Membership of the 111th Congress: A Profile. Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist, February 4, 2010

Women in the United States Congress: 1917-2009. Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist, Colleen J. Shogan, Senior Specialist in Government and Finance, December 23, 2009.

News release: "Corrupt foreign officials and their relatives have used gaps in U.S. law and the assistance of U.S. professionals to funnel millions of dollars in illicit money into the United States, an investigation by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found...A 330-page bipartisan report released by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., subcommittee chairman and subcommittee ranking member Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., at today’s hearing shows that politically powerful foreign officials, and those close to them, have found ways to use the U.S. financial system to protect and enhance their ill-gotten gains. The report exposes how those powerful individuals – known internationally as “politically exposed persons” or PEPs – have used the services of U.S. lawyers, lobbyists, real estate and escrow agents, and other professionals who currently have no obligation under U.S. regulations to establish anti-money laundering (“AML”) programs, know their customers, or evaluate the source of funds transferred into the United States. Banks, in contrast, are subject to AML obligations and for the most part have honored them. But glaring gaps have undermined the overall effectiveness of U.S. AML laws."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the agency has stepped up efforts to protect consumers affected by the economic downtown, and that additional authority would make the agency even more effective. The testimony presented by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz described the agency’s efforts to prosecute financial fraud and deception, including working with states to bring hundreds of cases against mortgage relief scams in 2009. The testimony also discussed the FTC’s rulemaking and consumer education initiatives, how additional authority will enhance the agency’s effectiveness, and the FTC’s perspective on recent proposals to create a consumer financial protection agency as part of a broader reform of the financial services regulatory system."

Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence, February 2, 2010

Congress Is All Atwitter, Daniel Newhauser, Roll Call: "Since the microblogging Web site Twitter launched in 2006, tens of millions of people have logged on and churned out billions of 140-character messages called tweets. And Congress has certainly embraced the trend. In fact, by early last year, some 20 Members were using the site, according to Tweet Congress, which monitors Members’ Twitter use. The current count, the group says, is 162 (plus 16 committees and seven caucuses). But computer-savvy political junkies already know that. Whether politicians are using Twitter to its full potential is another matter entirely."

News release: "After more than a decade of nationwide effort, the Digital Promise Project has achieved an essential goal – the creation of the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. This year the Department of Education, as provided by their 2010 appropriations legislation, will make available the initial funding required to launch the National Center. In the words of the Center’s authorizing legislation, “The purpose of the Center shall be to support a comprehensive research and development program to harness the increasing capability of advanced information and digital technologies to improve all levels of learning and education, formal and informal, in order to provide Americans with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in the global economy.” Congress voted overwhelmingly to establish this Center, the first new national research center in many years, as an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Authorized in 2008 by amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965, the National Center will have a governing board of nine members, which will include outstanding representatives from the public and private sectors and from varied professions and disciplines."

Office of the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset [SIGTARP] Relief Program Advancing Economic Stability Through Transparency, Coordinated Oversight and Robust Enforcement - Quarterly Report to Congress - October 30, 2010.

An Analysis of the Roadmap for America’s Future Act of 2010, as Specified by Congressman Ryan’s Staff, January 27, 2010

Follow up to January 25, 2010 posting, Work of Special IG For TARP Draws Increasing Attention, read Mr. Barofky's testimony today before the House Oversight Committee on The Federal Bailout Of AIG.

News release: "Calling America’s fiscal path “unsustainable,” the Bipartisan Policy Center today launched its Debt Reduction Task Force to develop a comprehensive, bipartisan plan to reduce projected federal debt. Co-Chaired by former Senator Pete Domenici and Dr. Alice Rivlin, the Domenici-Rivlin Task Force will develop a comprehensive, balanced, and politically-viable package of spending reductions and revenue increases for expedited consideration by Congress and the Administration."

New York Times: Mr. Neil A. Barofsky [Special Inspector General for the TARP - SIGTARP] is setting off fireworks on Capitol Hill as he quietly and methodically pieces together the most complete historical record yet of the financial bailout. His reports are careful but not cautious, showing a willingness to stand up to some of the most powerful people and institutions in Washington or on Wall Street."

CRS - Federal Employees: Pay and Pension Increases Since 1969, Patrick Purcell, Specialist in Income Security, January 20, 2010

The Long-Term Outlook for the U.S. Navy's Fleet, Statement of Eric J. Labs, Senior Analyst for Naval Forces and Weapons The Long-Term Outlook for the U.S. Navy’s Fleet before the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, January 20, 2010

Report of the Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States on the 2009 Economic Report of the President Together With Minority Views, January 11, 2010.

CBO - Unauthorized Appropriations and Expiring Authorizations
January 2010

• Appropriations Version
  
• House Version
  
• Senate Version

First Public Hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Day 2, January 14, 2010. Panel 1: Current Investigations into the Financial Crisis — Federal Officials. Panel 2: Current Investigations into the Financial Crisis — State and Local Officials.

"In the wake of the most significant financial crisis since the Great Depression, the President signed into law on May 20, 2009, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, creating the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The Commission was established to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." The 10 members of the bi-partisan Commission, prominent private citizens with significant experience in banking, market regulation, taxation, finance, economics, housing, and consumer protection, were appointed by Congress on July 15, 2009. The Chair, Phil Angelides, and Vice Chair, Bill Thomas, were selected jointly by the House and Senate Majority and Minority Leadership."

• First Public Hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Day 1, January 13, 2010. Links to PDF copies of witness statements.
  
• Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Selected Financial Market & Economic Data, January 13, 2010
  
• WSJ: Panel Rips Wall Street Titans
  
• Related postings on financial system

Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisors: Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Second Quarterly Report, January 13, 2010

News release: "Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz and key members of Congress, including Representative Chris Van Hollen, Chairman Bobby Rush, and Representative Mary Jo Kilroy, today renewed their call for legislation that would put an end to anticompetitive patent settlements, which drug manufacturers have been using to keep less-expensive medicines off the market and charge consumers billions of dollars a year in higher drug prices. Speaking at a joint press conference, Leibowitz said consumers are forced to pay inflated prices or forgo their medication because of these “pay-for-delay” deals, in which brand-name drug makers pay their generic competitors to keep cheaper alternatives off the market. He urged Congress to adopt a provision as part of the health care reform bill to stop pay-for-delay agreements."

Estimated Premiums for "Bronze" Coverage Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Letter to the Honorable Olympia Snowe, January 11, 2010

"The House of Representatives HR 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act together with the Senate Patient Protection and Affordable Care bill as amended and passed December 24, 2009 are presented here in searchable form. This is provided as a public service. MarpX is a precision search engine uses the "Words Close Together" method of relevance ranking, which assures that the most meaningful hits appear near the top of the list search results."

Center for Responsive Politics - Personal Finances Disclosures: "In some ways, lawmakers' finances look a lot like those of many Americans. They include diverse portfolios of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate. They have bank accounts, credit cards and mortgages. The difference: Politicians generally have more money and—unlike most people they represent—they must make their investments public. By May 15 of each year, congressional members and top officials in the executive branch must file forms covering the preceding calendar year that detail their personal finances. By law, they must list their assets and liabilities, their income (excluding their government salaries, oddly), asset transactions, gifts they received and more. They need not list property unless it produces income, meaning their primary residence is generally not listed. But they must include the source of their spouse's income. Explore the holdings and activity of a particular politician or search through our database by keyword or organization to see who has holdings in your company or asset of choice."

News release: "Several changes have been made to THOMAS for the second session of the 111th Congress. These changes include: Bookmarking and Sharing Widget; Top Five Bills; New RSS feed: Bills Presented to the President; Contacting Members of Congress; Tip of the Week; Bill Text PDFs."

The Feasibility of Systemic Risk Measurement: Written Testimony for the House Financial Services Committee Hearing on Systemic Risk Regulation, Working Paper, October 2009, Andrew W. Lo [Harris & Harris Group Professor, Director, MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering]

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act: Overview and Issues for Congress, Kevin R. Kosar, Analyst in American National Government, December 14, 2009

"The Department of Treasury's annual Agency Financial Report provides fiscal and high-level performance results that enable the President, Congress, and the American people to assess our accomplishments for each fiscal year (October 1 through September 30). This report provides an overview of our programs, accomplishments, challenges, and management's accountability for the resources entrusted to us. The report is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-136, Financial Reporting Requirements.

• 2009 Agency Financial Report - Department of Treasury
  
• 2009 Agency Financial Report - Office of Financial Stability

Follow up to previous postings on H.R. 4173, David Reilly, Bloomberg News columnist, commentary.

News release includes links to PDF and Excel documents: "House and Senate candidates seeking office in 2007-2008 reported over $1.42 billion in receipts, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The 2,382 candidates who participated in primary and general election campaigns for the U.S. Congress spent a total of $1.38 billion during the two years. Total receipts of 2008 congressional candidates declined by more than 1% compared with 2006, while total disbursements declined by almost 3%. In 2007-2008, Republican and Democratic Senate candidates raised $435.57 million and spent $433.02 million; those figures are both about 19% less than 2006 levels. Republican and Democratic House candidates increased their financial activity during 2007-2008, raising $980.35 million, almost 13% above 2006 totals, while spending $938.29 million, up over 10% from the previous election."

Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 2008 (Performance Profiles 2008), "a legislatively mandated annual report to the U.S. Congress, was released on December 18, 2009. Performance Profiles 2008 presents a comprehensive financial review and analysis of the domestic and worldwide operations of the major U.S.-based energy-producing companies. The report examines the majors' operations primarily on a consolidated corporate level, by individual lines of business and business segments, and by various geographic regions."

Senate Health Care Bill - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in the Senate on December 24, 2009. [Note - 2409 pages, PDF]

News release: "House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released a report prepared by the Congressional Research Service on several issues concerning the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The report was requested by Chairman Conyers and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on September 22, 2009 and is linked here: CRS Report."

New York Times - Comparing the House and the Senate Health Care Proposals: "Senate Democrats said Saturday that they had clinched an agreement on a sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system. The House passed its own version in November. The proposals are broadly similar but differ on some major issues, such as on a new government insurance plan, abortion and immigration. Many provisions of the Senate bill, including the mandate for individuals to obtain insurance and the creation of insurance markets, would take effect in 2014, a year later than similar provisions of the House bill."

"MAPLight.org, a groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws."

"GPO is pleased to announce the release of the following collections into the Federal Digital System (FDsys)":

• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (1991 to 2005)
  
• Code of Federal Regulations (2007 to 2009)
  
• Precedents of the United States House of Representatives (as part of the GPO Federal Publications collection)

Loopholes, Tricks and End Runs: Evasions of Campaign Finance Laws, and a Model Law to Block Them, by Molly Milligan - Center for Governmental Studies

• Correction Regarding the Longer-Term Effects of the Manager's Amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, December 20, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Harry Reid.
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Incorporating the Manager's Amendment. Cost estimate for the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3590, incorporating the effects of changes proposed in the manager's amendment released on December 19, 2009
• Related postings on health care reform

Federal Estate and Gift Taxes, Economic and Budget Issue Brief, December 18, 2009.

S. 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, December 16, 2009. Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on November 5, 2009.

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report to Congress examining how the agency has used the expanded law enforcement authority Congress provided in the U.S. SAFE WEB Act to protect American consumers since the Act was signed into law on December 22, 2006. The SAFE WEB Act authorizes the FTC to share information and work cooperatively with foreign law enforcement agencies to protect consumers from cross-border harm."

Via U.S. Dept. of State: Lobbying the Executive Branch: Current Practices and Options for Change, Jacob R. Straus, Analyst on the Congress, December 1, 2009

CBO: H.R. 4173, Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. December 9, 2009: Cost estimate for the bill as amended and reported by the House Committee on Rules on December 8, 2009

News release: "The Congressional Oversight Panel's December oversight report, Taking Stock: What Has the Troubled Asset Relief Program Achieved?, concludes that TARP was an important part of a broader government strategy that stabilized the U.S. financial system. It is apparent after 14 months, however, that significant underlying weaknesses in the financial system remain. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was the centerpiece of the federal government's multi-pronged response to the financial crisis. While it is impossible to disentangle TARP from other rescue efforts, it is clear the program played a critical role in renewing the flow of credit and preventing a more acute crisis. The Panel found that this overwhelming fiscal response, however, created an implicit guarantee for major financial institutions that distorts pricing for capital and encourages excessive risk-taking. Unwinding this guarantee poses a difficult long-term challenge."

The Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act of 2009, December 9, 2009

"The Congressional Directory is the official directory of the U.S. Congress, prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). Published since 1888, the Congressional Directory presents short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district, and additional data, such as committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and television galleries."

Washington Post: "The Transportation Security Administration inadvertently revealed closely guarded secrets regarding airport passenger screening practices when it posted online this spring a document as part of a contract solicitation, the agency confirmed Tuesday. The 93-page TSA operating manual details procedures for screening passengers and checked baggage and reveals technical settings used by X-ray machines and explosives detectors. It also includes pictures of identification cards used by members of Congress, CIA employees and federal air marshals, and it identifies 12 countries whose passport holders are automatically subjected to added scrutiny."

"On June 3, 2009 Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested the Statement of Disbursements (SOD) be published online, as part of her continued commitment to increase governmental transparency and accountability. Since 1964 Congress has been required by law to publish the SOD, which is a quarterly public report of all receipts and expenditures for Members of Congress, Committees, Leadership, House Officers and Offices of the House of Representatives. The book is delivered in three volumes and is over 3000 pages. The Chief Administrative Officer of the House publishes the SOD within 60 days of the end of the quarter based upon the following schedule: January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December. The SOD also includes the individual budgets or Member Representational Allowances (MRAs) for Members of Congress and information on the Member's Mass Mailings. Prior to this new online publication, these expenses had been widely available to the public in three volume sets, printed quarterly, that are still distributed by the Government Printing Office to all Federal Depository Libraries across the United States. Previous editions are available on microfiche in the Legislative Resource Center under the auspice of the Office of the Clerk."

Follow up to previous postings on health care reform, today's news release: "U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement today regarding a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) that shows that 60 percent of health care spending in the U.S. ($1.35 trillion out of $2.24 trillion) is controlled by state, local and federal government.

The Use of Agricultural Offsets to Reduce Greenhouse Gases, December 3, 2009. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, Committee on Agriculture, U.S. House of Representatives.

News release: "Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., reacted Wednesday to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found that large foreign ports have been unable to scan anywhere near 100 percent of freight passing through those ports, as Congress has required. GAO found that although Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been able to scan a majority of the cargo passing through low-volume ports, it has been able to scan no more than 5 percent of freight coming into large ports, necessitating an extension of the 2012 deadline for 100 percent scanning at major ports."

The Market Structure of the Health Insurance Industry, D. Andrew Austin - Analyst in Economic Policy, Thomas L. Hungerford - Specialist in Public Finance. November 17, 2009

Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output as of September 2009 - November 2009

Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today, November 30, 2009: "This report by the Committee majority staff is part of our continuing examination of the conflict in Afghanistan. When we went to war less than a month after the attacks of September 11, the objective was to destroy Al Qaeda and kill or capture its leader, Osama bin Laden, and other senior figures in the terrorist group and the Taliban, which had hosted them. Today, more than eight years later, we find ourselves fighting an increasingly lethal insurgency in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan that is led by many of those same extremists. Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region. This report relies on new and existing information to explore the consequences of the failure to eliminate bin Laden and other extremist leaders in the hope that we can learn from the mistakes of the past." John F. Kerry, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

An Analysis of Health Insurance Premiums Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, November 30, 2009 - Letter to the Honorable Evan Bayh

Temporary Extension of Unemployment Benefits: Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08), November 17, 2009

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs -
The Fort Hood Attack: A Preliminary Assessment, November 19, 2009

• H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act, November 20, 2009. Revised cost estimate for the bill as passed by the House of Representatives
• Information on Medicare's Payments to Physicians and the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physicians Payment Reform Act of 2009, November 19, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Paul Ryan
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, November 18, 2009 Cost estimate for the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3590, as proposed in the Senate on November 18, 2009
• Long-Term Implications of the Department of Defense's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Submission, November 18, 2009. Testimony before the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives.

