Congress

With oil at a mind-blowing $120 a barrel, the Senate overwhelming approved a measure 97-1, that would stop the shipment of oil to the government's emergency reserve. President Bush opposes letting the reserve, which is 97% full, drop below full capacity.

Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said, "We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it. When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood." Dorgan acknowledged that this is not the solution to the problem of high gas prices.

The only opposition came from Republican Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado. A House vote on the issue should come later today.

The long-delayed supplemental war funding measure was delayed again in Congress last week, this time by an internal struggle within the Democratic caucus. Moderate and conservative Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, objected to the leadership's plan to load up the bill with billions in extra spending items. The Blue Dogs are upset with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) plan to include spending for unemployment benefit extensions and a new entitlement for troop education, a new GI Bill, in the bill. They fear a backlash against the increased spending and the use of the supplemental as a vehicle to score electoral points in their districts, which are conservative in nature. Republicans also object to the supplemental on procedural grounds. Democrats have by-passed the appropriations committee in drafting the legislation and are not allowing minority Republicans to offer proposals on the measure. Republicans have retaliated by forcing procedural votes in protest.

Democrats took control of the House in 2006 partly on the strength of wins in Republican leaning districts. There are thirty-four Democrats serving in the House from such districts, and their re-election in the fall is critical to Democrats hopes of keeping control of the chamber. Accordingly, the Blue Dogs' concerns are being given great weight by the speaker. "Their concerns are very legitimate," Pelosi said, "They must be addressed." Pelosi also must deal with the anti-war liberal members of her caucus, however, and they are not likely to support the war funding bill without inducements like the unemployment benefits. It makes for a perilous balancing act for the Speaker, one that she lost to the White House's veto in last year's supplemental war funding battle.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reports that on Wednesday a majority of House Republicans voted "against motherhood." Actually, they voted against a resolution "celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day." After the resolution passed unanimously, Republican Representative Todd Tiahrt of Kansas stood up and said, "Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote." The House re-voted and this time 178 Republicans voted against the resolution.

Milbank lampooned the move, writing, "Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it." The reason Republicans voted against the resolution is because they are trying to delay everything brought before the House as part of their obstructionist strategy.

When asked about the vote House Minority Leader John Boehner explained, "Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day." Baffling. "If Boehner's explanation doesn't make much sense," Milbank wrote, "he's been under a great deal of stress lately." Milbank was referring to Repupublican Representative Vito Fossella's love child scandal. Fossella did not vote on the pro-Mother's Day resolution.

President Bush and Senate Democrats may have reached a deal in a long-running battle over the Federal Election Commission. The commission has been unable to function since October of 2006 because of controversies surrounding Bush nominee Hans von Spakovsky. Senate Democrats don't like von Spakovsky's views and have blocked him from consideration by the full Senate. The FEC has six commissioners, three Republicans and three Democrats, and needs at least four to function. Only two of the commission's seats have been filled as a result of the stalemate. Now, as part of a package meant to break the impasse, the president has nominated three new candidates for the commission.

Likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama placed a hold on von Spakovsky's nomination, triggering a series of Republican Senators to place holds on Democratic nominees in protest. Obama's hold, placed together with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), was made in reaction to certain controversial decisions that von Spakovsky, a lawyer in the Justice Department's Voting Rights section, had made. Von Spakovsky is seen by Senate Democrats as a champion of policies, such as a Georgia voter identification law and a Texas redistricting plan, that would disenfranchise black and Latino voters respectively. Both the Georgia law and the Texas redistricting were eventually upheld by the Federal courts. A similar Indiana law requiring photo identification for voters was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Those rulings make the Democrats' position on von Spakovsky less tenable, and the White House is refusing to withdraw his name as part of the package announced Tuesday.

The blog Ars Technica reports that Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon advised internet service providers that he would use "every ounce of my energy to protect network neutrality." Wyden made his surprisingly tough comments in front of a group of tech executives in Washington yesterday.

Wyden told providers that may be thinking about charging customers for various forms of access to "think twice." If they did so, Wyden believes that the "very philosophical underpinnings of what we fought for for the last 15 years" would be undermined and such a move would leave Congress with little motivation to protect providers from taxation and regulation.

And no, I'm not talking about the ongoing soap opera called "Hillary v. Barack." I'm talking about the credit crunch.

