Monthly Archives: July 2013

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop the obstructio​nism


National Women's Law Center
What we need in a Secretary of Labor is a commitment to public service, to health and safety legal protections for women and all workers, and to enforcing our discrimination laws. With Tom Perez, this is what we would get.
Throughout his career, including most recently as head of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, Tom Perez has shown that he is committed to enforcing the laws upon which women, and all workers, rely. He’s combined his commitment with extraordinary skill and competence, both in the federal government and when he served as Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
We can’t let a minority of Senators hold up his nomination. We need your help. Tell your Senators to allow a yes-or-no vote on Tom Perez for Secretary of Labor.
Here’s why this vote matters: The Department of Labor plays a critical role in ensuring opportunities for women in the workplace. It enforces laws enabling workers to take job-protected family and medical leave, wage and hour protections that shield workers from exploitation and abuse, and rules requiring federal contractors to advance equal opportunity in their workforces, including equal pay. The Department also houses the Women’s Bureau, whose mission is to improve pay and working conditions for women. The next Secretary of Labor will have the opportunity to continue the important progress toward fairer workplaces for women and for all workers.
Tom Perez has a proven track record of protecting and advancing legal rights and protections crucial to women. Tell your Senators to allow a yes-or-no vote on the nomination of Tom Perez for Secretary of Labor.
Thank you for everything you do to advance the rights of women and their families.
Sincerely,
Marcia Greenberger  Marcia Greenberger Co-President National Women’s Law Center    
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What kind of love do you stand for?


What kind of love do you stand for?

 

In Tuesday’s Eye on the Amazon we told you about a dark love affair that’s long been going on between Chevron and Judge Kaplan; a scandalous kind of love that perverts justice and promotes persecution, enables human rights violations and compromises the health of entire communities in the Amazon. It’s a dirty ordeal perpetuated by Chevron’s ruthless efforts to protect itself from the $18 billion legal judgment it’s on the hook for. The company has engaged an army of relentless legal sharks – comprised of 60 law firms – and Judge Kaplan seems love-struck by his Big Oil partner as he thwarts justice in the case of Chevron’s desecration of the Amazon. But he’s just another tool in Chevron’s box.

Now we’re all for love here at Amazon Watch. In fact, it’s our love for the Amazon that motivates us daily to do everything we can to protect it and to support the rights of indigenous peoples there – the traditional stewards of the magnificent forest upon which we all depend. It’s why you support us. It’s this love that drives us, and it’s why we ask for your support.

We continue to fight for the clean kind of love and passion that flows through communities in the Amazon, like that which radiates from Servio Curipoma, an Ecuadorian farmer who came to seek justice at the Chevron shareholder meeting last May, calling for Chevron CEO John Watson to be fired. We stand for the love of people like Emergildo Criollo, a Cofán leader whose love for the children he lost to poisoning due of Chevron/Texaco’s willful negligence impels him to keep fighting against the company that destroyed his family. We stand for the love of the rainforest shown by the indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the Amazon for millennia. This is the kind of love story that gets us up in the morning, and that we ask you to be a part of.

In the face of scandal like the Chevron-Kaplan love affair, we need your help to keep writing this positive love story. Stand with us for the kind of love that celebrates life and a future we can all look forward to, that overpowers the dirty love between a massive corporation and a judge bent on shirking responsibility and continuing to put profits over people. We cannot allow them to hijack the ending of this story.

Please help us to continue our fight for these people and for the Amazon with your support. Will you make a contribution today so that we may keep fighting for justice in the Amazon?

You make this possible – together, we are powerful!

For the Amazon,

Branden Barber
Branden Barber
Director of En

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~~ CONGRESS ~~ breaks until 7/15


capitolphonelines

The Senate stands in adjournment until 2:00pm on Monday, July 15, 2013.

  • Following the prayer and pledge, the Majority Leader will be recognized. It is expected he will renew the motion to proceed to S.1238, the Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013. Following the remarks of the two Leaders, the time until 5:30pm will be equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
  • The Majority Leader will be recognized at 5:30pm.  A live quorum and subsequent roll call vote on the motion to instruct the Sergeant at Arms to request the presence of absent Senators is expected at 5:30pm.
  • Additionally, there will be a joint-special caucus for all Senators at 6:00pm on Monday.
  • During Thursday’s session of the Senate, cloture was filed on the following items in the following order:
  • If no agreement on the nominations can be reached, the first cloture vote would occur early Tuesday morning. If cloture is invoked on any of the nominations, there would be up to 8 hours for debate prior to a vote on confirmation of the nomination, except for the Perez nomination, which would have up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate. If cloture is not invoked on a nomination, the Senate would proceed to vote on cloture on the next nomination.

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Black History

the Senate considers S.1238 ~~ CONGRESS ~~ the House considers HR2642


capitol30

The Senate stands in adjournment until 10:00am on Thursday, July 11, 2013.

