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August 18, 2011
Former congressman Tom Davis said that the Justice Department's probe into Standard & Poor’s mortgage product ratings has the appearance of retribution over the recent United States AAA sovereign credit downgrade.
Davis, who was the top Republican member on the oversight committee during a 2008 congressional hearing into whether mortgage products were improperly rated by the ratings agencies, said Thursday that he was worried about the timing of the announcement and the fact that S&P was the only ratings agency named in reports.
"It almost looks retaliatory" said Davis, a former Virginia member of Congress who retired in 2008.
“We held hearings," Davis told reporters at an event hosted by the Republican Main Street Partnership, a centrist GOP group. “Everybody knows these guys screwed up -- but these things were so bundled together that you couldn't separate one from the other. They admitted they made mistakes."
The New York Times reported Thursday that the investigation into S&P had been underway since before the ratings agency’s sovereign debt rating unit lowered its outlook on U.S. government-backed debt. Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department is also probing Moody’s Investors Services.
Posted by Byron Tau 02:39 PM
August 18, 2011
The campaign committee of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is seeking permission from the Federal Election Commission to use campaign funds to pay for security upgrades at her home.
In an Aug. 17 letter to the FEC, Michael McNulty, Giffords campaign manager, said the upgrades would cost roughly $2,200 and "are not intended to increase the value of the property."
"At the request of the House Sergeant of Arms, the United States Capitol Police (USCP) conducted a security assessment of the family home and her general threat risk using USCP standards and best industry practices," McNulty told the FEC.
"After that assessment, the USCP made several recommendations to increase the security of the home that are specific to the identified needs of Rep. Giffords's security and include improved exterior lighting, improving locks in the home and the installation of a duress alarm button. The estimated cost of the recommendations is $2,200."
While federal election rules prohibit the spending of campaign cash for so-called personal uses, there is an exception for expenses that exist only because of the politician’s candidacy or position. According to recent FEC guidance (pdf), “if the expense would exist even in the absence of the candidacy or even if the officeholder were not in office, then the personal use ban applies.”
The FEC has approved the use of campaign funds for security upgrades at lawmakers' homes in previous cases.
This year the FEC cleared Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) to spend as much as $5,000 from his campaign committee to fund security improvements at his home that were recommended by the USCP.
Giffords's campaign had $788,000 in the bank at the end of June, and her allies have raised money on her behalf in preparation for a possible 2012 reelection campaign.
Giffords was critically wounded in a Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson that left six people dead, including a federal judge. The Arizona Democrat was not seen in public until her dramatic appearance on the House floor on Aug. 1 to cast a vote in favor of a debt ceiling boost.
Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this report.
Posted by John Bresnahan 12:44 PM
August 18, 2011
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Thursday joined President Barack Obama in calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign.
“Under the Assad regime, Syria has been a proxy for Iran, a supporter of terror and a threat to United States interests and our allies in the region,” said Cantor, who is traveling this month to Israel on a congressional delegation trip with dozens of House Republicans. “The recent atrocities and Assad's brutalization of his own people in Syria are extremely alarming and reflect a long history of anti-American hostility, and I join President Obama in calling for Mr. Assad’s resignation.”
The president earlier Wednesday made his most forceful move against the Syrian dictator, saying Assad is “standing in the way” of progress in the country as he and his regime are killing Syrian citizens.
Syrian forces are responsible for the deaths of some 2,000 protesters, according to some estimates.
“His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people,” Obama said in a statement Thursday. “We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”
Posted by Seung Min Kim 10:29 AM
August 17, 2011
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain is visiting Pakistan and India this week, meeting with top officials on a range of issues, an aide said Wednesday.
“On an important visit to Pakistan and India, will Tweet more details soon,” McCain said via Twitter this morning.
McCain, who left last Thursday, has visited Pakistan, as well as the cities of Ladakh and Srinagar in Kashmir. In Srinagar, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee met with India’s top representative in Kashmir and senior officials of the Indian army, according to Agence France-Presse.
Details on what they discussed during the two-hour meeting weren’t publicly disclosed, the AFP reported. Two foreign policy advisers and diplomats from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi accompanied McCain.
In Pakistan, McCain met with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the head of the country’s army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
“Our relationship is at a crucial stage,” McCain tweeted.