"The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new report, Enforcing Privacy: Building American Institutions to Protect Privacy in the Face of New Technology and Government Powers, November 2009, written by Jay Stanley, recommending steps Congress should take to create the vigorous privacy oversight institutions that are desperately needed in the United States to counterbalance the rush of new technologies and expanding government powers, and called for the Obama administration to move quickly to fill the seats on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB)."

CRS Report R40901 - Terrorism Information Sharing and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report Initiative: Background and Issues for Congress, November 05, 2009

Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Legislation Enacted in the 111th Congress, Patrick Purcell, Specialist in Income Security, November 12, 2009: "On June 22, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking
Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-31). Title I of Division B of H.R. 1256 is the “Thrift Savings Plan Enhancement Act of 2009”. Among other provisions, P.L. 111-31:

• provides for newly hired federal employees to be enrolled automatically in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) at a default contribution rate of 3% of pay;
  
• requires the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to establish within the TSP a qualified Roth contribution program that provides for after-tax contributions and tax-free distributions;
  
• gives the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board authority to include mutual fund investment options in the TSP;
  
• requires the Thrift Board to submit to Congress an annual report that includes demographic information about TSP participants and fund managers..."

Job Loss and Infrastructure Job Creation Spending During the Recession, Linda Levine, Specialist in Labor Economics, October 2, 2009

Follow up to previous postings on the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the following new documents released by Sen. Dodd via his press release:

House Report 111-330, to accompany H. Res. 903 RH - The rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act, contains a summary of the amendment, the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act.

"The U.S. Sentencing Commission has issued a report, The History of Child Pornography Guidelines, as a first step in its review of the punishment prescribed for the sexual exploitation of children...The Commission has sought to implement congressional intent in the area of child pornography offenses in a manner consistent with the SRA and subsequent legislation. As discussed in this paper, in amending the child pornography guidelines over the years, the Commission has reviewed sentencing data, considered public comment on proposed amendments, conducted public hearings on proposed amendments, studied relevant literature, and considered pertinent legislative history."

Health Reform and the 111th Congress, Hinda Chaikind, Specialist in Health Care Financing, October 14, 2009

Follow up on previous postings on health care reform, from WSJ.com - Health-Care Reform Proposals - "Compare health-care legislation taking shape in the House and Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the system. Details are still being negotiated and any final health care bill would have to meld proposals from the House and Senate."

H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act - November 6, 2009: Cost estimate for the bill as introduced on October 29, 2009 and incorporating the manager's amendment from November 3, 2009 (updated to reflect enactment of H.R. 3548): "CBO and the staff of JCT now estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 3962, incorporating the manager’s amendment, would yield a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2010-2019 period."

• Richard S. Foster, Chief Actuary, CMS - Estimated Financial Effects of the 'America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009' (H.R. 3200), as Reported by the Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, October 21, 2009
  
• Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Revenue Effects of Possible Modifications to the Revenue Provisions of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, October 29, 2009
  
• Related postings on H.R. 3962

• November 04, 2009 - Income of Americans Aged 65 and Older, 1968 to 2008
• October 30, 2009 - Private Health Insurance Provisions of H.R. 3962 / Note: related postings on H.R. 3962
• October 28, 2009 - Systemic Risk and the Federal Reserve
• October 22, 2009 - Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2010
• October 19, 2009 - Presidential Terms and Tenure: Perspectives and Proposals for Change
• October 16, 2009 - Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean

HUD OIG: Review of HUD’s Process for Monitoring Recipient Reporting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, October 30, 2009

"The November 2, 2009 hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting probed the precision and accuracy of counting contractors by the Department of Defense, the strategic withdrawal in Iraq and the role of contractors, and the cooperation between the Defense Contracting Management Agency and the Defense Contracting Audit Agency with coordination from the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy to improve oversight of contractor business systems."

CBO Analysis of Subsidies to and Payments by Enrollees in Insurance Exchanges Under the Affordable Health Care for America Act, November 2, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel

"The country will never be able to contain rates of chronic diseases and health care costs until we find ways to keep Americans healthier. But right now, Americans are not as healthy as they could be or should be. Two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. The childhood obesity epidemic is putting today’s youth on course to potentially be the first generation to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. This report, the sixth annual edition of F as in Fat: How Obesity Rates Are Failing in America 2009, finds that in the past year, adult obesity rates grew in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state. The number of obese adults now exceeds 25 percent in nearly two-thirds of states. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. In 1980, the national average of obese adults was 15 percent."

• Different Measures for Analyzing Current Proposals to Reform Health Care, October 30, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Max Baucus
• Preliminary Analysis of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, October 29, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel
• Note: H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, is 1990 pages long (PDF)

News release: "Today U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, held a hearing on strengthening the 401(k) system, with a particular focus on the proliferation, composition, and regulation of target date funds. Target date funds, sometimes called lifecycle funds, are a type of mutual fund that automatically rebalances to a more conservative asset allocation as the participant approaches their target retirement date. Witnesses at today’s hearing explored issues considered detrimental to the effectiveness of target date funds, including lack of disclosure to plan participants and sponsors, excessive hidden fees, conflicts of interest and lack of fiduciary responsibility on behalf of plan managers, and the need for additional enforcement and oversight efforts by the related agencies. The Committee released a report, Target Date Retirement Funds: Lack of Clarity Among Structures and Fees Raises Concerns, highlighting these concerns, many of which were unearthed during its ongoing investigation into the funds."

WSJ: "Here are some key parts of the draft legislation hashed out between House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and the Treasury Department.
1) It would create a financial services oversight council, chaired by the Treasury Secretary, which would consist of Federal Reserve Chairman, Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman, and heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and others. The council would:
a. advise Congress on banking regulation
b. identify companies and activities that should be subject to more supervision.
c. Issue formal recommendations that a council member adopt for firms it regulates.
d. Resolve a dispute between regulators.
e. Subject a financial activity or practice to tougher rules and standards if the activity could threaten companies or markets..."

News release: "Today, Congressman John F. Tierney (D-MA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, issued the following statement about a newly-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report he requested as part of his sustained oversight of U.S. defense procurement waste: The GAO report identifies an area of weapon systems procurement that still goes unchecked—analysis of alternatives (AOA). The AOA process is designed to ensure that the Department of Defense and military services consider the range of options before committing to a specific defense weapons system. The GAO identifies numerous cases in which the Department of Defense made little or no effort to conduct such analyses at the start of these procurements. As such, the Department of Defense initiated procurement of these systems without confidence that the right solution was being pursued given all options available. In each case, the programs launched without a credible AOA process were delayed, over-budget, or both."

Subsidizing Infrastructure Investment with Tax-Preferred Bonds, October 2009

CQ Staff: "The House Financial Services Committee approved creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), marking a big win for many Democrats and consumer advocates. The measure (HR 3126) — a central piece of the Obama administration’s financial overhaul plan — would create a new federal regulator with broad powers to police large swaths of the economy, including credit cards, home mortgages and pay-day lenders. Support for the new agency has grown after hundreds of thousands of subprime borrowers lost their homes, triggering one of the worst recessions in decades."

"EPIC joined the Privacy Coalition letter sent to the House Committee on Homeland Security urging them to investigate the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Chief Privacy Office. DHS is unrivaled in its authority to develop and deploy new systems of surveillance. The letter cited DHS use of Fusion Center, Whole Body Imaging, funding of CCTV Surveillance, and Suspicionless Electronic Border Searches as examples of where the agency is eroding privacy protections."

The Clean Water Act after 37 Years: Recommitting to the Protection of the Nation’s Waters - Statement of Wade T. Najjum Assistant Inspector General for Program Evaluation Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. House of Representatives, October 15, 2009.

Sunlight Foundation: "One year after the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression, Congress is still debating new financial regulations to protect consumers and prevent risk-taking in the financial sector. The House Committee on Financial Services is currently undertaking the important first step of writing, amending and voting on some of the pieces of the long-proposed financial regulatory reform. While debating these issues top committee members have been the recipients of disproportionate campaign contributions from the very industry that they are tasked with regulating. Twenty-seven committee members have so far received over one-quarter of their contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector. This includes Chair Barney Frank, Ranking Member Spencer Bachus, four subcommittee chairs and four subcommittee ranking members. Of the twenty-seven, twelve committee members received over 35% of their contributions in 2009 from the FIRE sector. All contribution data was collected from the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org."

CBO's Analysis of the Effects of Proposals to Limit Costs Related to Medical Malpractice ("Tort Reform"), October 9, 2009 Letter to Senator Orrin G. Hatch: "This letter responds to your request for an updated analysis of the effects of proposals to limit costs related to medical malpractice (“tort reform”). Tort reform could affect costs for health care both directly and indirectly: directly, by lowering premiums for medical liability insurance; and indirectly, by reducing the use of diagnostic tests and other health care services when providers recommend those services principally to reduce their potential exposure to lawsuits."

Government Executive: The 1,500-page fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill approved by a congressional conference committee on Wednesday will have major repercussions for contractors and the government's acquisition workforce. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the legislation "supports the [Pentagon's] plan to increase the size of the civilian acquisition workforce; reduces the Department of Defense's reliance on contractors for critical acquisition functions; and eliminates waste, fraud and abuse through better contract oversight."

Make Our Food Safe: "Every year, 76 million Americans are sickened from consuming contaminated food – and 5,000 of these people die. That’s more than the number of individuals who lose their lives as a result of fire or unintentional drowning in the U.S. each year. Continued outbreaks of foodborne illness over the last several years – from spinach to peppers to peanuts – have demonstrated that these outbreaks are not random, unpreventable occurrences, but are due to widespread problems with our food safety system. Our current food system is broken and has been in need of reform for decades. And this year, Congress has the opportunity to change course and help protect children, families, senior citizens and all others from foodborne illness."

ACLU: "The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the USA PATRIOT Act Extension Act of 2009 [October 9, 2009], a bill which falls far short of restoring the necessary civil liberties protections lacking in the original Patriot Act. The bill, passed by the committee after two sessions of debate, makes only minor changes to the disastrous Patriot Act and was further watered down by amendments adopted during markup. The American Civil Liberties Union had endorsed the JUSTICE Act, an alternative bill that would heavily reform not only the Patriot Act but other overly broad surveillance laws."

U.S. House of Representatives has taken its last mainframe offline: "The U.S. House of Representatives has taken its last mainframe offline, signaling the end of a computing era in Washington, D.C.: The last mainframe supposedly enjoyed "quasi-celebrity status" within the House data center, having spent 12 years keeping the House's inventory control records and financial management data, among other tasks. But it was time for a change, with the House spending $30,000 a year to power the mainframe and another $700,000 each year for maintenance and support."

News release: "The Congressional Oversight Panel today released its October oversight report, An Assessment of Foreclosure Mitigation Efforts after Six Months. The Panel expresses concern about the limited scope and scale of the Making Home Affordable program and questions whether Treasury's strategy will lead to permanent mortgage modifications for many homeowners. Rising unemployment, weak home prices, and impending mortgage rate resets still threaten to cast millions of Americans out of their homes, with devastating effects on families, local communities, and the broader economy. One in eight mortgages is currently in foreclosure or default, and this crisis is estimated to produce 10 to 12 million foreclosures. While Treasury is still in the early stages of implementing its centerpiece foreclosure mitigation program, called the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the Panel has three concerns with the current approach."

CBO: Preliminary Analysis of the Chairman's Mark for the America's Healthy Future Act, as Amended - October 7, 2009 Letter to the Honorable Max Baucus

The Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI - a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC.

CBO: Changes in the Distribution of Workers' Annual Earnings Between 1979 and 2007, October 2009

• Contingency Contracting: DOD, State, and USAID Continue to Face Challenges in Tracking Contractor Personnel and Contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, GAO-10-1, October 01, 2009
• Emergency Management: Preliminary Observations on FEMA's Community Preparedness Programs Related to the National Preparedness System, GAO-10-105T, October 01, 2009
• Personnel Security Clearances: An Outcome-Focused Strategy and Comprehensive Reporting of Timeliness and Quality Would Provide Greater Visibility over the Clearance Process, GAO-10-117T, October 01, 2009
• Aviation Security: A National Strategy and Other Actions Would Strengthen TSA's Efforts to Secure Commercial Airport Perimeters and Access Controls, GAO-09-399, September 30, 2009
• Federal Judgeships: The General Accuracy of District and Appellate Judgeship Case-Related Workload Measures, GAO-09-1050T, September 30, 2009
• Federal Student Loans: Audits and Reviews of the Federal Family Education Loan and Federal Direct Loan Programs, GAO-09-992R, September 30, 2009
• Continuing Resolutions: Uncertainty Limited Management Options and Increased Workload in Selected Agencies, GAO-09-879, September 24, 2009
• U.S. Embargo on Cuba: Recent Regulatory Changes and Potential Presidential or Congressional Actions, GAO-09-951R, September 17, 2009
• Equal Employment Opportunity: DHS Has Opportunities to Better Identify and Address Barriers to EEO in Its Workforce, GAO-09-639, August 31, 2009

• September 21, 2009 - Social Networking and Constituent Communication: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Week Period in the 111th Congress
• September 16, 2009 - FEMA Disaster Housing: From Sheltering to Permanent Housing
• September 16, 2009 - Wildfire Fuels and Fuel Reduction
• September 16, 2009 - F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program: Background and Issues for Congress
• September 16, 2009 - Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends
• September 14, 2009 - Climate Change: Costs and Benefits of the Cap-and-Trade Provisions of H.R. 2454
• September 1, 2009 - The Fall and Rise of Household Saving

EPIC: "...the Department of Justice announced a new policy that limits the government’s use of the state secrets privilege. The state secrets privilege is a rule of evidence intended to prevent genuine matters of national security from being disclosed in open court. However, recently it has been misused by both the Bush and Obama administrations in order to derail litigation completely. For instance, in 2007 EPIC filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief in a warrantless wiretapping case, Hepting v. United States, in which the government argued that the case should be dismissed because it would reveal “state secrets.” Under the new policy, the privilege will be invoked only "to the extent necessary to protect against the risk of significant harm to national security." The Attorney General will also have to approve each determination. The State Secret Protection Act of 2009, legislation with a similar purpose, is now pending in Congress. For more information, see EPIC Open Government."

News release: "A judge ordered the government Thursday to release more records about the lobbying campaign to provide immunity to the telecommunications giants that participated in the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered the records be provided to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) by October 9, 2009. The decision is part of EFF's long-running battle to gather information about telecommunications lobbying conducted as Congress considered granting immunity to companies that participated in illegal government electronic surveillance. Telecom immunity was eventually passed as part of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008, but a bill that would repeal the immunity -- called the JUSTICE Act -- was introduced in the Senate last week."

CRS Report - Social Networking and Constituent Communication: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Week Period in the 111th Congress

CBO: Additional Information on Insurance Coverage for Unauthorized Immigrants Under Proposed Health Care Legislation, September 22, 2009 - Letter to the Honorable Chuck Grassley

The 50 Richest Members of Congress: "Even membership in Congress’ most exclusive club couldn’t insulate lawmakers from the economic downturn. According to Roll Call’s annual examination of House and Senate financial disclosure forms, while the 50 richest Members of Congress remain financially flush — each with a minimum net worth of nearly $5.5 million — many of them suffered significant financial losses in 2008. Lawmakers on this year’s list reported a combined loss of more than $275 million from their minimum net worth since 2007. While the combined wealth of the 50 richest Members tallied approximately $1.3 billion in 2008, that figure falls nearly $171 million short of the previous club, which put up a total of almost $1.5 billion. Among the 38 lawmakers who return to the 50 richest club in 2008, the average reported wealth has declined more than 10 percent. Those who ranked at or near the top of the list last year reported some of the biggest losses, including Rep. Jane Harman’s (D-Calif.) decline of more than 50 percent, or $114 million less than she previously reported."