  • Following the prayer and the pledge, the Majority Leader will be recognized.  It is expected he will renew the motion to proceed to S.1238, the Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013.
  • Following the remarks of the two Leaders, the time until 12:30pm will be equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each with the Republicans controlling the first 30 minutes and the Majority controlling the second 30 minutes.
  • The Senate will recess from 12:30pm until 2:15pm to allow for caucus meetings.  At 2:15pm, the Majority Leader will be recognized.

The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15pm today. At 2:15pm Senator Reid will be recognized. He intends to file cloture on several executive nomination this afternoon.

In order to file cloture on a series of nominations we need to go in and out of executive session. A motion to executive session to consider a nomination and a motion to return to legislative session are nondebatable motions. Typically we go in and out of legislative and executive session by consent. However, a senator could ask for a roll call vote on any or all of those motions.

As a result, we could see a series of procedural votes as early as 2:15pm today.

Senator Murray asked unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar #33, H.Con.Res.25; the amendment at the desk, which is the text of S.Con.Res.8, the budget resolution passed by the Senate, be inserted in lieu thereof; and that H.Con.Res.25, as amended, be agreed to. Further, that the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses; and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate; and that following the authorization, two motions to instruct conferees be in order from each side:

– Motion to instruct relative to the debt limit; and

– Motion to instruct relative to taxes/revenue;

That there be two hours of debate equally divided between the two Leaders, or their designees, prior to votes in relation to the motions; further, that no amendments be in order to either of the motions prior to the votes; all of the above occurring with no intervening action or debate.

Senator Rubio asked that the request be modified so that it not be in order for the Senate to consider a conference report that includes reconciliation instructions to raise the debt limit. Senator Murray objected to Senator Rubio’s modification because she offered the senator a vote on a motion to instruct conferees on the debt limit. Finally, Senator Rubio objected to Senator Murray’s original request.

When we reconvened at 2:15pm, the Senate turned to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. We still expect a series of roll call votes this afternoon, potentially in the 3pm range.

Senator Reid filed cloture on the following nominations:

–          Exec. Cal. #51, Richard Cordray, of Ohio, to be Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection;

–          Exec. Cal #100, Richard Griffin, of the District of Columbia, to be Member of the National Labor Relations Board;

–          Exec. Cal #101, Sharon Block, of the District of Columbia, to be Member of the National Labor Relations Board;

–          Exec. Cal #104, Mark Pearce, of New York, to be Member of the National Labor Relations Board;

–          Exec. Cal #178, Fred Hochberg, of New York, to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States;

–          Exec. Cal #99, Thomas Perez, of Maryland, to be Secretary of Labor; and

–          Exec. Cal #98, Gina McCarthy, of Massachusetts, to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Senator McConnell then asked consent that on Tuesday at 2:15pm the Senate proceed to consecutive votes on 1 Democratic and 2 Republican nominees to the NLRB:

–          Exec. Cal #104, Mark Pearce, of New York, to be Member of the National Labor Relations Board

–          Exec. Cal. #102, Harry Johnson, of Virginia, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board

–          Exec. Cal. #103, Philip Miscimarra, of Illinois, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board

Further, that following those votes the Senate proceed to the cloture motion filed on Exec. Cal #99, Thomas Perez, of Maryland, to be Secretary of Labor, and that if cloture is invoked the Senate immediately proceed to a vote on confirmation of the nominations; further, the Senate then vote on the cloture motion filed on Exec. Cal #98, Gina McCarthy, of Massachusetts, to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and if cloture is invoked, the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination. Further, that the Senate then vote on the cloture motion that was filed on Exec. Cal #178, Fred Hochberg, of New York, to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and if cloture is invoked, the Senate proceed to an immediate vote on confirmation of that nomination. Finally, that following the votes listed above the Senate proceed to the cloture votes on the remaining 3 filed cloture motions.

Senator Reid objected.

We were able to go in and out of Legislative and Executive session by voice votes. In light of this development, the series of procedural votes will no longer be necessary and there will be no further votes this week. The Senate is now in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. Senator Reid announced there would be a procedural vote around 5:30pm on Monday and a joint Democratic and Republican caucus meeting at 6pm on Monday.

If no agreement on the nominations can be reached, the first cloture vote would occur early Tuesday morning. If cloture is invoked on any of the nominations, there would be up to 8 hours for debate prior to a vote on confirmation of the nomination, except for the Perez nomination, which would have up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate. If cloture is not invoked on a nomination, the Senate would proceed to vote on cloture on the next nomination.

WRAP UP

No ROLL CALL VOTES

 

LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

Discharged the Finance committee and passed H.R.2289, to rename section 219(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.

Adopted H.Con.Res.43, authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for a ceremony honoring the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of his birth.

Discharged the Judiciary committee and adopted S.Res.191, designating July 27, 2013, as “National Day of the American Cowboy.”

Began the Rule 14 process of S.1292, the Defund Obamacare Act of 2013. (Cruz)

No EXECUTIVE ITEMS

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Last Floor Action:
3:12:37 P.M. -H.R. 2642
On motion to
recommit with instructions Roll Call 352 – Recorded vote pending.

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