U.S. Government

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (June 13-20, 2008)

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate this week will be keeping all options on the table while trying to complete legislation prior to the July 4 summer recess. Extended unemployment benefits are still awaiting approval, and a tax measure torpedoed by Senate Republicans last week will once again be on the agenda. In addition, confirmation hearings may proceed for five nominees to the Federal Election Commission, while the House may try to make another push for a new energy package.

The senate should take up an unemployment insurance benefit extension approved by the House last week. The Senate has already approved one such extension, as part of the Iraq War supplemental spending bill. President Bush has threatened to veto the war money if it contains domestic spending. However, the benefits might not survive in the Senate if they’re not attached to the war supplemental.

Weber Shandwick Bowls over the Army

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

From the Army's 2006 All-American BowlHow can you counter "daily stories and blog entries that portray the negative aspects of joining the military"? That was PR firm Weber Shandwick's job in the lead-up to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January 2008.

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Main Source: 
PR Week, June 3, 2008
Topics: 
Arts / Culture
Video News Releases
Children
Fake TV News
Media
Public Relations
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Congresspedia Review: This Week in Congress (June 6-13, 2008)

The big events this week were the House, after two tries, approving an unemployment benefits extension Thursday, while Senate Republicans filibustered and blocked two bills: a an energy package that cut tax breaks for oil companies while encouraging more renewable energy alternatives and a reversal of scheduled cuts in Medicare services payments to doctors. President Bush also announced another nominee to the Federal Election Commission and three states held congressional primary elections.

After failing to reach a 2/3 majority required for “fast track” passage on Wednesday, House Democrats pushed an extension of unemployment benefits through with a simple majority vote on Thursday. Originally slated for inclusion in an Iraq War supplemental spending bill, the legislation includes an additional 13 weeks of benefits beyond the 26 already allowed. States with high rates of unemployment would be eligible for an additional 13 weeks.

As far back as January, Democratic leaders in the Senate wanted to expand jobless benefits and were lately looking to the Iraq supplemental funding package as the conduit, despite repeated veto threats from President Bush. Statistics released this week showed that the unemployment rate jumped .5 percent, the largest increase in 20 years, and Democratic leaders cited the worsening situation as the impetus behind the “fast track” option.

Mixed Reports on FDA Efficacy

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

The number of warning letters sent by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to corporations has dropped by 50% in the last decade. In 2002, the regulatory agency decided that all warning letters should go through the office of its chief counsel, a move "designed to strengthen the letters and make them legally consistent and credible." But the change may have just succeeded in slowing the process to a crawl.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), June 7, 2008
Topics: 
Food Safety
Corporations
Health
Science
U.S. Government

Meet the Candidates: Congressional primaries in Maine, North Dakota and Virginia today

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

We've moved past the presidential primary season, and through the summer and early fall we'll be focusing these election-day posts on congressional races. States holding nominating contests for House and Senate seats today include Maine, North Dakota and Virginia, and there are a few interesting match-ups to note.

Virginia should play a pivotal role in the 2008 election cycle, since Democrats have been making inroads there — especially on the congressional level — for the past few years. Still, only a few of the state's congressional districts have comptetive primaries today. At the top of the ballot, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is unopposed by other Democrats in the U.S. Senate race. Virginia Republicans, meanwhile, decided to nominate their candidate via convention, and chose Warner's predeccesor Jim Gilmore two weeks ago. Most of the activity is in House races, especially in the 8th and 10th districts.

Click through for more on the congressional primaries)

Pentagon Pundits, Media Reform and Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly

FCC Commissioner Jonathan AdelsteinAs Paul Schmelzer wrote on the Minnesota Independent website, "There were two National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend: the one I attended and the one Bill O'Reilly, Juan Williams and Fox News talking head Mary Catherine Ham didn't."

O'Reilly's show tried to manufacture controversy about the conference, which I and others from the Center for Media and Democracy attended. But before addressing that, how about some real news on a genuinely controversial issue?

During Sunday's closing plenary, FCC Commissioner and fake news foe Jonathan Adelstein pledged to push for multiple thorough investigations of the Pentagon military analyst program. So far, the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have launched inquiries into the Defense Department's secret cultivation of military pundits. But those investigations aren't enough.

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (June 6-13, 2008)

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

The House and Senate have yet to reconcile their versions of an Iraq/Afghanistan war spending supplemental, though the House should take up the measure again this week. The level of domestic spending in the bill is the sticking point, so look for debate on offsets and unemployment insurance. Meanwhile, the Senate will consider a package of energy legislation, and might get to tax legislation already approved by the House.

Extended unemployment insurance has been a priority for majority Democrats all year, especially in the Senate: it was originally in that chamber’s economic stimulus package. Though the benefits were not included in the measure signed by President Bush in February, the Senate majority leadership has continued to promote them.

When time came to debate a new spending supplemental for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saw an opportunity to include domestic priorities in what the White House has traditionally called must-pass legislation. Extended unemployment insurance was one such measure attached to the defense spending.

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