| August 10, 12:00 PM
, 2020 | - Joe the Plumber said he was considering running for Congress in 2010.
| Source:
CNN
|
| February 11, 2013 | - “When Roosevelt did this,” said Representative Steve Austria (R., Ohio), “he put our country into a Great Depression. That's just history.”
| Source 1:
Dispatch Politics
Source 2:
The Columbus Dispatch
|
| February 11, 2013 | - Missouri State Representative Bryan Stevenson apologized for calling a proposed abortion bill “the greatest power-grab by the federal government since the War of Northern Aggression.”
| Source:
Kansas City Star
|
| December 18, 2012 | - President George W. Bush announced a $13.4 billion bailout for General Motors and Chrysler. The bailout, which will make use of funds authorized by Congress in October for the rescue of U.S. financial institutions, requires among other things that the automakers sell their fleets of private aircraft. “I've abandoned free-market principles,” said Bush, “to save the free-market system.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Breitbart
|
| May 21, 2009 | -
Democrats in Congress denied President Barack Obama the $80 million he sought to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and move its prisoners to maximum-security prisons in the United States. “We don't want them around,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said of the prisoners. Obama, speaking in the rotunda at the National Archives where the Constitution is kept, insisted that he would move the prisoners despite resistance from Congress and put forth a new policy of “prolonged detention,” whereby terrorism suspects can be held indefinitely without trial. Vice President Joe Biden said that the White House had been evaluating Guantanamo prisoners with a “fine tooth comb.” “It's like opening Pandora's Box,” he said. “We don't know what's inside.”
| Source 1:
Fox News
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
Newsweek
|
| May 17, 2009 | - With massive support from the rural poor, the Indian National Congress party obtained enough seats to ensure a majority in India's parliament. Party leader Sonia Gandhi, whose husband, Rajiv, was assassinated by Tamil Tigers in 1991, is believed to be paving the way for her 38-year-old son Rahul to become prime minister; Rahul Gandhi, said party leader Prithviraj Chavan, could become prime minister “whenever he wished.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 16, 2009 | - U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to her during briefings on interrogation techniques in 2002, and claimed that her briefers expressly denied the use of waterboarding and that she first learned of its use several months later from a congressional aide. Pelosi's deputy, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he had “no idea” whether Pelosi's charges were accurate. “It's outrageous that a member of Congress should call a terror-fighter a liar,” said Republican Senator Kit Bond, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It seems the playbook is 'blame terror-fighters.'”
| Source:
ABC News
|
| May 8, 2009 | -
President Barack Obama said that his staff went “line by line” through the $3.4 trillion federal budget and found 121 programs that could be cut to save taxpayers $17 billion, or half a percent of the budget's total. Democratic lawmakers immediately protested the cuts, and Representative Maurice Hinchey (D., N.Y.) vowed to force the White House to accept delivery of a new presidential helicopter even though Obama says he doesn't need or want it.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| April 19, 2009 | - Sources identified as “two former senior national-security officials” said that Representative Jane Harman (D., Calif.) was caught on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli spy that she would try to get the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. “Three top former national security officials” said that Alberto Gonzales stopped an FBI investigation of Harman in order to win her support for the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
| Source:
CQ
|
| April 16, 2009 | - An unnamed intelligence official also said that, in 2005 or 2006, the NSA tried to spy on an unnamed member of Congress while he was traveling in the Middle East but that the plan was dropped over concerns about warrantless wiretapping of members of Congress.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 25, 2009 | -
FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before Congress that the Patriot Act helped to eliminate “an awful lot of paperwork.”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| March 20, 2009 | - The Congressional Budget Office announced that the Obama Administration's budget proposals will create $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, and First Lady Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| March 16, 2009 | - The House of Representatives, reacting to a plan by AIG to pay its executives as much as $218 million in bonuses, voted 328 to 93 in favor of a 90-percent tax on executive bonuses at firms that receive $5 billion or more in federal funds. Eighty-five Republicans voted for the bill despite their party's traditional opposition to tax increases. “The American people,” explained Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), “are all watching here.” “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them,” said Senator Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) of the AIG executives, “if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow, and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things--resign, or go commit suicide.”
| Source 1:
Politico
Source 2:
CBCNews.ca
Source 3:
Politico
|
| March 3, 2009 | - After Republican senators prevented the passage of a spending bill, Congress was forced to enact an emergency five-day stopgap to keep the government from shutting down. Senator John McCain criticized a $951,500 earmark for a “sustainable Las Vegas.” “So much for the promise of change,” he said.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| February 26, 2009 | -
President Barack Obama announced that he would pull all combat troops out of Iraq by 2010, and asked Congress for an extra $200 billion for the next eighteen months of war.
| Source 1:
CNN
Source 2:
CNN
|
| February 24, 2009 | -
President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress, offering a broad outline of a massive spending plan paired with $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. “Now is the time,” he said, “to jump-start job creation, restart lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education.”
| Source:
NPR.org
|
| February 9, 2009 | - The Senate passed an $827 billion stimulus package with the help of three Republicans who forced Democrats to cut billions of dollars that would have provided aid to states and education programs. Economists said the cuts were “outrageous” and “disastrous.” “The point is to keep lots of extra Americans from being unemployed for the next two years and have them, instead, do useful things for the country,” said Berkeley economist J. Bradford DeLong. “[Senators Ben] Nelson and [Susan] Collins, well, it's not clear what their objective is.” The House and the Senate were negotiating differences in their packages in the hopes of presenting President Barack Obama with a final bill by Friday. “If this is a harbinger of the future, God save us,” said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “Here we are shoveling out the goodies and we can't agree on that. What happens when you have to shift the car in reverse, or deal with something like health reform or energy policy?”
| Source 1:
MSNBC
Source 2:
Alternet
|
| January 8, 2009 | - Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild founder Joseph Francis sought a $5 billion government bailout for the porn industry. “It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America,” said Flynt.
| Source:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
|
| January 7, 2009 | - The Illinois House of Representatives voted 114 to 1 to impeach Rod Blagojevich, and his appointee to the U.S. Senate, Ronald W. Burris, went to Washington, D.C., to take his seat, and was at first turned away, but later told his appointment could be confirmed.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
The Swamp
Source 4:
New York Times
|
| December 4, 2008 | -
Representatives of the Big Three car companies, facing their lowest sales in decades and, in the case of Chrysler and General Motors, imminent collapse, again appeared before Congress (traveling by car and commercial flights this time, rather than on private jets) to ask for $34 billion in aid, a few billion less than the value of Harvard University's endowment four months ago, before it lost $8 billion.
