Tag Archives: Washington State

the other Washington … Seattle


PDF of today's Seattle Times front page

One Cent More


By 

A Higher Minimum Wage Would Hardly Impact Wal-Mart At All

onecent

Read the whole story here.

BONUS: Today, our President & CEO Tom Perriello bids adieu to us here at CAP Action as he heads to the State Department and its Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (click here to learn what that complicated-sounding project actually does). Thanks for your leadership, Tom, and good luck!

the Senate ~~ CONGRESS 1/30 ~~ the House


matthew 25

The Senate stands adjourned until 10:00am on Thursday, January 30, 2014.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S.1926, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act.

The time until 11:15am will be equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees. The final 10 minutes will be equally divided and controlled between Senators Menendez and Toomey or their designees with Senator Toomey controlling the final five minutes.

At 11:15am, there will be up to 4 roll call votes in relation to the following:

– Toomey amendment #2707, as modified

– Coburn amendment #2697

– Merkley amendment #2709, as modified and

– Heller amendment #2700.

Following disposition of the Heller amendment, the Senate will recess until 2:00pm. At 2:00pm, there will be a roll call vote on passage of S.1926, as amended.  There will be two minutes of debate prior to each vote and all after the first vote will be 10 minutes in duration.

During Leader remarks, Senator Reid moved to proceed to Calendar #297, S.1950, a bill to improve the provisions of medical services and benefits to veterans. At 10:39am, the Senate resumed consideration of Calendar #294, S.1926, Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014. The time until 11:30am will be equally divided between the two Leaders or their designees.

At 11:15am, there will be up to 4 roll call votes in relation to the following:

– Toomey amendment #2707, as modified (substitute);

– Coburn amendment #2697 (NARAB alternative);

– Merkley amendment #2709, as modified (forced planned insurance); and

– Heller amendment #2700 (state authority—private flood insurance).

Following the votes, the Senate will recess until 1:50pm  for the DPCC luncheon.

At 1:50pm the Senate will vote on the following:

–          Passage of S.1926, Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, as amended.

All of the above listed votes are subject to majority vote thresholds. There will be 2 minutes for debate equally divided prior to each vote. All votes after the first will be 10 minute votes.

11:19am The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on Toomey amendment #2707, as modified (substitute);

Not Agreed To: 34-65

11:49am The Senate began a 10 minute roll call vote on Coburn amendment #2697 (NARAB alternative);

Not Agreed To: 24-75

Senator Merkley withdrew amendment #2709, as modified.

12:10pm The Senate began a 10 minute roll call vote on Heller amendment #2700 (state authority—private flood insurance

Not Agreed to: 49-50

At 1:55pm, the Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on passage of S.1926, Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, as amended.

Passed: 67-32

This will be the last vote of the week.

Senator Reid filed cloture on the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Farm bill.

By consent, the cloture vote will occur at 5:30pm, Monday, February 3rd.

If cloture is invoked, there will be 20 minutes remaining post-cloture at 2:15pm, Tuesday, February 4th, with the time equally divided between the two Leaders, or their designees.

Upon the use or yielding back of that time, all post cloture time will be considered expired and the Senate will proceed to vote on adoption of the conference report.

The Senate is considering the conference report to accompany H.R.2642, the Farm bill.

There will be no further roll call votes this week.

WRAP UP

Roll Call Votes

1)     Toomey amendment #2707, as modified (substitute) to S.1926, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act; Not Agreed To: 34-65

2)     Coburn amendment #2697 (NARAB alternative); Not Agreed To: 24-75

3)     Heller amendment #2700 (state authority—private flood insurance); Not Agreed to: 49-50

4)     Passage of S.1926, Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, as amended; Passed: 67-32

Legislative Items

Adopted S.Res.342, designating February 3 through 6, 2014, as “National School Counseling Week”.

Began the Rule 14 process of S.1977, to repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, relating to an annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62, and to provide and offset (Ayotte and others) in order to place the bill on the Legislative Calendar.

No Executive Items

====================================================================================

Last Floor Action:
12:31:09 P.M. – The House adjourned.

The next meeting is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on January 31, 2014.

Great News for Alaska’s Bristol Bay —


September 2013 Take ActionDonate
The Big Story
Anglo American Quits the Proposed Pebble Mine
In a surprise decision that brought new hope to Alaska’s Bristol Bay, British mining giant Anglo American — the lead company behind the Pebble Mine — announced that it is abandoning the project. The announcement dealt a heavy blow to the proposed gold and copper operation, which would produce some 10 billion tons of contaminated waste and threaten the greatest wild salmon runs on the planet. NRDC Members helped make this victory possible by deluging Anglo American with nearly one million messages of protest. The fight is not over yet — we’ll need new funding to ratchet up the pressure on the remaining companies behind the mine and win EPA action to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining.

Pebble Mine

Campaign Updates
Navy Refuses to Protect Marine Mammals from Deadly Sonar
The U.S. Navy says it will ignore a unanimous recommendation by the California Coastal Commission to reduce the harmful effects of naval sonar on the state’s marine mammals, which would violate California law. The Navy is planning to dramatically increase its use of dangerous sonar and high-powered explosives off the coast of Southern California during training and testing. It predicts that such operations will kill hundreds of marine mammals — and injure thousands of others — over the next five years. New research shows that the Navy’s California training is already putting entire whale populations at risk, including endangered blue whales, the largest animal on Earth.
Marine Mammals
Ad of the Month
Ad of the Month
Nobel Laureates Denounce Keystone XL
NRDC and our partners ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post that featured a letter from ten Nobel Peace Prize winners, calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and lead the way beyond dirty oil.
Nobel Laureates Ad
See the Ad
In the News
U.S. Blocks Import
of Wild-Caught Belugas
The National Marine Fisheries Service has denied a permit — opposed by NRDC — that would have allowed the Georgia Aquarium to import 18 wild-caught belugas from Russia for public display purposes at aquaria around the country. We applaud the decision since Russia’s wild beluga population is still recovering after being hunted nearly to extinction in the 1960s. Read more. Beluga
CA County Cracks Down
on Fracking
In July, NRDC’s Community Fracking Defense Campaign scored a big victory when California’s San Benito County approved an ordinance imposing new safeguards on this dangerous form of oil and gas extraction, including a greater setback from homes and disclosure of the chemicals used during drilling or fracking. Read more. Fracking

We need your help : the other Washington


It’s up to all of us to ensure the safety of Washington State’s children.

We must reduce gun violence and protect our shared future, even though legislators in both Olympia and Washington, D.C., have ignored the outcry for sensible gun safety reforms.

The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility needs your help.

Without legislative action, enacting commonsense reform like requiring criminal background checks on all gun purchases will take a successful ballot initiative. To get on the ballot means gathering thousands of signatures.

The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility is working to do just that, and they need your help.

Click here to request your own official petition form, and help us get one name closer to our goal of 250,000 petition signatures by the end of September.

As a registered Washington voter, you can provide the first signature on your petition (and there’s room for four friends to sign too).

With our ambitious goal of 250,000 signatures by the end of this month, we need your support to help protect Washington’s children from the threat of gun violence. But, unfortunately, state regulations do not allow you to simply download an online petition.

All it takes is clicking here to request your petition form — and we’ll mail it to you right away!

We’ve just printed hundreds of new petition forms, and it’s time to put them to good use.

And I would very much appreciate seeing your signature alongside mine, and those of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Washington voters.

Thank you for helping to make Washington State a national leader in responsible gun ownership.

Sincerely,

Dow Constantine King County Executive