Hoyer Not Convinced Supercommittee Can Reach Deal

The November 23 deadline for the supercommittee to reach a deficit reduction plan is fast approaching and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has expressed apprehension over such a deal coming to fruition. 

“We need a big plan and I am hopeful that the committee will get there,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly pen and pad session.

But when asked by a reporter why he was confident that the committee would reach a deal when reports have shown a lack of progress, Hoyer responded that he never said he was confident.

“Did i say I was confident? When people ask, ‘Are you optimistic?’ l say, ‘Look, I’m not optimistic,  I’m hopeful,’” Hoyer responded. “Time is short which doesn’t give you a lot of confidence but there is an honest working effort that makes one hopeful.”

Hoyer then clarified that he doesn’t have a lack of confidence that the Joint Committee will produce a bold and balanced agreement but an absence of confidence.

“An absence of confidence isn’t necessarily a lack of confidence,” Hoyer said.

The Joint Deficit Reduction Committee has been tasked with the daunting task to reach a bipartisan budget agreement that cuts $1.2 trillion over ten years by Thanksgiving. If they cannot, then there will be mass cuts among both military and domestic spending.

Hoyer Defends Occupy Wall Street From GOP Critic

By Andrea Salazar

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) Tuesday countered House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s assertion that demonstrators who have set up camp in New York’s financial district represent a “mob.”

Speaking to reporters, Hoyer compared today’s protests with the Tea Party’s origins.

“I don’t know whether Mr. Cantor watched any of the town meetings that we had in August of ‘09,” Hoyer said. “They were much more confrontational in many respects than these demonstrations are. This is a democracy and one of the good aspects of democracy is people get the opportunity to express their concerns and hope that action will be taken to address those grievances.”

The Minority Whip also said that he hopes the Senate has the 51 votes needed to pass the President’s jobs bill, adding that too often good legislation fails to move forward since it can’t garner the 60 voted needed to override a filibuster.

“One of the problems that we have in this country is that a minority controls the United States Senate and that the majority of the representatives of the United States Senate are precluded, too often, from considering the merits of proposals which have a majority support but not 60 votes support,” he said. “I think that’s unfortunate.”

As for the super committee’s looming deadline for a proposal cutting at least $1.2 trillion in spending, Hoyer said it has a “unique authority” to act not for political gains, but on the “absolute necessity to come to grips with the fiscal challenge that confronts us.”

He also said he expects trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia to pass through the House with bipartisan support.

Hoyer Urges GOP To Meet Dems Halfway Over Budget Proposal

By Anna Cameron

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) pressured Republicans Tuesday to “step up” and compromise with Democrats over a spending plan for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011.

“They know what they’re against, but they have not provided positive alternatives for what they’re for [or] how to address the critical issues confronting our country,” Hoyer told reporters Tuesday.

Hoyer described the adamancy with which Republicans have stuck to their proposed $100 billion figure as an adherence to “political figures or sums,” rather than a commitment to thoughtful or responsible spending cuts.

Conversely, the Minority Whip noted that Democrats have increased proposed spending cuts from an initial $41 billion to a total of $51.5 billion, an effort that he touted as a “willingness to cut and compromise.”

As a potential government shutdown looms, Hoyer stressed the irresponsibility, inefficiency, and destabilizing effects of continued funding of the government based on two-week extensions.

“We are hopeful that the Republicans will respond tomorrow in a positive fashion, to move us toward what any reasonable person would think is a compromise,” Hoyer said.

Senate To Vote On Disclose Act Tomorrow

Despite losing key battles yesterday on repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ and the DREAM Act, the Senate will attempt one more major vote on Thursday.

That’s the day Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided to bring the DISCLOSE Act to the floor. The bill, which the House passed in June, would require organizations involved in political campaigning to disclose the identity of their large donors and to reveal their identities in political ads they fund. It would also prohibit foreign corporations, government contractors and TARP recipients from making political donations.

The legislation was crafted in response to a Supreme Court decision in January that allowed corporations and unions to pay for political ads made independently of candidate campaigns.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a staunch proponent of the bill, told reporters on Wednesday that unless the Disclose Act is passed, “the winner of every upcoming election this November won’t be Democrats or Republicans; It will be special interests.”

“Passing [the bill] would be a huge win for restoring transparency to our elections,” he added.

Addressing concerns that Democrats are attempting to rush the bill through to help preserve their majority in Congress, Schumer said the legislation would not go into effect until January, two months after the midterms take place. Earlier today, a story that appeared on Politico noted that Democrats are being outspent badly by groups supporting Republican candidates.

Interestingly, Reid decided to schedule the vote on Thursday instead of today partly because a number of Senate Democrats were expected to attend a big-ticket fundraiser this evening in Manhattan, at which the president would be speaking.

Disclose will probably be the last big vote taken in the Senate before members return home in two weeks to campaign for reelection. When asked whether the upper chamber would hold a vote on whether to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, Schumer replied, “It’s being discussed within our caucus now.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters yesterday that his chamber would wait for the Senate to act on the tax cuts.

Hoyer Blasts Early Adjourning Rumors

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer knocked down floating rumors that suggested members of Congress may be leaving Capitol Hill as early as Friday to hit the campaign trail. 

“I don’t know where that report came from and the answer is no,” Hoyer said. “We’re going to be in next week. I don’t want to speculate on dates other than we’re going to be in next week. We want to try to get our work done.”

Hoyer asserted that there are a few things left on Congress’ table that need to be resolved before leaving to their respective states. He reassured reporters that the House will indeed be in session next week and will be focusing on key legislation to incentivize small business hiring and to ensure that Continuing Resolution, a resolution that keeps the government funded beyond the fiscal year, is passed.

The Leader did defend, however, the necessity for members of Congress to return to their home states as elections draw nearer.

“There’s nobody here that doubts that our members, Republicans and Democrats, would like to be in their districts talking to their constituents,” he said. “After all, they have to ask them to be rehired.”