The Senate approved a new ethics bill that would ban lobbyist-paid gifts, meals and travel and impose rules on how lawmakers capitalize on political connections once leaving office. Lobbyists and lawmakers would be forced to disclose large contributions over short time periods.
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The Senate passed a bi-partisan bill that would expand health insurance to millions of low-income American children by a margin large enough to override the threatened presidential veto.
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A federal intelligence court judge ruled earlier this year that a key part of the wiretap effort is illegal. The judge ruled the administration had violated its authority in trying to monitor overseas communication routed through the United States.
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3% of Americans approve of how Congress is handling the war in Iraq. 24% say the same for the President.
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The House voted Thursday to give U.S. troops guaranteed time at home between deployments to Iraq, which President Bush threatened to veto if passed in the Senate.
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President Bush called for Congress to revise a US security law in order to ease restrictions on the government’s secret communications surveillance of terror suspects.
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The New York Times called on Congress to impeach Alberto Gonzales.
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Democrats are considering asking for a special counsel to investigate whether Gonzales perjured himself during his testimony before House Judiciary Committee after FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed a confrontation between Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft over U.S. domestic spying while Ashcroft was hospitalized, directly contradicting Gonzales testimony that the confrontation did not occur.
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A Congressional committee slashed the funding to Bush’s European missile defense system budget.
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The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation instituting penalties of up to $150 million for companies and up to $2 million and 10 years’ imprisonment for individuals found guilty of gasoline “price gouging.”
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Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced he would introduce a measure to censure President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials for “misconduct relating to the war in Iraq and for their repeated assaults on the rule of law.”
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Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
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A large group of mostly House Democrats sent a letter to the White House saying that they will not support any military funding for Iraq unless it includes a complete withdrawal of combat troops. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was the only Republican to sign the letter.
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The House on Wednesday evening overwhelmingly rejected President Bush’s plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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Senate Republicans thwarted a Democratic measure that would have begun a partial withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the U.S. command said Wednesday the highest-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq has been arrested, the Iraqi government accused Turkey of bombing northern areas of Iraq, two US soldiers were charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian in Kirkuk last month, and a US Marine was convicted for the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in the town of Hamdania last year.
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Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers has again rejected calls from the House Judiciary Committee to comply with a subpoena for her testimony on the firing of 9 US Attorneys in 2006 and 2007.
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The Senate is continuing a marathon debate on a Democratic measure that would begin a withdrawal from Iraq but still leave thousands of troops behind. Democrats forced the chamber into a rare all-night session that began Tuesday morning.
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Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government’s military and political progress Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave “anytime they want.”
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Five Iraqi policemen were killed and 12 wounded in an early morning attack on the Baghdad quarters of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, the independent news agency Voices of Iraq reported Friday, the commander of U.S. forces for the region reported that the United States could begin withdrawing troops from northern Iraq in January, New York Times reporter Khalid W. Hassanwas was killed while driving to work, two prominent Senate Republicans drafted legislation that would require President Bush by mid-October to come up with a plan to dramatically narrow the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, and US soldiers killed at least 13 people including six Iraqi policemen after coming under fire from a police checkpoint in Baghdad on Friday.
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The Senate voted to double the bounty on Osama bin Laden to $50 million.
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