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What we saw tonight

06/15/2010 Nativegrl77

Send to 5 people you know …
Tonight, in his very first speech from the Oval Office, President Obama addressed the nation on the BP oil spill and the crisis in the Gulf Coast.

Millions of Americans heard him lay out the path forward: Tens of thousands will continue to work around the clock to stop the oil spill and prevent further damage. The Obama administration will ensure that BP is held accountable, covering the costs of the clean-up and paying its debts to the people whose lives have been upended by the disaster.

The Gulf Coast will be repaired and restored for the people who call it home and whose livelihoods depend on it.

But, as the President said tonight, this is just the beginning — we need to ensure that a disaster like this never happens again.

The President presented a vision of a future where we as a nation are not held hostage by our dependence on fossil fuels — and a plan for an economy that invests in energy generated right here and creates jobs for millions of Americans in the process. Under his leadership, some of this is beginning to take shape — clean energy is starting to put people back to work across the country, building more efficient cars and trucks, repurposing old factories to manufacture wind turbines, and investing in research that will discover new energy technologies.

Critics will say that a real transition to clean energy is a challenge that can’t be met. But the President made it clear tonight that he will not back down — even if the path forward is not easy. And, as this movement has shown time and again, neither will we.

You are one of hundreds of thousands who have already stood with President Obama for a clean-energy future. Washington has put this off for far too long — America must act. We need your help today to show strong support for the President’s vision for a clean-energy future. Please pass on this email to five friends today — and ask them to join you in standing with the President:

http://my.barackobama.com/CleanEnergyFuture

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

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Obama’s big speech tonight

06/15/2010 Nativegrl77

Clicking here will add your name:

“President Obama: We need a real plan reduce our dependence on oil, not more offshore drilling and taxpayer handouts to oil companies.”

Sign the petition

Tonight, President Obama will address the nation in prime time about the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. According to White House aides, he’ll call for clean energy legislation to end America’s addiction to oil.¹

The problem is, the proposals currently in Congress are packed with more offshore drilling and taxpayer handouts to Big Oil—exactly the opposite of what we need.²

This speech is President Obama’s best chance to demand a real plan to cut our dependence on oil.

That’s why we’re launching this petition now—which we’ll deliver tonight before the speech—to call on President Obama to clearly reject any legislation that expands offshore drilling or gives taxpayer handouts to oil companies. You can add your name by clicking the link below:

http://pol.moveon.org/obamaoilspeech/o.pl?id=21126-9640874-hugNf5x&t=5

The petition says: “President Obama: We need a real plan reduce our dependence on oil, not more offshore drilling and taxpayer handouts to oil companies.”

President Obama is expected to talk about his plan to hold BP accountable, help the Gulf Coast recover, and end our addiction to oil. Those are the right goals. But we’ve learned that Congress won’t stand up to Big Oil unless President Obama leads the way.

For instance, one of the most prominent energy proposals would roll back the Clean Air Act and give incentives for new offshore drilling, essentially bribing states to allow new drilling in areas that are currently protected.³ The bill would also give valuable pollution permits for free to the biggest polluters.⁴

This moment is a major test of Obama’s presidency—and for America. We can’t let the Big Oil lobbyists turn the oil spill legislation into another DC insider giveaway.

Can you sign our petition calling on President Obama to demand a real plan to reduce our dependence on oil and reject any legislation larded up with taxpayer handouts to Big Oil or offshore drilling? Add your name by clicking the link below:

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Backing down on BP

06/15/2010 Nativegrl77

Washington Post: Pressure on Boehner Pays Off?

We did it. Over 50,000 of you answered our call to action and held Republican Leader John “Big Oil” Boehner’s feet to the fire over his outrageous statement that American taxpayers should foot the bill to clean up BP’s unprecedented environmental disaster in the Gulf. After relentless pressure from activists like you, Big Oil Boehner backed down.

But our work is not done. Check out this Washington Post report on Boehner’s retraction:

Last week, after taking good deal of criticism, Boehner’s office finally made it clear that he supports holding BP responsible for the costs of not just the cleanup, but damages, too. But his office wouldn’t endorse any particular legislative means to make this happen.

Did you catch that? While Democrats in the House continue to fight tooth and nail to lift the outrageous “liability cap” that limits how much of the cleanup cost BP will is responsible for, Republicans continue to defend their fat cat Big Oil friends who line their campaign coffers.

