The House Appropriations Committee today released a preliminary list of 70 programs they intend to trim – or in some places slash. The committee tomorrow is expected to release it’s omnibus appropriations package to fund the government for the rest of 2011. Congress last year failed to pass any of the 2011 appropriations bills and [...]
Senate
As Michael Scherer noted, Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, announced today he won’t run for a second term. Webb’s decision not to engage in a rematch with former Senator George Allen, whom Webb beat in 2006 by less than half of 1% of the vote, blows open the field for Democrats. Virginia went for [...]
The Senate today adjourned after voting on an amendment to the Federal Aviation Reauthorization bill. Senate Democrats are heading south to Charlottesville, Virginia for their annual retreat. We had expected that they would be back late Wednesday or Thursday for more votes — particularly on a resolution on Egypt. But, the galleries tell us that [...]
A year ago most reporters were writing John Ensign’s political obituary. The Nevada senator had admitted to an affair with a longtime staffer and was under investigation by the feds for payments his parents made to the staffer’s husband to allegedly keep him quiet. Many in Nevada wondered why Ensign didn’t step aside and allow [...]
Rep. Jane Harman, a California Blue Dog Dem is going, she announced today, to head up the Woodrow Wilson Center. Also leaving: Senators Kent Conrad and Joe Lieberman. Staying thus far are Reps. John Dingell, John Conyers and Barney Frank — all of whom have already announced their plans to run again. If this seems [...]
Rand Paul was the sole vote (96-1) against an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that would make flashing laser pointers at airplanes a federal offense. He explained: “I think that it is a bad idea to point lasers at pilots,” Paul told The Daily Caller. “There are a lot of states that [...]
