U.S. Government

Coming Up This Week in Congress: Iraq, Energy, and Labor

The House and Senate are in session this week, with both chambers expected to debate and consider several important bills and resolutions. Highlights include:

  1. An amendment, sponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), which would mandate that U.S. troops begin leaving Iraq within 120 days and have only a "limited presence" in the country by Apr. 1, 2008.
  2. An amendment, sponsored by Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and John Warner (R-Va.), which would direct the Bush administration to file a report to Congress detailing an exit strategy from Iraq by Oct. 16, 2007.
  • The Senate is expected to consider a bill, sponsored by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), which would call for the implementation of the Iraq Study Group's 79 recommendations.
  • The House will consider a $31.6 billion Energy and Water spending measure, which includes $1.1 billion in earmarks.
  • The House will consider a $153.7 billion Labor-HHS measure. The bill exceeds the Bush administration's spending request by about $10.6 billion, and faces a veto threat.

    • After the jump is a full listing of this week's House and Senate hearings, courtesy of GovTrack and Thomas:

    Debate Over Iraq War Continues to Surge in Congress

    The Iraq War is once again the hottest issue on Capitol Hill, as numerous bills and amendments aimed at ending the four and a half year-old conflict have been introduced. Earlier this year, both chambers passed a supplemental appropriations bill which required President Bush to begin removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq later in 2007, and also provided nearly $100 billion for the war through Sept. 30 of this year. When Bush promptly vetoed the measure, Congressional Democrats sent him a new bill which provided the funds with no troop withdrawal requests or mandates but vowed to revisit the issue, which they are doing now.

    The key question is whether enough Republicans will defect and vote with the Democrats to get a majority that could override Bush's expected veto. Most recently, Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) have called for a change in policy, though Lugar, at least, has stated that this doesn't mean he will vote for a Democratic withdrawal bill.

    Which Republicans have publicly supported a withdrawal? Help us keep track by adding to the list on Congresspedia's congressional actions to end the Iraq War article, which also contains information on the current proposals and how your members of Congress voted.

    Those current proposals include:

    New Participatory Project: What Should Congresspedia Cover?

    Submitted by Conor Kenny on

    Next week the Congresspedia project on SourceWatch will launch a new section of the site on legislation and issues. Congresspedia's staff and citizen editors have worked with more than a dozen policy wonks to write a first set of 150 articles, but we need you to help us identify what we've missed.

    Yes
    Topics: 
    Citizen Journalism
    U.S. Congress

    How to Cool Down Global Warming

    Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

    Drawing on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Rolling Stone details the Bush administration's "ongoing strategy to block federal action on global warming." In 2002, the administration's Climate Action Report was reported on as a "stark shift" in U.S. policy.

    No
    Main Source: 
    Rolling Stone, June 20, 2007
    Topics: 
    Crisis Management
    Climate Change
    Science
    Secrecy
    Think Tanks
    U.S. Government

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