The senator is in Delhi today. He posted a photo of a protest outside his hotel to his 1.7 million Twitter followers, nothing that it “looks like a serious situation.”
McCain is the sole U.S. lawmaker on the Armed Services Committee-sponsored trip, and he is scheduled to return to the U.S. at the end of this week, the aide said.
Posted by Seung Min Kim 12:48 PM
August 16, 2011
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has promoted the granddaughter of former Speaker Tip O’Neill as her congressional office's chief of staff.
Catlin O’Neill is jumping from Pelosi’s leadership office, where she serves as deputy director of floor operations. Pelosi’s current chief of staff, Terri McCullough, is leaving to become executive director of the Tory Burch Foundation, which provides loans and other financial resources to female entrepreneurs.
O’Neill, a 1999 University of Vermont graduate, has worked for Pelosi since 2002.
“With public service in her DNA, Catlin’s sharp instinct, steadfast determination and impressive knowledge have been integral in advancing House Democrats’ legislative agenda through the years,” Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday.
O’Neill will begin her new position in September, Pelosi’s office said.
Posted by Seung Min Kim 10:41 AM
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August 14, 2011
A police bomb squad in West Chester, Ohio, detonated three briefcases found outside Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) local congressional office, but no explosives were detected in the incident.
The briefcases were spotted by West Chester police on Sunday morning. Boehner's office was notified of the episode. There was no threat against Boehner.
"We appreciate the vigilance and efforts by the West Chester Police Department, the Sheriff's Office, and the West Chester Fire Department," said Brittany Bramell of the U.S. Capitol Police. "We are relieved that this was nothing more than a misunderstanding."
UPDATE & CORRECTION: Brittany Bramell works for Speaker Boehner's office, not the U.S. Capitol Police.
Posted by John Bresnahan 05:52 PM
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August 11, 2011
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a handful of Republicans agree on at least one thing: Meetings of the congressional super committee on deficit reduction should be open to the public.
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) sent letters Thursday to each of the 12 newly appointed members of the bipartisan panel, urging that they conduct their meetings in public and allow them to be broadcast live on television. At least five other GOP senators have also called for the group to hold their meetings in public.
Last week, Pelosi called for the super committee’s meetings to be open to the public and aired online. She named the final three members of the panel earlier Thursday, appointing Democratic Reps. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The law that raised the debt limit and created the deficit panel does not require the meetings to be public. But under the law, the committee must notify the public at least seven days in advance of holding a meeting or hearing.
“This is a pivotal point in our nation’s history. The critical decisions made by the joint committee should be conducted under the watchful eye of the American people,” Buchanan said in a statement.
“[T]he American people deserve a responsive government that is fully accountable,” added Heller. “Most Americans would agree that because of the magnitude of the decisions this committee has been tasked with, proceedings should be transparent and open to the public.”
Heller has introduced legislation that would require all meetings of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to be open to the public and broadcast on television. Buchanan rolled out a companion bill in the House.
Posted by Scott Wong 03:35 PM
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August 11, 2011
Nearly two dozen Senate Democrats on Thursday challenged Republicans to ensure that the super committee tasked with coming up with a deficit-reduction plan "embrace job creation as part of its mission."
In a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 23 Democrats wrote that tackling the nation's deficit problem is directly tied to the jobs crisis and urged the leader to ensure his picks for the bipartisan panel -- GOP Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania -- are focused on creating jobs.
“For families across the country, the biggest economic problem is high unemployment. As you know, the lack of jobs and anemic growth rate of the economy are not only enormous problems in their own right, causing great pain for millions of Americans, they are a major component of our deficit." the Democrats wrote in a letter circulated by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
Targeted investments that spur economic growth and create jobs can help long-term efforts to draw down the debt and should be a "priority" for the new joint select committee, the senators wrote.
“Let us be very clear: Our fiscal challenge is directly linked to the jobs crisis, and we cannot solve the former without tackling the latter," they wrote.
The Senate letter echoes one circulated this week by Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, the Democratic Caucus chairman, who suggested the creation of a congressional committee on job creation similar to the one charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving.
