May 4th, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker: 
In the Senate, debate continues on Dodd’s Wall Street Takeover bill, with Boxer’s amendment likely coming up first which is intended to restrict the use of taxpayer funds for bailouts. Reid announced that debate on the underlying bill and amendments will likely continue for two weeks, though there are a number of non-voting days included in that estimate. Sen. Shelby is still working with Sen. Dodd to win concessions, and it has been suggested that another filibuster is in the making if substantial progress is not made soon.
This section incorrectly attributed a quote to Sen. Boxer yesterday that read, “Rest assured, however, the bill does contain an unlimited bailout authority.” The quote belonged to ALG President Bill Wilson. Sen. Boxer essentially said the opposite, though the point was that if this were true, why offer the amendment?
Bottom Line: Sen. Shelby has been hammering the lesser-known provisions of the bill on the Senate floor recently, pointing out that the data collection provisions are nothing more than a power grab that does absolutely nothing to avoid a future financial crisis, but are certain to burden private industry and cost jobs. Shelby rightly called out this and other provisions within the bill as creating a massive new federal bureaucracy… too bad he and his Republican colleagues aren’t on the floor stating this as part of an ongoing filibuster.
In the House, rumors abound that immigration reform will move in the Senate and House before Memorial Day, despite Democrat leaders saying it is not likely and Obama downplaying the possibility recently. The Hill published a story today discussing the jockeying that is going on in preparation for the possibility of the Senate moving a bill in the next month or so. Rep. Gutierrez’s bill has almost 100 cosponsors but not a single Republican. Leader Boehner recently stated that Democrats’ efforts to move an immigration bill now are “nothing more than a cynical ploy to try to engage voters, some segment of the voters, to show up in this November’s election.”
Later this week, in addition to the consideration of a bill to recognize April as National Safe Digging Month, the House will vote on the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, unaffectionately known as “Cash for Caulkers.”
Also, Rep. Joe Pitts has introduced a stand-alone bill containing the language of the Stupak-Pitts abortion restricting amendment to ObamaCare that originally passed the House. Though the bill already has 50 cosponsors, Rep. Stupak is not one of them.
Bottom Line: Though there is virtually nothing of substance occurring in the House recently, other than millions in new spending being passed each week on various low-profile bills, the House will not take the lead on immigration reform knowing that the primary hurdle remains in the Senate.
Also, apparently the suspension bill to recognize April as national safe digging month is not referring to offshore drilling.
At the other end of the Avenue, Obama has indicated that the failed Times Square bombing was an attempted terrorist attack, and several media outlets this morning are reporting that a Pakistani born U.S. citizen has been arrested in connection with the attempt. He was arrested at JFK Airport in NYC, reportedly trying to flee the country.
Meanwhile, the expanding oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico iss jeopardizing the possibility of moving energy legislation before November, since an expansion of off-shore drilling was likely to be included in the package. According to Politico, Obama has blocked any new offshore drilling leases until an investigation into the BP spill is completed.
Bottom Line: While the oil slick is a very regrettable incident and should be properly addressed, it is shaping up to be yet another opportunity for Obama and the Democrats to greatly expand federal regulations on another industry, likely with scant proof that the new regs would have done anything to avoid the spill in the first place. Such is the case of the knee-jerk, reactionary, nanny state politics of the Obama Administration.
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Brianna Snow
on May 9th, 2010
@ 12:59 am:
LaGuardia Airport, one of the busiest airports in the United States, serving about 26 million passengers a year, is so outdated that it should be completely demolished and rebuilt – said REUTERS.