Thank you for signing our petition last week calling on Republicans to hold BP 100% accountable. Help us send an overwhelming grassroots response and forward this email to five of your friends right now and encourage them to sign at BoehnerBPBailout.com. Then, share the petition on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks for all you do,

Jon Vogel
DCCC Executive Director

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

ThinkProgress.org

06/15/2010 Nativegrl77

BUSINESS — BP CALL CENTERS ARE JUST A ‘DIVERSION’: Having caused the greatest environmental disaster in American history, BP is now scrambling to defend its public image by running expensive TV ads, buying space on Google search results, and hiring former Bush and Cheney aides as public relations officials. While BP has boasted of its call centers in an attempt to demonstrate that it’s responsibly taking care of the oil spill and listening to public complaints, this effort’s credibility is now seriously questioned. One of BP’s contracted phone operators just came forward to KHOU in Houston, revealing how she and the other 100 operators at her site are merely PR props. Although they are supposed to be collecting and passing along ideas for clean-up and requests for spill-related aid, she says BP is not interested in doing anything with the information the operators receive. “We take all your information and then we have nothing to give them, nothing to give them,” she says. The calls are “non-stop,” but the contracted operators are just “a diversion to stop [calls] from really getting to the corporate office, to the big people.” Some operators “don’t bother” taking notes during their calls. The anonymous tipster laments how “it’s so frustrating when these people live right there and nothing is being done to help them.” BP officials acknowledge that this call center has received over 200,000 phone messages, yet they “can’t say just what percentage of calls is returned.” The Center for American Progress’ (CAP) Senior Fellow Tom Kenworthy and the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson have argued in a recent report that “[f]ederal agencies, not BP, should handle spill response hotlines for volunteers, technology ideas, affected wildlife, and others. Full call records need to be logged with incident reports and technology ideas presented publicly on dynamic websites.”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

it’s Tuesday, what’s going on- in Congress

06/15/2010 Nativegrl77

The Senate Convenes: 10:00amET June 15, 2010

Following Leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 11:30am with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. The Majority will control the first 30 minutes. The Republicans will control the next 30 minutes. The remaining time will be equally divided between the two Leader or their designees.

Following morning business, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider the District Court nominations listed below. There will be up to 20 minutes for debate equally divided between Senators Leahy and Sessions or their designees. At approximately 11:50am, the Senate will proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination in the order listed.

– Tanya Pratt of Indiana,
– Brian Jackson of Louisiana, and
– Elizabeth Foote of Louisiana.

Upon disposition of the nominations, the Senate will recess until 2:15pm to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

When the Senate reconvenes at 2:15pm, the Senate will resume consideration of the House Message to accompany HR4213, Tax Extenders. Roll call votes in relation to amendments are expected to occur throughout the day.

As a reminder, today Senator Reid filed cloture on the motion to concur with an amendment with respect to Tax Extenders. The only applicable filing deadline is for second degree amendments. Those amendments must be filed one hour prior to the cloture vote on Wednesday.

Votes:
185: Confirmation of Tanya Pratt of Indiana to be US District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana;
Confirmed: 95-0

186: Confirmation of Brian Jackson of Louisiana, to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana;
Confirmed: 96-0

Elizabeth Foote of Louisiana, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana;
Confirmed by voice vote

187: Sanders amendment #4318: (close oil and gas tax loopholes) (subject to a 60-vote threshold);
Not Agreed To:
35-61

188: Vitter amendment #4312: (Oil spill trust fund); (subject to 60-vote threshold) not agreed to: 48-49

189: Franken amendment #4311: , as modified (subject to a 60-vote threshold); Agreed To: 63-33

Unanimous Consent:

Passed HR3951, a bill to designate the facility of the US Postal Service located at 2000 Louisiana Avenue in New Orleans, LA, as the “Roy Rondeno, Sr. Post Office Building.”

_______________________________________________________________

CURRENT HOUSE FLOOR PROCEEDINGS
LEGISLATIVE DAY OF JUNE 15, 2010
111TH CONGRESS – SECOND SESSION

P.M. –

SPECIAL ORDER SPEECHES – The House has concluded all anticipated legislative business and has proceeded to Special Order speeches.

6:03 P.M. –

Mr. Bishop (UT) requested the following general leaves to address the House on June 22: Mr. Poe of TX for 5 min and Mr. Jones for 5 min.

6:00 P.M. –

ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with further one minute speeches.

H. Res. 1322:

celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program and recognizing the significant contributions of Albert Einstein Fellows

5:59 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 405 – 5 (Roll no. 364).

5:52 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H.R. 5486:

to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, and for other purposes

5:51 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On passage Passed by recorded vote: 247 – 170 (Roll no. 363).

5:44 P.M. –

On motion to recommit with instructions Failed by recorded vote: 187 – 230 (Roll no. 362).

5:24 P.M. –

The previous question on the motion to recommit with instructions was ordered without objection.

5:17 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with 10 minutes of debate on the Camp (MI) motion to recommit with instructions. The instructions in the motion seek to report the same back to the House forthwith with an amendment adding a section entitled “REPEAL OF INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATE”.

