March 12, 2009, 8:12pm
Rep. Rob Wittman praised today’s House’s passage of a water-quality improvement bill and lawmakers’ decision to include his language for restoring the Chesapeake Bay. “We are truly at a tipping point” for the bay,” the Virginia Republican said. “If we don’t act now and act forcefully, we chance losing the bay forever.”
Categories: Virginia, Environment, Natural Resources, Rob Wittman
March 12, 2009, 7:22pm
The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing today on “lost educational opportunities.” Watch video clips of the session:
Categories: Education
March 11, 2009, 10:26pm
The House today failed to win enough votes to pass an omnibus public lands bill. The 282-144 vote fell short of the two-thirds margin need to move the measure to the Senate under expedited rules.
The vote please lawmakers like @TomCoburn who have been tweeting about the legislation. He noted that the 1,082-page bill would cost more than $8 billion and would authorize 14 studies to create or expand national parks, despite a $13 billion maintenance backlog at the Interior Department.
Other lawmakers were irritated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement that the United States is a “deadbeat” for not providing enough funds to the international body. “Outrageous,” @IRL tweeted. “U.N. needs reform yet all it wants is more US $.” @petehoekstra agreed.
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: Foreign Affairs, Natural Resources, Hill Tweet News
March 10, 2009, 10:42pm
Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif., took to the airwaves on MSNBC’s “Hardball” today to debate the record of President Obama after his first 50 days in office.
“He’s doing exactly what he should do, what he said he was going to do,” Lee said. She noted that businesses and even people in Republican districts will benefit from Obama’s decisions.
But Pence called Obama “an admirable person” but said “the problem is his policies.” He said the answer to last year’s record spending for bailouts is “more of the same. … They spend too much, they tax too much, and they borrow too much.”
Categories: California, Indiana, White House, Budget, Banking, Monster Media Mash-Up, Barbara Lee, Mike Pence, Bailouts
March 10, 2009, 10:22pm
The Senate today cleared to President Obama a $410 billion spending bill decried by many Republicans and some Democrats as a monument to pork-barrel politics and wasteful spending. The legislation was the hot topic of the day among lawmakers who use the mini-blog service Twitter.
“Congress is the only one not cutting budgets,” @JohnEnsign tweeted. @clairecmc said she voted “no” because of the more than 8 percent spending increase and the 9,000-plus earmarks for pet projects in lawmakers’ districts, among other reasons. Obama is expected to sign the bill, but @SenJohnMcCain, @Jim DeMint and @RepTomPrice urged him to veto it.
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: Budget, Hill Tweet News
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