House

Oregon's Democratic delegation to Congress on Monday called on Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to ensure that small towns still have reasonable access to post offices, in light of possible plans by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to close many offices.

The USPS is considering closing many offices because the service has become unprofitable in the last few years, a new trend that the service has blamed on the poor economy and the increasing use of email. In the three months ending June 30, the USPS reported a $3.1 billion loss, and a $5.7 billion loss in the first nine months of the fiscal year.

But in their Aug. 8 letter, Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader said the USPS might be looking at cuts that are too aggressive and could leave some towns without any viable alternatives.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Monday called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to look into reports that the Palestinian Authority is using foreign aid money from the United Kingdom to pay the families of Palestinians killed fighting against Israel and assess whether any U.S. foreign aid to the authority is being used this way.

The British newspaper, the Daily Mail, reported Monday that the Palesenian Authority (PA), which oversees the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has authorized $8.2 million in payments to the "families of martyrs," and another $4.9 million for 5,500 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

"I ask that you investigate expeditiously the allegations reported by the Daily Mail, provide information to Congress and the American people on what you have learned, and ensure that U.S. taxpayer money does not go to support terrorists or those who aid them," Nadler wrote in his letter.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told an audience in Houston on Monday that she would fight to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from Republican attempts to cut these programs.

Pelosi quoted President Lyndon Johnson, who signed into law the additions of Medicare and Medicaid into the Social Security Act.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) last week formally added his voice to growing calls for the transparent operation of the "supercommittee" charged with finding $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, by introducing legislation that would require open meetings of the committee in most cases.

Buchanan's bill, H.R. 2796, would require the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to hold open, televised meetings in all cases except those in which classified information is discussed. It would also require the so-called supercommittee's agenda to be made public.

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said last week that he fears the new congressional "supercommittee" tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in spending cuts will take a big bite out of agriculture programs by the end of the year.

Peterson said congressional leaders have already asked the committees what could be cut, and said there is discussion of cutting more proportionally from agriculture than from other programs.

"The cuts that they’ve been talking about, they're talking three times as much as cuts in agriculture as they are in other areas, which I am not going to go along with,” Peterson said, as reported by The Iowa Independent.

Standard & Poor's laments the possibility cuts to entitlement programs won't materialize and the decreasing likelihood of new tax revenues.

Freshman Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) this week introduced legislation that would prevent members of Congress from keeping past campaign contributions for use in future elections, thus preventing the accumulation of campaign war chests that he said discourage many from running.

"The Competitive Elections Act would shut politicians' proverbial 'war chests' that today discourage and intimidate service-minded individuals who otherwise would run for Congress," Woodall said. "You should not have to be a self-funding millionaire to be competitive in a congressional election."

House Financial Services Committee ranking member Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Friday called on President Obama to clarify the administration's position on whether future spending cuts should come only from mandatory spending accounts, not from the Defense Department.

Frank's Aug. 5 letter to Obama was a response to comments from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who on Thursday warned against going past the $400 billion in cuts already expected under the debt-ceiling deal. Press reports say Panetta argued that Congress should cut mandatory spending, such as social services, instead of defense spending, and also look to increase federal revenues.

Labor’s top statistician said it will take years to recover the millions of jobs lost in the recession.

Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Vice Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Friday that today's jobs report shows it's time to "pull the plug" on President Obama's "failed economic experiment," and start dismantling Washington regulations that he said are the real obstacle to job growth.

"Mr. President, America is fair," Brady said in his prepared opening statement at Friday's JEC hearing on the July employment numbers. "It has been patient, more than patient. But after two and a half years, enough is enough. You've tried and failed to revive this economy."