News release and Fact Sheet: "U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced legislation to fix problems with surveillance laws that threaten the rights and liberties of American citizens. The Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act would reform the USA PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendments Act and other surveillance authorities to protect Americans’ constitutional rights, while preserving the powers of our government to fight terrorism. The JUSTICE Act reforms include more effective checks on government searches of Americans’ personal records, the “sneak and peek” search provision of the PATRIOT Act, “John Doe” roving wiretaps and other overbroad authorities. The bill will also reform the FISA Amendments Act, passed last year, by repealing the retroactive immunity provision, preventing “bulk collection” of the contents of Americans’ international communications, and prohibiting “reverse targeting” of innocent Americans. And the bill enables better oversight of the use of National Security Letters (NSLs) after the Department of Justice Inspector General issued reports detailing the misuse and abuse of the NSLs. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, September 23rd, on reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act."

"CDT told a congressional panel today that providing the public with direct, online access to complex government programs, such as TARP, would strengthen oversight. Media, watchdog groups, researchers and citizens could then better analyze the data for a wide variety of purposes. CDT asked the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to ensure that legislation explicitly require that TARP resources be made available to the public on the Web. CDT also noted that more sophisticated data--such as location and mapping data--are being collected today by government agencies; however, aging federal privacy law needs to be updated to ensure these new types of information are protected as well."

Statement of Marybeth Peters, The Register of Copyrights before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives 111th Congress 1st Session, September 10, 2009

Senate Finance Committee: Baucus Releases America’s Healthy Future Act

• Chairman’s Mark - America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009
  Scheduled for Markup By the Senate Committee on Finance On September 22, 2009 [223 pages, PDF]
  
• 9-16-09 JCT Analysis of the America's Healthy Future Act
  
• 9-16-09: Finance Committee Memo on Estimates of the America’s Health Future Act
  
• CBO: Preliminary Analysis of Specifications for the Chairman's Mark of the America's Healthy Future Act, September 16, 2009: "..the Chairman’s proposal would establish a mandate for most legal residents of the United States to obtain health insurance; set up insurance “exchanges” through which certain individuals and families could receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing that coverage; significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid; substantially reduce the growth of Medicare’s payment rates for most services (relative to the growth rates projected under current law); impose an excise tax on insurance plans with relatively high premiums; and make various other changes to the Medicaid and Medicare programs and the federal tax code...enacting the Chairman’s proposal would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $49 billion over the 2010–2019 period..."

News release: "Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., Sunday said the latest trend in cybercrime is directed at small to medium sized companies that have been robbed of both data and dollars...The thieves steal in amounts under $10,000 to avoid triggering a bank report required by anti-money laundering law. The malware is so well written that the traffic seems to be coming from an authorized computer – and possibly is a legitimate computer that has been commandeered. The money is then transferred to “money mules” who may have been recruited over internet job boards or who have posted resumes on a job listing serviceThe Committee will hold a hearing September 14, 2009, Cyber Attacks: Protecting Industry Against Growing Threats, to examine this new trend, and the Senators plan to introduce broad cyber security legislation later this fall that will improve cyber security in the private sector."

"On Wednesday, September 9, 2009, the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs continued its extensive oversight of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan during a hearing designed to explore how the various Inspectors General and entities charged with oversight and accountability of U.S. military, diplomatic, and development resources intend to coordinate and enhance their efforts in light of significantly increased resources flowing into Afghanistan and Pakistan."

White House: "Tonight the President will make clear to Congress exactly what he would like to see in the health insurance reform legislation that gets sent to his desk. With four out of five committees in Congress having finished their work and the fifth announcing today that they are moving forward, more progress has been made today than in all the decades since reform was first proposed by Teddy Roosevelt. But tonight the President will explain how these bills should be pulled together to find the best solutions possible to bring peace of mind to Americans who have insurance and affordable coverage to those who don't."

• Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Michael S. Barr Written Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on Stabilizing the Housing Market, September 9, 2009
• Making Home Affordable Program Servicer Performance Report through August 2009
• Related postings on financial system
Permanent Link

Newsweek: Who’s Winning the Twitter Wars? How Democratic and Republican politicians use the popular microblogging service.

The Government Printing Office (GPO) is pleased to announce the release of 8 new collections into the Federal Digital System (FDsys). The new collections are:

• Congressional Directory (105th Congress to present)
  
• Congressional Record (Bound) (1999 to 2001)
  
• Congressional Record Index (Daily) (1983 to Present)
  
• Economic Report of the President (1996 to present)
  
• GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions (1994 to 2008)
  
• History of Bills (1983 to present)
  
• United States Government Manual (1995/1996 to present)
  
• United States Statutes at Large (2003 to 2006)

Remarks by the Vice President on the 200 Days of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: "First, we had to stabilize the financial system. We took the unpopular but necessary step of rescuing the banks. And now, although there's a long way to go, eight out of 10 of the largest financial institutions in America -- including Goldman, Morgan Stanley, American Express, as well as 16 smaller banks, have repaid the government in full, and I might add, at a $4 billion profit for the taxpayer. Second, along with the Fed, we took action stabilizing the housing market, allowing responsible homeowners to stay in their homes, and we’re beginning to see the results of that. We just learned that new housing starts rose 10 percent in July, for the fourth straight month increase. Are we there yet? No. But we're moving. Two hundred days ago, President Obama signed into law the third piece of our economic plan: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. And today there's a growing consensus: The Recovery Act is, in fact, working. Don’t just take my word for it. Analysts from Moody’s to IHS Global Insight, to the Economic Policy Institute and others all estimate the Recovery Act has created or saved between 500,000 to 750,000 jobs. As a matter of fact, some notable economists suggest the number is as high as a million. Economists at Goldman Sachs believe that the package added 2.2 percentage points to real GDP growth in the second quarter of 2009, and estimate that it will add 3.3 percentage current -- points to the current quarter."

Online Behavioral Tracking and Targeting Concerns and Solutions, Legislative Primer September 2009 - from the Perspective of: Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, The World Privacy Forum.

The Government Domain: Tracking Congress 2.0 - With the 111th Congress of the United States reconvening on September 8th, e-gov expert Peggy Garvin highlights new tools and sources that enhance and expand your ability to track and monitor the action.

FDIC Consumer News, Summer 2009 - Credit Cards: New Law Protects Consumers from Surprise Fees, Rate Increases and Other Penalties

• August 25, 2009 - Treatment of Noncitizens in H.R. 3200 [America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009]
• August 19, 2009 - Insurance Regulation: Issues, Background, and Legislation in the 111th Congress
• August 14, 2009 - Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy
• August 11, 2009 - Financial Regulation and Oversight: Latin American Financial Crises and Reform: Lessons from Chile
• August 11, 2009 - The Military Commissions Act of 2006: Background and Proposed Amendments
• August 07, 2009 - The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: (CEDAW): Issues in the U.S. Ratification Debate

"Welcome to our new website! As the Executive Director of the Council [Valerie Jarrett], I’m very excited to launch this site as we commemorate Women’s Equality Day on August 26. On this day when we remember the bravery and struggles that won women the right to vote, we are very pleased to add this website to share with everyone the work of this Administration to address the issues of concern to women and girls. The mission of the White House Council on Women and Girls is to ensure that every part of the federal government takes into account the needs of women and girls in the policies we draft, the programs we create, the legislation we support. Through this site you will be able to meet the member of the Council and the key staff in each agency who are charged with meeting this charge from the President."

• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
  
• History
  
• States parties
  
• Reservations
  
• Country Reports
  
• Other UN Conventions on Women
  
• Commentary: Celebrating Women’s Equality Day

New York Times: "Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew acclaim and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77."

News release: "In response to increasing concerns in the health care debate regarding the long-term costs of reform, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) released a report examining various steps for reforming the health care system to one that delivers better care at lower costs. The report, entitled, Improving Quality and Value in the U.S. Health Care System, supports the bipartisan health reform recommendations released earlier this year by Senators Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and Bob Dole in their budget-neutral framework for comprehensive health reform, Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System.

"As lawmakers and Americans discuss health care reform, The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, in electronic and printed form. The bill was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce. The authentic, electronic version is available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), named by Government Computer News as one of the Government’s best Web sites. GPO authenticated the document by digital signature. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered. A digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document’s integrity and authenticity."

News release: "AG King and twenty-three other State Attorneys General sent a letter late Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, voicing strong support for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency proposed by the Obama Administration."

"As part of the Committee's ongoing investigation of the health insurance industry's business practices, Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak sent letters on Monday to the largest insurance companies requesting information on how the companies use the premiums collected from policyholders, businesses, and the government."

News release: "Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), along with Rep. Elijah Cummings and Rep. Jim Moran released a JEC new report entitled, Comprehensive Health Insurance Reform: An Essential Prescription for Women. The report reveals that during the recession, women are experiencing a double-whammy of lost health insurance as they lose their insurance due to either their own or their spouse’s job loss. In addition, the JEC report chronicles the vulnerability created by women’s dependence on their spouse’s employer-sponsored health insurance, the unique risk of un-insurance for younger and older women, and the spike in newly uninsured children of unemployed single mothers."

U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (as required by Section 1001(3) of Public Law 107-56), August, 2009.

News release: "Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of several senior staffers who will work on the development of a National Broadband Plan as part of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative...The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, directed the FCC to submit a National Broadband Plan to Congress by February 17, 2010 that addresses broadband deployment, adoption, affordability, and the use of broadband to advance solutions to national priorities, including health care, education, energy efficiency, public safety, job creation, investment, and others."

WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Says Health Reform Will Put Patients’ Interests Ahead of Insurance Company Profits: "President Barack Obama described just how dysfunctional the current health insurance system is and how reform will fix it. Right now, the American people have a system that works better for the insurance industry than it does for them. Reform will put an end 14,000 Americans losing their insurance everyday and provide everyone with the security and stability missing today. It will stop insurance companies from creating annual or lifetime caps on coverage and will limit how much people can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. Reform means lower costs, more choices, better coverage, and stronger businesses and families."

Consumer Financial Protection Agency Continues to Create Banker Angst: "As President Obama attempts to overhaul the financial services regulatory regime, the one requirement that has met even more resistance than executive pay caps is the proposed financial services consumer watchdog agency...The financial services industry has dug in its heels in hopes of at least helping to shape the plan into something more palatable."

"On August 11, 2009 we added a new feature to our website that will help you connect the dots between specific industries and the lobbyists going to bat for them. Now on OpenSecrets.org you can find a list of lobbyists and their firms associated with more than 100 industries. Sort by lobbyist or lobbying firm/registrant and download a spreadsheet that will show you the industry and the lobbyists that represent clients within that industry...To access these lists, go to our lobbying database and search for the industry you're interested in and click on the "Lobbyists" tab or click on the total number of lobbyists reported (see below)."

News release: "The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has issued a report titled, News release: "Afghanistan’s Narco War: Breaking the Link between Drug Traffickers and Insurgents, examining the new U.S. counter-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration has deemphasized opium poppy eradication and is focused for the first time on breaking the link between the narcotics trade and the Taliban. The aim is to deny money to the insurgency, which has been collecting millions of dollars a year in taxes and protection money from opium smugglers. The strategy reflects a new, interagency approach in which the military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies from the participating countries are working together to identify trafficking networks linked to the insurgency."

News release: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) today released over 700 pages of on-the-record interview transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers on the U.S. attorney firings and the Bush administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice. Conyers also released over 5,400 pages of Bush White House and Republican National Committee e-mails on these subjects. The released materials reveal that White House officials were deeply involved in the U.S. attorney firings and the administration made a concerted effort to hide that fact from the American people. "After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin," Conyers said, "this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons. Under the Bush regime, honest and well-performing U.S. attorneys were fired for petty patronage, political horsetrading and, in the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps.."
Interviews of White House Officials

• Rove Interview
  
• Miers Interview
  
• White House Documents
  
• RNC Documents
  
• Related postings on U.S. Attorney firings

EPIC: "Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are drafting legislative reforms to revise the USA PATRIOT Act. The USA PATRIOT Act allows authorities to conduct surveillance without judicial review through the use of National Security Letters. The Senators asked the Attorney General and the Chairmen of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committee to consider two previous bills that add protections to PATRIOT ACT. Pursuant to a EPIC lawsuit, a federal judge had ordered the Justice Department to provide for independent judicial inspection of documents relating to warrantless wiretapping. For more information, see EPIC USA PATRIOT Act, EPIC FISA, EPIC Wiretapping, and EPIC National Security Letters."

CRS: Private Health Insurance Provisions of H.R. 3200, July 27, 2009

EIA - Energy Market and Economic Impacts of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009 (08/04/2009): "This report responds to a request from Chairman Henry Waxman and Chairman Edward Markey for an analysis of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA). ACESA, as passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, is a complex bill that regulates emissions of greenhouse gases through market-based mechanisms, efficiency programs, and economic incentives."

Federal Contracting: Application of OMB Guidance Can Improve Use of Award Fee Contracts, GAO-09-839T, August 03, 2009 - Statement of John Hutton, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management - hearing on Eliminating Wasteful Contractor Bonuses Before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate.

Analysis of the Subsidy Costs of Direct and Guaranteed Student Loans - July 27, 2009 - Letter to the Honorable Judd Gregg

NO RHYME OR REASON: The 'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose' Bank Bonus Culture, Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, State of New York [Report Was Previously Transmitted to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chairman Edolplhus Towns (D-NY)]

Federally Funded Innovation Inducement Prizes, Deborah D. Stine, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy, June 29, 2009

Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009: "H.R. 3221 would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, which authorizes most federal postsecondary education programs. It would prohibit new federally guaranteed loans from being made under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and would increase direct spending for the Federal Pell Grant Program and other programs. The elimination of guaranteed student loans would lead to a comparable increase in direct lending by the government. The estimated subsidy cost shown in the budget is lower for the direct student loan program than for the FFEL program. Thus, enacting the bill would yield net budgetary savings for shifting new lending from the guaranteed loan program to the direct loan program."

FCC Report to Congress On State Collection and Distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 Fees and Charges: "This report is submitted by the Chairman, Federal Communications Commission pursuant to the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 (NET 911 Act). This report, which was prepared by Commission staff, is the first annual report on the collection and distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 (E911) fees and charges by the states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, and the Indian territories."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission testified today before the U.S. Senate on its efforts to combat deceptive advertising in the face of rapid changes in health care, technology, and online marketing strategies. In testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance, David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, described the Commission’s recent law enforcement and regulatory efforts addressing deceptive advertising."

