Kerry: Senate Must Seize The Moment To Pass START

In an opinion piece in Politico today, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote that Congress is on the brink of ratifying the new START Treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote “I’m optimistic that we will vote on ratifying New START, the arms control agreement with Russia, before Congress adjourns.”

“Many of us on both sides of the aisle have been working together — with the Obama administration — to make this vote happen,” he added.

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Bachmann: No On Middle Class Tax Cut Vote

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Thursday that although she won’t be on Capitol Hill to vote,  she opposes a Democratic effort to pass an extension of the Bush tax cuts only for families earning less than $250,000 per year.

“The proposal by House Democrat leaders to only extend tax cuts for the middle class is not sufficient for our nation’s economy and would not have my support,” Bachmann said in  a statement. “Our economy desperately needs new jobs, but the President and House Democrats still want to raise taxes on our nation’s job creators. Tax cuts must be extended for all.”

In addition, Bachmann said she is urging her colleagues to vote to censure Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who was convicted earlier this month of violating a dozen House ethics rules.

House Passes Medicare Payment Extension

The House of Representatives today voted to stave off cuts to physicians under the Medicare program.

The so-called “Doc Fix” was set to expire on Wednesday, and would have resulted in a 23% cut in federal payments to doctors nationwide. Today’s vote keeps the cuts from going into effect for another month.

Following the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed relief.

“Today, the House of Representatives acted to ensure that America’s seniors and military families can continue receiving the care they need and deserve from their doctors,” she said.

The Senate passed its version of the bill just prior to the brief Thanksgiving recess.

White House's Pay Freeze Proposal Falls Short, Says House Republican

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) applauded President Barack Obama’s proposal to enact a two-year pay freeze for federal workers, but said the White House should do more to cut costs.

The soon-to-be chairman of the House Oversight Committee called the president’s proposal “long overdue,” and asked Obama to consider a series of Republican recommendations for reducing the nation’s debt.

Issa said that the GOP’s recently released “Pledge to America” includes several provisions aimed at saving money. Among them are returning federal spending to pre-2008 levels, prematurely ending the bank bailout program known as TARP, and allowing Congress to hold weekly votes on spending cuts.

“The first place we should look to make progress on higher costs, increased debt and a stagnant economy is look inward at how taxpayer dollars are being spent and doing more to ensure that tens of billions of dollars are no longer erroneously paid out,” Issa said.

Republican Hoekstra Blasts WikiLeaks

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, had angry words for the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks after the Sunday night release of several hundred classified documents.

“Wikileaks clearly is determined to undermine U.S. national security and damage our foreign relations. The disclosure of thousands of potentially classified cables and other documents is an embarrassment to the Obama administration and represents a critical failure by the Pentagon and intelligence community to protect sensitive national security information.

“Once again our partners and allies are forced to question whether the United States can keep secrets, and our diplomats around the world have been forced to scramble to try and patch-up foreign relations strained by this illegal leak. ODNI’s national counterintelligence executive must move quickly to assess the failures in this case and to establish security protocols, including robust audit capabilities for classified networks.

Congress also should move quickly to hold hearings to ensure ODNI, the military and FBI have the necessary counterintelligence authorities to ensure a destructive leak of this nature cannot happen again.

“The disclosure of these documents by Wikileaks had nothing to do with transparency or whistleblowing, as the site would claim, and everything to do with undermining American foreign policy. As the world’s number one target for spying by foreign adversaries and now clearly other hacks, the federal government must do a better job of strengthening America’s computer and cybersecurity protocols. If we do not, we risk leaving exposed an Achilles heel that could cause irreparable damage to our global partnerships and international standing.”