Today in Washington D. C. - Jan 13, 2009

The Senate will resume consideration of the omnibus public lands bill (S.22). Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the bill, and a vote could come tomorrow. Reid has said that after the lands bill is completed, he wants the Senate to take up a retread from last year, the Lilly Ledbetter bill, which is designed to eliminate statutes of limitations on suing employers over discrimination.

A week before his inauguration, president-elect Barack Obama is getting a taste today of the difficulty of actually governing the country. Obama will be making his way to Capitol Hill later in the day to ask Democrats in Congress to approve the second $350 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (a.k.a. the financial rescue bill). However, CQ Today writes, “[A] nasty battle is brewing in Congress between supporters of releasing the funds and those who have voiced considerable discontent over the way Treasury allocated the first half of the funding for its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), enacted last October (PL 110-343). Congress now has 15 days to block the move through a resolution of disapproval, which already has been introduced in the House.” And USA Today notes, “The request sets up what could be Obama’s first confrontation with Congress, which is controlled by his fellow Democrats.” Indeed, The Wall Street Journal reports that “[s]ome Senate Democrats remain skeptical” of the plan and “[Senate] Republicans who originally supported the plan may be unwilling to support another round.”

The New York Times reports, “The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he was reluctant to provide the additional money. ‘The American people have a lot of questions about how additional funds would be used,’ Mr. McConnell said. ‘I would be hard pressed to support additional funding for the TARP without sufficient assurances this money will not be wasted, misspent or simply used for more industry-specific bailouts.’” Sen. McConnell added on the Senate floor this morning, “The current administration used these funds for the auto industry, a move that I opposed. Now Congressional Democrats are urging more of the same. The American people still don’t have assurances that this money will not be wasted or misused to play favorites. So far, the incoming administration has not said whether it plans to limit funds to their original purpose or to expand their use to help specific industries.”

This is not the only trouble Obama is running into with Congress. The Washington Post writes today, “Bowing to widespread Democratic skepticism, President-elect Barack Obama will drop his bid to include a business tax break he once touted in the economic stimulus bill now taking shape on Capitol Hill, aides said last night.” Obama's hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, has an editorial today voicing skepticism of Obama’s stimulus plans. The editors write, “The danger [of the close to $1 trillion stimulus proposal] is that we may inflict on future taxpayers the better part of a trillion dollars in new debt without actually hastening recovery.”

Finally, after going back and forth on what he planned to do on the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for terrorists, Obama aides say he plans to issue an executive order next week to close the prison. But The New York Times writes today that it’s not so easy to follow through on this plan, given the legal and national security issues involved. From confrontations with Congress over controversial programs to criticism from his hometown newspaper to trying to figure out how to fulfill a pledge, Obama is finding that it’s never as easy as it sounds on the campaign trail.

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