Today in Washington D. C. - May 6, 2008
On The Floor: The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today. Resumes consideration of the FAA reauthorization bill (H.R. 2881). A cloture vote on the Rockefeller substitute amendment is scheduled for 2:30 PM. Reid blocked Republicans from offering amendments. Reid’s move may prevent him from getting cloture on the bill today. If cloture is not invoked, the Senate is expected to turn to a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to a flood insurance bill (S. 2284). The Senate Appropriations Committee may hold a markup on the Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill on Thursday.
From Senate & News Sources: Only Republicans have addressed the high gas prices with their proposals designed to tackle the issue of oil supply. The importance of looking at the supply side of oil prices is vividly illustrated by three news stories today. The Washington Post: “Adam Sieminski, chief oil economist at Deutsche Bank, said declines in oil output in the United States and Europe and a slowdown in the growth of oil production in Russia were making it hard for world supplies to keep pace with rising consumption.” The AP reports, “Supply outages or potential threats to supply emerged in Iran and Nigeria over the weekend and from Iraq on Monday; events in all three nations have caused prices to spike many times in recent months.” And Bloomberg notes, “‘There are bad news coming out everyday on the supply side, it’s a scary picture right now,’ said Jonathan Kornafel, the director for Asia at Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore.”
Democrats have repeatedly blocked commonsense solutions to increase domestic oil supplies, often saying it is important to invest in alternative fuels instead. Many bills have passed to do just that, and there is no reason both cannot be done at the same time. Further, it is disappointing to hear Democrats complain about oil that would not be ready for 10 years in the case of ANWR, only to see their solutions consist mostly of much longer term ideas for new technologies. After weeks of infighting over differences among themselves on a supplemental funding bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Democrats appear ready to move forward with a bill in the House. Of course, this is without going through the regular committee process, something Democrats promised they would not do in 2006, as detailed by Politico.
With regard to troop funding, House Democrats seem more interested in playing politics with this bill, then getting the funds to our troops. The New York Times reports that although “[President] Bush has steadily insisted he would not approve any legislation that exceeds his spending request for the war, sets any withdrawal deadlines or adds domestic money he opposes like the unemployment benefits,” House Democrats are preparing a bill with all three of these items.
Including these measures in the bill will only serve to delay the war funding needed by the Pentagon, since the withdrawal provisions in particular will not survive in the Senate and the added spending could result in a veto. Admiral Michael Mullen, JCS Chairman has said that the military needs this funding “very badly before the Memorial Day recess. . . . We stop paying soldiers on the 15th of June and we have precious little flexibility with respect to that.” However, Sen. Harry Reid responds, “I think we’ll do our best to finish this before the Memorial Day break, but if we don’t, it’s no big deal.” No big deal? Some days it’s difficult not to be taken aback by Reid's cavalier attitude towards funding our troops and by the Democrats demonstrated delays and political posturing.
Tags: FAA bill, gas prices, troop funding, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
From Senate & News Sources: Only Republicans have addressed the high gas prices with their proposals designed to tackle the issue of oil supply. The importance of looking at the supply side of oil prices is vividly illustrated by three news stories today. The Washington Post: “Adam Sieminski, chief oil economist at Deutsche Bank, said declines in oil output in the United States and Europe and a slowdown in the growth of oil production in Russia were making it hard for world supplies to keep pace with rising consumption.” The AP reports, “Supply outages or potential threats to supply emerged in Iran and Nigeria over the weekend and from Iraq on Monday; events in all three nations have caused prices to spike many times in recent months.” And Bloomberg notes, “‘There are bad news coming out everyday on the supply side, it’s a scary picture right now,’ said Jonathan Kornafel, the director for Asia at Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore.”
Democrats have repeatedly blocked commonsense solutions to increase domestic oil supplies, often saying it is important to invest in alternative fuels instead. Many bills have passed to do just that, and there is no reason both cannot be done at the same time. Further, it is disappointing to hear Democrats complain about oil that would not be ready for 10 years in the case of ANWR, only to see their solutions consist mostly of much longer term ideas for new technologies. After weeks of infighting over differences among themselves on a supplemental funding bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Democrats appear ready to move forward with a bill in the House. Of course, this is without going through the regular committee process, something Democrats promised they would not do in 2006, as detailed by Politico.
With regard to troop funding, House Democrats seem more interested in playing politics with this bill, then getting the funds to our troops. The New York Times reports that although “[President] Bush has steadily insisted he would not approve any legislation that exceeds his spending request for the war, sets any withdrawal deadlines or adds domestic money he opposes like the unemployment benefits,” House Democrats are preparing a bill with all three of these items.
Including these measures in the bill will only serve to delay the war funding needed by the Pentagon, since the withdrawal provisions in particular will not survive in the Senate and the added spending could result in a veto. Admiral Michael Mullen, JCS Chairman has said that the military needs this funding “very badly before the Memorial Day recess. . . . We stop paying soldiers on the 15th of June and we have precious little flexibility with respect to that.” However, Sen. Harry Reid responds, “I think we’ll do our best to finish this before the Memorial Day break, but if we don’t, it’s no big deal.” No big deal? Some days it’s difficult not to be taken aback by Reid's cavalier attitude towards funding our troops and by the Democrats demonstrated delays and political posturing.
Tags: FAA bill, gas prices, troop funding, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 10:00 AM - Post Link
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