July 23rd, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker:

In the Senate, the House-passed Supplemental Appropriations bill failed to win a simple majority on the Senate floor yesterday, going down in defeat by a 46-51 vote. Instead, Senate opted to force the House to take up the original Senate-passed Supplemental bill, effectively stripping over $20 billion in domestic spending items that House Democrats added to the bill earlier in the month. This also means that the $10 billion teacher union bailout contained in the House bill has been stripped, which was a high priority for Obama and many House and Senate liberals.

Though the DISCLOSE Act has appeared near death in the Senate several times, Sen. Schumer is trying to revive it again in order to pass the Democrats’ new campaign finance bill before the mid-term elections. Schumer introduced a new version of DISCLOSE on Wednesday night and Majority Leader Reid filed cloture on Schumer’s bill last night in an effort to ram it though before the long August recess. A cloture vote to proceed to debate on the revised bill will likely occur on Tuesday. Also, cloture on the small business legislation passed 60 to 37, paving for the way for a final vote next week.

Bottom Line: Liberals are apoplectic that the teacher union bailout has been dropped, particularly since it was largely in the hands of Senate Democrats. This action and the recent failure of the Democrat’s favored cap-and-tax legislation just means it’s going to be a very ugly lame-duck session… as Democrats try to pass as many of their pet liberal initiatives as they can before they lose their large majorities in both Houses of Congress.

In the House, the Multiple Peril Insurance Act was abruptly pulled from the House floor yesterday. Reportedly, many progressive Democrats and environmentalists were not satisfied with several of the bill’s provisions and – along with the majority of Republicans – were planning on voting against the bill. The bill would have significantly expanded the federal flood insurance program (NFIP), though the program is already in the hole to the U.S. Treasury by $19 billion. The House will reconvene next week and faces several pressing issues, not the least of which is the scaled back Supplemental, now without the education bailout funds.

GOP Leader Boehner renewed his call for a “Read the Bill” initiative yesterday, pledging to make the text of legislation available online to all Americans at least three days before a vote if Republicans take back the House and Boehner becomes Speaker. The initiative is based on a resolution introduced by Rep. Culberson, and the effort is now featured on the Republicans “America Speaking Out” website. Majority Leader Hoyer mocked the effort yesterday, calling the idea “unreasonable.” Commenting on the GOP’s chances of winning the House, Hoyer went on to say “His hypothetical is so unreasonable, that it doesn’t bear commenting on.”

Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee accused Rep. Charlie Rangel of multiple House rules violations and has launched a separate eight-member “adjudicatory subcommittee” to try Rangel on the charges in a public hearing. The subcommittee’s first organization hearing is on July 29^th. Rep. Rangel is engaged in a competitive primary, though it appears unlikely the trial will start before his September 14^th primary date. Responding to the new charges and trial, Rangel stated “I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media.”

Bottom Line: Pelosi is caught between the many liberals in her caucus (including herself) who desperately want the $10 billion education bailout to stay in the supplemental, and those in her party that are weary of the excessive spending and realize Congress must provide additional funding for the troops very soon. Secretary Gates even appealed to Pelosi yesterday to pass the supplemental spending before the recess. It’s awful hard to blame Republicans for “hurting teachers” when the Democrat-controlled Senate is the one that rejected the bloated House-passed spending bill. But I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to blame Republicans anyway.

At the other end of the Avenue, yesterday the Obama Administration begin to argue their case against the new Arizona immigration law (SB 1070) in front of a federal judge in Phoenix. The New York Times is reporting that Obama’s Justice Department argued yesterday “the federal government has the sole authority to enforce immigration laws under the Constitution.” There was a host of protestors on both sides of the debate outside the courthouse, but perhaps the most notable protestor sign read, “There is no problem with immigration; this is a problem with capitalism. Revolution is the solution.”

Bottom Line: What Obama does not realize is that he is making a frustrated electorate just downright angry with his attempts to thwart Arizona’s efforts to address the federal government’s failure to enforce current immigration law. This will not only backfire in Arizona and potentially result in more House losses for Dems, but it will likely result in a stinging rebuke and embarrassment to Obama when the federal court rejects the Justice Department’s arguments. And if BO were to win the case, it will enrage and galvanize the opposition against him. Either way, BO loses on this issue. Dumb move, Mr. President.

P.S. – Check out America Speaking Out and share your thoughts on how we can return to a limited, constitutional government.

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