Glimpses of Legislative Battles In Progress
Apr 19, 2007 1:31 PM
1. Democrat Christine Jennings is challenging
18,000 missing votes in Sarasota. This is massive disenfranchisement believed to be caused by the
new voting machine without paper trails. Her opponent Vern Buchanan,
Republican, who won by a very small vote is representing the district while the
election contest continues. In December, a judge in Tallahassee ruled to deny experts to examine these voting
machines. The new Congress will be examining this issue.
2/08/2007
THE HOUSE: Democrats in the House are expected to assign
members to the Administration Committee today.
The committee will be responsible for reviewing the election, but House
members have said they prefer to wait for the courts to rule before starting
such a review.
THE SENATE: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, will ask the Government Accountability
Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to investigate
the District 13 race.
IN COURT: Jennings’
challenge of the election results is on hold, while an appellate court decides whether
to give her access to the voting machines’ sources code.
4/17/2007
- A three member House Task Force from the House Administrative Committee was
established to start investigating and report back to the full House Administrative
Committee. More to come.
2. The Bush administration announced that it
would strongly oppose any legislation allowing the government to secure cheaper
drug prices through negotiating with drug companies. Speaker of the House,
Nancy Pelosi has said that she will seek to pass legislation to allow Medicare to
negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for discounts on prescription
drugs. This was done as promised in the House. In the Senate the Democrats did not get enought votes on their bill to stop a filibuster. The negotiating power of Medicare for drug prices is DEAD for now!
3. Bush will seek bi-partisan??? reform of Social Security. Both Senator Max Beaucus (D.-Mont.) and Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) will be chairs of the key committees dealing with Medicare and Social Security. Both have expressed strong opposition to private accounts with Social Security, making it highly unlikely that the issue will resurface in the next two years. Meanwhile the president appointed Andrew G. Biggs as an associate commissioner for retirement policy at the Social Security Administration. The appointment is as a recess appointment which means there is no congressional approval. He serves until the new congress. His forte is privatization of Social Security. THE BATTLE CONTINUES!
4. The United States House of Representative has passed the following:
- Enacting the 9/11 Commission Recommendations
- Increasing the Minimum Wage *
- Expanding Stem Cell Research
- The Government (Medicare) negotiating for Lower Prescription Drug Prices *
- Cutting interest Rates on Student Loans
- Ending subsidies for Big Oil and Investment In Renewable Energy
* These are UFT endorsed measures. Both Congressman Vito Fossella (R-NY) and
Congressman Peter King (R-NY) and the rest of the New York Metropolitan area
delegation, all Democrats, voted for increasing the minimum wage. Only Congressman Peter King voted against
Medicare negotiating lower prescription drug prices. Now onto the Senate, filibusters, passage and
possibly the President's "Veto" Pen!
