those adjudicated as mentally ill.
Senior House Democrats threatened Thursday to issue subpoenas to obtain secret legal opinions” and other Justice Dept. documents related to the NSA’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, “the most aggressive action yet by Congress in its oversight of the…program.
Senate Judiciary Committee announced it was preparing to approve legislation to restore habeas corpus on Thursday.
House oversight committee is expanding its investigation “into ties between jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House
The House plans to trigger another veto showdown with President Bush this week by clearing legislation that would expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
The Senate Armed Services Commitee has passed legislation “that would grant new rights to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including access to a lawyer regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial.” It would also “narrow the definition of an enemy combatant and tighten restrictions on the types of evidence used to prosecute and keep a person detained.”
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have introduced the Healthy Families Act (HFA), which would guarantee that workers receive at least seven paid sick days each year. Tell Congress to support this legislation here.
House passes flag bill Bush opposed. Governors could order federal facilities to lower their flags to honor fallen military troops under legislation passed by the House Tuesday.
House Democratic leaders have decided to use their Honest Leadership and Open Government legislation from the 109th Congress as the basis for the lobbying reform bill that the House Judiciary Committee is expected to mark up this week. By doing so, the leaders are on a trajectory to meet key demands made by left-leaning advocacy groups favoring strong reform.
New union bill has the power to level playing field after conservative idealogues gutted workers' rights
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a measure Monday to force the Pentagon to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move the trials of Al Qaeda suspects to the United States.
Congress Probes Allegations Of Wrongdoing In Bush Reading Program
After more than a decade of government inaction, gay-rights proponents in Congress have gotten several major bills moving through the Democratic-controlled chambers, a development that could result in the greatest expansion of federal protections for gays and lesbians in US history.
Kucinich Officially Moves To Impeach Cheney
Congress To Pass Bill For October Troop Withdrawal
The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism.
House and Senate Democrats reached a deal Friday afternoon on a package of tax cuts that will accompany a $2.10-an-hour increase in the federal minimum wage.
The Democratic National Committee sued the Justice Department, demanding it turn over any e-mail traffic with the Republican Party on the U.S. attorneys controversy and criminal investigations.
House Democrats propose bill to give shareholders at public companies a formal say in executives' compensation packages.
The House yesterday passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against "identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks." It also makes it "easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit."
House to Begin Probe Into 2006 Florida Election
In the wake of a news report that the Election Assistance Commission altered its findings to overstate the pervasiveness of voter fraud, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today asked the Senate Rules and Administration Committee to look into the matter.
President Bush is threatening to veto a Senate intelligence bill that’s laced with provisions that would force the White House and spy agencies to be more responsive to Congress
Senate Passes Bill To Widen Stem Cell Research
Kucinich demands answers on $4 gas as domestic policy chairman
Congress To Probe Lynch, Tillman Misinformation
By 280 to 152, the Democratic-controlled House voted to require sponsors of the pet spending items to be publicly identified, a move that sponsors say will do away with some of the most egregious waste of the taxpayers' money.
A separate vote to reinstate the "pay as you go" rule
280 to 154. It requires that increases in spending on entitlement programs be offset by savings elsewhere, so as not to raise the budget deficit.
The new House rules bar members from taking gifts, meals or trips paid for by lobbyists, or the organizations that employ them. The rules also ban lawmakers from using corporate jets and reimbursing the owners.
House Democratic leaders prepare legislation that would permanently shift the tax burden from the have-nots back to the have-mores.
Dems Call For Investigation Into Bush Appointment Of Swift Boat Donor
“The Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News it has launched an investigation into General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan, probing concerns she may have violated a ban against conducting partisan political activity at government expense by participating in a meeting featuring a presentation by a White House political aide on GOP election strategy.”
Waxman To RNC: Turn Over Your Emails
House Bill Will Bring Back Paper Ballots
Nearly five months after Florida Republican Vern Buchanan narrowly defeated Democrat Christine Jennings in the state’s 13th District, a congressional committee has organized a task force to investigate the controversial election.
Dems Pass Bill To Bring Troops Home In 2008
Another criminal investigation has begun in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where two elections officials were found to have rigged the 2004 Presidential Election recount.
FDA to enact rules to prevent experts with ties to drug industry from advising the FDA
The House Administration Committee will convene a special task force to look into the ongoing controversy of Florida's 13th district congressional race
The Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, a bill aimed at “making immediate improvements in the treatment…of wounded combat veterans passed the House Armed Services Committee by a 59-0 vote Tuesday.”
