Politics

Congress Links

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

With the House and Senate both out of session until Friday, July 9th for their “Summer District Work Periods,” it’s been a comparatively slow week for news on Congress. Here are some links to hold you over until next week, when Congress gets back to work and things pick up a bit.

• There may be more left-right agreement on stimulus spending than meets the eye, at least outside of Congress. (Ezra Klein)
• Eugene Robison says that members of Congress are too busy trying to spin the unemployment insurance situation to actually do something about it. (WaPo)
• Pressure is mounting for Governor Manchin to appoint himself to fill Robert Byrd’s Senate seat.  Senator Byrd died on June 28, 2010, and his seat in the Senate has not yet been filled.  (NYTimes blog)
• Obama blames Republicans for lapsed benefits in his weekly radio address. (AOL News)
• Seven senators have written a letter to President Obama asking for White House input and support for their new cybersecurity bill.  (The Hill)
• In total, the financial reform bill calls for 68 new government studies, some warranted and others the result of lobbyists watering down statutory language. (Washington Independent)
• Brian Beutler outlines a perspective on the financial reform bill that he says has some traction in D.C. — it may be too good at stopping future bailouts and, hence, lead to a major economic collapse. (TPMDC)
• Sen. Scott Brown [R, MA] is liking what he’s seeing on the final financial reform bill. (The Hill)
• Dean Baker argues that TARP was not necessary: "[not passing TARP] would have meant the demise of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and most of the other Wall Street titans, but probably would not have led to a qualitatively worse economic situation for the rest of us than what we actually saw. (CEPR).
• Companies are already finding creative ways to get around the House’s July 3 ban on earmarks for for-profit companies.  (NYTimes)
• Congress ha reauthorized the National Flood Insurance program, which has been inactive since May 31. (First Coast News)
• Congressional incumbents try to capitalize on anti-incumbency sentiment (The Swamp).
• Govtrack is announcing a summer citizen reporter contest. Get a video interview with your Rep. or Sen. and win some money (GovTrack)
• 12 horribly designed government websites. (Information Week)

Full post as published by Open Congress on July 07, 2010 (boomark / email).