In addition to Merkley, others who signed the Senate letter were: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Mark Begich of Alaska, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Dianne Feinstein of California, Al Franken of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Chuck Schumer of New York, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Mark Warner of Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Posted by Scott Wong 12:58 PM
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August 09, 2011
An earlier item in this space said a fundraiser hosted by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) used golf balls featuring a likeness of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but Boehner's office is denying it, and POLITICO has no independent verification that the golf balls were, in fact, distributed at the fundraiser. POLITICO regrets the error.
Boehner is back in Ohio during this first week of the August congressional recess, and he held a fundraiser at the famed Muirfield Village Golf Club on Tuesday.
Ed Burke, a member of the Service Employees International Union who was protesting outside Boehner's fundraiser, said an unidentified man driving out of the country club gave the ball featuring a picture of Pelosi to the protestors. "I pissed 'em off by telling them that I didn't want to use this ball," Burke said the man told them. Burke did not see the man attending Boehner's event.
A Boehner spokesman categorically denied that Boehner or any of his political aides distributed the Pelosi golf balls. "It did not come from us," said Cory Fritz, a Boehner spokesman. "We have absolutely nothing to do with this."
Burke denied that SEIU or any of the protestors planted the ball or were in any way responsible for it being there. "I stand by my story," Burke said.
Posted by John Bresnahan 06:04 PM
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August 08, 2011
Analysts from rating agency Standard & Poor's held two conference calls today with lawmakers and congressional aides to explain their decision to downgrade the United States' debt.
"The call will feature S&P's sovereign ratings analysts who will present an overview of Standard & Poor's recent rating action on the recent change in the U.S. rating. Standard & Poor's will review the rationale for the action, as well as our view of the opportunities and challenges facing the sovereign," said an email circulated on Capitol Hill about the two calls.
S&P has come under blistering criticism from top White House officials over its decision to lower the U.S. rating from AAA to AA+. In a White House appearance on Monday, President Barack Obama said, "No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a AAA country." Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said S&P "has shown really terrible judgment and they've handled themselves very poorly," while Obama economic advisor Gene Sperling was even harsher. "It smacked of an institution starting with a conclusion and shaping any arguments to fit it," Sperling said.
But S&P stands by its action — which first leaked out Friday night after financial markets had closed for the weekend. S&P officials note that their rating includes a "negative outlook" for the United States, meaning further downgrades could be possible.
“Anytime we lower a government’s rating, there is criticism from the government that we rate,” said David Beers, the head of S&P’s sovereign ratings unit, on CNN’s “American Morning.”
“I haven’t encountered a government that’s agreed with the downgrade of their rating.”
Posted by John Bresnahan 06:18 PM
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August 08, 2011
Sen. Bob Corker said Monday he would “relish” the opportunity to serve on the newly created 12-member congressional committee tasked with identifying at least $1.2 trillion in addition cuts to the deficit over the next decade.
“I love complex, tough and controversial Issues," the Tennessee Republican said during a business roundtable, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "It's up to [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell], but I would love to serve on that committee.”
Under the debt-limit legislation Congress passed last week, McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will each appoint three members to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction by Aug. 16.
No one has been named to the bipartisan panel yet, but a number of lawmakers publicly and privately have expressed interest in serving.
Last week, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told the Chicago Tribune editorial board that he’s talked to Reid about the job.
“Would I like to be on this? I guess the honest answer is yes,’’ said Durbin, who served on President Barack Obama’s fiscal commission and was a member of the Senate’s Gang of Six that proposed a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan last month.
If the super committee can’t agree on the cuts by Thanksgiving, or if Congress fails to pass the deficit-reduction plan by Dec. 23, it would trigger painful across-the-board spending cuts to security and domestic programs that are disagreeable to both parties.
Corker, a businessman and former Chattanooga mayor who described himself as “fairly independent,” has a track record of reaching across the aisle. Earlier this year, he and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) introduced the CAP Act, which would limit government spending to about 20.6 percent of gross domestic product over 10 years.
Posted by Scott Wong 01:42 PM
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August 06, 2011
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on all sessions of the yet-to-be-named deficit super committee to be open to the public and aired online.
A key feature of the debt ceiling agreement signed into law by President Barack Obama this week creates a committee of 12 members, divided equally between both parties and chambers, tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving.
The law doesn’t require the meetings to be public.
“The American people are watching to see if the bipartisan joint committee will develop a plan to responsibly reduce the deficit in a balanced way while promoting economic growth and creating jobs,” Pelosi said in a statement issued late Friday. “The work of this committee will affect all Americans, and its deliberations should be open [to] the press, to the public and webcast.
“Any acceptance of the committee proposal will be dependent on the ability of the American people to fully view its proceedings,” she added.
The House’s top Democrat didn’t comment directly on Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the United States’ credit rating on Friday night but noted that credit agencies consider transparency a key component of a nation’s creditworthiness.
Other debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year were held behind closed doors, including those led by Vice President Joe Biden and the discussions with the top eight congressional leaders after the Biden talks collapsed.
Pelosi’s request echoes those of Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Boozman of Arkansas, Dean Heller of Nevada, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and David Vitter of Louisiana, who urged Senate leaders to ensure the public can attend the joint committee’s meetings and watch live broadcasts. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) also has made a similar request.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement Saturday: “The president believes it is important that our elected leaders come together to strengthen our economy and put our nation on a stronger fiscal footing.
“The bipartisan compromise on deficit reduction was an important step in the right direction. Yet, the path to getting there took too long and was, at times, too divisive. We must do better to make clear our nation’s will, capacity and commitment to work together to tackle our major fiscal and economic challenges."
Congressional leaders will make their picks for the joint committee by Aug. 16.
Posted by Seung Min Kim 10:01 AM
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August 05, 2011
The Federal Aviation Administration will soon recall thousands of furloughed employees, restart hundreds of stalled airport construction projects and begin collecting millions of dollars in airport ticket taxes.
President Barack Obama on Friday signed legislation temporarily extending reauthorization of the FAA, ending a standoff between Democrats and Republicans that had partially shut down the agency for two weeks. Obama said the impasse had put “an unnecessary strain” on local economies and the recovery effort, and that he was “glad that this stalemate has finally been resolved.”
Earlier Friday, the Senate approved the House-passed bill, which will put 4,000 federal employees and roughly 70,000 construction workers back on the job as early as Monday.
But because the extension only runs through Sept. 16, lawmakers will still need to hammer out a longer-term deal when they return from their summer recess early next month.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced a “bipartisan compromise” Thursday that cleared the way for the Senate to pass the bill by “unanimous consent.” A major sticking point for Democrats was the fact that the GOP-drafted legislation cut $16 million for subsidies to 13 rural airports around the country.
But to preserve that funding and appease Democrats, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood plans to use his authority to grant waivers to rural airports that don’t want to lose the subsidy.
LaHood called the bill’s passage “a tremendous victory for American workers everywhere” and vowed to get Congress to provide back pay to furloughed employees.
“I'm thrilled for our dedicated FAA employees who will be able to go back to work on Monday. And I'm thrilled for the tens of thousands of hardworking workers who can go back to airport construction sites around the country,” he said in a statement.
Posted by Scott Wong 04:41 PM
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August 05, 2011
Michael Collins, the chief of staff to Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), has been issued a formal "letter of reproval" by the House Ethics Committee for failing to report $54,000 he received from Lewis's reelection committee over a five-year period.
Collins was also fined $1,000 by the Ethics Committee.
Collins failed to declare the payments on his annual financial disclosure forms or tax returns for those years.
"You have stated that the above conduct was related to the fact that you never received 1099 reports from the campaign of your employing Member. However, the Committee finds that failure to receive 1099s from the campaign is not a sufficient excuse for failing to disclose and pay taxes on the income over five years," the Ethics Committee stated in its letter of reproval to Collins.
"Therefore, it is the determination of the committee that your conduct has brought discredit upon the House of Representatives."
The Office of Congressional Ethics submitted a recommendation to the Ethics Committee on Collins in mid-May.
UPDATE: Collins sent POLITICO his statement Friday afternoon regarding the ethics issue: "I have accepted the committee’s report and have been working from the very beginning of this process to correct any errors I may have made. These mistakes were not intentional but were due to an inadvertent omission in disclosure. Regardless, I fully recognize that as a senior staff member in the U.S House of Representatives and most importantly as a chief of staff, it is my responsibility to know and follow the rules of financial disclosure."