Senate Cancels Bush Admin Power To Unilaterally Name US Attorneys…
Rep. Jane Harman introduced a bill to require all light bulbs produced or used in the U.S. to meet current fluorescent bulb standards (60 lumens per watt) by 2012, 90 lumens by 2016, and 120 by 2020.
Top White House Staff May Face Subpoenas
Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio has hired an avowed critic of Israel to work on his subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Congress Investigates Plush VIP Ward At Walter Reed.
This week, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) introduced legislation to provide health care coverage to all children. The Children’s Health First Act would boost spending on SCHIP by $50 billion and encourage states to cover all children with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level.”
“Buried in the $124 billion House version of the wartime supplemental appropriation is an order to the Defense Department to release a report on the April 2004 death in Afghanistan of Army Spc. Patrick Tillman,” whose death by friendly fire Army leaders tried to cover up.
Yesterday, the “House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a measure that barred the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.”
A bill granting Washington, D.C. “its first full-fledged seat in the House of Representatives passed the Judiciary Committee yesterday, clearing the final hurdle before a vote by the entire House, expected next week.”
Democrats to open hearings on CIA leak on Friday. The Star Witness Will be Valerie Plame.
The Federal Communications Commission drew an ultimatum from the House Energy and Commerce Committee telecom panel: Return to your traditional role of consumer protection or else. "When the FCC loses sight of its proper role, consumers suffer," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., told FCC commissioners at a hearing Tuesday.
A Democratic plan to require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq passed its first test on Thursday as the House Appropriations Committee voted to endorse the proposal, overcoming Republican opposition.
Under attack for improprieties uncovered in its showcase literacy program for low-income children, the Department of Education will convene an outside advisory committee to oversee the program, known as Reading First, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday. Facing tough questions at a hearing before a Senate subcommittee considering appropriations for the Bush administration's signature education law, known as No Child Left Behind, Ms. Spellings also promised to clean up the reading program in other ways.
The two election workers from Cuyahoga Co. Ohio who rigged the 2004 recount were each sentenced to 18 months in prison and the judge stated that he felt they were not telling the whole story and that they were covering for someone.
A new bill requiring the mandatory disclosure of donations to presidential libraries has made its way out of committee and is headed for the House floor.
The House passed three bills that would “roll back administration efforts to shield its workings from public view.” The measures would “streamline access to records in presidential libraries, expand safeguards for government whistle-blowers, and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”
Bush's prosecutor power grab is backfiring.
Leahy Says He'll Subpoena Rove, Discusses Potential Crimes
The Senate voted 60-38 to approve legislation “to implement many of the remaining reforms suggested by the Sept. 11 commission.”
Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.
The Chairman of the House's Oversight and Government Reform Committee has sent 11 letters to Condi Rice requesting info on the fraudulent Niger/uranium claims.
House approves bill spending $1.7 billion over five years for cleaner water. White House, forgetting the $9 billion a month spent in Iraq, says the cost is too high.
Hillary Clinton calls for GI Bill Of Rights.
Democrats add billions of dollars to Iraq war budget, earmarked for medical care, housing, and training.
"The House of Representatives voted today to create a new congressional committee, devoted solely to addressing the issue of global warming. Legislation creating the new ‘Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming' passed 269 to 150, with 44 Republicans voting in favor of its creation."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other senators met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this afternoon. According to Schumer, Gonzales said the White House will not oppose reversing the PATRIOT Act provision that allows U.S. Attorneys to be installed without Senate approval.
"thanks to voter outrage and a one-year moratorium imposed by Democrats after taking over Congress," the "number and cost of pork-barrel projects is way down" after years of record pork-barrel spending.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman announced he will hold a hearing on whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson
Dems Push Legislation To Withdraw Troops By Fall '08
Senator Byron Dorgan introducing legislation compelling George W. Bush to actually go after Osama bin Laden
Senate Votes 51-46 to Let Airport Workers Unionize, Give 45,000 Screeners the Same Union Rights As Border Patrol, Customs And Immigration Agents; Bush Threatens Veto.
Congress has begun hearings on the substandard care for veterans at Walter Reed.
The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.
subpoenas will soon be issued in the matter of the allegedly coerced firings of U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice. A vote will take place tomorrow in the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on whether to issue the subpoenas to Justice Dept. officials Carol Lam, David Iglesias, H.E. Cummins, III, and John McKay to compel them to appear before a subcommittee hearing next week.
The Judiciary Committee will also hold hearings next week on matters related to "Election Reform and Irregularities."
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