Pelosi conference covers new economic legislation

In a weekly press conference today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) discussed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation and said that, "This is the day we have worked for, prayed for, hoped for, and that we will now pass this legislation with a very strong bipartisan majority to ensure 11 million children in America, and before the day is out, President Obama will sign it into law."

As the economic recovery package is being pushed ahead, Pelosi said ""We have to have this bill passed so that we don't have another month tallied up going into the future." She went on to say that she is "eagerly awaiting the Senate product so that the House can work with them to send a bill to the Presidents desk next week."

Pelosi refused to discuss the "what if" scenarios, maintaining that we will just have to wait and see what happens. She said that everyone supports stabilizing financial institutions and strengthening our economy and "what ever form that quest will make, we will all find out together."

Later today Pelosi plans to have a meeting with some of the members from Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri to express sympathy to those who are affected in those states.

by Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Waxman: The story of the credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure

“The leading credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch are the financial gatekeepers to the economy,” Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif) Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said during the hearing on credit rating agencies and the financial crisis.

Jerome Fons, former Executive of Moody’s Corporation, stated that the major rating agencies had missed the impact on subprime mortgages of falling house prices and declining underwriting standards. “A large part of the blame can be placed on the inherent conflicts of interest found in the issuer-pays business model and rating shopping by issuers of structured securities,” Fons said.

Raymond McDaniel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Moody’s Corporation, said that Moody’s published warnings about the increased risks and took action to adjust their assumptions for the portions of the residential mortgage banked securities market that were asked to rate. McDaniel went on to say that they did not anticipate the magnitude and speed of the deterioration in mortgage quality and quickness of restrictive lending.

Waxman concluded with “The credit rating agencies occupy a special place in our financial markets. Millions of investors rely on them for independent, objective assessments. The rating agencies broke this bond of trust, and federal regulators ignored the warning signs and did nothing t protect the public.”

Continuing the hearing process on the financial crisis,the members will hear from federal regulators, including SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, followed by a hearing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on November 20th.

Chicken rants at Pelosi on Capitol steps

Democratic congressional primary contender Shirley Golub (D-Calif.) sent one of her representatives to the steps of the Capitol building dressed as a chicken to protest the decisions made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her time in office. Golub’s goal was to demonstrate the uselessness of electing another “chicken” to the House of Representatives. Golub is running against Pelosi in the upcoming California congressional democratic primary.

Golub’s chicken ranted on the west steps of the Capitol yelling different anti-Pelosi sentiments, such as, “Where are all the congressmen? Did they all fly the coop?” and “Shirley Golub sent me here to demonstrate what its like to send a chicken to Congress.” When the chicken was asked why he was protesting, he said that Pelosi was being a chicken about the war in Iraq and impeachment, and even claimed to be one of her cousins.

Today from the Capitol

Today was a busy day inside the halls of the capital. With today being dedicated as Peace Officers' Memorial Day, there were many supporters in and outside of the capitol including a memorial gathering outside the capital at one o’clock.

As for legislative business, the House began the day discussing the Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill. With members entering and exiting the chamber through out the day, this issue was obviously a hotly contested one. There is a natural tussle of ideas as to whether or not to pull the funding, or to grant more money for our troops. Naturally there is a large number of representatives wanting out of the war, and a way to end the war is by stopping the funding. However, to those that do support the war, their response was that by cutting the funding, this will result in not supplying our soldiers adequately with what they need to fight the battle. So there was a struggle of ideals between the representatives as to what to do. House Democratic leadership wants this wrapped up before Memorial Day, however it seems as if this will be problematic. Speaking of House Democratic Leadership, they were the most harshly criticized group among the arguments given from Republicans. They were continually accused of setting their own agenda and not working together to get legislation passed.

The House was later on discussing the conference report on H.R.2419 which is on the “Food and Energy Security Act of 2007.”

On the Senate side, the Senators resumed debate on H.R. 2419 which is the “Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act.” Some high profile Senators were in and out of the chamber as there was a news conference held by Diane Feinstein whom was accompanied by Senators Levin, Snowe, Cantwell, Collins, Dorgan, and Wyden. Essentially the Senate passed a measure to cut off the “Enron Loophole,” which was part of the Farm Bill conference report the Senate had passed. “This legislation provides new tools to stop price manipulation, excessive speculation, and trading abuses that have too often clobbered American families with unfair energy price hikes,” said Senator Levin. “We’ve finally done it. Today, the Senate sends the President a bill to close the Enron Loophole once and for all,” stated Senator Feinstein.

Lastly, in regards to foreign affairs, The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus held a news conference to announce the top six countries which were put on the 2008 priority watch list. These countries included China, Russia, Canada, Greece, Spain and Mexico. China, Russia and Canada are the top three countries with troubling pirating issues. China especially is of concern after Canada and Russia have made minimal attempts to deal with the issue. Representatives from the MPAA and RIAA were on hand to discuss the damaging effects from piracy not only to individuals, but also to economies. If material is being stolen from others, it’s not just going to take away from the main artist, but all those that contributed to the project.

Select Committee Investigation is "Politics," says Majority Leader

A nine month, half a million dollar investigation went to committee today under the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007. The opening statement of the Honorable Bill Delahunt, Chairman, reads, "The purpose of these hearings is to discover what happened on August 2 during Roll Call vote 814...I understand this committee's mandate is to determine how and why this roll call unfolded in the manner it did. And make recommendations to ensure the integrity of the voting procedures."

The committee is investigating the result of a vote that occurred on August 2, 2007. It was an event in which controversy ensued due to voting integrity, or rather when and if a vote was counted before the cutoff. The interim speaker called a 214-214 vote at the cutoff, yet there was apparently a vote or more not counted. When asked if he thought this investigation was just "politics," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer responded yes, referring to this minority Republican party requested investigation. A half a million dollars and nine months later, seemingly nothing has been accomplished and it has been found that no malice was at hand by those making vote cutoff decisions that day. While wrong doing may have been at hand, it seemed to be the general consensus among committee members and witnesses that respect between everyone was mutual, and this was simply a quest to learn what happened.

While this was apparently just a matter of miscommunication, which caused an unusual and raucous eruption last August in the House chamber, the committee's investigation, which again took a half a million dollars from a government that is trillions in debt, has yielded nothing more than could be seen on August 8, 2007.