| Source 1:
KansasCity.com
Source 2:
The Guardian
Source 3:
The Wall Street Journal
Source 4:
The Financial Times
|
| November 21, 2008 | -
Congress voted to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks.
| Source:
CNN
|
| November 7, 2008 | -
Democrats added to their majorities in both houses of Congress, while Senate races in Minnesota, Georgia, and Alaska remained undecided.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 5, 2008 | - “It’s important that everybody understands that this is not going to happen overnight,” said Gibbs about reversing the damage done by the Bush Administration. “There has to be a realistic expectation of what can happen and how quickly.” “We're in deep trouble,” said Georgia Representative John Lewis.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| October 16, 2008 | - A House investigative committee presented evidence that military contractor Harry Sargeant III, a top McCain fund-raiser, overcharged by tens of millions of dollars for fuel deliveries to American bases in Iraq.
| Source:
NYT
|
| October 2, 2008 | - The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The legislation, which originated as a three-page proposal by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and grew to 451 pages after House and Senate negotiations, established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to grant the Secretary of the Treasury up to $700 billion to buy troubled assets owned by financial institutions, to allow the Treasury to limit executive compensation and “golden parachutes” at those institutions, and to establish an oversight board to monitor the Treasury. The act also provides wooden arrow manufacturers an exemption from excise tax. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed the legislation to President George W. Bush, who signed it and promised that the United States would maintain “a leading role in the global economy.” “If I were dictator,” said Senator John McCain, who voted for the act, “which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.” McCain also suggested the act be vetoed because it included so much pork. “No matter what the stakes are,” he said, “you've got to stop this.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
ABC News
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
Think Progress
Source 5:
Think Progress
|
| September 30, 2008 | -
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, suggested the United States solve its economic crisis by creating a website where people could post their ideas.
| Source:
Politico
|
| September 25, 2008 | - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 777 points in one day after the House of Representatives failed to pass a Wall Street bailout plan, first put forth by President George W. Bush, that would have granted Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson up to $700 billion to buy, at any price, toxic mortgage-backed assets from financial firms. “It's not based on any particular data point,” said a Treasury spokeswoman of the $700 billion figure. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
| Source 1:
Wall Street Journal
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
Forbes.com
|
| September 25, 2008 | - Senator John McCain announced that fixing the economy was more important than politicking, suspended his campaign, and attempted without success to postpone his first debate with Senator Barack Obama, although he continued to run campaign advertisements, including one that declared him the winner of the debate, and appeared on CBS with Katie Couric. McCain then joined congressional leaders, including Obama, at the White House to discuss the stimulus package. “I didn't see any sign,” said Representative Barney Frank, “of our Republican colleagues paying any attention to him whatsoever.” “All he has done,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of McCain, “is stand in front of the cameras.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
The New York Times
Source 4:
Politico
Source 5:
The Los Angeles Times
|
| September 24, 2008 | -
Congress lifted a 26-year ban on offshore drilling.
| Source:
Bloomberg
|
| September 23, 2008 | - Louisiana State Representative John LeBruzzo suggested offering poor women $1,000 to get their tubes tied.
| Source:
Times-Picayune
|
| September 18, 2008 | - Global stock markets lost $3.1 trillion in four days, and American International Group (AIG), the world's biggest insurance company and a leader in the $62 trillion credit-default swap market, was nearly bankrupted. “The private market has screwed itself up,” said Representative Barney Frank (D., Mass.), “and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.” The Federal Reserve loaned AIG $85 billion at 11 percent interest and took control of the company, which was founded in China in 1919 and driven out thirty years later by Mao. AIG was replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Kraft, the makers of Cheez Whiz.
| Source 1:
Der Spiegel
Source 2:
The New York Times
Source 3:
The New York Times
Source 4:
Der Spiegel
Source 5:
Boston Globe
Source 6:
CNN
Source 7:
Bloomberg
|
| July 28, 2008 | -
Congress voted to adjourn for summer vacation, blocking a vote on a bill to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling. Several dozen Republicans refused to leave, speaking to tourists and a troop of visiting Boy Scouts even after the microphones and lights were turned off. “This is the people's house,” cried Rep. Thaddeus McCotter. “This is not Pelosi's politburo.”
| Source 1:
The Hill
Source 2:
WP
Source 3:
USA Today
Source 4:
The Hill
Source 5:
Politico
Source 6:
Politico
Source 7:
Politico
|
| July 26, 2008 | -
Congress passed a $300 billion bailout for the mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
| Source:
Guardian
|
| July 16, 2008 | -
Congress passed a bill that named the portion of U.S. Route 20A that leads to the Buffalo Bills stadium “Timothy J. Russert Highway.”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| July 13, 2008 | - The Green Party selected Cynthia McKinney, the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Georgia, as its 2008 presidential nominee.
| Source:
ABC
|
| April 23, 2008 | - Tony Zirkle, a candidate for Congress in Indiana who previously proposed segregating races into different states, spoke before a neo-Nazi group at an event to commemorate the birth of Adolf Hitler. “I'll speak before any group that invites me,” said Zirkle. “I've spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta.”
| Source:
Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times
|
| April 17, 2008 | - The Senate and the House took half a day off so that more than 100 members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senator Edward Kennedy, could take a bus to Nationals Park, in Washington, D.C., to hear the Pope deliver Mass.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| March 25, 2008 | -
Euthanasia advocate Jack Kevorkian announced that he was running for Congress.
| Source:
LAT
|
| March 18, 2008 | - In response to fury over a handful of remarks made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright over the course of his 36 years as a pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Senator Barack Obama delivered a nuanced and serious speech about race in America. “I think it's an obligation of any opponent to use this issue,” said Congressman Peter King (R.-NY), “to make Reverend Wright a centerpiece of the campaign.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Newsday
|
| February 29, 2008 | - Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, speaking before Congress following the recall of 143 million pounds of beef packed at the Westland/Hallmark plant in Chino, California, refused to support an outright ban on processing “downer” cows for food, even though such cows are by definition too weak or sick to stand.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| February 22, 2008 | -
Congressman Rick Renzi (R., Ariz.), one of McCain's campaign managers, was indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, insurance fraud, and extortion, but mostly for using his office to promote a swap of federal land to collect on a debt owed by a former associate.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo News
|
| February 21, 2008 | - The League of Conservation Voters said that McCain had the worst environmental record of all 535 members of Congress for 2007 and had missed more crucial votes than members who died in the middle of their terms.