Preliminary Analysis Of the Effects of HR 2454 On U.S. Agriculture - Office of the Chief Economist Economic Research Service, U.S., Department of Agriculture, July 22, 2009

Fact Sheet: Administration’s Regulatory Reform Agenda Moves Forward - Systemic Risk Legislation Sent to Capitol Hill: "Continuing its push to establish new rules of the road and make the financial system more fair for consumers and investors, the Administration today delivered proposed legislation to Capitol Hill that would require strong, consolidated supervision and regulation for all financial firms. The legislation also provides a regulatory regime to monitor, mitigate, and respond to risks in the financial system. Tomorrow the administration will release additional legislative language to create a National Bank Supervisor through the consolidation of the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and to provide the government the tools it needs to adequately respond to a financial crisis."
Reports:

• Title I - Financial Services Oversight Council Act of 2009
  
• Title II - Bank Holding Company Modernization Act of 2009
  
• Title VI - Bank Holding Company and Depository Institution Regulatory Improvements Act of 2009
  
• Title IX - Investor Protection Act of 2009
  
• Title XIII - Section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 343) is amended in the third paragraph
  
• Title V - Office of National Insurance Act of 2009
  
• Related postings on financial system

Financial Markets Regulation: Financial Crisis Highlights Need to Improve Oversight of Leverage at Financial Institutions and across System, GAO-09-739, July 22, 2009
• Troubled Asset Relief Program: Status of Efforts to Address Transparency and Accountability Issues, GAO-09-920T, July 22, 2009
• Related postings on financial system

News release: "The Congressional Oversight Panel today released its Special Report on Farm Loan Restructuring, fulfilling a mandate under the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 to analyze "the state of the commercial farm credit markets and the use of loan restructuring as an alternative to foreclosure by recipients of financial assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)." The Panel's report first examines the state of the agricultural sector and notes that, in general, it has fared somewhat better than the broader economy. The balance sheets of farmers and agricultural lenders have remained relatively strong, though some parts of the agricultural economy, most notably dairy are in crisis. Rural areas were generally less exposed to the housing bubble, providing some protection for rural community banks from the shock of the financial crisis, until more recently."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission [testified to] the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance of the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation that competition and the agency’s antitrust enforcement improves health care in the United States in two ways – first, by preventing or stopping anticompetitive agreements to raise prices and second, by helping to spur innovation that improves care and expands consumer access."

PASS ID Act Addresses Major Privacy Concerns in REAL ID: "CDT testified [July 15, 2009] before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on reevaluating the REAL ID Act. CDT testified in support of the PASS ID Act, noting that it mitigates or corrects critical privacy and security flaws introduced by REAL ID, while still establishing minimum federal standards for the issuance of driver's licenses and ID cards. While the PASS ID Act does not address all flaws in the REAL ID program, merely repealing REAL ID does not address all of the underlying privacy and security risks posed by government identification programs, CDT said. PASS ID provides the opportunity to start building privacy guidance and protections into all state identification programs, addressing trends and issues that will exist regardless of REAL ID implementation."

"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed a preliminary analysis of H.R. 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, as introduced on July 14, 2009. This analysis does not reflect any modifications or amendments made after that date. Among other things, the legislation would establish a mandate for legal residents to obtain health insurance; set up insurance “exchanges” through which some individuals and families could receive subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing insurance; significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid; make modifications to the Medicare and Medicaid programs; and impose an income-tax surcharge on high-income individuals."

S. 1390, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 - July 14, 2009, Cost estimate for the bill as reported by the Senate Committee on Armed Services on July 2, 2009

Secrecy News: "The new CRS report - "Gang of Four" Congressional Intelligence Notifications, July 14, 2009 - explains the role of the "Gang of Four," meaning the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, who are to be informed of particularly sensitive intelligence activities. (When the Bush Administration first notified Congress of its warrantless surveillance program, it limited the disclosure to the "Gang of Four.")"

CBO Preliminary Analysis of the Insurance Coverage Specifications Provided by the House Tri-Committee Group, July 14, 2009, Letter to the Honorable Charles B. Rangel

CBO: Intergovernmental Mandates in Federal Legislation, July 14, 2009, Economic and Budget Issue Brief

Testimony Before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, SEC Oversight: Current State and Agenda, Tuesday, July 14, 2009, by Chairman Mary L. Schapiro, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission testified before the U.S. Senate today on the agency’s campaign to crack down on scammers who are trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to push a variety of scams, such as phony job-placement and debt-reduction services, get-rich-quick schemes, and bogus government grants...In response to the rise in financial distress scams, on July 1, 2009, the Commission announced “Operation Short Change,” a joint initiative with 14 states, the Department of Justice, and other agencies that included more than 120 law enforcement actions."

Follow up to previous postings on US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, from today's Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing:

• Witness Testimony - Judge Sonia Sotomayor
  
• Member Statements
  
• NPR - Sotomayor: 'Fidelity To The Law' Guides Me
  
• Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Supreme Court Nomination Hearings (1971 - forward)

News release: "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today issued its 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, a national study that explores changes in homelessness nationwide. HUD's assessment concludes that while overall homelessness in America held fairly steady from 2007 to 2008, the number of homeless families, particularly those living in suburban and rural areas, increased. In addition to the annual report, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that HUD will, for the first time ever, begin measuring homelessness on a quarterly basis to gain a better understanding of the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness. The first Homeless Pulse Project for the first quarter of 2009 is now available."

New American Contract Issue Brief - The Hidden Drain - Why Health Care Reform Is An Important Part of Economic Recovery, By Niko Karvounis, New America Foundation, June 30, 2009

CRS - Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions, June 19, 2009: "In May 2009, Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced his intention to retire from the Supreme Court. Several weeks later, President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to fill his seat. To fulfill its constitutional advice and consent function, the Senate will consider Judge Sotomayors extensive record compiled from years as a lawyer, prosecutor, district court judge, and appellate court judge to better understand her legal approaches and judicial philosophy. This report provides an analysis of selected opinions authored by Judge Sotomayor during her tenure as a judge on the Second Circuit. Discussions of the selected opinions are grouped according to various topics of legal significance. As a group, the opinions belie easy categorization along any ideological spectrum. However, it is possible to draw some conclusions regarding Judge Sotomayors judicial approach, both within some specific issue areas and in general. Perhaps the most consistent characteristic of Judge Sotomayors approach as an appellate judge has been an adherence to the doctrine of stare decisis, i.e., the upholding of past judicial precedents. Other characteristics appear to include what many would describe as a careful application of particular facts at issue in a case and a dislike for situations in which the court might be seen as oversteping its judicial role. It is difficult to determine the extent to which Judge Sotomayors style as a judge on the Second Circuit would predict her style should she become a Supreme Court justice. However, as has been the case historically with other nominees, some of her approaches may be enduring characteristics."
See also:

• American Bar Assocation Rating Released: Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to be Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court
  
• Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On The ABA’s Rating Of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, July 7, 2009
  
• Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing To Begin July 13, 2009
  
• Confirmation Hearings: A Timeline That Is Fair To Senators, And Fair To The Nominee

News release: "A wide-ranging review of how Americans engage with and value the nation’s land and water resources and its outdoor recreation assets calls for a comprehensive overhaul of programs and policies to safeguard these resources for future generations and to meet the needs of a growing population. The report by the private, bipartisan Outdoor Resources Review Group (ORRG) is being presented today (July 6) at a Capitol Hill briefing to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), who served as honorary co-chairs of the project. In its report, the task force analyzed efforts to conserve and protect the nation’s outdoor heritage — including parks, wildlife refuges, and open space. The report draws a strong link between the availability and quality of these resources and the health of Americans, the economy, and communities nationwide. It also points to the tremendous hurdle in securing adequate funding for parks, recreation, and related purposes at the state and local levels, which are on the front line in providing these services."

Additional Information on CBO's Analysis of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, July 6, 2009

News release: "Recommendations for how the HHS Office of the Secretary will spend $400 million in funds for patient-centered research, also known as comparative effectiveness research, were released today by Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER). The report, mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is designed to help the HHS Secretary and lawmakers improve the quality of care for patients, and provide patients and doctors the best information possible to make decisions about health care. The Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research report also catalogues current federal activities on CER, which had not been previously inventoried."

"Report to the President and the Congress on Comparative Effectiveness Research: The Annual Report on Comparative Effectiveness Research contains information describing current Federal activities on comparative effectiveness research and recommendations for such research conducted or supported from funds made available by the Recovery Act."

• Executive Summary
  
• Full Report

"Who Runs Gov offers a unique look at the world of Washington through its key players and personalities. Our site will feature profiles of a select group of government officials, including members of the new presidential administration, legislators, senior Congressional aides and committee staff, and experts at think tanks and interest groups who influence how policy is made. Each profile focuses on an individual's policy experience and involvement with specific areas of government decision-making, from health care to telecommunications to financial services to national security. Our goal is to become the web destination for business, opinion and political leaders – as well as students, educators and engaged citizens - looking for crucial, real-time information on the individuals who shape the policy-making process in the nation’s capital." [Gloria Miccioli]

H.R. 2998, American Clean Energy and Security Act, June 26, 2009 - Cost estimate for the bill as amended and reported by the House Committee on Rules on June 26, 2009

News release: "Today, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) announces the release of an investigative staff report, Underpayments to Consumers by the Health Insurance Industry.

News release: "Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released the 2009 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in the group’s 19-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. The Pig Book revealed 10,160 earmarks worth $19.6 billion...The Pig Book Summary profiles the most egregious examples, breaks down pork per capita by state, and presents the annual "Oinker" Awards. All 10,160 projects are listed in CAGW's searchable database."

Patricia White, Associate Director, Division of Research and Statistics - Testimony: Over-the-counter derivatives Before the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, Committee of Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. June 22, 2009 [link to all related testimony]: "...I appreciate this opportunity to provide the Federal Reserve Board's views on the development of a new regulatory structure for the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. The Board brings to this policy debate both its interest in ensuring financial stability and its role as a supervisor of banking institutions. Today, I will describe the broad objectives that the Board believes should guide policymakers as they devise the new structure and identify key elements that will support those objectives. Supervision of derivative dealers is a fundamental element of the oversight of OTC derivative markets, and I also will discuss the steps necessary to ensure these firms employ adequate risk management."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today sent a copy of a recent staff report, Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, to two subcommittees of the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce that are holding a joint hearing on behavioral advertising. A letter on behalf of the Commission that accompanied the report states that the FTC “has actively encouraged industry to embrace new measures relating to behavioral advertising to inform and empower consumers and is monitoring developments” so that consumers’ privacy is protected. The letter and report were sent to the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection."

"The Federal Trade Commission today described its comprehensive efforts to combat identity theft before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The FTC also recommended legislative remedies to enhance the effectiveness of these efforts. The testimony presented by Betsy Broder, Assistant Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, highlighted the agency’s leadership role in developing a national strategy to combat identity theft as part of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force. The Task Force issued 31 recommendations that promoted an enhanced data security culture in the public and private sectors, launched victim assistance initiatives, and improved law enforcement’s ability to pursue and punish identity thieves."

CBO: Preliminary Analysis of Major Provisions Related to Health Insurance Coverage Under the Affordable Health Choices Act, June 15, 2009. Letter to the Honorable Edward M. Kennedy.

"The RaceTracker project on the OpenCongress wiki tracks every election for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and state governor. RaceTracker is a free, open-source, fully-referenced, and non-partisan public resource. It is coordinated by the crew at the SwingStateProject."

Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, H.R. 1207 - To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Responses to Questions About the Cost of a Cap-and-Trade Program, June 12, 2009 - Letter to the Honorable John F. Kerry

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Subcommittee on Domestic Policy held a hearing on: Bank of America and Merrill Lynch: How Did a Private Deal Turn Into a Federal Bailout?

• Opening Statement of Chairman Edolphus Towns
  
• Prepared Testimony of Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis
  
• Fed E-mails
  
• Opening Statement of Chairman Dennis Kucinich
  
• Closing Statement of Chairman Edolphus Town
  
• Related postings on financial system
Permanent Link

Did the 2008 Tax Rebates Stimulate Short-Term Growth?, June 10, 2009 Economic and Budget Issue Brief

"The Congressional Oversight Panel June 2009 Oversight Report, Stress Testing and Shoring Up Bank Capital, examines the recent stress tests conducted on America’s 19 largest bank holding companies (BHCs)...The Panel’s report examines how effectively Treasury and the Federal Reserve conducted the stress tests, specifically reviewing the government’s economic assumptions, their methods of calculating bank capitalization, their release of information to the public, and whether the stress tests should be repeated in the future. To help make these assessments of the stress tests, the panel engaged two internationally renowned experts in risk analysis, University of California at Berkeley Professors Eric Talley and Johan Walden, to review the stress test methodology."

"H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 21, 2009 would make a number of changes in energy and environmental policies largely aimed at reducing emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The bill would limit or cap the quantity of certain greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted from facilities that generate electricity and from other industrial activities over the 2012-2050 period. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would establish two separate regulatory initiatives known as cap-and-trade programs—one covering emissions of most types of GHGs and one covering hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). EPA would issue allowances to emit those gases under the cap-and-trade programs. Some of those allowances would be auctioned by the federal government, and the remainder would be distributed at no charge...CBO has determined that the non-tax provisions of H.R. 2454 contain intergovernmental and private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). Several of those mandates would require utilities, manufacturers, and other entities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through cap-and-trade programs and performance standards. CBO estimates that the cost of mandates in the bill would well exceed the annual thresholds established in UMRA for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates (in 2009, $69 million and $139 million respectively, adjusted annually for inflation)."

• May 04, 2009 - How Would Medicare Part B Premiums Be Affected If There Is No Social Security COLA?
• April 30, 2009 - The 2009 H1N1 \"Swine Flu\" Outbreak: An Overview - See also related postings.
• April 29, 2009 - U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians
• April 27, 2009 - Federal Tort Claims Act
• April 27, 2009 - The 2010 Decennial Census: Background and Issues
• Major U.S. Arms Sales and Grants to Pakistan Since 2001 (fact sheet), updated June 3, 2009.
• Political Turmoil in Thailand and U.S. Interests, May 26, 2009.
• Defense: FY2010 Authorization and Appropriations, May 8, 2009.
• Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies, March 31, 2009

FoxBusiness: "Lawmakers and Obama Administration officials are moving closer to finalizing proposals to overhaul the financial regulatory system -- a discussion which now includes federal insurance regulation and institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but significant conflicts remain unresolved."

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Current economic and financial conditions and the federal budget, Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., June 3, 2009

"As the ongoing recession places new constraints on family and government budgets, the long-standing gap between Americans’ need for long-term care services and the public and private funding available to pay for them grows ever wider. Policymakers may be interested in exploring whether private long-term care insurance – which now covers only about 6 million individuals – could play a larger role in financing the country’s long-term care needs. A new policy brief, Closing the Long-Term Care Funding Gap: The Challenge of Private Long-Term Care Insurance, from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examines the fundamentals of private long-term care insurance...Also available is related testimony, Filling In the Long-Term Care Gaps, from Diane Rowland, Executive Vice President of the Foundation and the Executive Director of KCMU, who testified June 3 at a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on the role of private insurance in long-term care."

The Budgetary Treatment of Proposals to Change the Nation's Health Insurance System, May 27, 2009

Treasury: Quarterly Report to Congress on International Monetary Fund Lending, January 1 – March 31, 2009

Fact Sheet: "Today, President Obama signs the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, marking a turning point for American consumers and ending the days of unfair rate hikes and hidden fees. Americans need a healthy flow of credit in our economy, but for too long credit card contracts and practices have been unfairly and deceptively complicated, often leading consumers to pay more than they reasonably expect. Every year, Americans pay around $15 billion in penalty fees. Nearly 80 percent of American families have a credit card, and 44 percent of families carry a balance on their credit cards. To tackle these problems, the Administration moved swiftly with the Congress to enact reforms."

