Senate Republican leaders addressed Tom Daschle’s stepping down as HHS secretary-nominee, with Sen. John Ensign saying Daschle’s nomination had “serious problems.” Ensign, R-Nev., also decried Daschle’s health-care policy work with Alston & Bird, a Washington, D.C.-based law and lobbying firm. Previously, President Barack Obama pledged that lobbyists would not be allowed to have roles in the administration related to areas where they had lobbied. I don’t know how you can get paid $2 million by a lobbying firm and not call yourself a lobbyist.” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared annoyed by reporters’ repeated inquiries about Daschle, trying to bring…
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White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tom Daschle made the decision on his own to drop out of consideration for Health and Human Services secretary. There was no signal to Daschle from the White House,” Gibbs said. Gibbs added that Daschle also withdrew his name as leader of the new White House health care policy office. Daschle’s decision caused waves on the Hill, where Daschle, the former Senate majority leader, remains in high regard. The Senate Finance Committee votes on the confirmation of the HHS secretary, but the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing in…
Illinois’ veterans affairs director Tammy Duckworth has been selected as the nominee for assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs for the VA, the White House announced Tuesday morning. Duckworth is a well-known major in the Illinois National Guard who lost both of her legs in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was piloting in Iraq. As assistant secretary, Duckworth will oversee the public affairs department, internal communications and intergovernmental relations. She will also oversee programs for homeless veterans, special rehabilitation events and consumer affairs. Duckworth has testified before congressional hearings about the need to transform the…
After weeks of tough questions from Republicans, the Senate confirmed Eric Holder as attorney general this evening. The vote was 75-21. A few Republicans took to the Senate floor before the 6:15 p.m. vote, questioning changes in Holder’s stances on counterterrorism and detaining terrorist suspects without Geneva Convention rights. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Holder once supported detaining suspects without those rights but is now strongly against the Bush administration’s counterterrorism stances. “His contrasting positions from 2002 to 2008 make me wonder if this is the same person. It makes me wonder what he truly believes.” The Senate Judiciary Committee’s…
The House of Representatives won’t take up a fiscal year 2009 spending omnibus this week, due to the pending stimulus bills and a House Democratic retreat. All but three appropriations bills have been on hold since last fall, when Congress passed full FY09 appropriations bills for the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security. The rest of the government has been operating under a continuing resolution, which expires March 6. A House Democratic leadership aide said no timeline has been set yet for the omnibus but added that it will be passed soon. House Democratic leadership…
On ABC World News last night, reporter Jonathan Karl said this about the stimulus package: But Republicans say the bill is filled with old-fashioned big-government spending that won’t stimulate the economy. For example, $335 million for sexually transmitted disease prevention, $600 million to buy new cars for government employees, and $1 billion to follow up on the 2010 Census, which, of course, hasn’t happened yet. You can argue that $1 billion for the 2010 Census isn’t stimulative. We’ll buy that. But do some Congressmen really believe spending $600 million to upgrade the federal fleet (read: buying new cars) won’t help…
As the Food and Drug Administration issues a massive recall of peanut products, a new bill could give the FDA stronger investigative powers. HR 758, the FDA Globalization Act, was introduced Wednesday by Reps. John Dingell, D-Mich., Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The bill would require foreign factories that produce drugs and medical devices to be inspected at least every two years, the standard for domestic companies. New fees on imports would help pay for more inspections, and the bill would also give the FDA more room to impose larger fines on companies for faulty imported and domestic…
The House voted 244-188 Wednesday evening to pass the economic stimulus package, setting up a Senate vote in the coming days. The $819 billion bill, HR 1, includes $523 billion in spending and $275 billion in tax cuts, which Democrats said will spur economic growth and create American jobs. The House approved six amendments to the bill, several of which affect federal employees: The bill now includes a provision strengthening whistleblower protections for federal employees, which had been missing from the original bill. The bill specified protections for state and local workers but did not mention federal employees. The whistleblower…
House Minority Leader John Boehner says good riddance to $200 million in funds for the National Mall initally included in the House economic stimulus bill. That provision was cut during the House Rules Committee meeting yesterday, as was millions for contraceptives for low-income families. During a pen-and-pad session with reporters Wednesday morning, he said the ax needs to be taken to many more initiatives. “That’s two steps in the right direction, but there’s still hundreds of millions in wasteful spending.” Other projects he singled out as wasteful included $400 million for NASA to study climate change and about $650 million…
One controversial provision in the House economic stimulus package is already dead: $200 million for the National Mall. National Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson told Federal Times’ Gregg Carlstrom the money would have been used to shore up the Tidal Basin wall near the Jefferson Memorial, which is sinking into the Basin. But that won’t happen right now. The House Rules Committee met Tuesday evening to set rules for floor debate for HR 1, the stimulus package, and adopted the following provision: “4. strikes funding for the National Mall Revitalization Fund.” The rule is self-executing, which means it will automatically…