| Source:
The Trail
|
| February 13, 2008 | -
Representative Tom Lantos (D., Calif.), a Holocaust survivor and superdelegate who was expected to back Clinton, died. At a memorial service, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni compared Lantos to “a shining blue Star of David emblazoned on an American Air Force jet.” Bono led mourners in an a cappella version of John Lennon's “All You Need Is Love,” and Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R., Florida) interrupted the closing speech by Elie Wiesel with a call for a vote to adjourn.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Jerusalem Post
Source 3:
Politico
Source 4:
Washington Post
Source 5:
Washington Post
Source 6:
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
|
| December 7, 2007 | - It was revealed that the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes of harsh interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda operatives. CIA director Michael Hayden claimed that this was done to protect CIA employees from possible retaliation by militants, and that congressional oversight committees had been notified. Representative Rush Holt, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, recalled asking “many times” whether such tapes existed. "They said, 'What tapes?'”
| Source 1:
NYT
Source 2:
WP
Source 3:
NYT
Source 4:
LAT
Source 5:
NYT
|
| November 8, 2007 | -
Congress overrode President Bush's veto for the first time, on a water bill that earmarked money for the Everglades and the Gulf Coast.
| Source:
Breitbart.com
|
| November 7, 2007 | -
Congress cheered a speech by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “You just heard a Ronald Reagan speech from a president of France,” said a Republican senator from Kentucky.
| Source:
NY Times
|
| October 20, 2007 | - The Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal. “We are furious,” said Zhang Qingli, secretary of China's Party Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region. “If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| October 20, 2007 | - The Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal. “We are furious,” said Zhang Qingli, secretary of China's Party Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region. “If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| October 19, 2007 | - Michael Mukasey, President George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, received a warm reception on his first day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he decried torture and promised a nonpartisan Justice Department. On his second day, however, he hedged on whether waterboarding is torture and argued that the president could disregard laws passed by Congress. “I don't know,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, “whether you received some criticism from anybody in the administration last night after your testimony, but I [sense] a difference.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| October 19, 2007 | - Michael Mukasey, President George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, received a warm reception on his first day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he decried torture and promised a nonpartisan Justice Department. On his second day, however, he hedged on whether waterboarding is torture and argued that the president could disregard laws passed by Congress. “I don't know,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, “whether you received some criticism from anybody in the administration last night after your testimony, but I [sense] a difference.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| October 15, 2007 | - After the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted for a resolution affirming that a genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians during World War I, General Yasar Buyukanit, commander of the Turkish armed forces, said that, should Congress pass the resolution, his country’s military alliance with the United States would never be the same. “We could not,” he said, “explain this to our public. The U.S., in that respect, has shot itself in the foot.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 13, 2007 | - General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker testified to Congress about progress in the war in Iraq; Crocker summarized 2006 as “a bad year,” but blamed ongoing sectarian violence on Saddam Hussein's “social deconstruction” of the country. Petraeus cited progress in the Anbar region as evidence that his surge strategy is working. He suggested that one Army brigade might be home for Christmas, and that the surge might be over by next July. Barack Obama proposed removing at least one brigade per month, starting now, until all troops are out by the end of next year. President Bush supported the Petraeus plan, also citing progress in the Anbar Province and his recent meetings with leaders there.
| Source 1:
WaPo
Source 2:
NYT
Source 3:
Boston Globe
Source 4:
NYT
Source 5:
WaPo
Source 6:
USA Today
|
| September 7, 2007 | -
Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.), heir to the Kimberley-Clark fortune, won the lottery for the third time.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 30, 2007 | - U.S. Representative Jon Porter (R., Nev.) warned that premature evacuation from Iraq would cause American gas prices to rise.
| Source:
ReviewJournal.com via Drudgereport.com
|
| August 3, 2007 | - Colorado Republican
Congressman Tom Tancredo said that, if elected president, he would respond to terrorism on U.S. soil by bombing the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
| Source:
Slate
|
| August 3, 2007 | - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declined to discuss whether he had perjured himself before Congress.
| Source:
AP via Mercury News
|
| August 3, 2007 | - Bob Allen, a Florida State Representative who sponsored a bill to curtail sex in public parks, said that he recently offered oral sex to a man in a park because he was afraid of black people.
| Source:
AP via myfoxtampabay.com
|
| August 1, 2007 | - Seventy-six U.S. senators had visited Iraq, and 3 percent of Americans approved of how Congress was handling the war, which was costing the United States and Great Britain more than $4,000 each second.
| Source 1:
The Hill
Source 2:
Zogby
Source 3:
Daily Mail
|
| August 1, 2007 | -
Congressman Don Young of Alaska apologized for threatening to bite Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey.
| Source:
TPMmuckraker
|
| July 21, 2007 | -
Bush issued an order requiring the CIA to stop torturing its prisoners and to comply with the Geneva Conventions as the president interprets them, and also made clear that he would, by invoking executive privilege, refuse to allow the Justice Department to pursue any contempt charges that Congress might bring against his aides. “The next step,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.), “would be just disbanding the Justice Department.”
| Source 1:
Voice of America
Source 2:
The Washington Post
Source 3:
The Boston Globe
|
| July 12, 2007 | - A White House report showed that only eight of eighteen benchmarks for progress were being met in Iraq, but President Bush asked Congress to wait for another report in September before passing judgment.
| Source 1:
NYT
Source 2:
NYT
|
| July 11, 2007 | -
Florida State Representative Bob Allen (R., Merritt Island) was arrested for offering to perform an unspecified sex act on an undercover police officer for $20.
