Politics

The Week In Review

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

What a week. Jim Bunning’s [R, KY] filibuster of a bill extending unemployment insurance dominated the beginning of the week but Democrats also made some progress on the health care front. Expect both issues to resurface in the coming weeks as the real hard work for both comes next. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to this week at OpenCongress:

• Rep. Bunning oddly chose the issue of unemployment insurance as a hill to die on.
• His opposition to the temporary extensions bill continued, even when other people were dealing with the consequences.
• On Tuesday, though, he caved and allowed the extensions to pass.
• And with that drama behind them, Democrats are now pursuing a longer-term extension bill.
• In other non-Bunning news, Rep. Charlie Rangel [D, NY-15] stepped down as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee after being called out by the House ethics committee.
• The Democrats are starting to plan for an end to the health care reform process.
• Donny has been all over the budget reconciliation process and the Byrd rule.
• A former Senate parliamentarian defends budget reconciliation from Republican claims that it is illegitimate.
• A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers wants to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.
• And Rep. Bart Stupak [D, MI-1] is back to once again trip health care reform just before it reaches the finish line.

And again, we really appreciate all your comments this week and want to encourage everyone to keep participating on the site. Remember to become a fan of OpenCongress on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter at @OpenCongress. And if you can, follow us on Google Buzz.

Full post as published by Open Congress on March 07, 2010 (boomark / email).