Government Oversight

The House voted Friday to spare the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) from a 40 percent budget cut. 

Rep. Waters is accused of violating ethics rules by steering TARP funds to a bank in which her husband invested

Republicans want to know whether the Supreme Court justice helped develop a legal defense of the law for President Obama.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday introduced a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution that would put in place several obstacles to higher spending, including requirements that total outlays cannot exceed total receipts and that total spending cannot exceed 18 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. These rules could only be waived by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate.

The amendment, S.J.Res. 23, would also hold that the debt limit cannot be increased unless three-fifths of both the House and Senate agree.

In its current form, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) amendment would also be the longest ever, at 553 words. The 14th amendment, ratified in 1868 and dealing with U.S. citizenship rights, is currently the longest amendment, at 428 words.

Freshman Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) last week introduced legislation that would block funding for the salaries and expenses of the House and Senate budget committees if they fail to produce a budget. Her bill, H.R. 2372, would also block $1 million in salaries and expenses of the House and Senate majority leader in the event that no budget is produced by either chamber.

Buerkle acknowledged that the bill is essentially aimed at the Senate, which has failed to produce a budget for two years. A statement from Buerkle's office last week said the Senate's failure to pass a budget is "irresponsible," and said the Senate is "contributing to the risk of a national financial crisis."

Members of the House on Thursday introduced legislation that would scale back federal authority over marijuana and reduce sentences related to cocaine offenses.

The first bill, from Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Ron Paul (R-Texas) and others, would end the federal prohibition on marijuana and leave it to states to set and enforce their own laws.

A House proposal to regulate and tax Internet gambling would require online gambling establishments to withhold taxes from net online winnings, and provide detailed information about gamblers to the government in an attempt to help ensure the collection of these taxes. It would also impose a two percent federal tax on Internet gambling providers, and give states the option of taxing these companies at a rate of six percent.

The Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, H.R. 2230, was introduced Thursday by Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and House Financial Services Committee ranking member Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

"This censorship would make former Soviet censors blush," Rep. Gerry Connolly said about restrictions by the Franking Commission.

Members of the House this week are headed toward a dispute over whether to cut a pending catfish inspection program — one that will pit Southern members with catfish industries in their districts against members who want to gut the program to reduce government spending. Other members who favor increased catfish imports from Vietnam and other Asian producers are also expected to favor ending the program.

By Tuesday, the House is expected to take up H.R. 2112, the Agriculture appropriations bill for FY 2012. Among other things, that bill would strike language in the 2008 farm bill that requires the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to set up a catfish inspection program.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and two other House Republicans introduced legislation last week that would end the ability of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to sue states.

The bill is a reaction to the NLRB's decision to sue Arizona and South Dakota, both of which have passed laws requiring secret ballot unionization elections. The suit is designed to nullify those laws, which the NLRB says conflict with worker rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRB also threatened to sue Utah and South Carolina, but is hoping the action against two states would ultimately lead to the termination of the laws in Utah and South Carolina.