| Source:
Orlando Sentinel
|
| June 28, 2007 | - “Is it a surprise to anybody in this room that if you don’t have any money, you don’t get any justice?” asked Alaska Senator Mike Gravel at the third debate of the Democratic presidential candidates. Gravel called for the abolition of the income tax and the war on drugs, Ohio
Congressman Dennis Kucinich called for the abolition of NAFTA and the WTO, and Hillary Clinton predicted that global warming would create jobs for millions of Americans. Joseph Biden and Barack Obama reminisced about getting tested for HIV.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 25, 2007 | -
Congress passed a bill allocating $100 billion for war spending without a timetable for troop withdrawal. Congressional
Democrats allowed the vote to reach the House and Senate floors despite widespread opposition among their ranks because they didn't want to go on Memorial Day break while soldiers remained wanting. Ten Democratic senators including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton voted against the bill. “I was very disappointed to see Senator Obama and Senator Clinton embrace the policy of surrender,” said Senator John McCain. “This vote may win favor with MoveOn and liberal primary voters, but it's the equivalent of waving a white flag to Al Qaeda.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told reporters she would “never vote for such a thing” just before finalizing the bill with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called the legislation proof of “great progress.” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin told his Democratic colleagues that he would reluctantly support the measure because “we do not have it within our power to make the will of America the law of the land.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
Washington Post
|
| May 3, 2007 | - The Republican candidates for the presidency debated at the Ronald Reagan Library in California. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas said that the day Roe v. Wade was repealed would be “a glorious day of human liberty and freedom” and that the current tax system “ought to be taken behind a barn and killed with a dull ax”; Senator John McCain of Arizona claimed that he would “follow [Osama bin Laden] to the gates of hell”; Texas
Congressman Ron Paul said that not going to war in Iraq would have been “conservative,“ because ”it’s a Republican, it’s a pro-American, it follows the Founding Fathers. And besides, it follows the Constitution.” California
Congressman Duncan Hunter took responsibility for the border fence in San Diego. “It’s a double fence,” he said. “It’s not that little straggly fence you see on CNN with everybody getting over it.” “No one on this stage,” said former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, ”probably knows Hillary Clinton better than I do,” to which former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani replied: ”Oh my!” Collectively, the candidates invoked Reagan's name nearly 20 times.
| Source:
NY Times
|
| May 2, 2007 | -
Congressman John Shimkus (R., Ill.) said that pulling out of Iraq would be like the Cardinals leaving the field in the 15th inning to let the Cubs win.
| Source:
Chicago Tribune
|
| April 18, 2007 | -
Representative Louie Gohmert (R., Tex.) argued against a hate crime bill from the floor of the House. “If you are going to hurt someone,” he characterized the bill as saying, “if you are going to shoot them, brutalize them, please make it a random, senseless act of violence like Virginia. Don't hate them while you hurt them.”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| April 3, 2007 | - Vice President Dick Cheney attacked the “self-appointed strategists” in Congress who were hampering the Bush Administration's efforts to prolong the war in Iraq,.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| April 2, 2007 | - In Baghdad, a U.S. congressional delegation outfitted with bulletproof vests, flanked by 100 soldiers in armored Humvees, and watched over by attack helicopters, visited a local bazaar to demonstrate the success of the current security plan. It was, said Representative Mike Pence (R., Ind.), just like an “outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 24, 2007 | - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a timetable for ending the Iraq war by a six-vote margin. The bill mandates American withdrawal in September 2008 if the Bush Administration meets certain benchmarks, earlier if it does not. Several Democrats voted against the timetable because it was not sufficiently antiwar, and Republicans derided the inclusion of domestic provisions benefiting spinach growers, citrus farmers, salmon fishermen, and peanut storers. “What does throwing money at Bubba Gump, Popeye the sailor man, and Mr. Peanut have to do with winning a war?” asked Representative Sam Johnson of Texas. “I will veto it,” said President George W. Bush, "if it comes to my desk.”
| Source 1:
New Tork Times
Source 2:
New York Times
|
| March 19, 2007 | - Two Democratic
Congressmen were calling for renewed inquiry into why Frank Black, the former U.S. attorney in Guam, was removed from his position after he began investigating Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2002.
| Source:
Guam Pacific Daily News
|
| March 18, 2007 | -
Congress continued its inquiry into the role of the Bush Administration in last year's firing of eight U.S attorneys. D. Kyle Sampson, the chief of staff for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, resigned after claiming, in an apparent attempt to save Gonzalez from the charge of lying to Congress, that he did not tell his superiors at the Justice Department that the White House wanted to fire the prosecutors. The Justice Department released a March 2005 email from Sampson to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers, in which he ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys on their loyalty to the Administration and made a “target list.” In other emails, he cited a little-known provision of the Patriot Act that authorizes the attorney general to replace U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation and consulted with Miers about the possibility of replacing between 15 and 20 percent of U.S. attorneys, “the underperforming ones,” and leaving the “loyal Bushies.”
| Source 1:
WP
Source 2:
WP
Source 3:
McClatchy Newspapers
|
| March 14, 2007 | - Dozens of Republican
Congressmen were turning against the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind Act,
| Source:
WP
|
| March 13, 2007 | -
Representative Pete Stark (D., Cal.) announced that he did not believe in God.
| Source:
LAT
|
| February 21, 2007 | - It was discovered that Abdul Tawala Ibn Alishtari, an indicted terrorist financier, gave more than $15,000 to the National Republican
Congressional Committee. “We need to be careful,” said the NRCC in a statement, “not to rush to judgment.”
| Source 1:
Talking Points Memo
Source 2:
ABC News
|
| February 16, 2007 | -
Congress approved the Defense Department's request to spend $18 million to convert, in preparation for a post-Castro Cuba, a U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo into a shelter that could house 500,000 fleeing Cubans.
| Source:
Miami Herald
|
| February 14, 2007 | -
Nigeria's House of Representatives introduced a new bill that would criminalize homosexual relations.
| Source:
BBC
|
| February 13, 2007 | -
Bush suggested that he was not particularly interested in Congressional deliberations over the proposed troop surge. “In terms of watching the debate, I’ve got a lot to do,” he said. “It’s not as if the world stops when the Congress does.”
| Source:
NYT
|
| February 9, 2007 | -
Congressman Gary Ackerman insisted that it would take little more than a “platoon of lesbians” to chase the U.S. military out of Baghdad,.
| Source:
Thinkprogress via Nerve.com
|
| February 7, 2007 | - U.S. Representative Joe Baca denied calling a congressional colleague a “whore.”
| Source:
Raw Story
|
| January 23, 2007 | - President George W. Bush gave the State of the Union address, in which he discussed plans to balance the budget, double the size of the Border Patrol, reduce gasoline consumption in the United States by 20 percent, and institute a tax deduction to help American workers afford private health insurance. He announced that he was sending more than 20,000 additional soldiers to Iraq, asked Congress to authorize an increase of 92,000 active soldiers over the next five years, and proposed forming a “Civilian Reserve Corps.” He complimented several guests on their heroic kindness, courage, and self-sacrifice, including NBA star Dikembe Mutombo and Julie Aigner-Clark, the founder of an independent video-production business now owned by the Walt Disney Company. The state of the union, Bush said, is strong.