• Endangered Species Act: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Has Incomplete Information about Effects on Listed Species from Section 7 Consultations, GAO-09-550, May 21, 2009
• Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-09-699T, May 21, 2009
• Responses to Questions for the Record: March 18, 2009, Hearing on ATC Modernization: Near-Term Achievable Goals, GAO-09-718R, May 20, 2009
• Effect of Personnel Reform on the Federal Aviation Administration's Budget, GAO-09-645R, May 14, 2009
• Freight Rail Security: Actions Have Been Taken to Enhance Security, but the Federal Strategy Can Be Strengthened and Security Efforts Better Monitored, GAO-09-243, April 21, 2009

Oversight of the Troubled Assets Relief Program - The witness was The Honorable Timothy Geithner, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Oversight of the Troubled Assets Relief Program - The witness was The Honorable Timothy Geithner, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

News release: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation posted a $33.5 billion deficit for the first half of fiscal year 2009, PBGC Acting Director Vince Snowbarger told the Senate Special Committee on Aging at a hearing today. Based on unaudited financial numbers as of March 31, the deficit represents an increase over FY 2008’s $11 billion shortfall, and is the largest in the agency’s 35-year history...The $22.5 billion deficit increase was due primarily to about $11 billion in completed and probable pension plan terminations; about $7 billion resulting from a decrease in the interest factor used to value liabilities; about $3 billion in investment losses; and about $2 billion in actuarial charges."

News release: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D‐Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R‐Iowa) today released policy options for financing reform of America's health care system...Three areas of potential funding sources explored in the financing options are: savings achieved from within the health care system from reductions in current levels of spending; reevaluating current health tax subsidies; and changing non‐health tax provisions."

News release: "Today, Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller, IV (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, introduced The Federal Surface Transportation Policy and Planning Act of 2009. This important legislation establishes a comprehensive and unifying mission for the nation’s surface transportation system."

News release: "Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Vice Chairman of the JEC, released a report showing unfair credit card practices are sending American families further into debt and undermining the economic recovery. The report, Vicious Cycle: How Unfair Credit Card Company Practices Are Squeezing Consumers and Undermining the Recovery, outlines how the economic downturn and financial crisis have accelerated the adverse impacts of these practices on consumers, small businesses and our economy as a whole."

Description of Policy Options Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans, Senate Finance Committee, May 14, 2009

Follow up to GPO Access: Budget of the United States Government and The President’s 2010 Budget, from OMB: "Today, we released the final volumes of the President’s FY 2010 Budget. These volumes include the Summary Tables, which show aggregate budget projections for the next 10 years; Historical Tables, which offer a wealth of budget data over the last century; and Analytical Perspectives, which provides a detailed discussion of certain budget concepts and Administration policies."

Follow up to April 26, 2009 posting - WSJ Interactive Map - Adverse events at top 100 newspapers, 2006-2009, this New York Times op-ed by Frank Rich - The American Press on Suicide Watch: "Newspaper circulations and revenues are in free fall. Legendary brands from The Los Angeles Times to The Philadelphia Inquirer are teetering. The New York Times Company threatened to close The Boston Globe if its employees didn’t make substantial sacrifices in salaries and benefits. Other papers have died. The reporting ranks on network and local news alike are shriveling. You know it’s bad when the Senate is moved, as it was last week, to weigh in with hearings on The Future of Journalism."

• Monthly Budget Review, May 2009 - Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for March and the Daily Treasury Statements for April: "The federal government incurred a deficit of close to $800 billion for the first seven months of fiscal year 2009, CBO estimates—$646 billion more than the deficit recorded through April 2008. That estimate includes outlays for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) measured on a net-present-value basis (adjusted for market risk), consistent with statutory requirements and with the approach used in the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2010, which was transmitted today. On a present-value basis, CBO estimates that outlays for the TARP were $116 billion through April."
• Financing Federal Aviation Programs, May 7, 2009 - Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives: "In reauthorizing activities of the FAA, particularly modernizing and operating the air traffic control system, the Congress faces a decision about how to split the costs between users of the agency’s services and taxpayers. During recent years, about 75 percent to 85 percent of funding for the FAA has come from users of the air traffic control system through various taxes, while the remaining amount has come from the general fund of the Treasury."
• The Distribution of Revenues from a Cap-and-Trade Program for CO2 Emissions, May 7, 2009 - Testimony before Committee on Finance, United States Senate: "Under a cap-and-trade program, consumers would ultimately bear most of the costs of emission reductions. Firms that used emission allowances for CO2 would generally pass along to consumers the cost of using those allowances in the form of higher prices for their products—regardless of whether the government sold emission allowances or gave them away. Such price increases would be essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program because they would be the most important mechanism through which businesses and households were encouraged to make investments and behavioral changes that reduced CO2 emissions. see also related postings on climate change].

On May 6, 2009 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held the following Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet hearing: The Future of Journalism. Witness statements:

• Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience, Google Inc.
  
• Alberto Ibargüen, President and Chief Executive Officer, John S. And James L. Knight Foundation
  
• David Simon, Author, TV Producer and Former Newspaperman
  
• Steve Coll, Former Managing Editor, The Washington Post
  
• James Moroney, Publisher/CEO, The Dallas Morning News
  
• Arianna Huffington, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the Committee on Financial Services that, with the rapid increase in mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, the FTC has intensified its efforts to protect consumers from foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams. The FTC also recommended legislative and other remedies to enhance the agency’s effectiveness. Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices, Peggy Twohig, testified that the Commission has brought 11 cases targeting mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams in a little over one year, and is actively engaged in ongoing, non-public investigations."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today testified on the Commission’s efforts to promote better security for sensitive consumer information and to prevent the inadvertent sharing of consumers’ personal or sensitive data over Peer-to-Peer Internet file-sharing networks. As part of these efforts, the agency also announced that it had reached an agreement with one of the largest privately held lenders in the United States to resolve charges that the company violated federal law by failing to provide reasonable security for consumers’ sensitive information. In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection Eileen Harrington said the agency strongly supports the goals of H.R. 2221, the Data Accountability and Trust Act, which would require companies to put reasonable data security policies and procedures in place, and to notify consumers when there has been a data security breach that affects them. The legislation also would give the Commission the authority to obtain civil penalties for violations."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing its strategy for increasing the supply of renewable fuels, poised to reach 36 billion gallons by 2022, as mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007."

"Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Edward J. Markey, Chairman Emeritus John D. Dingell, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, Congressman Jay Inslee, and Congressman Bart Stupak reached an agreement on a "Cash for Clunkers" program that will help the auto industry while cleaning our air. This agreement is based on H.R. 1550 [Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009], introduced by Congresswoman Sutton, and H.R. 520, introduced by Congressman Inslee."

• Information Security: Cyber Threats and Vulnerabilities Place Federal Systems at Risk, GAO-09-661T, May 5, 2009: "Cyber threats to federal information systems and cyber-based critical infrastructures are evolving and growing. These threats can be unintentional and intentional, targeted or nontargeted, and can come from a variety of sources, such as foreign nations engaged in espionage and information warfare, criminals, hackers, virus writers, and disgruntled employees and contractors working within an organization. Moreover, these groups and individuals have a variety of attack techniques at their disposal, and cyber exploitation activity has grown more sophisticated, more targeted, and more serious. As government, private sector, and personal activities continue to move to networked operations, as digital systems add ever more capabilities, as wireless systems become more ubiquitous, and as the design, manufacture, and service of information technology have moved overseas, the threat will continue to grow."
• Recovery Act: GAO's Efforts to Work with the Accountability Community to Help Ensure Effective and Efficient Oversight, GAO-09-672T, May 5, 2009: "GAO is carrying out its responsibilities to review the uses of Recovery Act funds and will also target certain areas for additional review using a riskbased approach. GAO’s first bimonthly report examined the steps 16 states, the District of Columbia, and selected localities are taking to use and oversee Recovery Act funds. These states contain about 65 percent of the U.S. population and are estimated to receive about two-thirds of the intergovernmental grant funds available through the Recovery Act. GAO’s report made several recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) toward improving accountability and transparency requirements; clarifying the Recovery Act funds that can be used to support state efforts to ensure accountability and oversight; and improving communications with Recovery Act funds recipients."
• Related postings on financial system

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, The economic outlook - Before the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2009

News release: "Today, President Obama and Secretary Geithner are unveiling two components [Fact Sheet and Backgrounder] of the Administration's plan to reform our international tax laws and improve their enforcement. First, they are calling for reforms to ensure that our tax code does not stack the deck against job creation here on our shores. Second, they seek to reduce the amount of taxes lost to tax havens – either through unintended loopholes that allow companies to legally avoid paying billions in taxes, or through the illegal use of hidden accounts by well-off individuals. Combined with further international tax reforms that will be unveiled in the Administration's full budget later in May, these initiatives would raise $210 billion over the next 10 years. The Obama Administration hopes to build on proposals by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel – as well as other leaders on this issue like Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Lloyd Doggett – to pass bipartisan legislation over the coming months."

• March 05, 2209 - Legal Issues Related to Funding for Religious Schools in P.L. 111-5, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• April 23, 2009 - Airport Passenger Screening: Background and Issues for Congress
• April 20, 2009 - Insolvency of Systemically Significant Companies: Bankruptcy vs. Conservatorship/Receivership
April 16, 2009 - Organized Crime in the United States: Trends and Issues for Congress
• April 14, 2009 - NATO Enlargement: Albania, Croatia, and Possible Future Candidates
• See also related postings on financial system and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

"On Tuesday, April 28, the Senate overwhelmingly passed anti-fraud legislation that was reported earlier this year by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act was introduced on February 5 by Committee Members Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.). On February 11, the Committee held a hearing to consider the legislation. The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act was reported by the Committee on March 5. The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 is also cosponsored by Committee Members Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). In total, nearly 30 senators have cosponsored the legislation."

• The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009
  
• Committee Report
  
• Statement of Administration Policy

"The Subcommittee on Health held a hearing titled, Swine Flu Outbreak and the U.S. Federal Response, on Thursday, April 30, 2009. The hearing examined the recent outbreak of swine flu and the next steps for a federal response at the Department of Health and Human Services.

News release: "Today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, joined by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, met with consumer groups, civil rights leaders and credit card consumers to discuss the national need for credit card reform. The discussion centered on the House Bill, Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights of 2009, (HR 627) which is set for a vote tomorrow and would significantly strengthen consumer protections in the credit card market."

News release: "With the NYCStat Stimulus Tracker, New Yorkers can track the City’s use of federal stimulus/recovery funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This funding includes federal tax cuts, expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare provisions, and domestic spending in education, health care, energy efficiency and infrastructure. The stimulus money for New York City will be used to ensure continued vital City services, provide assistance to New Yorkers in need, and stimulate the City’s economy."

News release: "In anticipation of President Obama’s 100th day in office, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today released a "100 Day Rule of Law Report" to examine the new administration’s efforts to reverse the Bush administration’s eight year assault on the rule of law. Feingold assessed the steps the Obama administration has taken thus far to address recommendations made by forty organizations and experts in connection with a Senate Constitution Subcommittee hearing chaired by Feingold on September 16, 2008, entitled Restoring the Rule of Law. President Obama received high marks for several actions he has taken in his first 100 days in office, including his executive orders to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, ban torture and increase transparency. However, Feingold’s review finds the Obama administration’s invoking of the state secrets privilege “troubling.”

Auto Industry: Summary of Government Efforts and Automakers' Restructuring to Date, GAO-09-553, April 23, 2009: "The turmoil in financial markets and the economic downturn has brought significant financial stress to the auto manufacturing industry. The economic reach of the auto industry in the United States is broad, affecting autoworkers, auto suppliers, stock and bondholders, dealers, and certain states. To help stabilize the U.S. auto industry and avoid disruptions that could pose systemic risk to the nation's economy, in December 2008 the Department of the Treasury established the Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP) under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). From December 2008 through March 2009, Treasury has allocated about $36 billion to this program, including loans to Chrysler Holding LLC (Chrysler) and General Motors (GM). GAO has previously identified three principles to guide federal assistance to large firms: define the problem, determine the national interests and set goals and objectives, and protect the government's interests. As part of GAO's statutorily mandated responsibilities to provide timely oversight of TARP activities, this report discusses the (1) nature and purpose of assistance to the auto industry, (2) how the assistance addresses the three principles, and (3) important factors for Chrysler and GM to address in achieving long-term viability and the challenges that they face to become viable. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed Chrysler's and GM's restructuring plans and financial statements, as well as Treasury documents related to AIFP. GAO also reviewed the terms and conditions of the federal loans to identify risks to the government and compared these loan provisions to GAO's principles for providing federal financial assistance to large firms."

New York Review of Books: The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs, By Arlen Specter, April 16, 2009

The Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing titled, Communications Networks and Consumer Privacy: Recent Developments on April 23, 2009. The hearing focused on technologies that network operators utilize to monitor consumer usage and how those technologies intersect with consumer privacy. The hearing explored three ways to monitor consumer usage on broadband and wireless networks: deep packet inspection (DPI); new uses for digital set-top boxes; and wireless Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking."
Testimony and Statement for the Record of Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director, EPIC Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center: "we believe it is becoming clear that unregulated collection of consumer data is posing an increasing danger to online privacy and maybe even to the economic model itself. A small number of companies and large advertising networks are obtaining an extraordinarily detailed profile of the interests, activities and personal characteristics of Internet users. Users have little idea how much information is gathered, who has access to it, or how it is used. This last point is critical because in the absence of legal rules, companies that are gathering this data will be free to use it for whatever purpose they wish – the data for a targeted ad today could become a detailed personal profile sold to a prospective employer or a government agency tomorrow."

News release: "Today, in an Earth Day speech at a wind turbine tower manufacturing plant, President Barack Obama announced that the Department of the Interior has finalized a long-awaited framework for renewable energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The framework establishes a program to grant leases, easements, and rights-of-way for orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible renewable energy development activities, such as the siting and construction of off-shore wind farms, on the OCS...In addition to establishing a process for granting leases, easements, and rights-of-way for offshore renewable energy development, the new program also establishes methods for sharing revenues generated from OCS renewable energy projects with adjacent coastal States. Additionally the framework will enhance partnerships with Federal, state, and local agencies and tribal governments to assist in maximizing the economic and ecological benefits of OCS renewable energy development. The Final Framework has been submitted to the Federal Register, and is available online."

• Energy Policy Act of 2005
  
• OCS Renewable Energy Program Framework
  
• FERC/DOI Memorandum of Understanding

Prepared by the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation: Tax Expenditures for Energy Production and Conservation, Scheduled for a Public Hearing Before the Senate Committee on Finance, April 23, 2009.

• Secretary Geithner Opening Statement Before the Congressional Oversight Panel, April 21, 2009: "Today I will outline the steps taken by the Obama Administration to restore the flow of credit to get our economy back on track and Americans back to work."
• Secretary Geithner Written Testimony Congressional Oversight Panel, April 21, 2009: "The challenges that our financial system faces are complex, interrelated, and the result of developments over many years. Earlier in this decade, a combination of fundamental factors and financial innovations generated unsustainable bubbles in many housing markets across the country. When those bubbles began to burst, starting in early 2006, housing price declines led to a sharp acceleration in mortgage delinquencies and charge-offs. Those unanticipated losses revealed deep-seated problems in our financial and economic systems. A protracted period of rapid innovation, excessive risk taking, and inadequate regulation produced a financial system that was far more fragile than was generally appreciated during the boom times."
• Related postings on financial system

Unclassified and Redacted - Inquiry Into the Treatment Of Detainees In U.S. Custody, November 20, 2008 (Released, April 22, 2009) (263 pages, PDF)

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, April 21, 2009 - Quarterly Report to Congress: "The Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) now includes 12 separate, but often interrelated, programs involving Government and private funds of up to almost $3 trillion — roughly the equivalent of last year’s entire Federal budget. From programs involving large capital infusions into hundreds of banks and other financial institutions, to a mortgage modification program designed to modify millions of mortgages, to public private partnerships purchasing “toxic” assets from banks using tremendous leverage provided by Government loans or guarantees, TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale, and complexity. Before the American people and their representatives in Congress can meaningfully evaluate the effectiveness of this historic program, that scope and scale must be placed into proper context, and the complexity must be made understandable. That is what this report attempts to do.