Posted by John Bresnahan 02:30 PM
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August 05, 2011
The House Ethics Committee will continue to review allegations against New York Rep. Gregory Meeks over a 2007 loan he took from a Queens businessman but failed to report for three years.
The loan to Meeks came from from Edul Ahmad, a Queens real estate broker who has been investigated for fraud and other allegations. Meeks failed to report the loan until 2010, when the New York Democrat declared that he had repaid it by taking out another loan.The Office of Congressional Ethics, following up on press reports, looked into the matter and recommended that the Ethics Committee investigate the Meeks case. The Ethics Committee has now cleared the 2010 loan — as did OCE — but is still scrutinizing the 2007 transaction.
"The committee has also accepted the OCE' s recommendation for further review of an allegation that Rep. Meeks failed to disclose a payment he received in 2007 in a timely manner," said Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member, said in a statement on Friday. "The committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee."
Under House rules, the Ethics committee has up to 90 days to act on an OCE recommendation. If it does not, the OCE report then is publicly released.
Posted by John Bresnahan 02:20 PM
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August 05, 2011
GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) did improperly accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in free legal help in a long-running campaign case but "did not knowingly" violate House ethics rules on accepting an improper gift, the Ethics Committee announced today.
Schmidt will have to repay the $500,000 and revise her financial disclosure forms for the past several years to reflect the improper gift, the Ethics Committee declared. Schmidt can use campaign funds, if approved by the Federal Election Commission, or a legal-defense fund, which has been approved but never formally created, or pay from her own pocket. In the meantime, Schmidt will have to carry this debt as a liability on her disclosure forms.
The Office of Congressional Ethics, after its own probe, referred the Schmidt case to the Ethics Committee in May. OCE can review cases and make recommendations for action, but it cannot impose sanctions on any lawmaker.
The convoluted Schmidt case goes back to 2008 when a challenger claimed that Schmidt got a $30,000 bribe from the Turkish government to help suppress Armenian genocide claims going back to World War I. Schmidt filed several complaints against David Krikorian at the state level, and the two waged a legal battle in state and federal courts.
Schmidt sought advice from the Ethics Committee in 2009 about accepting legal services from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund. Schmidt eventually got permission to set up a legal defense fund to pay her lawyer bills, but a related entity — the Turkish Coalition of America — was secretly paying Schmidt's fees.
OCE looked into the matter and referred a case in May to the Ethics Committee as a potential rules violation by Schmidt.
» Continue reading House Ethics: Jean Schmidt took improper $500K gift but not guilty of violation
Posted by John Bresnahan 02:03 PM
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August 05, 2011
The embattled House Ethics Committee has cleared Gregory Hill, chief of staff to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on allegations of allegedly violating the limit on outside earned income. McCaul currently serves on the Ethics Committee but did not participate in the case.
In a statement released Friday, the Ethics Committee found that Hill had violated the outside income limit but did not do so knowingly and quickly moved to return the money once he was aware of the problem.
The matter was referred to the Ethics Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics in mid-May.
"According to the referral from OCE, Mr. Hill received $32,000 in compensation for his
work on the McCaul for Congress campaign during 2009. In 2009, the outside earned income
limit for House senior staff was $26,550," the Ethics Committee said in its statement.
"The committee's review of the matter indicated that Mr. Hill did, in fact, receive income in excess of the limit as OCE has alleged, and therefore the committee did not dismiss the OCE matter."
The Ethics Committee added: "However, based on the committee's review of the evidence in this matter, the committee has found that when Mr. Hill became aware of the violation, he took appropriate and immediate steps to remedy it. Though his initial attempts to remedy the situation were unsuccessful, due to misinformation from the campaign's financial agents, when he was made aware that the remedy had not been successful, he took further steps, and has now satisfactorily disgorged himself of the excess income. For these reasons, the committee has determined that no sanctions are warranted."
» Continue reading House Ethics clears McCaul aide of alleged outside income violation
Posted by John Bresnahan 01:29 PM
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August 04, 2011
Hardly a surprise, but David Wu’s resignation letter fails to reference any of the odd behavior he reportedly exhibited during his 2010 reelection campaign, nor does it mention the allegation that he engaged in an unwanted sexual act with the underage daughter of a supporter.
