by Congressional Quarterly

House Democratic leaders are asking committee chairmen to offer proposals for creating jobs that can be wrapped into a bill and enacted by year’s end, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday. Hoyer said he hopes a jobs bill could be moved by the House’s target adjournment date of Dec. 18 — a marker that could slip, depending on the status of health care legislation moving through Congress. “We are moving ahead at a pace that hopefully will allow us to do something in the next three weeks,” he said. The package is almost certain to include extensions of expanded unemployment and health benefits that were included in the economic stimulus law Congress enacted in February. Beyond that, Democrats are considering more funding for highway and other infrastructure projects they believe can create jobs quickly — even though economists warn there can be significant lag time between when funding is authorized and when the projects commence. Lawmakers also continue to discuss providing more aid to state governments facing budget shortfalls, and offering new tax incentives, including one for businesses that add employees. With the unemployment rate at 10.2 percent — the highest since 1983 — Democrats are increasingly worried that the weak labor market will spell trouble for incumbents in the 2010 elections. “Clearly 10.2 percent unemployment is unacceptable and is causing great pain to literally millions of people around the country,” Hoyer said. Passing a jobs bill before the end of the year would allow nervous members to show constituents that the House is on the case and trying to reverse the downturn. Democrats want to avoid calling the bill an economic stimulus measure, in an effort to focus the debate on jobs rather than economic growth. “I wouldn’t characterize it as a second stimulus I don’t think it will be as broad as that, I think will be very targeted on jobs,” Hoyer said.

Senate May Circumvent Normal Order on Request for Missile Defense

November 16, 2009

   by Congressional Quarterly

The Senate will likely adopt an amendment to the fiscal 2010 military construction and Veterans Affairs spending bill that would reprogram $68.5 million in fiscal 2009 money to upgrade a missile defense testing facility at the Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii. The amendment — by Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye , D-Hawaii — was offered at the request of Army Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency. Inouye said he offered the amendment with reservations because it “circumvents” the Senate’s normal order of business. Such requests typically are authorized in the annual defense policy bill. Appropriators then redirect the money in a spending bill. Inouye noted that Obama revealed his new European missile defense plan Sept. 17, well after the House and Senate began the conference negotiation process for the defense policy bill. O’Reilly’s letter arrived the day a conference agreement was reached on the fiscal 2010 policy measure. In an Oct. 7 letter, O’Reilly said the funding was “previously appropriated for deployment of missile defense capabilities” in eastern Europe. “Our top priority is the establishment of an Aegis Ashore test facility which could also provide an operational ballistic missile defense capability when needed,” O’Reilly wrote. “Due to its strategic location and multi-dimensional testing capabilities, the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii has been selected as the proposed site for this test facility, and placement of a test launcher at this site could also provide continuous protection for this region.” The range on Kauai has been a test center for the Aegis ballistic missile defense system for 12 years. The ship-based system is at the core of the president’s new missile defense strategy. Inouye said the facility is essential for meeting the president’s goal of deploying an anti-missile capability in Europe by 2015. The goal is to complete the project in time to support the first flight test of the land-based Standard-Missile 3 interceptor in fiscal 2012. To do so, funding would be required in fiscal 2010, according to O’Reilly. The Senate is expected to pass the Military Construction-VA bill — with the amendment likely included — this week.

Administration Officials Criticize Sen. Dodd’s Banking Plan

November 13, 2009

   by Congressional Quarterly

Obama administration officials on Friday criticized the central plank of the Senate Banking chairman’s sweeping proposal to overhaul regulation of the financial system, thrusting into the public a debate that has been bubbling beneath the surface. Austan Goolsbee, a White House economic adviser, voiced concern that the plan, introduced on Nov. 10 by Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., could open regulatory gaps and sow confusion in the financial system by consolidating banking regulation in a single agency. Dodd’s draft legislation would strip the Federal Reserve of its power to regulate federal banks — a complete reversal from administration and House proposals that would actually boost the Fed’s authority over bank holding companies. “There has always been an issue that in a moment of crisis where the Fed is out trying to figure out what they are trying to do, and if they are not integrally involved with the actual regulation and oversight to the institutions, you could get into a ‘left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing’ kind of problem,” Goolsbee said during the Bloomberg Washington Summit. In a separate appearance, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin joined Goolsbee in his critique. Wolin told an audience that the Fed “is the only agency with broad and deep knowledge of financial institutions and the capital markets necessary to do the job effectively.” “The Fed’s role as lender of last resort depends importantly on its supervision of the largest, most interconnected firms,” Wolin told the American Bar Association’s Banking Law Committee. “Supervision gives it deep understanding and timely access to information about the banking sector, payments systems, and capital markets. Stripped of its supervisory role, the Fed would not have timely and complete information in a crisis.” Dodd’s proposal would also give a council of regulators power to oversee risks to the financial system. The council could impose new rules on firms deemed threatening to the overall stability of the system, including increased capital requirements and, in extreme cases, break up large financial institutions. The administration and House have proposed giving the Fed that power.

Obama Plans White House Forum on Job Creation

November 12, 2009

   by Congressional Quarterly

President Obama will host a jobs forum at the White House next month to address concerns that the economic recovery is not putting enough people back to work. The unemployment rate now stands at 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983. Though the economy grew 3.5 percent in the last quarter, economists say it could take many months to whittle down the jobless rate. Unemployment is a major political concern for Democrats heading into the 2010 mid-term elections, because Obama and his congressional allies sold big initiatives — such as this year’s economic stimulus package — on the promise of job creation. “We all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times,” Obama said Thursday at the White House, before leaving on a nine-day trip to Asia. “But we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step that we can [take] to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country.” Obama said he would gather representatives from the business community and labor groups, as well as economists, to discuss what policies could lead to the creation of jobs. The president also announced that he would press foreign leaders to further open their markets to U.S. goods. Congressional Democrats and the White House are weighing what additional steps should be taken to try to generate jobs. But they have to contend with withering criticism from Republicans, who contend that enactment of the $787 billion stimulus package did nothing to avert high unemployment.

Reid Faces Challenge Crafting Abortion Curbs in Health Care Bill

November 11, 2009

   by Congressional Quarterly

Senate Democrats are bracing for a floor fight on abortion when debate begins on health care overhaul legislation, as Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., probably will not include restrictions stringent enough to satisfy abortion opponents. Two anti-abortion Democrats, Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, say they have not decided whether to offer an abortion-related floor amendment to the bill. But they and other Democrats opposed to abortion said they expect longstanding restrictions on federal funding for abortion, known as the Hyde amendment, to be replicated in the health bill. “I think the Hyde amendment is fairly clear, and it ought be carried over into any legislation here,” Nelson said Tuesday. “The question of how you do it is, of course, going to be open. That’ll probably be a big debate on the floor.” The health care bill that the House passed Nov. 7 was amended on the floor to forbid insurance plans receiving federal subsidies from covering elective abortion services. A new government-run insurance plan known as the public option would not be able to cover the procedure at all, except in cases of rape or incest or when continuing the pregnancy would threaten a woman’s life. Abortion rights supporters said that means women buying individual insurance through new exchanges will be unable to obtain policies that cover abortion, even if they receive no subsidy. A group of Democratic women senators met Tuesday to discuss how they can ensure the House language is not included in the Senate health care legislation. “We will fight against any amendment that prevents women from using their own private funds for their reproductive health care,” Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., said in a statement after the meeting. “We are optimistic that compromise will prevail.”