In this report, the Offi ce of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“SIGTARP”) endeavors to (i) explain the various TARP programs and how the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) has used those programs through March 31, 2009, (ii) describe what SIGTARP has done since its Initial Report to Congress, dated February 6, 2009 (the “Initial Report”), to oversee this historic program with respect to both audits and investigations, and (iii) set forth a series of recommendations for the operation of TARP."

News release: "On April 17, 2009, HHS issued guidance specifying the technologies and methodologies that render protected health information unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals, as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This guidance was developed through a joint effort by OCR, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)."

News release: "[April 17, 2009] the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee posted to its website a joint discussion draft and summary for the “21st Century Energy Technology Deployment Act.” {CEDA] This proposal, put forward by the bipartisan Committee staff, seeks to improve the loan guarantee program at the Department of Energy and to provide additional options for deploying energy technologies. The basis of the bill is to shore up the existing program at DOE, then transition to a new financially-focused agency to perform and expand upon the duties of the program."

"Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) believes the many fees extracted from 401(k) accounts are adding insult to injury for millions of Americans whose accounts have been decimated by stock losses and whose retirements are now in jeopardy. Miller talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for a report on how the recession is affecting 401(k) retirement plans to be broadcast this Sunday, April 17, 2009."

• Small Business Administration's Implementation of Administrative Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, GAO-09-507R, April 16, 2009
• Maritime Security: Vessel Tracking Systems Provide Key Information, but the Need for Duplicate Data Should Be Reviewed, GAO-09-337, March 17, 2009
• Superfund: Greater EPA Enforcement and Reporting Are Needed to Enhance Cleanup at DOD Sites, GAO-09-278, March 13, 2009

The Global Financial Crisis: Analysis and Policy Implications, Dick K. Nanto, Coordinator, Specialist in Industry and Trade, April 3, 2009.

Public Law 111–5, 111th Congress, 123 STAT. 115, Feb. 17, 2009 [H.R. 1] American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 407 pages, PDF

News release: "Organizations representing booksellers, librarians, publishers, and writers today launched the latest phase in their five-year campaign to restore the reader privacy safeguards that were stripped away by the USA Patriot Act. Since 2003, the Department of Justice has used its expanded power under the Patriot Act to issue more than 200 secret search orders under Section 215 and more than 190,000 National Security Letters (NSLs). Despite several efforts to reform the Patriot Act, the FBI can still search any records it believes are "relevant" to a terrorism investigation, including the records of people who are not suspected of criminal conduct."

Metro Potential in ARRA: An Early Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, The Brookings Institution, March 30, 2009

News release: "The Federal Communications Commission today begins the process of developing a national broadband plan that will seek to ensure that every American has access to broadband capability. In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – known as the stimulus package – Congress charged the Commission with creating a national broadband plan. In a Notice of Inquiry adopted [April 8, 2009], the Commission begins a proceeding to create that national broadband plan, seeking input from all stakeholders: consumers, industry, large and small businesses, non-profits, the disabilities
community, governments at the federal, state, local and tribal levels, and all other interested parties. The Commission must deliver the plan to Congress by Feb. 17, 2010. It will provide a roadmap toward achieving the goal of ensuring that all Americans reap the benefits of broadband."

CDT: "A cybersecurity bill introduced April 01, 2009 in the Senate would give the federal government extraordinary power over private sector Internet services, applications and software. The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 would, for example, give the President unfettered power to shut down Internet traffic in emergencies or disconnect any critical infrastructure system or network on national security grounds. The bill would grant the Commerce Department the ability to override all privacy laws to access any information about Internet usage in connection with a new role in tracking cybersecurity threats. The bill, introduced by Sens. John Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe, would also give the government unprecedented control over computer software and Internet services, threatening innovation, freedom and privacy. CDT President and CEO Leslie Harris said, "The cybersecurity threat is real, but such a drastic federal intervention in private communications technology and networks could harm both security and privacy."

U.S. Strategy for Afghanistan: Achieving Peace and Stability in the Graveyard of Empires, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia

Testimony:

• Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, Chairman, House Subcommittee on the Middle East & South Asia
  
• Karin von Hippel, Ph.D., Center for Strategic and International Studies
  
• Seth G. Jones, Ph.D., Rand
  
• Anthony H. Cordesman, Ph.D., Center for Strategic and International Studies
  
• Related postings on Afghanistan

"The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure today released a report on the progress of programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing April 2, 2009: Recovery and Investment Spending: Implementing a Bold Oversight Strategy, the Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan M. Collins discussed the urgency of making sure that proper controls are in place to deter waste, fraud, or mismanagement before stimulus money is distributed..."The two witnesses - Robert L. Nabors, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Earl Devaney, Chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board - spoke about the development of Recovery.gov, the Administration website that allows Americans to track grants, contracts and other forms of assistance as they are awarded and report back on suspected waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in their own communities. Recovery.gov receives about 4,000 hits a second, for a total of about 300 million since its creation, according to Devaney."

• Contingency Contracting: DOD, State, and USAID Are Taking Actions to Track Contracts and Contractor Personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, GAO-09-538T, April 01, 2009
• Defense Acquisitions: Measuring the Value of DOD's Weapon Programs Requires Starting with Realistic Baselines, GAO-09-543T, April 01, 2009
• High Speed Passenger Rail: Future Development Will Depend on Addressing Financial and Other Challenges and Establishing a Clear Federal Role, GAO-09-560T, April 01, 2009
• Human Capital: Improved Implementation of Safeguards and an Action Plan to Address Employee Concerns Could Increase Employee Acceptance of the National Security Personnel System, GAO-09-464T, April 01, 2009
• Wildland Fire Management: Actions by Federal Agencies and Congress Could Mitigate Rising Fire Costs and Their Effects on Other Agency Programs, GAO-09-444T, April 01, 2009
• Methadone-Associated Overdose Deaths: Factors Contributing to Increased Deaths and Efforts to Prevent Them, GAO-09-341, March 26, 2009
• 2008 Lobbying Disclosure: Observations on Lobbyists' Compliance with Disclosure Requirements, GAO-09-487, April 01, 2008

A Review of CBO's Activities in 2008 Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, March 2009

• March 10, 2009 - The United Arab Emirates Nuclear Program and Proposed U.S. Nuclear Cooperation
• March 10, 2009 - Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative: Legal Authorities and Policy Considerations
• March 10, 2009 - Medicare Primer
• March 10, 2009 - Filling U.S. Senate Vacancies: Perspectives and Contemporary Developments
• March 09, 2009 - Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts, and U.S. Policy
• March 09, 2009 - Credit for Military Service Under Civilian Federal Employee Retirement Systems

• An Assessment of the Potential Effects of the Reductions in Medicare's Payment Rates for Physicians Called for Under Current Law, March 27, 2009 Letter to the Honorable John M. Spratt Jr.: "This letter responds to your request for an assessment of the potential effects of the substantial across-the-board reductions in Medicare’s payment rates for physicians that are called for under current law. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that, without legislative action, physician payment rates under Medicare will be reduced by about 21 percent in January 2010 and by about 6 percent annually for at least several years thereafter. By 2014, the cumulative reduction in the rates will be about 40 percent.
• Flexibility in the Timing of Emission Reductions Under a Cap-and-Trade Program, March 26, 2009, Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives: "Accumulating evidence about the pace and potential extent of global warming has heightened policymakers’ interest in cost-effective ways to achieve substantial reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases. Although the potential damage from climate change is large, the potential cost of avoiding change is large as well. Meaningfully reducing the risk of damage would require that the United States and other nations make fundamental changes in the way that energy is produced and used. Those changes could include replacing carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels with appropriate renewable fuels or nuclear power; reducing energy use, perhaps through major gains in energy efficiency; and capturing and storing greenhouse gases on a large scale."
• Related postings on climate change

News release: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday called for new legislation granting additional tools to address systemically significant financial institutions that fall outside of the existing resolution regime under the FDIC. A draft bill will be sent to Congress this week...The legislative proposal would fill a significant void in the current financial services regulatory structure and is one piece of a comprehensive regulatory reform strategy that will mitigate systemic risk, enhance consumer and investor protection, while eliminating gaps in the regulatory structure."

Prepared Statement of the Federal Trade Commission On "Consumer Credit and Debt: The Role of the Federal Trade Commission in Protecting the Public,” Presented By Chairman Jon Leibowitz Before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives (March 24, 2009)

Show Us the Data: Most Wanted Federal Documents A Report By Center for Democracy & Technology & OpenTheGovernment.org, March 2009 - "In the past few months, President Obama and his appointed officials have indicated that policies around open government and information disclosure will change drastically. While each administration adopts its own standards for the management of unclassified federal documents, change at the agency level does not take place instantly nor will such change be universally accepted."

The Top Ten Most Wanted Government Documents

1. Public Access to All Congressional Research Service Reports- Legislative Branch
   
2. Information About the Use of TARP and Bailout Funds - Executive Branch
   
3. Open and Accessible Federal Court Documents Through the PACER System - Judicial Branch
   
4. Current Contractor Projects - Executive Branch
   
5. Court Settlements Involving Federal Agencies - Judicial Branch
   
6. Access to Comprehensive Information About Legislation and Congressional Actions via THOMAS or Public Access to Legislative Information Service - Legislative Branch
   
7. Online Access to Electronic Campaign Disclosures - Legislative Branch
   
8. Daily Schedules of the President and Cabinet Officials - Executive Branch
   
9. Personal Financial Disclosures from Policymakers Across Government - All Branches
   
10. State Medicaid Plans and Waivers - Executive Branch and State Agencies

"GPO is releasing the Public Printer's Letter to President Obama regarding transparency and open Government. The letter offers GPO's support in helping to implement the President's initiative leveraging the Federal Digital System (FDsys). Five goals with accompanying actions were provided that GPO is prepared to undertake to help implement the President's initiative."

"In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar detailed President Obama's New Energy for America Plan that will create a clean energy-based economy that promotes investment and innovation here at home, generating millions of new jobs. It will ensure energy security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, increasing efficiency, making responsible use of our domestic resources, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary also noted that Interior and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have reached agreement on managing renewable energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf."

News release: "During the House Financial Services Subcommittee meeting today, American International Group’s Impact on the Global Economy: Before, During, and After Federal Intervention, Rep. Barney Frank discussed the AIG employee contracts."

• 2008 Employee Retention Plan
  
• Confirmation and Acknowledgement
  
• Schedule to the Master Agreement
  
• Related postings on AIG and on the financial system

Letter to Rep. Barney Frank from Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York re: AIG 2008 Retention Bonuses

Prepared Testimony of Doug Shulman, Commissioner Internal Revenue Service, Before the Senate Finance Committee on Tax Issues Related to Ponzi Schemes and an Update on Offshore Tax Evasion Legislation, March 17, 2009

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR): Problems in the Past, Potential for the Future? Report by the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives to Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller, March 10, 2009

Joint Committee on Taxation: JCX-20-09 (March 09, 2009) List Of Expiring Federal Tax Provisions 2008-2020

News release: "he Federal Election Commission has added a new page to its website to aid compliance with the lobbyist bundling disclosure provisions of the Honest Leadership and Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA). The new rules require disclosure of contributions bundled by lobbyists and registrants as of March 19 and of those bundled by the PACs of lobbyists and registrants as of April 18. In addition to revised forms to be used by lobbyist/registrant PACs and leadership PACs to identify themselves as such, the new lobbyist bundling page has links to the following:

• Frequently Asked Questions - answers to common questions regarding the FEC's lobbyist bundling rules;
  
• List of Lobbyist/Registrant PACs - political committees that have identified themselves as lobbyist/registrant PACs by March 29, 2009;
  
• Clerk of the House Website - source for identifying lobbyists/registrants and their PACs; and
  
• Secretary of the Senate Website - source for identifying lobbyists/registrants and their PACs.

CBO Testimony: Statement of Terry M. Dinan Senior Advisor - The Distributional Consequences of a Cap-and-Trade Program for CO2 Emissions before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, U.S. House of Representatives, March 12, 2009.

askSam: "This database contains a complete text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 also known as the Stimulus Bill or Bailout Bill. It was formerly referred to as the Economic Stimulus Act. This database is fully searchable by division, title, section, and keyword. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("Stimulus Bill", Pub.L. 111-5, H.R. 1, S. 1) is an Act of Congress enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009."

"The purpose of this hearing [was] to assess Treasury’s oversight of the use of funds by financial institutions provided under the TARP. The hearing...evaluate[d] Treasury’s data collection procedures for monitoring the use of TARP funds allocated under the Capital Purchase Program, the largest TARP program. The hearing...also examine[d] Treasury’s ability to detect and prevent waste and misuse of TARP monies. Additionally, [and] examples of TARP recipient spending since their receipt of TARP funds."

Mother Jones: "By slipping a simple, three-sentence provision into the gargantuan spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, a congressman from Silicon Valley is trying to nudge Congress into the 21st Century. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) placed a measure in the bill directing Congress and its affiliated organs—including the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office—to make its data available to the public in raw form. This will enable members of the public and watchdog groups to craft websites and databases showcasing government data that are more user-friendly than the government's own."

Unclassified: Office of the Director of National Intelligence Data Mining Report, 15 February 2008.

Follow up to related postings on presidential signing statements, today's memo from the White House:

ARRA 101: "Completing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a long and arduous process for the Obama Administration and the new Congress. Now that President Obama has signed the bill into law, our nation can begin the journey of restoring our economic stability through the programs and initiatives this law will make possible.

Throughout the process of creating this law, the library community demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the American public by working to inform our leaders in Washington about the programs and services libraries across the country are providing to help America get back to work, such as assistance with resume building and online job searching as well as free classes to teach the public 21st century job skills.

With many opportunities available to libraries through the stimulus bill, the library community must continue our efforts to educate our elected officials on the benefits of investing in libraries – focusing now on the state level."

• Information Technology: Census Bureau Testing of 2010 Decennial Systems Can Be Strengthened, GAO-09-262, March 05, 2009
• Information Technology: Census Bureau Testing of 2010 Decennial Systems Can Be Strengthened, GAO-09-414T, March 05, 2009
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: GAO's Role in Helping to Ensure Accountability and Transparency, GAO-09-453T, March 05, 2009
• 2010 Census: Little Time Remains to Address Operational Challenges, GAO-09-408T, March 05, 2009
• Environmental Protection Agency: Major Management Challenges, GAO-09-434, March 04, 2009
• Climate Change: Observations on the Potential Role of Carbon Offsets in Climate Change Legislation, GAO-09-456T, March 05, 2009
• NASA: Projects Need More Disciplined Oversight and Management to Address Key Challenges, GAO-09-436T, March 05, 2009
• Systemic Risk: Regulatory Oversight and Recent Initiatives to Address Risk Posed by Credit Default Swaps, GAO-09-397T, March 05, 2009
• DOD Business Transformation: Status of DOD's Actions on Previous Recommendations for the Defense Travel System, GAO-09-416T, March 05, 2009

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Written Testimony - As Prepared for Delivery to the Committee on Ways and Means:..."What I propose to do in the remarks that follow is to:

• Describe the economic and financial challenges that greeted us upon our arrival in office, and discuss how we are addressing them;
• Lay out the intermediate and long-term threats to our fiscal condition, and explain how the President's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget will return the nation to a sustainable fiscal position; and
• Explain how this Budget puts the nation on a path towards energy independence, better educational outcomes, and a reform of health care that both lowers costs and expands access."
• Related postings on the FY 2010 Budget
• Related postings on financial system

News release: "House Committees on Science and Technology, Education and Labor, Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming are the first four Congressional Committees to join Twitter. These Committees use Twitter as a new tool to reach their audience and ensure transparency between the government and the public."