Instead, the now-former Oregon congressman calls his 12 years in the House “the greatest honor” of his life and says that for his constituents, the “best days are yet to come.”
Handwritten in blue ink on congressional stationery, Wu’s letter notes his devotion to investing in the sciences and education, as well as his support for people around the world who face oppression of human rights.
“However great the honor and engaging the work, there comes a time to hand on the privilege of office,” Wu wrote to Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D). “That time has come. With gratitude to the people of Oregon and confidence that our best days are yet to come, I hereby resign as their United States Congressman for the First Congressional District of Oregon, effective immediately.”
A special election is scheduled for Jan. 31, 2012, to choose Wu’s successor. Party primaries are scheduled for Nov. 8.
Posted by Seung Min Kim 03:53 PM
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August 04, 2011
Members of the freshman class are circulating a letter asking Speaker of the House John Boehner to appoint one of the first-term lawmakers to the new deficit-reduction super committee.
The letter, drafted by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tom Marino, argues that the freshmen have played a leading role in the passage of major deficit and debt reduction bills in the 112th Congress and so deserve representation on the committee tasked with slashing the deficit. The committee was formed by a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling this week.
"Since the new House freshmen took office in January, the atmosphere in the Capitol has changed dramatically. We have been a leading force behind giving Americans a government that lives within its means, and we are putting an end to the unrestrained growth of the federal government," Marino writes, noting that 59 of the 87 ultimately supported the debt ceiling deal, and that freshmen were essential in passing the continuing resolution deal, the GOP's budget and Cut, Cap and Balance. "Oftentimes, the leadership and votes of the freshman members have been essential in advancing these critical measures."
Marino also says while "there are many senior members of our conference like Paul Ryan and Dave Camp who would serve our interests very well on the Joint Select Committee ... appointing a member of the 112th freshman class would be an important acknowledgment of how we played a vital role in changing the debate in Washington."
It's the latest request from a freshman class that has asked for — and received — nearly everything they've asked of leadership. After they were elected, House leaders gave them two seats at the leadership table after freshmen decided they didn't want to choose between Reps. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
Freshmen were instrumental in pushing leaders to vote for a continuing resolution that cut $100 billion in spending, and later, in the RSC-backed Cut, Cap, and Balance proposal to raise the debt ceiling. A majority of the class voted for the Budget Control Act, and a staffer for Marino who circulated the letter noted that it would be a great opportunity for the leadership to demonstrate that the freshmen "have not acted like terrorists" — a reference to Vice President Joe Biden's remark that the tea party members were holding the political process hostage last week. Leaders of both parties have two weeks to pick the members. The committee will be tasked with slashing $1.2 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years.
Posted by Marin Cogan 01:36 PM
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August 03, 2011
Six Republican senators on Wednesday called on Senate leaders to ensure that a new congressional deficit-reduction committee meets in public and before television cameras.
The 12-member super committee, comprised of an equal number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, was created by the debt-limit legislation signed into law Tuesday, and is responsible for identifying $1.2 trillion in spending cuts by Thanksgiving. But the law doesn’t require the committee’s meetings to be open to the public.
In their letter, Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), John Boozman (Ark.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mike Lee (Utah), and David Vitter (La.) urged Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to make sure members of the public receive notice of meetings, are able to attend them and can watch live broadcasts.
Reid, McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will each appoint three members to the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction.
“We remain concerned that all aspects of the federal budget, including revenue increases, could be subject to the committee’s recommendations. If our colleagues wish to raise taxes or propose spending cuts, the American people have a right to see that process unfold,” the senators wrote. “All Americans should have the ability to see how the committee crafts a concrete plan for our fiscal future.”
The senators are co-sponsors of a bill Heller introduced Tuesday that would require meetings of the committee to be transparent and open to the public.
Earlier Wednesday, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) issued a statement urging congressional leaders to make the meetings public.
“This is a pivotal point in our nation’s history,” Buchanan said. “The critical decisions made by the joint committee should be conducted under the watchful eye of the American people.”
Full text of the senators’ letter after the jump:
» Continue reading Six GOP senators want deficit committee to meet in public
Posted by Scott Wong 05:13 PM
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