Lawmaker News

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will not enjoy an easy Senate path to being confirmed as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) pledged late Monday night.

Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said that while he will "probably" personally support Bernanke, "serious questions" remain about Bernanke and the Fed.

"While I have had serious differences with the Federal Reserve over the past few years, I think reappointing Chairman Bernanke is probably the right choice,"

A top labor official said Monday that President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have indicated that they will not bring up "card check" legislation until after healthcare reform is done in Congress.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, the expected incoming president of the influential union, pledged during a web chat on the liberal blog firedoglake that organized labor would work to pass healthcare reform in order to move onto one of its top priorities, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

"The President/and Emanuel have both said they dont intend to bring Employee Free Choice Act up until Health Insurance Reform is done," Trumka wrote on the blog. "Which gives us an additional reason to do Health Insurance Reform now!"

The remarks all but acknowledge that EFCA, one of labor's most prized legislative goals, will take a backseat to the Obama administration's most pressing priority for the meanwhile.

Obama has endorsed the union organizing bill, though he and other senior administration officials have spoken about it much less in public as centrist Democrats in the Senate have been reluctant to fully back the bill.

Republicans, for the most part, have opposed the bill as a threat to businesses.

Trumka also sent a message to allies in the White House and Congress that they expected eventual movement on EFCA, and that it could not be put off indefinitely.

"We WILL PASS EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT legislation, we will not allow our

Fear is the friend of Republican lawmakers looking to slow down or prevent healthcare reform legislation from going forward, one Democratic lawmaker asserted Monday.

"Fear is their friend," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to respond to a "Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights" released by their GOP counterpart this morning.

"The Republican Party has to take responsibility for their lies and their hypocrisy when it comes to seniors and healthcare reform," Schakowsky said. "The substance of this document uses false claims that have time and again been debunked."

The Republican National Committee's (RNC) "bill of rights" would, among other things, oppose cuts to Medicare to fund healthcare reform, preventing government involvement in end-of-life care, and "prohibit efforts to ration health care based on age."

Schakowsky accused Republicans of "doing nothing except saying 'no' and spreading lies" in the document, and accused the GOP of " carrying the water of the insurance companies, of the status quo."

"There may be Democrats who would like to see a bipartisan solution to this, but the Republicans are unwilling to compromise," she said, predicting that the House would return in September to pass legislation containing a public (or "government-run") option for consumers.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday praised Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to name a special prosecutor who will determine whether or not to launch a full-scale criminal investigation of the CIA's terror interrogation tactics.

"I am grateful that the Justice Department is finally being led by an independent Attorney General who is willing to begin investigating this dark chapter in our country's history," Leahy said in a release. "I had no doubt that he would put the interests of the law ahead of politics, and he has demonstrated that."

The sixth-term senator added he still hopes for a full "nonpartisan, independent review" to examine the interrogations.

"This investigation will also bring a measure of accountability to the American people in holding responsible those whose decisions may have undermined our values and our laws," he said of the special prosecutor's probe.

The Washington Post reported this afternoon that Holder will appoint career Justice Department prosecutor John Durham to examine several incidents in which CIA personnel may have violated anti-torture laws while interrogating suspected terrorists.

Attorney General Eric Holder will appoint a prosecutor to investigate allegations that CIA agents tortured detainees suspected of terror during interrogations, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Holder will name John Durham, a Justice Department prosecutor, to investigate whether a broader inquiry into CIA agents' tactics will be necessary, the Post reported.

President Obama had previously said that he doesn't support prosecuting CIA officials for having followed the advice of legal counsel during the Bush administration, but the White House emphasized Monday that Holder was acting independently.

"As the president has said repeatedly, he thinks that we should be looking forward, not backward," White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters following Obama at Martha's Vineyard.

"Ultimately the decisions on who is investigated and who is prosecuted are up to the attorney general," Burton added. "The president thinks that Eric Holder, who he appointed as a very independent attorney general, should make those decisions."

