Rep. Edolphus Towns, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is calling on the Treasury Department to implement accountability and transparency recommendations. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Thursday, Towns, D-N.Y., asked him to listen to the recommendations of Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky testified before the committee Wednesday, recommending that all TARP agreements include requirements that receipients of federal dollars must provide Barofsky and other oversight authorities information on how the money has been spent. He also urged creation of internal controls and clarifying compliance with TARP rules. He…
Browsing: Congress
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee unexpectedly canceled Thursday’s confirmation vote for Labor secretary nominee Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif. The committee had been scheduled to vote on Solis at 2 p.m., but media and spectators arrived to find a committee staffer taping up signs saying that the hearing had been postponed indefinitely. Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and ranking member Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., issued a joint statement saying the hearing will be scheduled at at later date. Today’s executive session was postponed to allow members additional time to review the documentation submitted in support of Rep. Solis’ nomination to…
If you don’t yet have your digital converter box, your TV won’t go black on Feb. 17. The House voted 264-158 Wednesday to delay the switch from analog to digital television transmission until June 12. The Senate has already passed the bill, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it shortly. The bill was delayed to provide time for more seniors and low-income people to acquire coupons to buy digital converter boxes, necessary for analog televisions to pick up signals with without cable. The Federal Communications Commissions has pushed hard to let people know of the impending transition, including…
The FERS Redeposit Act is getting a second life. Three representatives reintroduced the bill, HR, 828, Tuesday, which would allow federal employees returning to the federal workforce from the private sector to reinvest their full federal retirement annuity without losing any credit for previous years of service. The bill, first introduced in 2007, died in the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia. The bill was introduced by Reps. James Moran, D-Va., Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Gerald Connolly, D-Va. It’s been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and will likely…
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…
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…
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…