House Approves Gov't Funding Measure

By a 352-66 vote, the House of Representatives sent another short-term government funding package to President Obama’s desk.

The measure, which enjoyed support from 170 Democrats, was passed by the Senate early last week.

53 Republicans voted against the bill, which will keep the federal government running until November 18.

“Congress has averted another Republican-manufactured crisis,” said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) following the vote.

House In No Hurry To Address Chinese Currency Manipulation

By Mike Hothi

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that he is not worried about the Chinese currency situation.

“I think its pretty dangerous to be moving legislation through the United States Congress forcing someone to deal with the value of their currency,” said Boehner, referring to actions yesterday in which the Senate came close to clearing a bill that would punish China for manipulating its own currency for economic gain.

The bill in question would allow the U.S. government to enact tariffs on countries that undervalue their currency. Some Republicans fear the bill may damage the U.S. economy.

While the Speaker expressed some concern over China’s currency manipulation, it appears that for now the bill is going nowhere in the House.

“This is well beyond what the Congress ought to be doing,” Boehner said.

Senate Dems Put Jobs Plan On Hold For China Currency Bill

* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote targeting China’s currency practices for Monday and Chuck Schumer expects it to get bipartisan support and sail to Obama’s desk

* Obama has been silent on it, says it’s reviewing the legislation

* Reid and Schumer say the best option for creating jobs is to level the US trade deficit with China - the bill’s important to senators from rust states which have lost a lot of jobs to China, and where Dems are trying to hold on to seats and the Senate majority

* Sherrod Brown Oh, Bob Casey Pa and Debbie Stabenow Mi have all been prominent supporters of the measure, which looks to pressure Beijing into letting the value of its currency rise - it’s believed China keeps its currency too low

* Bill would require US to treat currency manipulation as an anti competitive trade practice and take countervailing action to boost domestic companies, and set in motion govt studies of intnl monetary policy and currency exchange rates

* Republicans in the Senate are generally supportive — Jeff Sessions (Ala.) is a key ally of Senate Democrats on the issue

*** But Eric Cantor’s office says there are no plans to schedule a vote in the House - Cantor, Boehner and McCarthy, the Whip all voted against the measure last year

** Senate Dems could criticize the GOP House if the currency measure doesn’t move forward

*** Voters (6 in 10) want US officials to “get tough with China” but the conservative Club for Growth has weighed in on some Senate races where China could be an issue

Obama, Leading Republicans Take To The Web

President Obama and a trio of House Republicans are in California today to advance their jobs proposals across the social media spectrum.

Obama will be in Mountain View this afternoon for a 2:00 pm ET town hall event sponsored by the online professional networking site, LinkedIn. There, the president is expected to continue lobbying for his jobs bill, the American Jobs Act. Log on to whitehouse.gov at 2:00 pm ET for all the action.

Meanwhile, just six miles down the road in Palo Alto, House Republican leaders will participate in an online discussion hosted by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

In an interview with Politico’s Mike Allen, the so-called “Young Guns”  — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — said the purpose of the event is to broadcast their message to a wide array of Americans, and to let them know that “Washington is listening.”

Tune into Facebook at 6:00 pm ET to watch the event.

House Republican Calls On Obama To Stand Against China's One Child Policy

By Mike Hothi

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) blasted the Obama administration Friday for indirectly aiding China’s one-child policy by continuing to fund the United Nations Population Fund, which he claims tolerates human rights abuses within China.

“[The Population Fund] are not part of the solution, they are enabling the problem,” Smith said during a press briefing with other Republican lawmakers as well as a Chinese activist who says she was coerced into following China’s controversial policy. “I believe that they and those in China who have committed these atrocities against women need to be held to account for their crimes against humanity.”

Smith added that the policy amounts to “state sponsored rape.”

During the previous administration, the White House denied federally allocated funds from reaching the Population Fund to protest China’s policy.