This Week On Capitol Hill

The Senate will vote on a bill Tuesday aimed at providing incentives for businesses to not ship jobs overseas.

The Creating American Jobs and End Offshoring Act would grant two-year payroll tax holidays for companies that take on new employees who perform services in the U.S. that were once done abroad. The legislation is in line with the Democrats’ ‘Make it in America’ agenda.

Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have come out strongly against the bill, arguing that it will make U.S. companies less competitive in the global marketplace. Democrats, however, say the legislation will help create jobs.

Meanwhile, the House will vote either Wednesday or Thursday on legislation aimed at providing health monitoring and financial compensation to first responders and others that were injured in the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. The bill failed the first time around in July, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hopes to “have a strong, bipartisan vote to pass this critical legislation.”

On the issue of taxes, it appears extremely unlikely that either the House or Senate will take any action before adjourning for the final weeks of campaigning. While Pelosi has yet to completely rule out holding a vote sometime next week, most Democrats have signaled that they would rather address the issue after the midterms.

Jim Manley, the spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said Thursday that the issue would be on hold for now. “We will come back in November and stay in session as long as it takes to get this done.” 

Pelosi Not Keen On GOP 'Pledge'

By Kyle LaFleur - Talk Radio News Service

During a press conference with reporters on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Republicans over their “Pledge To America,” a 21-page document that outlines what the GOP’s agenda will be if they win back Congress this fall. Pelosi said the manifesto makes her party the clear choice for voters this November.

“Democrats are for making it in America. Republicans, as they demonstrated in their proposal, are for shipping jobs overseas. Democrats are for preserving social security, Republicans are for privatizing it. Democrats are for tax cuts for the middle class, the Senate Republicans have held up those middle income tax cuts unless there are tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America,” said Pelosi. 

The Speaker justified the Democrats’ decision to not roll out a similar plan in response.

“I’m not big on these pledges, I think they are a lot of showboating,” said Pelosi. “I don’t like to take them. I don’t like to exact them.”

House Gears Up For Jobs Vote

The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on legislation that the Democratic leadership claims will prevent thousands of teachers and other government employees from being laid-off.

The $26 billion bill narrowly passed in the Senate last Thursday, an outcome that prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to suspend August recess in order to schedule a vote.

Republicans have criticized the legislation as a political move designed to appease special interests groups, but have also lambasted the decision to suspend the recess, arguing that Congress should instead be using the time off  to listen to their constituents.

A vote is expected by 2:30 pm. President Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement in the hours before urging the bill’s passage.

House Suspends Recess, Returns To Washington For Jobs Vote

The House of Representatives is returning from their August recess this week to take up a bill aimed at preventing teacher and other government employee lay-offs.

The decision to suspend the recess was spurred by the Senate’s passage of sister legislation last Thursday through a close 61-39 vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has cast the move to return to D.C. as an urgent step to maintain vital services and prevent a “double-dip” recession.

House Republicans are displeased by the impromptu session. In a statement released last week, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Democrats of taking up the $26 billion bill in an effort to appease interest groups.

“The American people don’t want more Washington ‘stimulus’ spending – especially in the form of a pay-off to union bosses and liberal special interests,” Boehner said. “Democrats should be listening to their constituents … instead of scampering back to Washington.”

Democratic leadership claims the bill will ultimately create and save 290,000 local government jobs.

The House will formally come into session Monday, but a vote on the legislation is expected for Tuesday.

Colleagues Celebrate Life, Legacy Of Robert Byrd

Legislators and Presidents gathered in West Virginia Friday to honor the memory of recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history.

“He was a Senate icon, he was a party leader, he was an elder statesman and he was my friend,” President Barack Obama said from the West Virginia Capitol’s north plaza, the site of the memorial service.

Byrd, who died early Monday morning, served three terms in the House of Representatives in the 1950s. In 1958, he was elected to the Senate, where throughout his career he assumed the roles of Majority Leader, chairman of the Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore, leaving him fourth in line for the Presidency. He was well known as a firery advocate for his state and secured his constituents with an unprecedented level of federal funds.

Earlier in his life, the West Virginia Democrat was briefly a member of the Ku Klux Klan and filibustered against the Civil Rights Act in 1964. However, as his career progressed Byrd reversed many of his positions and expressed shame over both periods in his life.

“He was a country boy from the hills … of West Virgina and he was trying to get elected. Maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, [but] he spent the rest of his life making it up,” former President Bill Clinton said. “That’s what a good person does.”

In the 2008 Democratic Primary Byrd endorsed Obama over then Senator Hillary Clinton.

A number of those in attendance touched warmly upon Byrd’s command of history and literature.

“He had an incredible, prodigious memory,” Vice President Joe Biden, who served 35 years with Byrd in the Senate, said. “I remember one time sitting with the queen of England … and he recited the entire lineage of the Tudors and every year each one had served.”

Added Biden, “She sat there and I thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head.”

Byrd’s declining health relegated the Senator to the sidelines for much of the last year. However, on Christmas Eve the wheelchair bound Byrd was brought into the upper chamber to deliver a decisive vote to pass health care reform.

Also in attendance for Friday’s memorial service were Senate Majority and Minority Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the widow of deceased Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) Vicki Kennedy.

On Thursday, Byrd laid in repose in the Senate chamber for six hours. Starting Monday, his Senate desk was draped in black and adorned with a pot of white flowers and his personal copy of the constitution. Byrd was 92.