Politics

The Week In Review

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

Democrats and Republicans are still trying to work out a deal ahead of Monday’s cloture vote on Sen. Chris Dodd’s [D, CT] financial regulation bill. Meanwhile, some surprising support from the energy industry has brightened the prospects of a proposed climate change bill from Sen. John Kerry [D, MA], Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC] and Sen. Joe Lieberman [I, CT]. And to further complicate things, a controversial anti-immigration bill in Arizona will likely be a catalyst for another round of debate on immigration reform. Expect more on all these issues next week. Until then, take a look at what we’ve been up to at OpenCongress this week:

• For a while, it looked like Congress was ready to move on a bill that would give the District of Columbia a member of the House with full voting rights but language repealing D.C.’s gun laws eventually killed the bill.
• Senators from both parties and a host of good government groups want to look at ways to improve the government’s process of responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.
• Lawmakers have tried many times in he past couple years to throw a lifeline of federal dollars to schools devastated by the recession. The latest effort would direct $23 billion to prevent layoffs.
• Some more radical members of both parties have been trying to open up the federal reserve to an audit but the idea is basically absent form the current financial regulation debate.
• The Congressional Budget Office says Sen. Dodd’s financial regulation bill would reduce the deficit by $21 billion over ten years.
• An amendment to break up the big banks was defeated in the Senate but the vote was closer than many expected

Thanks again for the great participation on the site this week and for all your great comments. Remember to become a fan of OpenCongress on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter at @OpenCongress and on Google Buzz.

Full post as published by Open Congress on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).