Today in Washington D. C. - Oct 18, 2007

From Senate sources: More egregious earmarks are coming to light in the Senate Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. The latest is an earmark from New York Sens. Schumer and Clinton, which would provide $1 million for a museum to commemorate the Woodstock festival. Robert Novak Reports!

Republicans continue to be concerned with a $2 million cut to the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), which investigates union corruption and fraud. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has introduced an amendment to provide more funding for OLMS. The OLMS cut is just the latest in a series of attempts by Democrats to pay back unions for helping them in the 2006 elections.

Politico reports: as Democrats prepare a $1 trillion “tax war,”Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell joined with Sens. Gordon Smith, Mike Crapo, and Chuck Grassley to call for a fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) - view video .

On The Floor: -- Resume consideration of the fiscal 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3043). Senate version of the bill (S. 1710) provides $605.5 billion in funds which is $9.6 billion above the president’s request. -- The Senate Judiciary Comm. will resume confirmation hearings for Judge Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General.

In the House: -- A vote is expected on overriding President Bush’s veto of the Democrat expansion of SCHIP. Reports suggest Democrats will not be able to muster the required 2/3 vote. -- House Democrats were forced to pull their flawed FISA reform bill from the floor yesterday after Republicans offered a common-sense motion to recommit to ensure that the U.S. intelligence community can conduct surveillance on al Qaeda.

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