• House Committee on Science and Technology
  SciTechCmte (Twitter) - http://twitter.com/SciTechCmte
  
• House Committee on Education and Labor
  edlabordems (Twitter) - http://twitter.com/edlabordems
  
• House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  HouseTransInf (Twitter) - http://twitter.com/HouseTransInf
  
• House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
  MarkeyMemo (Twitter) - http://twitter.com/MarkeyMemo

USA Today: "For three years, the investigative arm of Congress has seen its staff dwindle in size. Now, the agency is getting a $25 million infusion of cash from the stimulus bill signed by President Obama last month to hire investigators, auditors and others to track hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending to jump-start the economy. The stimulus bill contains $330.5 million for oversight and offers the president his first opportunity to put into practice his campaign pledge to demand greater accountability of federal spending. It provides $25 million for the Government Accountability Office, the non-partisan congressional agency; $84 million to create an accountability board within the administration and $221.5 million to the inspectors general who serve as department watchdogs."

EPIC: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the House Committees on Homeland Security, and said that DHS plans to connect governmental databases containing personal information, expand the government's employment tracking system, promote passenger screening, use e-passports, employ watchlists and utilize contactless identity verification cards. EPIC has opposed Fusion Centers, the E-Verify program and the use of Backscatter X-Ray devices. EPIC has also objected to the use of RFIDs in passports, in Air Travel and in driver's licences."

News release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has announced three witnesses for a hearing scheduled Wednesday, March 4, on Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry. Leahy has proposed establishing a nonpartisan commission to examine past national security policies. Leahy has invited three witnesses to testify at the hearing: Thomas Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Retired Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, and attorney John Farmer."

How Convicts and Con Artists Receive New Federal Contracts: "The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee examines the Excluded Parties List System, a federal database intended to prevent persons and businesses ineligible to receive federal contracts due to past misconduct from receiving new awards. A GAO report...released at the hearing finds numerous examples of ineligible parties continuing to receive new federal contracts, due to flaws in the database and inadequate contracting procedures. Many of the parties who continue to receive new contracts have been debarred from contracting for egregious violations that directly threatened the national security of the United States and the safety of U.S. troops and citizens. The hearing will review whether immediate changes should be implemented to prevent the award of economic stimulus contracts to ineligible fraudulent contractors."

• H.R. 1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act February 25, 2009 - Cost estimate for the bill as introduced on February 23, 2008. "CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 1106 would increase direct spending by $7.6 billion over the 2009-2014 period, and would reduce direct spending by $14.9 billion over the 2009-2019 period. Enacting H.R 1106 would increase revenues by $19 million over the 2009-2014 period and by $23 million over the 2009-2019 period."
• The Department of Veterans Affairs' Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor Program, February 25, 2009, Letter to the Honorable Kent Conrad. "The discount that VA has negotiated with its single vendor is comparable with the corresponding discounts that DoD has negotiated with its three national vendors. Thus, CBO finds that requiring VA to award contracts to multiple vendors would be unlikely to result in substantial cost savings in VA’s drug purchases."
• Options for Expanding Health Insurance Coverage and Controlling Costs, February 25, 2009. Testimony before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate. "Without changes in policy, a substantial and growing number of people under age 65 will lack health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the average number of nonelderly people who are uninsured will rise from at least 45 million in 2009 to about 54 million in 2019. That projection is consistent with long-standing trends in coverage and largely reflects the expectation that health care costs and health insurance premiums will continue to rise faster than people’s income—making health insurance more difficult to afford."

Federal Reserve Board: Monetary Policy Report to the Congress - Current Report: February 24, 2009

• Part 1: Overview of Monetary Policy and the Economic Outlook
  
• Part 2: Recent Financial and Economic Developments
  
• Part 3: Monetary Policy in 2008 and Early 2009
  
• Part 4: Summary of Economic Projections
  
• Appendix: Federal Reserve Initiatives to Address Financial Strains
  
• Abbreviations
  
• Full Report - Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, February 24, 2009
  
• Related postings on financial system

"U.S. home prices posted record declines in the fourth quarter of 2008 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (HPI). The FHFA seasonally-adjusted purchase-only house price index, based on data from home sales, was 3.4 percent lower on a seasonally-adjusted basis in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter. This decline was greater than the 2.0 percent decline in the third quarter and the largest in the purchase-only index’s 18-year history. Over the past year, seasonally-adjusted prices fell 8.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008."

• See also 2009 Conforming Loan Limits Increased by American Recovery and Investment Act: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was signed into law on Tuesday, increased the maximum conforming loan limit for mortgages originated in 2009. The increase affects 250 counties across the United States. For these areas, identified in the attached table, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits will return to their late-2008 levels, which were up to $729,750 for one-unit properties in the continental United States. Loan limits in other areas are not changed by the legislation."
  
• Related postings on financial system

Estimated Impact on the Deficit of Three Alternative Policy Scenarios Specified by Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Spratt, February 23, 2009 - Letter to the Honorable Nancy Pelosi and the Honorable John M. Spratt Jr.: "CBO projects a deficit of $1.2 trillion for fiscal year 2009 and a cumulative deficit of $3.1 trillion between 2010 and 2019."

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., February 24, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery Address to Joint Session of Congress, Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

• Press Release: "Today Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced a $410 billion bill to wrap up work on the fiscal year 2009 appropriations bills. Last year, President Bush refused to work with Congress to come up with compromise to finish these nine bills, instead insisting on unacceptable cuts to energy research, healthcare, education, law enforcement and biomedical research."
• Bill Text and Explanatory Statements
• Summary: Agriculture
• Summary: Commerce, Justice, Science
• Summary: Energy and Water Development
• Summary: Financial Services
• Summary: Interior and the Environment
• Summary: Labor, Health and Education
• Summary: Legislative Branch
• Summary: State and Foreign Operations
• Summary: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

Securing, Stabilizing, and Developing Pakistan's Border Area with Afghanistan: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight, GAO-09-263SP, February 23, 2009

Presentations By The Acting Comptroller General:

1. GAO's Work on Today's High Risk Issues and Long-Term Challenges, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the Arizona Society of CPAs, in Phoenix, Arizona. GAO-09-382CG, February 6, 2009
   
2. Challenges Facing the New Administration and the 111th Congress, by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general, before the AGA 2009 Leadership Conference, in Washington, D.C. GAO-09-383CG, February 19, 2009

See this White House webpage which in turn links to the final version, published in the Congressional Record version (PDF) - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, inclusive of an online "form on the right to leave your comments, thoughts, and ideas." Required data: email address and name. Comments are limited to 5,000 characters.

Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (as required by Section 1001(3) of Public Law 107-56), Special Report, February 2009, Office of the Inspector General.

The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending by Michael Grabell and Christopher Weaver, ProPublica: "The appropriations section of the bill details spending in excess of $311 billion for programs ranging from Pell grants for college students to clean water in central Utah to nearly $100 billion in new transportation and infrastructure projects. Here’s our earlier chart comparing the differences between the House, Senate, and conference versions of the bills."

White House: "Today President Obama is celebrating the passage [Senate approved HR 1 by a 60-to-38 vote, House approved the compromise bill by a 246-to 183 vote] of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a "major milestone on our road to recovery," while still emphasizing that we have many miles yet to go...President Obama acknowledges that some people are skeptical about the plan given how Washington has performed in the past, which is why he's encouraging people to check back at Recovery.gov -- the site where, once the plan is in action, you'll be able to track the funds."

The Legislative Source Book of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC (LLSDC) now has a 1.5 MB file, in PDF, of the complete Conference Report, H. Rep. 111-16, to H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which has been taken and combined from five Congressional Record (50 page) files on GPO Access (210 pages all together). [thanks to Rick McKinney]

H.R. 1, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, February 13, 2009. Cost estimate for the conference agreement for H.R. 1: "Combining both spending and revenue effects, CBO estimates that enacting the conference agreement for H.R. 1 would increase federal budget deficits by $185 billion over the remaining months of fiscal year 2009, by $399 billion in 2010, by $134 billion in 2011, and by $787 billion over the 2009-2019 period."

News release: "In public testimony today before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair outlined the most significant global security threats facing the nation. Recognizing that global threats comprise a diverse set of issues and factors, Director Blair framed the analysis by identifying key areas of risk, concern and opportunity that could have direct effects on the quality of life and security for Americans. The hearing also marked the first occasion where the Director, the leader of the nation’s Intelligence Community, was the sole witness providing comprehensive analysis from all 16 intelligence agencies."

The Army's Wireless Communications Programs, February 12, 2009 Letter to the Honorable Neil Abercrombie

Nancy Pelosi's Gavel Blog: "The Appropriations Committee and the Ways and Means Committee have released detailed summaries of the appropriations and tax provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

• full summary from the Appropriations Committee
  
• full summary of the tax provisions from Ways and Means
  
• full summary of the health care, broadband, and energy provisions from the Energy & Commerce Committee
  
• Related postings on financial system

Joint Committee on Taxation (February 12, 2009) Estimated Budget Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Contained In The Conference Agreement For H.R. 1, The “American Recovery And Reinvestment Tax Act Of 2009”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Conference Report on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Preliminary Overview, February 12, 2009: "Just over three weeks since the Inauguration of President Obama, Congress will consider the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to save and create jobs, get our economy moving again, and transform it for long-term growth and stability. The landmark legislation is the first dramatic new investment in the future since the creation of the interstate highway system a half century ago."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: State-By-State Jobs Impact, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, February 12, 2009

February 11, 2009 - The Need for Increased Fraud Enforcement in the Wake of the Economic Downturn, John S. Pistole, Deputy Director, FBI, Before the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

House Financial Services Committee hearing entitled TARP Accountability: Use of Federal Assistance by the First TARP Recipients, February 11, 2009. The committee called on eight CEOs representing companies who received TARP money to testify.

Witness List & Prepared Testimony:

• Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co.
  
• James Dimon, Chief Executive Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  
• Robert P. Kelly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of New York Mellon
  
• Ken Lewis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America
  
• Ronald E. Logue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, State Street Corporation
  
• John J. Mack, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Morgan Stanley
  
• Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
  
• John Stumpf, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo & Co.
  
• See also OTS Urges Temporary Halt to Foreclosures
  
• Related postings on financial system
  

Follow up to related postings on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, from the Senate Finance committee, this Side-By-Side Chart of Notable Differences Between the Senate-Passed and the House-Passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

• Joint Committee on Taxation - Estimated Budget Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Contained In The “American Recovery And Reinvestment Tax Act Of 2009,” As Amended And Passed By The Senate On February 10, 2009
  
• Estimated Budget Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Contained In The Collins-Nelson Amendment (# 570) In The Nature Of A Substitute To The “American Recovery And Reinvestment Tax Act Of 2009,” Under Consideration By The Senate
  
• Related postings on financial system

Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, Expanding Health Insurance Coverage and Controlling Costs for Health Care before the Committee on the Budget, February 10, 2009

Congressional Budget Office: H.R. 1, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, February 9, 2009. Cost estimate for an amendment in the nature of a substitute by Senator Reid for Senators Nelson and Collins, February 7, 2009.

"Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress. The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation...Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." [As noted by Michael Ravnitzky, "there are additional reports and briefings prepared for specific offices that are not included in that electronic output."]

• Alphabetical list of reports
  
• Chronological list of reports
  
• These reports have also been merged into OpenCRS.
  
• Torrent: WikiLeaks Document Release: CRS Reports, Feb 2009 (full pack, incl. metadata for indexing). Where applicable we have also categorized the reports according to country and attached them to our general country index.
  
• Note: See also the FAS directory of links to topical CRS Reports

"In response to a letter from GAP and 9 other public interest organizations, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) sent a letter to GAP demonstrating his commitment to protect whistleblowers who disclose evidence of waste, fraud and abuse of bailout funds. In the letter, Special IG Neil Barofsky states: "One of the principal means by which [the SIGTARP IG's] mission will be achieved is through gathering evidence of fraud, waste, abuse and misconduct involving TARP funds. Whistleblowers represent a vital source of such information. SIGTARP is committed -- even beyond obligations under the relevant provisions of law -- to build a robust whistleblower system that will both encourage individuals to come forward and protect those individuals once they have done so."

WSJ: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's revamp of the $700 billion financial-sector bailout is likely to rely on a broad range of tools, from injecting additional capital into banks and helping homeowners avoid foreclosure to expanding the roles of the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to people familiar with the matter."

AP: "A comparison of the $827 billion economic recovery plan drafted by Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans with an $820 billion version passed by the House. Additional debt costs would add about $350 billion or more over 10 years. Many provisions expire in two years."

"GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) is an advanced digital system that will enable GPO to manage Government information in a digital form. FDsys will enable GPO to manage information from all three branches of the U.S. Government. As a state-of-the-art digital content management system, FDsys will contain information gathered through three methods:

• Files submitted by Congress and Federal agencies;
  
• Information gathered from Federal agencies’ web sites (often referred to as “harvesting” information);
  
• Digital files created by scanning previously printed publications."
  
• See the Advanced Search page to specify specific dates and collections.

"Pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program [SIGTARP] must report to Congress on its oversight activities and compile certain specified data and information about the operation of TARP. SIGTARP’s reports to Congress are due 60 days after confirmation of the Special Inspector General and quarterly thereafter...SIGTARP’s mission is to advance economic stability by promoting the efficiency and effectiveness of TARP management, through transparency, through coordinated oversight, and through robust enforcement against those, whether inside or outside of government, who waste, steal or abuse TARP funds."

Senate Banking Committee hearing, Pulling Back the TARP: Oversight of the Financial Rescue Program, February 5, 2009. Witness Testimony:

• Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General, United States Government Accountability Office
  
• Neil M. Barofsky, Special Inspector General, Troubled Asset Relief Program
  
• Professor Elizabeth Warren, Chair, Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program: "As part of our continuing mission to get answers about TARP, the Congressional Oversight Panel examined whether Treasury’s injections of cash into financial institutions have resulted in a fair deal for taxpayers. The findings are in our February report, which will formally be submitted to Congress tomorrow. Despite the assurances of then‐Secretary Paulson, who said that the transactions were at par—that is, for every $100 injected into the banks the taxpayer received stocks and warrants from the banks worth about $100—the valuation study concludes that Treasury paid substantially more for the assets it purchased under the TARP than their then‐current market value. Extrapolating the results of the ten transactions analyzed to all 4 purchases made in 2008 under TARP, Treasury paid $254 billion, for which it received assets worth approximately $176 billion, a shortfall of $78 billion."
  
• Related postings on financial system

Follow up to previous postings on digital television transition, "by a vote of 264 to 158, the House of Representatives approved S. 352, the DTV Delay Act, which will postpone the transition to digital television until June 12, 2009. This delay will grant millions of households the chance to be prepared for the transition and retain access to an important information resource."

Estimated Macroeconomic Effects of the Inouye-Baucus Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 1, February 4, 2009, Letter to the Honorable Judd Gregg.

The 2009 Future Years Defense Program: Implications and Alternatives, February 4, 2009, Testimony before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives

Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Modernizing the U.S. Financial Regulatory System, February 4, 2009. Witnesses - Paul A. Volcker, Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and former Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and Mr. Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States.

Statement of John F. Bovenzi, Deputy to the Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Promoting Bank Liquidity and Lending Through Deposit Insurance, Hope for Homeowners, and Other Enhancements before the Committee on Financial Services; U.S. House of Representatives, February 3, 2009.

Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) - Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, February 2, 2009

Estimated Budget Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Contained In Titles I And III Of S. 350, The “American Recovery And Reinvestment Tax Act Of 2009,” As Reported By The Committee On Finance

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, adopted by the House this week, includes strong privacy provisions ("Subtitle D - Privacy") for the proposed medical health network. Among the key provisions: a ban on the sale of health information, audit trails, encryption, rights of access, improved enforcement mechanisms, and support for advocacy groups to participate in the regulatory process. Patient Privacy Rights has expressed support for the legislation. A similar bill, S. 336, is pending in the Senate. Senator Leahy has called for strong safeguards to protect America's health privacy. For more information, see EPIC's page on Medical Privacy."

Supplemental appropriations for job creation and preservation infrastructure investment, energy efficiency/science, assistance to the unemployed, and State/local fiscal stabilization: H.R. 1 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (680 pages, PDF)

The Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) - "COP released its special report on regulatory reform today. The report discusses how regulation would have averted the crisis that we are in today, and how the implementation of smart regulation will help the United States can prevent another financial crisis and determine our economic success in the years to come. The report examines how deregulation of financial markets over the last twenty-five years have returned the boom-and-bust cycles that had plagued the United States’ economy until reforms of the Great Depression ushered in a half-century of financial stability. The report specifically points to three areas of regulation that could have prevented the current economic crisis, specifically basic consumer protection rules, supervision of credit rating agencies, and regulation of companies that are “too big to fail."

• Read the Report
  
• Summary, Part I
  
• Summary, Part II
  
• Related postings on financial system

News release: "The House Oversight Committee asked the nation’s IGs to identify all recommendations made between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2008 that had not been implemented by federal agencies. The information provided shows that the Bush Administration failed to implement 13,847 recommendations since 2001, which could have saved taxpayers $25.9 billion. Almost half of these recommendations were made over a year ago, and more than a quarter were made over two years ago. The five agencies that could save the most money by implementing open recommendations are the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development."

Testimony, CBO, Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, The State of the Economy and Issues in Developing an Effective Policy Response before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, January 27, 2009.

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) sent a letter today to the TARP Special Inspector General praising him for his work in providing greater transparency for the TARP Program. Frank’s letter...is in response to a letter from Inspector General Barofsky, where the IG stated, “Specifically, we [Treasury Special Inspector General] will be sending a request to all entities that have received TARP money to date asking them to account for their use of the TARP funds and to describe their efforts to comply with applicable executive compensation restrictions.”

• January 22, 2009 - Proposed Funding for Education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• January 16, 2009 - Health Insurance Continuation Coverage Under COBRA
• January 16, 2009 - Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies
• January 15, 2009 - Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center - Legal Issues: "This report provides an overview of major legal issues likely to arise in the event of executive and/or legislative action to close the Guantanamo detention facility. It discusses legal issues related to the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees (either to a foreign country or into the United States), the continued detention of such persons in the United States, and the possible removal of persons brought to the United States."
• January 15, 2009 - Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information: "Among the issues the 111th Congress may choose to examine are ongoing efforts by the Director of National Intelligence to strike a balance between protecting intelligence sources while providing intelligence analysts and consumers—including those in Congress—more information about the reliability of those sources."

CRS Report - Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies, January 23, 2009

"Recent policies have sought to contain damages spilling over from housing and financial markets to the broader economy, including monetary policy, which is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve, and fiscal policy, including a tax cut in February 2008 of $150 billion and two extensions of unemployment compensation in June and November of 2008. Over the past few months, the government has also intervened in specific financial markets, including financial assistance to troubled firms, including legislation granting authority to the Treasury Department to purchase $700 billion in assets.

The broad intervention into the financial markets has been passed to avoid the spread of financial instability into the broader market but there are disadvantages, including leaving the government holding large amounts of mortgage debt.

With the worsening performance of the economy, congressional leaders and President Obama have now proposed much larger stimulus packages, ranging from $600 to $850 billion, comprised of spending and tax cuts. An $825 billion package with $275 billion in tax cuts and the remainder in spending has been proposed, containing infrastructure spending, revenue sharing with the States, middle class tax cuts, business tax cuts, unemployment benefits, and food stamps. The need for additional fiscal stimulus depends on the state of the economy. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), in December 2008, declared the economy in recession since December 2007. Growth rates, after two strong quarters, were negative in the fourth quarter of 2007, positive in the first and second quarters of 2008, and a negative 0.5% in the third quarter. According to one data series, employment fell in every month of 2008. The unemployment rate,which rose slightly in the last half of 2007, declined in January and February of 2008, but began rising in March and in December stood at 7.2%. Some forecasters believe that the ongoing financial turmoil will result in a recession that is deeper and longer than average.

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure: H.R. 1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" - Distribution of Highway Infrastructure Funds to Large Urbanized Areas with Populations Greater than 200,000
See also:

• Funding Tables for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - data by state, provided for: Highways and State Bridges, Transit Capital, Fixed Guideway Modernization, Clean Water SRF
  
• Related postings on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and on the financial system

News release: Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and former Subcommittee Chairman for Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, James R. Langevin (D-RI), released a Majority staff report entitled “Getting Beyond Getting Ready for Pandemic Influenza.” The report examines the Nation’s state of preparedness and response capabilities in the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak. It identifies sixteen weaknesses in the outgoing Bush Administration’s approach to get prepared for pandemic influenza. In addition, the report provides fifteen critical recommendations for what Congress, the incoming Administration, and the public and private sectors can do to achieve National readiness to combat this threat."

Washington Post site, a work in progess: WhoRunsGov.com offers a unique look at the world of Washington through its key players and personalities. It’s your window into how deals get made and policy is shaped in the new Obama administration that is remaking the nation’s capital."

News release includes detailed summary: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today unveiled an original Chairman’s Mark of economic recovery provisions for inclusion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including $275 billion in tax cuts and investments that will create jobs in fields like green energy, highways, and health care, and provide relief for working families and businesses. The plan, which the Finance Committee will formally consider next week, also contains approximately $180 billion in additional investments to help Americans who have lost their jobs to keep their health care coverage and find new work, and to inject cash into struggling state economies..."

• Original Chairman’s Mark of Senate Finance Committee Tax Provisions for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Title I (Tax Relief, Trade Adjustment Assistance, and Other Provisions)
  
• Original Chairman’s Mark of Additional Senate Finance Committee Provisions for the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, Titles II – V (Unemployment Insurance, Health, and Other Provisions)
  
• Related postings on financial system

News release, Congressman Dave Obey: 'The economy is in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression. Credit is frozen, consumer purchasing power is in decline, in the last four months the country has lost 2 million jobs and we are expected to lose another 3 to 5 million in the next year. Conservative economist Mark Zandi was blunt: ‘the economy is shutting down,'" Obey noted. "In the next two weeks, the Congress will be considering the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009. This package is the first crucial step in a concerted effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and begin the process of transforming it for the 21st century with $275 billion in economic recovery tax cuts and $550 billion in thoughtful and carefully targeted priority investments with unprecedented accountability measures built in."

Summary of the Bill / Economic Analysis Supporting the Bill / Bill Text / Report Text

"After successful beta testing, GPO has integrated Authenticated Congressional Bills into the live Congressional Bills application on GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/index.html. Users of this application will notice digital signatures on bills from the 110th and 111th Congresses."

"GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides public access to government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies and preserved as technology changes. The migration of information from GPO Access into FDsys will be complete in mid-2009. The migration is occurring on a collection-by-collection basis. Collections currently available on FDsys are: Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993 to Present); Congressional Bills (103rd Congress to Present); Congressional Documents (104th Congress to Present); Congressional Hearings (105th Congress to Present); Congressional Record (1994 to Present); Congressional Reports (104th Congress to Present); Federal Register (1994 to Present); Public and Private Laws (104th Congress to Present)."

News release: "Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the incoming Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, and the founder of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, today praised a new report by the National Academies of Sciences entitled Medical Isotope Production Without Highly Enriched Uranium. The report concludes that the production of critical medical isotopes, necessary for a range of advanced medical procedures such as diagnostic imaging, can be completely and cost-effectively converted away from the use of dangerous Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU), which can also be used to make nuclear weapons."

H.R. 2, Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, January 13, 2009. Cost estimate for the bill as transmitted to CBO by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on January 13, 2009.

An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring and Other Improper Personnel Actions in the Civil Rights Division, July 2, 2008 (Released Publicly January 13, 2009)

Follow up to previous posting, Oversight Committee Holds Hearing on EPA's New Ozone Standards, this recently released memo from DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel: Assertion of Executive Privilege Over Communications Regarding EPA's Ozone Air Quality Standards and California's Greenhouse Gas Waiver Request (June 19, 2008) (added 1/08/09).

News release: "House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced [on January 9, 2009] H.R. 384, the TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009, to amend the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). The legislation will strengthen accountability, close loopholes, increase transparency, and require Treasury to take significant steps on foreclosure mitigation.

"Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Sen. Claire McCaskill, and Rep. Ed Towns issued a new report that finds that the Bush Administration has failed to implement over 13,000 recommendations made by Inspectors General (IGs) since 2001. Federal agencies could save taxpayers over $25 billion by implementing these open recommendations...The House Oversight Committee asked the nation’s IGs to identify all recommendations made between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2008, that had not been implemented by federal agencies. The information provided shows that the Bush Administration failed to implement 13,847 recommendations since 2001, which could have saved taxpayers $25.9 billion. Almost half of these recommendations were made over a year ago, and more than a quarter were made over two years ago."

News release: "Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), incoming Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced three significant changes to further increase transparency and reduce funding levels for earmarks, building on reforms brought about in the last Congress...new reforms to begin with the 2010 bills include:

• Posting Requests Online: To offer more opportunity for public scrutiny of member requests, members will be required to post information on their earmark requests on their Web sites at the time the request is made explaining the purpose of the earmark and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds.
  
• Early Public Disclosure: To increase public scrutiny of committee decisions, earmark disclosure tables will be made publically available the same day as the House or Senate Subcommittee rather than Full Committee reports their bill or 24
  hours before Full Committee consideration of appropriations legislation that has not been marked up by a Senate Subcommittee.
  
• Further Cuts: Earmarks will be further reduced to 50% of the 2006 level for non-project-based accounts." [Note: "President-elect Barack Obama said today in a meeting with members of his budget team that he will ban earmarks from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will soon go before Congress. The President-elect also said he expects his administration to inherit a budget deficit of up to $1 trillion."]

"The Treasury Department today released the report, United States Department of the Treasury Section 105(a) Troubled Asset Relief Program Report to Congress for the Period December 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008, required by section 105(a) of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The first in the series of reports was delivered on December 5, 2008."

States of the Union Before and After Bush, by Jodie T. Allen, Senior Editor, Pew Research Center, January 5, 2009

• Job Loss and Infrastructure Job Creation During the Recession, December 23, 2008: "After the long economic expansion that characterized much of the current decade, the nation entered its eleventh postwar recession in December 2007. The unemployment rate rose from 5.0% in that month to 6.7% in November 2008, the latest data released to date by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A majority of those unemployed in November—some 6 out of 10 million people—had been laid off by their employers. In November 2008 alone, employment at nonfarm businesses fell by 533,000, marking the biggest one-month drop recorded by the BLS Current Employment Statistics program since December 1974."
• Membership of the 111th Congress: A Profile, December 31, 2008: "This report presents a profile of the membership of the 111th Congress. Statistical information is included on selected characteristics of Members, including data on party affiliation, average age and length of service, occupation, religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, foreign births, and military service.

News release: "The Treasury Department today released responses to questions posed in the Congressional Oversight Panel's first report on implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act."

News release: "The Securities and Exchange Commission today delivered a report to Congress mandated by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that recommends against the suspension of fair value accounting standards. Rather, the 211-page report by the SEC's Office of the Chief Accountant and Division of Corporation Finance recommends improvements to existing practice, including reconsidering the accounting for impairments and the development of additional guidance for determining fair value of investments in inactive markets, including situations where market prices are not readily available."

Historical Effective Tax Rates, 1979 to 2005: Supplement with Additional Data on Sources of Income and High-Income Households, December 23, 2008, Letter to the Honorable Max Baucus, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance.

• December 12, 2008 - U.S.-Iraq Withdrawal/Status of Forces Agreement: Issues for Congressional Oversight
• December 11, 2008 - The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Final Part B Regulations
• December 08, 2008 - Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979: Background, Provisions, and Cost
• December 03, 2008 - Financial Market Turmoil and U.S. Macroeconomic Performance
• December 03, 2008 - U.S. Motor Vehicle Industry: Federal Financial Assistance and Restructuring
• December 02, 2008 - Immigration-Related Worksite Enforcement: Performance Measures

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Call for Action: Enabling Healthcare Reform Using Information Technology "outlines specific priorities and recommendations for the Obama Administration and 111th Congress to harness IT's power to reform healthcare and stimulate the U.S. economy."

• HIMSS Recommendations to Obama Administration and 111th Congress
  
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Adoption Model for Hospitals and Expected Benefits for Each Stage
  
• EMR Soft Return on Investment
  
• EMR Hard Return on Investment
  
• Frequently Asked Questions about Health Information Technology
  
• HIT legislation in the 110th Congress

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life - Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress, December 19, 2009

POGO letter to Congressional Oversight Committee leaders concerning certain financial companies seeking backdoor access to TARP funds: "The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a non-partisan, non-profit government watchdog that works to achieve a federal government that is effective, accountable, open, and honest. In our continuing scrutiny of the Troubled Asset Relief Program's (TARP) implementation, we have identified a disturbing trend. As you know, the TARP was created for the express purpose of buttressing the financial system by assisting institutions in danger of going under. In the language of the statute, the TARP was meant to "provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers." ...It has come to our attention that a number of insurance companies are attempting to qualify for TARP funds by purchasing banks. We found eight financial institutions engaging in such practices..."

Follow up to previous postings on auto industry, today's White House press release: "...the only way to avoid a collapse of the U.S. auto industry is for the executive branch to step in. The American people want the auto companies to succeed, and so do I. So today, I'm announcing that the federal government will grant loans to auto companies under conditions similar to those Congress considered last week...These loans will provide help in two ways. First, they will give automakers three months to put in place plans to restructure into viable companies -- which we believe they are capable of doing. Second, if restructuring cannot be accomplished outside of bankruptcy, the loans will provide time for companies to make the legal and financial preparations necessary for an orderly Chapter 11 process that offers a better prospect of long-term success -- and gives consumers confidence that they can continue to buy American cars."

Treasury Releases Term Sheet for Automotive Plan: Washington - The U.S. Treasury Department today released the term sheet and appendices for the Administration's plan for stabilizing the automotive industry.

• Chrysler Term Sheet and Appendix
  
• General Motors Term Sheet and Appendix
  
• New York Times: Bush Approves $17.4 Billion Auto Bailout

Follow-up to previous postings on the auto industry, this CRS report, U.S. Motor Vehicle Industry: Federal Financial Assistance and Restructuring, December 3, 2008: "The three domestically owned U.S. manufacturers of cars and light trucks are requesting federal financial assistance in the form of “bridge loans” to assure their ability to continue in business. The companies, General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler (collectively known as the “Detroit 3”), have directly appealed to Congress for aid in a series of hearings that began in November 2008. The companies have been affected by a long-term decline in U.S. market share, the impact of a general decline in U.S. motor vehicle sales in 2008 that has impacted all producers, and the effects of a severe constriction of credit, resulting from problems in U.S. and global financial markets. The rise in gasoline prices to more than $4.00 a gallon in July 2008 caused a significant fall in vehicle use and miles driven, and a structural shift in motor vehicle consumption patterns. The subsequent decline in gas prices in Fall 2008 has not led to increased consumer spending on autos and light trucks, in spite of numerous incentives by American and foreign-owned motor vehicle companies."

"On December 15, 2008, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States submitted an interim report to members of the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees. The interim report summarizes the Commission’s activities since it began its work in spring 2008 and reiterates its commitment to deliver a final report on April 1, 2009."