| Source:
NYT
|
| January 12, 2007 | -
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.) asserted that the authority Congress granted the Bush Administration to invade Iraq did not extend to invading Iran or Syria. “I just want to set that marker,” he said.
| Source:
Slate
|
| January 11, 2007 | - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi banned smoking in the Speaker's Parlor of the Capitol.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| January 4, 2007 | - The 110th Congress convened on Capitol Hill, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California kicked off her tenure as America's first female speaker of the House with four days of parties dubbed “Pelosi-Palooza.” The festivities included a performance by singer Tony Bennett and an honorary street-naming in Pelosi's hometown of Baltimore. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia disrupted the Congress's opening prayer with shouts of “Yes, Lord!” and “Mmmhmmm!” and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts mimed tipping a bottle to his mouth. Congress's first Muslim member took his oath on a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, and a Buddhist representative swore in on no book at all.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
CBS News
Source 4:
AZ Central
|
| January 2, 2007 | - After two centuries without Congressional representation, it appeared that residents of Washington, D.C. might get a vote.
| Source:
AP via Boston Globe
|
| December 13, 2006 | -
Representative Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.) said President Bush was in “deep shit.”
| Source:
TPM Café
|
| December 8, 2006 | - Outgoing Representative Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.) introduced a bill to impeach President George W. Bush for misleading Congress on the war in Iraq and implementing an illegal domestic spying program.
| Source:
Newsvine.com
|
| December 7, 2006 | -
Democrats in Congress announced that beginning in January members of the House would work five days a week. “Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R., Georgia), who spends more than half his week at home. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families--that's what this says.” The Democrats were also trying to stop smoking on the Hill, and attempting to block a $3,300 congressional raise.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
Washington Post
|
| December 1, 2006 | -
Republican
congressmen were attempting to define a twenty-week-old fetus as a “pain-capable unborn child.”
| Source:
CNN
|
| November 21, 2006 | - Former Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich announced that he would lead an effort to revitalize the Republican Party. “I am not 'running' for president,” said Gingrich. “I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen.”
| Source:
NewsMax.com
|
| November 19, 2006 | -
Democratic
Representative Charles Rangel called for the reinstatement of the draft.
| Source:
Boston.com
|
| November 16, 2006 | - Despite the best efforts of Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland was elected House Majority Leader over Representative
John Murtha.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 9, 2006 | - Midterm elections were held in the United States; the Republican Party lost its majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Six incumbent Republican senators, including Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, were defeated, and Santorum's daughter cried. Nancy Pelosi of California, who is expected to become the first female Speaker of the House, had lunch with President George W. Bush.
| Source 1:
Reuters via Yahoo!
Source 2:
MSNBC
Source 3:
Boston.com
|
| November 4, 2006 | -
Republicans were “glum” as the party prepared to lose at least fifteen seats in the House of Representatives.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 24, 2006 | -
Wyoming
Representative Barbara Cubin threatened her congressional opponent, Thomas Rankin, after he insulted her during a debate. Cubin told Rankin, who has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, that “If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face.”
| Source:
Caspar Star Tribune via Drudge Report
|
| October 24, 2006 | - Charlie Brown was running for Congress as a Democrat in Roseville, California.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| October 20, 2006 | - A Catholic priest acknowledged having had an intimate, two-year relationship with Mark Foley when the now-disgraced Republican
congressman was a twelve-year-old altar boy.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| October 5, 2006 | - Further allegations emerged regarding the behavior of recently-resigned Congressman Mark Foley (R., Fla.) with underage pages. “He didn't want to talk about politics,” said one former page. “He wanted to talk about sex or my penis.” Congressman Jim Kolbe (R., Ariz.) said that he had confronted Foley over inappropriate contact with pages as early as 2000, and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert vowed not to resign over the scandal.
| Source:
ABC News
|
| September 25, 2006 | -
Congress was about to go into recess; bills passed in the final days included a provision to allocate $70 billion to the Pentagon for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a clause that will allow the president to define enemy combatants at his discretion; the bill also legalized torture and suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 2, 2006 | - Staff Sergeant Frank D. Wuterich sued Congressman
Jack Murtha for defamation of character.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| July 19, 2006 | - U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia claimed that God supported a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex
marriages. “I think,” he said, “God has spoken very clearly on this issue.” “It's part of God's plan,” said Texas
Congressman John Carter, “for the future of mankind.” “We best not,” said Colorado Representative Bob Beauprez, “be messing with His plan.”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| June 22, 2006 | -
Congressman Steve King said Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi's heavenly reward would be 72 virgins who “all look like Helen Thomas,” the 85-year-old White House correspondent.
| Source:
WKMG-TV via Rafil
|
| June 21, 2006 | - State Representative Kathi-Anne Rheinstein introduced legislation that would designate Fluffernutter as the official sandwich spread of Massachusetts.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| June 18, 2006 | -
Pennsylvania
Representative John P. Murtha criticized Karl Rove for “sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside saying, 'Stay the course.'”
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| June 16, 2006 | - The House passed a resolution that rejected “cutting and running” from Iraq.
| Source:
Los Angeles Times
|
| June 9, 2006 | - Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader who was forced to resign because he is corrupt, said farewell to the House of Representatives. Dozens of Democrats walked out during his speech. “I did a good job,” DeLay said. “I helped build the largest political coalition in the last 50 years.”
| Source:
UPI
|
| May 26, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., police searched the 50 acres of office space in the Rayburn House Office Building to find that the "gunfire" that precipitated a several hour lockdown was actually a pneumatic hammer.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| May 24, 2006 | -
President Bush ordered that the documents seized by the FBI in a raid on the offices of Representative William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, must be sealed for 45 days, so that Congress and the Justice Department can determine exactly how material seized from Congressional offices should be reviewed. The Justice Department denied reports that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (who publicly criticized the FBI for raiding Jefferson's offices) was under investigation for his relationship with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Hastert said that the FBI was planting stories in the media to discredit him.
| Source 1:
ABC News
Source 2:
ABC News
|
| May 5, 2006 | -
CIA Director Porter Goss resigned, as did Goss appointee Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the executive director of the CIA; Foggo is under investigation for his relationship to two defense contractors who allegedly bribed former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Pentagon officials.
| Source 1:
AP via Breitbart.com
Source 2:
UPI
Source 3:
ABC News
|
| April 28, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., five members of Congress, all Democrats, were arrested outside the Sudanese embassy for protesting the genocide in Darfur.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| April 27, 2006 | - It was reported that lobbyists had once provided former (now imprisoned) Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham with free limousine service, free access to hotel suites, and the services of prostitutes; it was also reported that the limousine service that was used to ferry the prostitutes had received a contract worth $21 million from the Department of Homeland Security.
