by Congressional Quarterly

As the economy struggles to overcome the drag created by the housing slump and record gasoline prices, Congress will attempt to address both next week. The outlook for legislation on energy issues appears dim. The Senate will vote Tuesday on a Democratic attempt to call up a bill to impose more regulations on energy futures trading. The measure is intended to combat the speculation said to be contributing to a run-up in oil and gas prices. But the Senate has been embroiled for weeks in a partisan stalemate over how best to address both the short-term price spikes and long-term supply shortages, and there is no end in sight to that standoff. Prospects are brighter for action on the housing and mortgage finance crisis. The House next week will take up a massive housing package that would overhaul the Federal Housing Administration, create a new regulator for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and create a new government program to help borrowers facing foreclosure. Lawmakers are also expected to attach a financial backstop for the mortgage finance giants proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. , although some modifications are likely. The underlying housing bill has already passed both chambers in somewhat differing forms, and bipartisan leaders of the relevant House and Senate committees are working with the administration to craft a final version that can get through both chambers and win President Bush’s signature.

Rangel Seeks Ethics Committee Review of His Letter-Writing Activities

July 17, 2008

   by Congressional Quarterly

The defiant chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee called for an ethics investigation of his own conduct Thursday, saying he wants vindication of his use of congressional stationery to seek meetings with corporate chieftains to discuss a public service center named for him. Rep. Charles B. Rangel , D-N.Y., a 19-term veteran who took over the panel chairmanship last year when Democrats regained control of the House, wrote to executives and foundations seeking meetings about the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, which will house his papers once he retires. Rangel already has secured an earmark for the center and is helping raise money for it. Rangel released samples of the letters and noted that they do not directly ask anyone for money. Rangel called the news conference to respond to articles and an editorial in The Washington Post about the letters. “I’m going to see how much damn ink The Washington Post has,” he said during a combative, discursive 48-minute session, at times questioning reporters. The Post story, first published July 15, said, Rangel “has penned letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, a project that caused controversy last year when he won a $1.9 million congressional earmark to help start it. Republican critics dubbed the project Rangel’s ‘Monument to Me.’” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, has also called for an ethics investigation into Rangel’s letters. If Boehner or anyone else does not file the necessary formal request by next week, Rangel said, he will file it himself. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., asked about Rangel’s move, said, “I support his request.’’ The powerful New York Democrat has also come under fire this month for taking advantage of four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, an arrangement first reported July 11 by the New York Times. As a matter of routine, the ethics committee opens a preliminary inquiry on every complaint filed by a member of the House.

Senate Diverts Small Slice of Global AIDS

July 16, 2008

   by Congressional Quarterly

While supporters of a five-year, $50 billion global AIDS bill have fended off major amendments so far, they cut a quiet deal with some of its critics to redirect $2 billion to American Indian programs. The Senate on Wednesday adopted by voice vote an amendment by John Thune , R-S.D., and Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., to move the money to Indian law enforcement, drinking water and health care. “This modest redirection will still allow . . . reauthorization levels of more than three times their current amount,” Thune said, as the Senate continued to vote on amendments to the global AIDS measure. Since the program was created in 2003 to fight AIDS and other diseases overseas, Congress has since provided almost $19 billion. Now, Republicans, Democrats and the White House agreed to authorize another $50 billion. Kyl and Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron L. Dorgan , D-N.D., convinced Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. , D-Del., the bill’s sponsor, to allow diversion of a small slice of the funding for American Indian programs. The amendment’s supporters said domestic health-care needs, particularly in a traditionally underserved community, require attention too. Thune said American Indians are three times as likely as average Americans to die from diabetes, and 11 percent of those living on reservations lack safe drinking water. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said he hoped to finish the bill Wednesday, though several key tests remain, including an amendment by Jim DeMint , R-S.C., to pare it back to $35 billion and another by Jeff Sessions , R-Ala., to strike language that would lift a ban on HIV-positive visitors to the United States.

Congress Overrides Bush Veto of Medicare Bill

July 15, 2008

   by Congressional Quarterly

The House and Senate voted Tuesday to override President Bush’s veto of a bill blocking a big cut in Medicare payments to physicians. The bill (HR 6331) now becomes law. Bush had vetoed it just before noon on Tuesday. A few hours later, the House voted 383-41 to override the veto. The vote comfortably surpassed the two-thirds majority required, and the override produced almost 30 votes more than the 355-59 tally by which the House passed the bill June 24. The Senate later voted 70-26 to override Bush. It had passed the bill by voice vote July 9 after voting 69-30 to overcome a procedural hurdle. Four Senate Republicans reversed their July 9 votes against the bill: Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, and Christopher S. Bond of Missouri. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass., who voted for the bill on July 9 but has been away from Washington while recovering from brain-cancer surgery, did not return for the override vote. Nor did Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee. Reid said he would have been available to vote, if needed. John Warner, R-Va., who voted for the bill on July 9, did not vote Tuesday. The override is the fourth of Bush’s presidency. Congress enacted a water resources bill (PL 110-114) over the president’s wishes, and overrode him twice on the farm bill because of a procedural glitch (PL 110-246, PL 110-234). Ahead of the House vote, House Republicans seemed resigned to the fact that they would not sustain the president’s veto. “I think we all know what’s going to happen,” said Minority Whip Roy Blunt , R-Mo. Bush, in his veto message to the House earlier in the day, said that he supported the legislation’s goal of stopping a 10.6 percent cut to Medicare’s physician payment rates, but objected to the reduction in payments to private Medicare plans, known as Medicare Advantage, that would offset the costs of blocking the physician pay cut. “Because this bill would severely damage the Medicare program by undermining the Medicare Part D program and by reducing access, benefits, and choices for all beneficiaries, particularly the approximately 9.6 million beneficiaries in [Medicare Advantage], I must veto this bill,” Bush said in his message. The measure would replace a scheduled 10.6 percent cut to Medicare’s physician pay rates with 18 months of stable payments. The cost would be offset by cutting bonus payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. Those cuts total $12.5 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Bush Moves to Lift Ban on Offshore Drilling

July 14, 2008

   by Congressional Quarterly

President Bush on Monday lifted an executive order barring offshore oil and gas drilling that protects nearly 90 percent of the U.S. coastline. The announcement alone does not open U.S. coasts to energy exploration — the ban, also written into law, must be lifted by Congress, where numerous efforts to do so have failed. But it marks the first time in the 26-year history of the ban that a president has taken the lead in trying to lift it. “Now the ball is squarely in Congress’s court,” Bush said at the White House. Expanding offshore drilling has long been a tenet of Republican energy policy, but the GOP has never managed to lift the ban — even in Republican-controlled Congresses. But Republicans and the oil industry say Monday’s announcement, in combination with record-high gasoline prices and new polls showing growing public support for drilling, adds weight to their pressure to lift the ban. Democrats are increasingly aware of that pressure, but the party’s congressional leaders still oppose lifting the ban. They argue that new drilling on U.S. coasts would pose too great an environmental threat. They also cite studies that show whatever new oil would be found would not be available for many years, and would make little more than a tiny dent in U.S. oil supplies and prices. Democratic leadership aides say the White House move makes no difference on the drilling equation in Congress. While a handful of Democrats have long voted with Republicans on energy and oil issues, aides say they do not see a shift from any longtime opponents of drilling. “It’s symbolic,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., of the Bush announcement. “If the president wanted to take a real action, he could release a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which would have an effect in a matter of days, instead of years.”

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