Voters in both Indiana and North Carolina last night said the economy was their top concern in deciding who to vote for in the Democratic primary; 67 percent in Indiana and 60 percent in North Carolina. So perhaps they will breathe a sigh of relief to know that the worst of the credit crisis, at least, may be over. There are also signs today that inflation pressures may be easing, and the value of the dollar is also up a bit against other major global currencies.

(However, we still have those pesky dark spots, like The National Association of Realtors today saying pending sales of existing homes fell in March by 1 percent, disappointing the market., and oil prices rising above $122 a barrel, among other concerns.)

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said financial markets are emerging from the credit crisis. "There's no doubt that things feel better today, by a lot, than they did in March," Paulson said, although he was careful to predict that there would be further "bumps along the road," and that it will take "some months longer" for the market problems to disappear completely.

President Bush again pledged today to veto legislation scheduled for debate in the House today that would see the government buy up $15 billion of abandoned homes and help an estimated 500,000 homeowners facing foreclosure. The bill is expected to receive significant Republican support, but the White House argues the Democrats' plan would open taxpayers to too much risk.

In a vote which contemplates a brave new world, Congress has passed a law which prohibits health insurance agencies from "discriminating" on the basis of information revealed through genetic decoding. That is, insurance providers are not allowed to take into consideration a person's genetic predilection for illness (i.e., heart disease, diabetes) in the issuance of terms and policies.

On the one hand, this legislation passed with only a single dissenter in either house. Such uniformity of consent is usually reserved for empty patriotic expressions or vulgar legislative pandering. This vote seems to be the latter. People have a true fear of "genetic discrimination." They see it as a potential path toward a big-brother society divided between classes of genetic superiors and inferiors. Genetic undesirables would lose their health coverage, they would be denied employment, their maledictions would be broadcast to the world so that they could not marry or produce children - they would be condemned from birth to stray on the borders of civilization. (Sounds like a great movie, doesn't it?)

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted this week to restrict CIA interrogators to methods authorized by the Army Field Manual when questioning terrorist detainees. The provision would be included in the 2009 fiscal year appropriation for the nation's intelligence agencies, if it passes the full Senate. It was the second time this year that the Senate committee voted to ban so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the war on terror. President Bush vetoed an intelligence authorization containing a similar provision last month. The new bill is sure to be vetoed by the president if passed by Congress.

Among other methods, the Army Field Manual prohibits waterboarding of detainees, a technique that induces a feeling of drowning. The CIA has admitted using the controversial technique on high-level terrorist detainees like Khalid Sheik Mohammad, mastermind of the September 11th attacks. The Agency says that two other detainees were subjected to waterboarding prior to 2003 but that it no longer uses the method. The Administration insists that its interrogations program is legal and has yielded vital information that has helped to keep the country safe from terrorist attacks.

When Congress last tried to limit interrogations techniques, Senate Republicans did not filibuster the measure, choosing instead to get Senators on record as being for or against the bill. This time, however, with one presidential veto already in hand, they may choose to block the bill, claiming that it would not be signed into law in its current form in any case. That would provide Democrats with the campaign talking point that they seem to be seeking; namely, that Republicans condone "torture."

Talk Radio News reports that a Senate committee held a hearing yesterday (clip here) on contracting abuses in Iraq. Senator Byron Dorgan, who chairs the committee, wants to create a new Senate committee to "exercise oversight over contracting abuses related to reconstruction and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

A former KBR employee testified at the hearing about widespread instances of waste, overcharges and illegal activities by KBR managers and employees. The whistle blower also told of officers who withheld ice from troops that were going into the desert. The ice was instead given to friends and co-workers or traded for items at nearby Iraqi shops.

Another whistle blower, Barry Halley, who worked for WWNS and CAPE Environmental, told the story of a contractor killed in a car without armor. According to Halley, a manager used the armored car the dead contractor would have been riding in to transport prostitutes.

TPM offshoot Muckracked has more on the story.

Taking a cue from Congressional Republicans, who have been hitting the Democratic leadership in the House pretty hard lately over the lack of progress in Congress on important issues, President Bush held a press conference at the White House today and lambasted Congress for "stalling" his economic proposals.

"It's a tough time for our economy. Across our country, many Americans are understandably anxious about issues affecting their pocketbook, from gas and food prices to mortgage and tuition bills. They're looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action.

Unfortunately, on many of these issues, all they're getting is delay."

The president called on Congress to advance his proposals to increase the nation's refining capacity to help reduce pressure on gas supplies. He also pushed for quicker action on legislation to help ease the housing market and make student loans more affordable.