Also expected Monday is a report from the CIA's inspector general into potential detainee abuse.

The investigation and report come after the White House decided to take over the interrogation of high-level terrorist detainees through the National Security Agency.

The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), criticized that move as a vote of no confidence in CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) signaled Monday that he may be reluctant to back a public option in healthcare reform legislation, but left the door open to other government plans that have been floated.

Warner, a centrist Democrat, laid out criteria during an interview with a Roanoke television affiliate for a bill that he could support.

"I want to make sure there are some competitive alternatives to the insurance companies," he said. "But I'm concerned that simply expanding Medicare and Medicaid without getting the financial incentives right -- it's going to again end up driving up the deficit costs."

Warner has been coy about whether he would support a public option, and, along with other recalcitrant Democrats, could even end up scuttling Democratic leaders' fallback plan of passing healthcare reform with a simple majority vote using budgetary rules.

"I don't think a single payer, government-run system ought to be the goal of healthcare reform," he said, adding that he was not eager to support any bill containing new taxes to finance the system.

The first-term Virginia senator also saved some criticism for President Obama for not having adequately communicated the stakes in the healthcare debate.

"One of the things that I've been disappointed in the president's approach is that he didn't make the case to the American people that if we do nothing, we're still headed toward a disaster," he said.

Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi is "not welcome" to New Jersey during a potential diplomatic trip to the U.S. next month, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said in an unusually blunt statement on Monday.

In a two sentence statement, Lautenberg made clear that Qaddafi's welcoming back to Libya last week of the man accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 had earned the Libyan leader a chilly reception in New Jersey.

"I am troubled by reports that Colonel Qaddafi may visit New Jersey next month," Lautenberg said. "Colonel Qaddafi can be assured that he is not welcome here."

A Scottish judge released Libyan national Abdul baset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, on compassionate grounds; al Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

Qaddafi embraced and welcomed al Megrahi back to his native Libya, adding fuel to the flames of an already incensed American public.

Lautenberg has been forefront amongst those lawmakers who have condemned the release of the bomber. Many of the American victims of the terrorist attack hailed from New Jersey, as well as New York.

The Obama administration's move to start directly supervising interrogation of high-value terrorist detainees shows a "bizarre" lack of confidence in CIA Director Leon Panetta, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said Monday.

Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, condemned the decision by the White House to establish a new interrogation unit under the National Security Agency, first reported Monday by the Washington Post.

The jurisdictional shift would strip the CIA of oversight of such detainees, and move them more directly under White House control.

"What does the White House have against Leon Panetta?

A single payer healthcare system is still "part of the conversation" in the ongoing reform efforts, one Democratic lawmaker said Monday.

Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) said that advancing single payer system was still part of some Democrats' efforts on crafting healthcare reform, after they were forced to abandon such a plan in favor of a public (or "government-run") option (which she characterized as the "next best" alternative).

"I think single payer is really part of the conversation right now," Clark said during an appearance on MSNBC, pointing to work by Education and Labor Committee Democrats to insert an amendment while marking up the healthcare bill allowing states the option of establishing a single payer system.

"In the Education and Labor Committee, we voted for an amendment that will be part of the bill that will speaks to states having the right to choose a single payer process," she said.

"Each state has a right, under the Constitution, to make those types of determinations," Clark added. "We're simply setting up the framework for a new healthcare reform delivery system."

Republicans have fretted that the public option would eventually lead to a single payer system, using that line of attack as a cudgel against Democrats' current healthcare reform plans in Congress.

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer wants to make sure airline passengers never again have to endure the the discomfort of an extended flight delay stuck aboard a plane.

The second-term senator and state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris are urging the U.S. Congress to pass a "passenger bill of rights" that would guarantee passengers delayed on the runway receive food, water, and restroom visits.

"The airlines can't just treat you as if you're a piece of luggage they can throw on the plane and can sit there forever," Schumer said according to WNYC radio.

Last Friday, 100 passengers at New York's JFK airport waited six hours on the runway for their plane to depart for Minnesota.