| Source 1:
The Wall Street Journal
Source 2:
Sign On San Diego
|
| April 22, 2006 | - Representative Alan B. Mollohan (D., W.Va.), whose real estate holdings and other assets reportedly rose in value from $562,000 to at least $6.3 million between 2000 and 2004, temporarily stepped down from the House
ethics committee after being accused of misusing funds.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| April 12, 2006 | - Theater programs for the deaf, operating on a shoestring, were trying to figure out who in Congress cut their $2 million in federal funding in December 2004.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| April 3, 2006 | - Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R., Tex.) announced that he would not run for reelection to Congress. "I've never done anything in my political career," said DeLay, "for my own personal gain."
| Source:
Time
|
| March 26, 2006 | - Both Democrat and Republican strategists agreed that if midterm elections were held now, the Democrats would gain control of the House of Representatives.
| Source:
Time
|
| March 11, 2006 | - In Chicago between 300,000 and 500,000 people marched to protest a House bill that calls for increased border protection to limit immigration.
| Source:
CBS2Chicago.net
|
| March 8, 2006 | -
Tom DeLay (R., Tex.) won the Republican
primary for his congressional seat.
| Source:
Capitol Hill Blue
|
| March 8, 2006 | - The House passed legislation that, if approved in the Senate, will make it far more difficult for states to put warning labels on food; under the new rules all warnings will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. "What's wrong," asked Representative Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), "with our system of federalism?"
| Source:
Canada.com
|
| March 7, 2006 | - The House voted to renew the Patriot Act.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| March 6, 2006 | - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow warned Congress that the United States was about to exceed its debt limit of $8.2 trillion.
| Source:
The Toronto Star
|
| March 3, 2006 | - Former U.S. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham was sentenced to eight years, four months in federal prison for accepting bribes.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| March 2, 2006 | - The Senate renewed the Patriot Act and sent it to the House; the House is expected to pass the legislation soon.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| February 7, 2006 | - U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that the wiretapping was legal and necessary. "The short answer," he said when asked why the Administration did not seek Congressional approval for the program, "is that we didn't think we needed to. Quite frankly."
| Source:
Democracy Now!
|
| February 6, 2006 | - The Bush Administration submitted a $2.77 trillion budget to Congress calling for a 7 percent increase in Pentagon spending and a $36 billion cut to the growth of Medicare spending. The Administration is expected to ask for an additional $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| February 2, 2006 | - Representative John Boehner (R., Ohio), who belongs to a male-only golf club, whose political-action committee took money from Jack Abramoff but did not return it after Abramoff was indicted, and who in 1995 handed out checks from tobacco-company lobbyists on the House floor, was elected via instant runoff voting to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader. The Republican Party, said Boehner, "must act swiftly to restore the trust between Congress and the American people." Boehner also said that he had "a very open relationship with lobbyists in town." "We are," said Representative Michael Oxley (R., Ohio), "somewhat tilting at windmills."
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
Bloomberg.com
Source 3:
The Nation via Yahoo! News
Source 4:
Sign On San Diego
|
| February 1, 2006 | - During the State of the Union address activist Cindy Sheehan was handcuffed and thrown out of the House chamber for wearing a T-shirt that read "2245 Dead: How Many More?" and Beverly Young, the wife of Representative Bill Young (R., Fla.), was told to leave because she was wearing a T-shirt that read "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom." Young later held up his wife's shirt on the House floor and said, "shame, shame."
| Source:
ABC News
|
| January 31, 2006 | -
President Bush gave the State of the Union address and asked Congress to pass laws outlawing human/animal hybrids.
| Source:
The White House
|
| January 29, 2006 | - The White House refused to release photographs of President Bush with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, despite requests from Senate and House
Republicans.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| January 27, 2006 | -
Representative Marty Meehan's staff was caught removing unfavorable facts about Meehan from his Wikipedia entry; in the past the entire House has been banned from editing Wikipedia due to rampant abuse of the online public encyclopedia's editing policies by House staffers.
| Source:
LowellSun.com
|
| January 5, 2006 | - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. The offices of thirty-six U.S. lawmakers, including Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Eric Cantor, and President George W. Bush announced that they would return money linked to Abramoff. “You can't have a corrupt lobbyist,” explained Newt Gingrich, “unless you have a corrupt member.” DeLay also insisted that he was an ethical person and announced that he would permanently step down as House Majority Leader.
| Source 1:
CNN.com
Source 2:
11Alive.com
|
| December 22, 2005 | - The House voted to extend the Patriot Act by five weeks.
| Source:
AP
|
| December 18, 2005 | -
Senator
Harry Reid said the current U.S. Congress was “the most corrupt in history.”
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 16, 2005 | - Columnist Doug Bandow resigned from his position as a Cato Institute Fellow after it was revealed that he had accepted money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff for writing between 12 and 24 newspaper columns favorable to Abramoff's clients. Peter Ferrara, a senior policy advisor at the Institute for Policy Innovation, said that he had also taken money from Abramoff to write op-ed pieces, but felt no remorse. “I do that all the time,” he explained.
| Source:
Business Week
|
| December 10, 2005 | - Ninety-two members of the U.S. House of Representatives were planning to challenge the provision of the 14th amendment that provides those born in the United States with citizenship. “Addressing this problem,” said Representative Lamar Smith (R., Tex.), “is needed if we're going to try to combat illegal immigration on all fronts.”
| Source:
|
| December 5, 2005 | - The House Ethics Committee had not opened a new case in the last 12 months. “I would say by the early part of January, we will be fully organized,” said Representative Alan Mollohan (D., W. Va.). “Or should be really close to that.”
