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Posted July 21, 2008.
With three weeks left before the August recess, both parties are scrambling to pass something - anything - addressing the two issues at the fore of everyone's minds and evening newscasts: the housing/mortgage crisis and high gas prices. The former seems to be a broad-based, serious effort that may help the situation, but the latter has devolved into the usual kabuki political theater.
The major housing/mortgage crisis relief bill may receive final votes in both the House and Senate this week. The Bush administration asked Congress last week to include help for government-sponsored mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the form of a higher credit limit with the U.S. Treasury and the possibility of a government buy-up of their stock. In exchange, congressional Democrats reiterated their support for a $4 billion program to provide funding to local governments to buy up, refurbish and sell foreclosed homes, which President Bush had previously threatened to veto the bill over. Now it's a question of who blinks first.
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Posted July 16, 2008.
By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas
Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss will have a few more weeks to cool his heels before Democrats in Georgia nominate a candidate — of the five Democratic candidates running in yesterday's primary, nobody was able to capture more than 50 percent of the vote. That means a runoff will be held on Aug. 5 between Vernon Jones and Jim Martin.
Also yesterday, voters whittled down the competition in two Alabama districts, where runoff elections were held for two open seats. Reps. Terry Everett (R) and Bud Cramer (D) had announced their retirement, and primaries were held back in June. However, no Republican candidates in the districts were able to meet the 50-percent threshold required to secure the nomination.
This time around, Jay Love, an Alabama state legislator, won the GOP nomination for CD-02, while Wayne Parker (a vice president for an insurance firm) did the same in the 5th district.
As part of Congresspedia's Wiki the Vote project, citizen journalists from around the country (and even some candidates!) have been logging information about the candidates' positions, biographies and records. A full list of the candidates and their professions are below, but you can also find them at their respective state portals via the Wiki the Vote project homepage. We need your help to find out more about these candidates, so if you know something about them please add it to their profile. (You can always contact one of the staff editors for help.)
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Posted July 15, 2008.
By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas
Georgia is our first stop in the "second half" of the congressional primary season: according to our schedule, it is one of 22 states that have not held a nominating contest. Our citizen editors have been keeping track of all the races across the country, and it looks like a couple in Georgia will be interesting. In addition, voters in two Alabama districts will return to the polls for runoff primary elections.
(Click through for more on the congressional primaries)
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Posted July 14, 2008.
Congress this week may send a housing relief package to President Bush for his signature. The other major action in the House and Senate will be on energy-related measures, as both Republicans and Democrats propose fixes for high energy prices. There is also a primary election in Georgia this week, as we prepare for the fall election season.
Federal officials announced early this morning that the government would take steps to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-founded companies that finance about half of the home loans issued in the United States. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the companies would be allowed to borrow money from the Federal Reserve, and the government might invest directly in the privately-held firms if their situation worsens. The steps are unprecedented, but officials have said the companies’ failure would cause further damage to America’s housing market and the overall economy.
Increased oversight of the firms is a central idea in the housing package approved by the Senate last week.
Details and this week's committee schedules after the jump.
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Posted July 13, 2008.
The biggest news this week in Congress was the passage and signing of the FISA bill, which expanded the president's surveillance powers (to more closely fit the Bush administration's existing practices) and granted retroactive legal immunity to telecom companies for breaking federal privacy laws when allowing the administration to illegally tap domestic phone lines without a warrant. The Senate also passed a housing legislation package on Friday and Congress gave final passage to a bill preventing a cut in payments to doctors in the Medicare program (at the expense of federally subsidized corporate Medicare programs).
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Posted July 10, 2008.
By Donny Shaw, Lead Blogger and Outreach Coordinator at OpenCongress.
After almost a year of wrangling with the White House, Congress on Wednesday finalized a bill (CP:FISA Amendments Act of 2008) to modernize and broaden the government’s ability to wiretap. Twenty one Democrats joined every Republican in the Senate in voting for and passing the wiretapping bill, which, despite a valiant effort by civil libertarian activists, gives retroactive legal immunity to the telecom companies that helped the Bush Administration execute its warrantless wiretapping program from 2001 to 2007.
Before their final vote to pass the bill along to President Bush to be signed into law, the Senate rejected three amendments that dealt with the telecom immunity provision.
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Posted July 7, 2008.
Coming up this week in the Senate are Harry Reid's latest attempts to pass the main bill containing Congress' response to the housing and mortgage crisis and a rollback of a cut in doctors' payments for Medicare services. A vote on the FISA (warrantless wiretapping) bill is also possible. The House won't be doing much.
Details and this week's committee schedules after the jump.
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Posted July 2, 2008.
The online world is rife with complaints that it's hard to tell what Barack Obama and John McCain's positions and records really are on the issues. Fortunately, the Congresspedia staff have come up with a handy guide to tracking their positions - and those of every congressional incumbent and candidate - down.
Who supports continuing the War in Iraq? Who wants to make abortion illegal? Who voted for the Bush tax cuts?
These are things the public needs to know and we need your help to make it happen by adding the information to the candidates' Congresspedia profiles, which thousands of people read every day. It's easy to get started and the staff are ready and able to assist in any way. Here's how to get started.
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Disclaimer: Congresspedia is not a place to discuss the relative merits or qualifications of candidates for public office, nor to solicit support or opposition to such candidates. The Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Media and Democracy do not support or oppose candidates for public office and, as with all contributor entries to the Congresspedia, to the extent a contributor entry appears to support or oppose a candidate, the speech is that of the individual contributor and not that of either the Sunlight Foundation or the Center for Media and Democracy. Read the full disclaimer.
