War bill, ethics, energy
The most pressing issue for House and Senate lawmakers this week — the last before the lower chamber adjourns — is the passage of a war supplemental bill.
Wikileaks’s release of thousands of documents to news outlets showing that Pakistan is aiding insurgents in Afghanistan has hampered the effort to pass the legislation.
{mosads}Anti-war activists have seized on the leaks to make their case it’s time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan.
While Obama administration officials blasted Wikileaks, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said the documents “raise serious questions about the reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Both the House and Senate have passed separate bills on the supplemental, but there is a lingering dispute over domestic spending in the emergency measure that will need to be ironed out this week.
The Senate is looking to vote on a revised campaign finance bill — the Disclose Act — but that appears to lack the votes for passage. Democrats, however, are sure to use GOP “no” votes on the campaign trail this year.
The House wants to pass a couple spending bills before it adjourns for the summer, but the spotlight will be on Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and his ethics trial, which starts on Thursday.
President Obama, meanwhile, is under pressure from the left to appoint Elizabeth Warren as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).
While Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has suggested Warren does not have the votes to be confirmed, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is applying pressure on the White House to select her. There is also some chatter that Warren could be a recess appointee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who deftly killed climate change legislation last week, is aiming to move a scaled-back, and less controversial, energy package. Reid will also call for a vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan before the Senate adjourns next month.
Hearings this week will tackle the federal rulemaking process, the budget implications of closing Yucca Mountain and the release of the mastermind of the Lockerbie bombing.
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