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| December 4, 2005 | - Two women told a reporter that Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the California
Congressman who resigned after he was found to have accepted bribes from defense contractors, once changed into pajama bottoms and a turtleneck sweater and offered the women champagne by the light of a lava lamp.
| Source 1:
Newsweek
Source 2:
KTLA
|
| December 2, 2005 | - The National Security Agency released papers related to the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident; one previously secret history, written in 2001, argued that intelligence regarding the incident was “deliberately skewed” to cover up 90 percent of intercepted North Vietnamese communications, so that President Lyndon Johnson and Congress could be more easily pushed into the Vietnam War.
| Source:
SFGate
|
| November 28, 2005 | -
Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R., Calif.) confessed to taking $2.4 million in bribes and resigned from office.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| November 25, 2005 | - It was revealed that the investigation into illegal payoffs made by lobbyist Jack Abramoff involves not only Representative
Tom DeLay (R., Texas), but Representative Bob Ney (R., Ohio), Representative John Doolittle (R., Calif.), Senator Conrad Burns (R., Mont.), 17 current and former Congressional aides, and two former Bush Administration officials.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 18, 2005 | - The House approved a $50 billion budget cut that will increase Medicaid fees and reduce funding for student loans and food stamps.
| Source:
The Hartford Courant
|
| November 18, 2005 | -
Congress voted itself a $3,100 annual pay raise.
| Source:
AP
|
| November 15, 2005 | - A Congressional investigation determined that the FDA decided to bar over-the-counter sales of the “morning after” pill before a scientific review of the pill was completed.
| Source:
Democracy Now!
|
| November 4, 2005 | - A poll found that 53 percent of Americans want Congress to consider impeachment if it turns out that Bush lied about his reasons for going to war.
| Source:
AfterDowningStreet.org
|
| November 2, 2005 | -
Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi called for Karl Rove to be stripped of his security clearance.
| Source:
KHON2/Fox News
|
| November 1, 2005 | -
President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion to fight bird flu.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 1, 2005 | -
Democratic leaders called for a closed session on the Senate floor, which they used to force the creation of a bipartisan committee; the committee will report on the ongoing Congressional investigation (which the Democratic leadership believes is being purposefully delayed) into the Bush Administration's misuse of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. “They have no convictions,” Senator Bill Frist said of the Democrats. “They have no principles. They have no ideas.”
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| October 30, 2005 | - The United States military published its first public estimate of the number of Iraqi civilians and soldiers killed by Iraqi militants. The estimate appears as a single bar graph on page 23 of a report to Congress and does not provide actual numbers, but by extrapolating from the graph it appears that insurgents are wounding and killing 63 Iraqis a day, and have wounded or killed 25,902 Iraqis since the war began. Some analysts said the numbers seemed low. The number of Iraqi civilians wounded or killed by U.S. forces was not mentioned in the report.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| October 20, 2005 | - A warrant was issued for the arrest of Congressman
Tom DeLay, who turned himself in and was released on $10,000 bail.
| Source:
Houston Chronicle
|
| October 5, 2005 | -
President Bush expressed concern over bird flu and asked Congress to consider legislation that would allow the U.S. Army to enforce quarantines in case of a pandemic.
| Source:
IndyStar.com
|
| September 28, 2005 | -
Tom DeLay stepped down from his post as House Majority Leader after being indicted for criminal conspiracy related to campaign fundraising. "This is not going to detract from the Republican agenda," said DeLay's spokesman. DeLay was soon after indicted on a separate charge of money laundering.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| July 22, 2005 | - The Pentagon asked Congress to allow people up to age forty-two to enlist in the military.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 5, 2005 | - Eighty-eight members of Congress signed a letter, written by Representative John Conyers of Michigan, calling for an inquiry into a British memo that implied that George W. Bush had already decided to go to war by July 2002. “This should not,” wrote Conyers, “be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride.”
| Source:
The Raw Story
|
| April 29, 2005 | -
Virginia
Representative Jim Moran described Bush as someone who does not read books, who surrounds himself with sycophants, and who has his ass kissed by Dick Cheney.
| Source:
The Raw Story
|
| March 20, 2005 | - The U.S. Senate subpoenaed Terri Schiavo, a woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1991, to testify before the Health, Education, and Labor Committee. The subpoena was intended to make it impossible for Schiavo to be taken off the feeding tube that allows her to survive; the order, however, was defied by a Florida judge, and the feeding tube was removed. Schiavo then began to die of dehydration. The House and Senate held emergency sessions in order to pass a bill that would transfer the case from state court to federal court. The bill was then signed by President George W. Bush, who had flown in from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for the occasion.
| Source:
Wikipedia
|
| March 20, 2005 | - Schiavo's husband, who wants to let her die, wondered why Congress was expending so much energy on the case. “Why doesn't Congress worry about people not having health insurance?” he asked. “Or the budget? Let's talk about all the children who don't have homes.” Schiavo described House Majority leader Tom DeLay, who is leading the fight to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, as a “little slithering snake.”
| Source:
The Terri Schiavo Case
|
| March 3, 2005 | -
Representative Jim Gibbons of Nevada called for liberals to be used as human shields in Iraq; he later apologized for plagiarizing his remarks.
| Source:
Reno Gazette-Journal
|
| February 24, 2005 | - Members of Congress were themselves blogging.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 17, 2005 | - The House approved a measure to limit class-action lawsuits, redirecting large lawsuits from state to federal courts.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| February 13, 2005 | -
Congress was once more casting its eye towards the oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| January 5, 2005 | - Representative Alan B. Mollohan said recent congressional rules changes "would seriously undermine the ethics process in the House."
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| January 4, 2005 | - Congressman Zach Wamp said the changes made him feel like he had "just taken a shower."
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| January 3, 2005 | - Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to serve in Congress, died,
| Source:
ABC News
|
| November 20, 2004 | -
Congress passed a $388 billion spending bill. The bill had $15.8 billion worth of “extras,” including $25,000 for the study of mariachi music and $2 million to buy back the presidential yacht, sold by Jimmy Carter in 1977. The yacht, the U.S.S. Sequoia, currently rents for $2,500 an hour. The bill also allows hospitals and HMOs to refuse to provide abortions, and gave two committee chairmen and their assistants access to income tax returns, without regard to privacy laws. Republicans acknowledged the mistake of the latter provision, and vowed to repeal it.
| Source 1:
USA Today
Source 2:
USA Today
Source 3:
sequoiayacht.com
Source 4:
LA Times
Source 5:
AP
|
| May 13, 2004 | - Members of Congress were given a private viewing of unreleased photographs and videos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; some showed Pfc. Lynndie England having sex with other soldiers in front of prisoners; other images showed prisoners cowering before attack dogs, Iraqi women being forced to expose their breasts, naked prisoners tied up together, prisoners being forced to masturbate, and a prisoner repeatedly smashing his head against a wall. "It was pretty disgusting, not what you'd expect from Americans," said Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota. "There was lots of sexual stuff — not of the Iraqis, but of our troops."
| Source:
New York Post, New York Times
|
| May 4, 2004 | - The Congressional Research Service said that Bush Administration officials broke the law when they ordered the Medicare actuary to withhold information on the true cost of the new Medicare law from Congress.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 26, 2004 | - It was found that health-care
lobbyists spent $237 million lobbying Congress in 2000, more than every other industry combined; drug companies spent $96 million, quite a bit more than other medical sectors.
| Source:
Case Western Reserve University
|
| March 15, 2004 | -
Congress was investigating videos produced by the White House for local television news programs in which paid actors impersonate reporters and give flattering accounts of the new Medicare law.
| Source:
San Francisco Chronicle
|
| March 11, 2004 | - The House of Representatives passed the so-called cheeseburger bill, which if made law would grant immunity from lawsuits to restaurants, especially fast-food chains, that serve unhealthy food.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 20, 2003 | - It was reported that the omnibus spending bill passed by the House of Representatives this month includes $23 billion in "earmarks" such as $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa and $225,000 to repair a swimming pool in Sparks, Nevada. Jim Gibbons, a Republican representative, explained that the funding came about because he felt guilty for clogging up that pool with tadpoles when he was a boy. "Look," Gibbons said in defense of his earmark, "this is the standard practice the United States Congress has had for decades." Gibbons said he did not view such projects "as pork."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 29, 2003 | -
Congress approved a major Medicare bill that permits the elderly to buy prescription drug coverage; few citizens were able to understand the plan, though the health-care industry appeared to be well pleased by it. The legislation was endorsed by AARP, which nowadays makes a great deal of money selling health-care products to its members, and consumer advocates denounced it as "a classic election-year giveaway." Some experts predicted a revolt among the elderly once the plan takes effect in 2006 and the true costs of reform become clear.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 14, 2003 | -
Texas Republicans produced a very odd-looking congressional map that will probably give the party seven additional seats in Congress. "I'm a Texan trying to get things done," said Tom DeLay, who engineered the highly unusual redistricting.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 7, 2003 | -
Congress was working to cut "gold plated" items from the administration's request for the reconstruction of Iraq; among the items at issue were 40 new $50,000 garbage trucks and $9 million for a new postal zone system.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| June 25, 2003 | - The Senate Rules Committee proposed a new rule forbidding senators from stealing furniture and artwork from the Capitol.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| June 21, 2003 | - The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence made a deal to conduct a "review" of the Bush Administration's handling of intelligence on Iraq but only if Democrats agreed not to call it an "investigation."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 20, 2001 | -
Congress finally passed a bill to nationalize airport security; 28,000 federal passenger and baggage screeners will be deployed within a year.
| |
| November 13, 2001 | - Another passenger jet crashed in New York City; Congress was still haggling over whether to nationalize airport security.
| |
| November 6, 2001 | -
Congress continued to debate whether to nationalize airport security; antigovernment Republicans, including President Bush, oppose the plan as an unwarranted expansion of federal power.
| |
| October 30, 2001 | -
Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, a major antiterrorism bill that will greatly increase the power of the federal government to spy on citizens and potential terrorists.
| |
| September 25, 2001 | -
Congress approved a $15 billion bailout for the airline industry, which has already eliminated over 100,000 jobs.
| |
| September 11, 2001 | -
War cries rose up from the pundits, the President, members of Congress. Administration officials said they would “end” states that harbor terrorists.
| |
| August 28, 2001 | -
President Bush hailed the disappearing surplus as “incredibly positive news,” because it will force the government to resist overspending. Two days earlier, the president asked Congress to grant an additional $39 billion to the military, the largest increase since Ronald Reagan's presidency.
| |
| August 21, 2001 | -
Donald Rumsfeld, the American secretary of defense, explained that his much-ballyhooed “revolution in military affairs” was not a revolution at all but was instead a “transformation”: “When they see that word,” he explained, seeking to comfort critics in Congress and among the troops, “there's a tendency to think that you go from this to something different.” In fact, he said, you can do something rather modest, like improve communications, which “could be characterized as transformed or transformational.” President George W. Bush declared that peace would come to the Middle East only after everyone stopped fighting.
| |
| July 31, 2001 | - Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State, decided to run for Congress.
| |
| July 3, 2001 | - Wang Guoqi, a former Chinese army doctor, testified before Congress that he removed corneas, skin, and other body parts from executed prisoners; in one case, Wang said, he was forced to remove the skin from a man who was still breathing.
| |
| July 3, 2001 | -
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that he would ask Congress to retire the MX missile, also known as the “Peacekeeper.” Bob Dole had an aneurysm.
| |
| May 29, 2001 | -
Congress passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut, thereby spending the projected federal budget surplus before it could even come into being.
| |
| April 17, 2001 | -
President George W. Bush asked Congress to impose a moratorium on lawsuits aimed at forcing the federal government to extend endangered-species protection to unlisted plants and animals.
| |
| February 13, 2001 | -
President Bush sent his tax cut plan to Congress.
| |
| February 13, 2001 | -
Bill Clinton was still being pursued by his enemies: Congress was investigating his corrupt last-minute pardons; the press was excited about whether he stole some furniture from the White House; and Morgan Stanley, which reportedly paid Clinton $100,000 for a speech, apologized to its customers for doing so.
| |
| January 16, 2001 | -
Turkey announced that it had killed 23,000 separatist Kurds in the last 15 years and threatened to get even with France if its parliament passed a bill recognizing the Turkish genocide of Armenians. The U.S. Congress almost passed a similar bill last year.
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| January 9, 2001 | - Members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried unsuccessfully to block the acceptance of Florida's electoral votes during a joint session of Congress. Federal law requires at least one senator and one member of the House to sign a formal objection questioning a state's electoral votes; no senator was willing to sign. Black congressmen repeatedly interrupted the proceedings and were repeatedly “gaveled down” by Vice President Al Gore, who presided cheerfully over his own electoral demise.
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| December 26, 2000 | -
Congress passed the Children's
Internet Protection Act, which will require all schools and libraries that receive federal funds for Internet access to install filtering software; civil-liberties groups were concerned that this would prevent minors from accessing porn sites.
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| December 0, 2000 | -
Democrats in Congress called for a $150 billion economic stimulus plan to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure.
| Source:
Yahoo! News
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| October 31, 2000 | - The United States Congress increased military aid to Israel by $60 million, bringing the total up to $1.9 billion; Israel put a rush on its order for a new German submarine; according to some reports, the submarine will be equipped with nuclear weapons.
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| October 31, 2000 | -
Congress passed an official secrets act that criminalized the disclosure of any “properly classified” government secrets, including revelations of illegal acts by criminals who happen to be government officials.
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