One Bill Left

[Dardedar]

Nancy, kicking tail:



One Bill Left on Dems' 100-hour Agenda

By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - House Democrats sprinting to finish six bills on terrorism, the minimum wage, drug prices and other issues are well ahead of the 100-hour deadline they gave themselves to do it.

By new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record)'s clock, they began Thursday morning with more than 60 hours remaining and only one measure left: an energy bill with $15 billion in new fees, royalties and taxes for the oil industry. A celebration was planned later Thursday once it's passed.

On Wednesday, seven hours ticked off the Democrats' 100-hour clock for passing an agenda the party had told voters they would enact after sweeping to victory in November.

According to Pelosi's count, it has taken just over 34 hours to pass the first five bills, including a measure Wednesday to lower interest rates on some student loans.

The House actually had been in session for about 79 hours from the time the 110th Congress was sworn in on Jan. 4 through close of House business Wednesday. But the clock on Pelosi's Web site, which racks only hours spent on legislation, showed that 34 hours, 5 minutes had elapsed.

The clock started again Thursday with the opening of debate on the oil revenues bill.

The others passed so far would:

_Make the government negotiate for lower Medicare prescription drug prices. It passed last Friday.

_Expand federally funded stem cell research. It passed Jan. 11.

_Raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over 26 months. It passed Jan. 10.

_Bolster terrorism-fighting efforts with more cargo inspections. It passed Jan. 9.

Democrats also won approval of internal House rule changes dealing with ethics, lobbying and budgeting. They were passed on Jan. 4-5, the first two days of the new Congress.

LINK

DAR
Gee, I wonder why the last group didn't think of doing some of these things?

[Doug]

DAR
Gee, I wonder why the last group didn't think of doing some of these things?

DOUG
How about: The Republicans don't really care about our country? How else to explain that they supported a war unrelated to terrorism, and which would drain lives and resources?

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

How about they same reason Exxon-funded "scientists" put out "no global warming" info - their extra-curricular income (not salaries) depended on them not thinking of these things.

Of course, all this stuff has to get through the Senate and then passed the President - but in '08 campaigns the congressional Dems can truthfully say, "We kept our promises".

[Dardedar]

"With the passage of a bill today that rolls back subsidies to oil companies, the Democrats accomplished their '100 Hours' campaign pledge — in 42 hours and 15 minutes."

[Savonarola]

"With the passage of a bill today that rolls back subsidies to oil companies, the Democrats accomplished their '100 Hours' campaign pledge — in 42 hours and 15 minutes."

Of course, everyone knows that the reason those evil Democrats worked so fast was so the poor, honest, working-for-the-constituents Republicans wouldn't have enough time to read the bills...

ETA: Speaking of Republican whiners... In case nobody's checked NWAP recently, it's dead as a doornail. No new entries since before the Dems took over, and even before then is slim pickin's...

[LaWood]

Completion of the First 100 Hours was reported on NBC, but no mention made on ABushC or CheneyBS .

[LaWood]

>Speaking of Republican whiners... In case nobody's checked NWAP recently, it's dead as a doornail. No new entries since before the Dems took over, and even before then is slim pickin's...<

Boo Hoo. Today (jan 22) I was saddened to learn that my access to NWA Politics and Insanity was denied. I posted something contrary (imagine that) so DQ was free to go off on me without fear of rebuttal. What a bunch of wimps, midgets, wacknuts.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Isn't "promises made - promises kept" supposed to be one of those phrases that elects people in the "red" states. To quote an old pep rally cheer - "You're lookin' good, big team, lookin' good"

As to not reading the bills - that's been a problem with both sides (how we got the Patriot Act for example), but just how slow do those Rs read? There was something like 400 pages of bills. Now if you divide that by 42 hours, that is a little over 9 pages an hour BUT the hours counted were "working on the floor" hours, not clock hours. It's been over 2 solid weeks since the 110th was sworn in. Considering how many days off the 109th took, having them work a little overtime was good for them. Get them semi, sort of, kinda in a way, reconnected to the real world.

[Hogeye]

Congratulations, LaWood! I also had the honor and privilege of getting banned from there. I was even a columnist. (You can see my contributions here.) They didn't like my photos of the Iraq occupation, nor my take on retaliatory justice for drug nazis.