Not alot of “transparancy” going on in Congress. In an effort to get information “from the horse’s mouth” so-to-speak and not from second hand sources like the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc., I attempted to find the original bill on house.gov. The bill that is currently being debated on and compromised on was originially written by members of The House of Representatives (in hindsight Obama should have written it himself–we’d have a bill passed by now no doubt, but Washington politics does not work that way) but their website is not so easy to navigate. Everything Congress does is recorded on the Library of Congress website–and their site is very searchable if you know what you are looking for. During my search efforts I came across these interesting bills that are working their way through Congress:
A Bill to lift the trade embargo on Cuba; A trade enforcement act that includes creating an “office for trade enforcer” in an attempt to increase exports by identifying trade partners who have protectionists practices that limit competitive trade with the U.S. (a long bill, but very interesting); A Bill to ensure that “Air Force One,” the airplane that the President of the United States uses when traveling, is entirely made in the U.S.A.; and “The Dollar Bill Act” that would give Congress the power to re-set the value of the dollar and control its value—this one is very odd since it is completely unconstitutional as well as anti-capitalist.
Finally I did find the “stimulus” bill aka the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″ and the most recent Senate Amendment. Take a peek and let us know what you find. Anything that would be excited to see happen? There are several references to schools and education. Anything that you think is a complete waste of money?
2 responses so far ↓
1
buell
// Feb 8, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Sorry—apparantly you can’t link to the Library of Congress (hmmm, we must blog Obama about this). You will have to do your own searches. Remember the current Congress is the 111th and just use the key words from the descriptions in my post. Good luck!
2
chris heffernan
// Feb 18, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Transparency in Congress and the entire united states goverment was a campaign promise made by then Senator Barack Obama while he was running to become our 44th President. But now that he is our 44th president I think the truth has finnally settled in on our President. For years people have said when presidential candidates like Then Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, Then Senator John Kennedy, or Massachusetts own Senator John Kerry or Former Governor Michael Dukakis, Who while running for president promised the public sweeping reforms of there goverment like for instance 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s healthcare plan that all americans should have the same healthcare as their congressional repersenatatives. A plan I back with 110% support. But the saying that is used to explain what happens when the Presidential candidate in some cases gets elected preident is that the system isnt changed the system changes them. The congress derailed the presidency of Jimmy carter although his congress at the time was not controlled by the opposition party but it was because he had not one allyie in congress. Congress doesnt just make laws and pass them no theres more than that theres partisanship. and theres always that one senator who has to fillibuster a bill and keep senator from votoing on it for what seem like years. Theres also a thing called bi partisanship when members of congress from other parties work together to get legislation through. when the stimulus bill was about to go through the senate such senators such as Mitch Mcconnell the minority leader tried the stalling tactic saying that a majority of americans do not support the stimulus the same night a poll on cnn said 54% of american do support it. But there are a few senators i feel i have to thank Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Senator Oylimpia Snowe of maine, and Senator Susan Collins of maine, thank you for your bipartisan ship and also for doing the only near human thing congress could of done to help with americas economic recovery and that is passing the stimulus bill
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