Some 'sweet' influences on Daylight Savings Rider

(Was it a Trick, or a Treat? This was big news at Halloween and the influences on lawmaking on Capitol Hill two years ago. This post origninally posted on Political Warrior in Nov. 2007)

Last year's Trick-or-Treating was different. Because Congress in 2007 moved Daylight Savings time back to the first Saturday in Novemeber, my son went to a record number of doors in the Sunlight. (In 2008, I think he set a new record).

"I got lots of candy more than ever before,'' said then nine-year-old Patrick. "It should have been night, because night is cooler going trick-or-treating, and the houses are more lit up . But I probably wouldn't have got as much candy."

Hmm. Despite the fact that Patrick did get tooth paste at one house, the load of his loot may have been due to influences on Capitol Hill. The New York Times City Room Blog says the candy lobby gave an influential push for a rider to the 2005 Engergy Policy Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_2005The NYT story on the influences on federal lawmakers to shed more light on Halloween night (child safety was also a legitimate concern) is linked here:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/an-extra-hour-of-daylight-thank-the-candy-lobby/index.html?hp

Will a rolling log attract Snow?

What will Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine) get to logroll with the Democrats on a Health Care Public Option?

Great references in yesterday's LA Times to logrolling, cloture, and why what happens in the House doesn't also follow through in the Senate.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-healthcare-senate28-2009oct28,0,6268538.story

What is your opinion of this type of dealmaking in Congress?

About Bills, and Billboards

Is This America's Best Ad Buy?

Ryan Kelly, CQ
Commuters board a train at Washington's Union Station. For $14,000, you can target Congress for aOne of the country's best advertising locations for advocacy groups is a grungy corridor leading to a pair of escalators at Union Station in Washington.
Roughly 30,500 people pass by the billboards each weekday, but it's not the quantity that matters.
Because the Metro station is a short walk from the Capitol, it is frequented by many of the Congressional staffers that activists target. month.

__________________________

Why does Columbus get a holiday?

The History of Federal Holidays is written through Congress

This week was Columbus Day, so everyone from your mail carrier to your U.S. senator had the day off.

Although bank employees are also enjoying a vacation, much of the rest of the country still has to go to work. (And some retail stores may be working overtime for sales.)

So how did Christopher Columbus get his own day?

Federal holidays must be designated by both chambers of Congress and approved by the president. There are currently 10, including Labor Day, President's Day and Veterans Day. When the president is inaugurated every four years, Jan. 20 is added to the mix.

The U.S. government must recognize a federal holiday, but it does not have to be celebrated by states, cities, small business owners, large business owners, or anyone, for that matter.

Once a federal holiday has been signed into law, all federal employees are given that day as a paid vacation day. If the holiday falls on a weekend, the holiday is usually observed on the following Monday.

In addition, federal employees are also given 13 sick days and up to 26 days of vacation, depending on how many years they have been employed. That's comparable to the 15 days of paid vacation and 10 paid holidays the average American worker gets.

Only three other holidays recognized specific individuals: Christmas, Washington's birthday and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the newest federal holiday.

The movement to designate the civil rights icon's birthday (actually the third Monday in January) as a federal holiday began after his assassination, but was not signed into law until 1983.

Still, many states chose not recognize the holiday or gave it a different name. In Utah, the third Monday in January was called "Human Rights Day," and in Virginia it was called "Lee-Jackson-King Day," to commemorate two Confederate generals along with King.

In 2000, both states changed the names to honor just King.

The arguments against designating King's birthday included the expense to the federal government and the timing of it so close to Christmas and New Year's.

Recently, some have argued that Sept. 11 should be recognized in some way.

Congress designated the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as "Patriot Day" and urged people to treat it as a national day of service and remembrance.

It is not, however, a federal holiday.

(From Congress.org)

If you were a Congressperson, what Day would you consider worthy of a Federal Holiday?

It's the economy, Stupid

We will learn during this unit on the legislature and lawmaking that the United States Congress has the "Power of the Purse." That has nothing to do with all the attention Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has been getting lately.

Congress has the power to tax and spend as well as to appropriate funds and it uses its oversight function to watch over how the Federal Reserve Bank does its business. So as we open our look at Congress, what is a better indicator of the economy, The Dow or Downtrodden employment figures?

Three pieces to consider:

First, this only goes through June, but it is a great visual showing the number of jobs lost since the recession started. The graphic actually goes from blue (jobs) to red (job losses - Freudian blame of Bush?!). From June, 2008 to June, 2009, 5.5 million jobs were lost nation-wide. In Illinois, 31,000 jobs were lost over the last year.

At the same, Wednesday for the first time in over a year, the Dow Jones Industrial Index briefly hit 10,000. While much of the economy is still languishing -- for one, unemployment hit 9.8 percent earlier this month -- the Dow has risen roughly 50 percent since March.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dow-hits-10000---however_n_320930.html

Judging by the stock market alone, the economy seems to be inching its way toward a recovery.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dow-hits-10000---however_n_320930.html

www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dow-hits-10000---however_n_320930.html

Finally, with all the talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts" and now health care reform, it might be time to get some perspective of the size of our national debt. Check out this site to get a look at what just one TRILLION looks like. Now times that by about 12 and you get a look at how far our federal government is in the whole.

www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Know Thy Congressman

This site allows you to type in a member of Congress and see how many bills he/she has introduced, how many earmarks he/she have asked for & received. The site does not give its definition of earmarks, nor tell if the bills are for one's entire career (I suspect it is), but nonetheless, it is an interesting starting point.

Judy Biggert (R) our representative from the 13th District has two bills to her credit. She was first elected in 1998.

But she has given a big shout out to WVHS. I found the above video on the Warrior's Back-to-Back State Champion Women's Soccer Team Website. Two summers ago U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert gives her one-minute shout out to the Tribe. While we make fun of these "One-minute resolutions" legislatures use them to make constituents feel happy and proud. I did when I saw it.

www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8586164

The Health Care Kielbasa

You know the old saying about "Laws are like sausage. It's better not to see them being made." (Widely attributed to Bismark) Well, this graphic from the Washingtonpost.com illustrating what still needs to be done to get a Health Care Bill passed would have had Otto shouting "Ich war richtig!"

Lobbying Loss?

As we transition for political parties and campaigning to Congress and lawmaking, insurance company lobbyists made big news yesterday. For Washington lobbyists, every day is a campaign. On Tuesday, when the Senate Finance Committee was passing another health care reform bill out of committee, the insurance industry may have been left nursing the wounds of an embarrassing loss.

The Politico reports:

In the health care reform debate, where playing nice has been the rule, a scathing insurance industry report looked to critics Monday like a grenade aimed at scuttling progress in Congress.

But it also looked to some like too little, too late.

Not only did the report land many months into the debate — with Democrats on the cusp of passing bills through five committees — it infuriated some of the very people the industry group hoped to influence.

“I don’t view the impact of the report as a bill-stopper as much as a bill-changer,” said Robert Blendon, a health policy pollster and political analyst at Harvard University. “The momentum is way too far [in favor of passing a reform bill], and there is a sense out there that something has to be done.”

On the eve of a crucial vote in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, the industry group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, raced against the White House and Senate Democrats to frame the 26-page analysis conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which concluded that premiums would cost more under the Finance Committee legislation than under the current system.

White House and Senate officials hinted at the possibility of legislative payback for releasing a report Democrats described as deeply flawed and self-serving. At the very least, officials said, it will help Democrats close ranks behind the Finance Committee bill, which had come under fire from the progressives as too moderate.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28213.html#ixzz0Tx2t7fRx

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy