Today in Washington D. C. - July 10, 2008

The Senate resumed consideration of the housing bill (House message H.R. 3221). After an hour of debate, the Senate will vote on cloture on the motion to disagree with House amendment # 3 to the housing bill. The cloture votes on this bill have been necessary because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to prevent Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) from attaching an amendment to the bill extending tax credits for renewable energy. This afternoon, senators will vote on the nominations of Gen. David Petraeus to be Commander of U.S. Central Command and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno to be Commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq.

Yesterday, the Senate passed the compromise FISA reform bill (H.R. 6304), finally sending it to President Bush for his signature. The president will sign the bill later this morning. Prior to passing FISA, amendments by Sens. Dodd, Specter, and Bingaman that would have weakened or eliminated the immunity provisions in the bill were defeated. The Senate also passed the Medicare payments fix bill following a successful cloture vote. Last night, Reid filed for cloture on the motion to proceed to the AIDS relief bill (S. 2731).

From News Sources: More and more bloggers are picking up on the harebrained schemes of Democrats in the House and Senate trying to restrict and regulate the way members use the internet to communicate with the public. ARRA News posted on this yesterday. Zenpundit at Chicago Boyz explains the problems with these proposals and then goes on to pithily answer criticism of the effort to bring these new rules to light: “rules that seem ‘reasonable’ regarding content and external sites are subjective and are to be interpreted by the majority at the minority’s expense.”

Uunprecedented gas prices continue to frustrate the American public. Some Democrats may finally be open to commonsense Republican energy proposals after hearing from their constituents last week. Though Democrats have spent much of the past couple months dismissing the importance of opening more domestic energy supplies, a wave of news stories this week shows that they’re now changing their tune.

Politico reports today: “Democrats’ long-held opposition to expanded offshore oil drilling [is] succumb[ing] to the political realities of $4-per-gallon gasoline” and that Democrat Sens. Dick Durbin, Jeff Bingaman, Tom Carper, Claire McCaskill, and Jim Webb may now be open to considering new drilling proposals. Keep Contacting these people and your Senator and Representatives! The Hill and Reuters have similar articles today, following reports yesterday in The Wall Street Journal that Democrat opposition to drilling was beginning to soften thanks to pressure from Senate Republicans and the outcries of constituents. GOP senators have been ready to “Find More and Use Less” with the Gas Price Reduction Act. Democrats need to join with Republicans to pass meaningful legislation which will develop more (drill for more oil) American energy while encouraging conservation.

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