Monthly Archives: July 2013

Black History

the Senate breaks until 7/29 ~~ CONGRESS the House breaks until 7/30


EmptyhouseChamber

The Senate stands in adjournment until 2:00pm on Monday, July 29, 2013. 

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 4:30pm with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S.1243, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

At 4:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider Executive Calendar #208, the nomination of James B. Comey, Jr., of Connecticut, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations with the time until 5:30pm equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Grassley or their designees.

At 5:30pm, there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Comey nomination.

During Thursday’s session of the Senate cloture was filed on the following items in the following order:

–          Executive Calendar #208, the nomination of James B. Comey, Jr., of Connecticut, to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations,

–          Executive Calendar #223, the nomination of Kent Yoshiho Hirozawa, of New York, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board,

–          Executive Calendar #224, the nomination of Nancy Jean Schiffer, of Maryland, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board, and

–          Executive Calendar #104, the nomination of Mark Gaston Pearce, of New York, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board.

If cloture is invoked on any of the nominations, there would be up to 8 hours of post-cloture debate time on each nomination.  Upon disposition of each nomination, the Senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the next nomination in the order listed above.

***********************************************************************

July 2013
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

***********************************************************************

Last Floor Action:
2:08:27 P.M. – The House adjourned
pursuant to a previous special order.

The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00
a.m. on July 26, 2013.

——————————————————————————————————————

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

CAP Action War Room


By  CAP Action War Room

The Latest GOP Temper Tantrum

Today President Obama gave a major speech laying out a vision for growing the economy from the middle class out. (Watch this space for more on that tomorrow).

The president also used the speech to call out Republicans for having harmful plans or no plan at all when it comes to strengthening the middle class. In particular, the president chided Republicans for the millions of dollars and weeks of time they’ve wasted on dead-end Obamacare repeal votes while failing to lay out a positive economic agenda for the middle class:

Even if you think I’ve done everything wrong, the trends I just talked about were happening well before I took office.  So it’s not enough for you just to oppose me.  You got to be for something.  What are your ideas?  If you’re willing to work with me to strengthen American manufacturing and rebuild this country’s infrastructure, let’s go.  If you’ve got better ideas to bring down the cost of college for working families, let’s hear them.   If you think you have a better plan for making sure that every American has the security of quality, affordable health care, then stop taking meaningless repeal votes, and share your concrete ideas with the country. 

Repealing Obamacare and cutting spending is not an economic plan.  It’s not.

Unfortunately, 15 Republican senators are not just in favor of pointless Obamacare repeal votes, now they’re even threatening to shut down the government in order to prevent millions of Americans from gaining access to quality, affordable health care.

Meet the Senate GOP’s shutdown caucus:

BOTTOM LINE: Instead of looking for new ways to sabotage the economy and deny health care benefits to millions of Americans, it’s time for Republicans who disagree with the president to lay out their own agenda for strengthening the middle class. Progressives have a plan to grow the economy from the middle class out, it’s time for Republicans to propose something other than the failed trickle-down policies of the past.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Conservatives gear up to keep top women’s rights advocate off key federal court.

Congresswoman says college affordability “is not the role of Congress.”

You won’t believe how much the melting Arctic will cost.

Bill O’Reilly blames civil rights leaders and “black culture” for crime.

This misplaced priorities of cable news.

Congressman doubles down on claim that undocumented youth are drug mules.

Five reasons to raise the minimum wage right now.

Pro-oil state suing oil giants for damage to wetlands.

Brazil’s shockingly high prices.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Gov. Inslee


English: , member of the United States House o...
English: , member of the United States House of Representatives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This year’s legislative session proved one important point: the Working Washington Agenda that we brought to Olympia is very different than that of the Republican controlled state Senate.

Surprised?

Well, all of the early talk about bipartisanship had me hoping we could move forward on issues that actually had bipartisan support like the DREAM Act, the Reproductive Parity Act, and fixing our transportation system.

Unfortunately, the Senate Majority Coalition was big on bipartisan rhetoric and short on action. None of these bills were ever brought to the Senate floor for a vote! Luckily we were able to prevent the state Senate from going backwards on many key funding and policy issues.

With your support we said, “no” to continued cuts to our most vulnerable citizens. And, together we said, “no” to policy that would have hurt working families and our environment.

In order to succeed, we’re going to have to face down the inertia and inaction we fought against during this past legislative session. They’re already gearing up to stop us from delivering on critical issues our state needs — like closing unnecessary tax loopholes, creating good paying jobs, and fully funding public education.

Will you contribute $5, $10, or more to help us end the Republican agenda, and make sure we are ready for what our opponents will throw at us?

I’m proud that, in spite of resistance from the Senate Republicans, we expanded Medicaid. I’m proud that we delivered an additional $1 billion in funding for our schools — a down payment required by our constitution to fully fund our children’s education. And I’m proud that we stopped our opponents from sneaking their out-of-step ideas into the budget.

Having you standing with me made that possible. But not everyone’s happy.

I will continue to fight to close unnecessary tax breaks in order to fund education for the long haul. Oil companies and Senate Republicans both know that I will continue to press on until we get it done.

Will you contribute $5, $10, or more to support us in this fight, and help us continue our Working Washington Agenda?

As you know, political campaigns do not end when you get elected. The grassroots movement we built during the campaign is essential as we work to build innovative industries that benefit all Washingtonians.

Your support today will give us the resources we need to get things done. Thank you for your tremendous support every day. Together we can accomplish hard things.

Very truly yours,

Jay Inslee Governor

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Four long years


National Women's Law Center
Four years — that’s how long it’s been since the last increase in the federal minimum wage. It’s still stuck at $7.25 per hour — and that adds up to only $14,500 for a year of full-time work. That’s thousands of dollars below the poverty line for a mother and two children.
SIGN THE PETITION! Urge your Senators and Representative to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 (H.R. 1010/S.460).
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 will give minimum-wage workers a much-needed raise. The bill will gradually raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and index it to inflation in order to keep up with the rising cost of living. It will also increase the minimum cash wage for tipped workers to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage — because right now the federal minimum cash wage for tipped workers is only $2.13 per hour.
Join advocates from across the country to call on Congress to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. Sign the petition today!
Women represent nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers and workers in tipped occupations. And they are struggling to provide for their families. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour will boost annual earnings by $5,700 — enough to pull a family of three out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage will help close the gender wage gap, and would be especially helpful to women of color, who are disproportionately represented among female minimum-wage workers.
Don’t let next year be the fifth anniversary of NO increase in the minimum wage. Sign the petition today.
Thank you for all you do for women and their families.
Sincerely,
Joan Entmacher  Joan Entmacher Vice President, Family Economic Security National Women’s Law Center    

P.S. Did you know that 60% of the jobs gained by women in the economic recovery are low-wage? Check out our Facebook graphic to learn more and spread the knowledge