Legislation

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) criticized the Bush administration today for lobbying Congress to oppose the so-called "media shield" bill, officially titled the Free Flow of Information Act.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey all sent letters to key senators each sent letters to Senate leaders and key committee chairmen expressing intelligence, security, and law enforcement concerns over the bill. The Justice Dept. also launched a website yesterday dedicated to opposing the bill.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), seeks to "protect the free flow of information to the public" by providing conditions under which the government can compel journalists to release information. The administration says these conditions are too restrictive.

"This is the Administration

It seems the fiscally conservative House Blue Dog coalition is putting some pressure on the House and Senate Budget committees to resist patching the alternative minimum tax unless it is paid for with tax increases or spending cuts.

The Hill

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released its own 3 a.m. web ad today. U.S. intelligence officers cannot monitor phone conversations between suspected terrorists, the NRCC says, "because the Democrat Majority refuses to answer the call to protect the American people."

The controversial bankruptcy provisions appear to be out of the Senate housing bill, The Hill's J. Taylor Rushing reports.

Debate over bankruptcy measures had stalled talks on the issue for weeks, as Rushing reported in Wednesday's paper. Senate sources say that the issue will get an up-or-down vote as an amendment. The base bill will emerge on the chamber floor later this afternoon, they said. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to announce the bill's details at 5 p.m.

It's expected to be heavy on tax credits, like the $15,000, three-year credit proposed by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R- Ga.), though the credit's exact amount will be revised. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had been pushing for the bankruptcy provisions.

A final vote isn't expected until mid-next week.

House Democrats are gearing up for next week's testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker, and it looks like troop readiness will be the main anti-war argument coming from the party.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a "fact sheet" to reporters today citing facts about troop readiness, with quotes from four military officials who say the U.S. military is stretched thin.

Entirely absent from the memo were references to Iraqi politics. Democrats used a lack of political progress in Iraq as their main argument the last time Petraeus and Crocker appeared before Congress to defend the "surge" in September.

Petraeus and Crocker are expected to call for U.S. troop levels to remain unchanged in Iraq in 2008, as indicated by plans they recently presented to President Bush. See Pelosi's fact sheet after the jump. Read more...

From The Hill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will hold a procedural vote tomorrow on a package of housing measures known as the Foreclosure Prevention Act.

The legislation would expand housing regulations and provide funds to combat foreclosures. It includes emergency funds for redeveloping foreclosed and abandoned homes, protections for debtors, and federal funds for loan counseling. Read more...

President Bush set out an agenda for Congress this morning: reform FISA, modernize the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and approve his Colombia free trade agreement.

Congress returns today from two weeks of recess, and Bush spoke this morning as he departed from the White House for NATO's summit in Bucharest, which will begin Wednesday. Read more...