5:15 P.M. –

Mr. Camp moved to recommit with instructions to Ways and Means.

Considered as unfinished business.

H. Res. 1389:

recognizing the immeasurable contributions of fathers in the healthy development of children, supporting responsible fatherhood, and encouraging greater involvement of fathers in the lives of their children, especially on Father’s Day

5:14 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 416 – 0 (Roll no. 361).

4:41 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

4:40 P.M. –

UNFINISHED BUSINESS – The Chair announced that the unfinished business was the question on adoption of a motion to suspend the rules which had been debated earlier and on which further proceedings had been postponed.

H.R. 5486:

to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, and for other purposes

POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS – The Chair announced further consideration of H.R. 5486 would be postponed until a time to be announced.

4:39 P.M. –

The previous question was ordered pursuant to the rule.

3:45 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with one hour of debate on H.R. 5486.

Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 5486 and H.R. 5297 with 1 hour of general debate. Previous question shall be considered as ordered without intervening motions except motion to recommit with or without instructions. Measure will be considered read. Specified amendments are in order. All points of order against consideration of each bill except for clauses 9 and 10 or rule XXI are waived.

Considered under the provisions of rule H. Res. 1436.

H.R. 4855:

to establish the Work-Life Balance Award for employers that have developed and implemented work-life balance policies

3:44 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Failed by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 249 – 163 (Roll no. 360).

3:36 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H. Res. 1436:

providing for consideration of the bill ( H.R. 5486) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax incentives for small business job creation, and for other purposes; and providing for consideration of the bill ( H.R. 5297) to create the Small Business Lending Fund Program to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to make capital investments in eligible institutions in order to increase the availability of credit for small businesses, and for other purposes

3:35 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 228 – 186 (Roll no. 359).

3:26 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H. Res. 1383:

honoring Dr. Larry Case on his retirement as National FFA Advisor

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 409 – 0 (Roll no. 358).

2:55 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H.R. 4855:

to establish the Work-Life Balance Award for employers that have developed and implemented work-life balance policies

At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

2:41 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 4855.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Ms. Woolsey moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

H. Res. 1322:

celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program and recognizing the significant contributions of Albert Einstein Fellows

2:22 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 1322.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Ms. Woolsey moved to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution.

H. Res. 1414:

congratulating Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men-Englewood Campus, the Nation’s first all-male charter high school, for achieving a 100 percent college acceptance rate for all 107 members of its first graduating class of 2010

2:21 P.M. –

At the conclusion of debate, the chair put the question on the motion to suspend the rules. Ms. Woolsey objected to the vote on the grounds that a quorum was not present. Further proceedings on the motion were postponed. The point of no quorum was withdrawn.

2:14 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 1414.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Ms. Woolsey moved to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended.

H. Res. 1389:

1:59 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 1389.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Ms. Woolsey moved to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution.

1:58 P.M. –

The Speaker announced that votes on suspensions, if ordered, will be postponed until a time to be announced.

H. Res. 1436:

1:57 P.M. –

POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS – At the conclusion of debate on H.Res. 1436, the Chair put the question on adoption of the resolution and by voice vote, announced the ayes had prevailed. Ms. Foxx demanded the yeas and nays and the Chair postponed further proceedings on adoption of H.Res. 1436 until later in the legislative day.

The previous question was ordered without objection.

12:58 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with one hour of debate on H. Res. 1436

Considered as privileged matter.

11:31 A.M. –

ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with further one minute speeches.

11:30 A.M. –

PRINTING OF PROCEEDINGS IN RECORD – Mrs. Berkley asked unanimous consent that the proceedings had during the Former Members Ceremony be printed in the Congressional Record and that all Members and former Members who spoke have the privilege of revising and extending their remarks. Agreed to without objection.

The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of June 15.

10:04 A.M. –

The Speaker announced that the House do now recess for the purpose of receiving Former Members of the House. The next meeting is subject to the call of the Chair.

ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with one minute speeches.

The House received a message from the Senate. The Senate passed S. 1660.

10:02 A.M. –

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG – The Chair led the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

The Speaker announced approval of the Journal. Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

10:01 A.M. –

Today’s prayer was offered by the House Chaplain, Rev. Daniel Coughlin.

10:00 A.M. –

The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of June 15.

9:01 A.M. –

The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. today.

9:00 A.M. –

MORNING-HOUR DEBATES – The House proceeded with Morning-Hour Debate. At the conclusion of Morning-Hour, the House will recess until 10:00 a.m. for the start of the legislative day.

The Speaker designated the Honorable Kathleen A. Dahlkemper to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.

The House convened, starting a new legislative day.