WAXMAN DOES NOT SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY-- MAYBE McHENRY AND WESTMORELAND SHOULD LOOK FOR NEW COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

Henry Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, ground zero for investigating Republican malfeasance and criminality is also in the process of passing legislation to finally give residents of the District of Columbia real representation in Congress. As I mentioned in January, I'm not a huge fan of the inherently unfair and racist compromise but, considering the inability to get a better deal, I'm rooting for it as a first step. And, in fact, the bill easily surmounted its first hurdle in the committee yesterday. The bill, which would also give Utah, the most dependably right-wing state in the Union and a Republican bastion, another member in Congress, passed by a vote of 24-5.

Today the House Judiciary Committee will probably give it a tougher time since it's filled with even worse die-hards and hard-right racist nutcases than the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Of course, how you define someone as "worse die-hards and hard-right racist nutcases" than North Carolina's Patrick McHenry or Georgia's Lynn Westmoreland, considered the two stupidest members of Congress, is something else entirely.

In yesterday's session, the opposition came from these two KKKlowns who lamely-- and unsuccessfully-- sought to undermine it with laughable amendments. McHenry offered an amendment that would return parts of DC to Maryland. Waxman's ruling that his amendment was moronic and not worthy of serious consideration was upheld by a 17-5 vote in which most Republicans clenched their teeth and wished McHenry would go play outside in traffic. McHenry was screaming that the bill, sponsored by Republican Tom Davis of Virginia is unconstitutional. His-- and Colbert's-- good buddy Lynn Westmoreland agrees, of course. Can you imagine being stuck on a committee with both these nincompoops? And Westmoreland had his own crazy, childish amendment to annoy people with as well-- which, of course, was also overwhelmingly defeated. He tried to add a provision that would make the bill null and void if it led to a change in the partisan balance that Davis predicted would occur if, as anticipated, DC elects a Democrat and Utah elects a Republican. Their biggest fear, of course, is that eventually DC will get 2 senators, African-American ones.

Waxman will deftly deal with the mentally handicapped members of his committee and the more serious obstructionism from the wingnuts all week as his committee brings 5 important bills to the floor this week. Today the House votes on the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2007 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007. Tomorrow we have the Accountability in Contracting Act. According to Waxman "For the past six years we've had an Administration that has tried to operate with secrecy and without transparency and without the public having knowledge about their actions and to be able to therefore hold them accountable... The 5 bills we'll be considering over the next two days will reassert the principle that democracy thrives on openness and accountability."

The legislation seek to change the way Congress and the federal government do business and shines a bright light on how the government operates. The bills seek to end waste in federal contracting, strengthen protections for federal "whistleblowers" who report waste, fraud, and abuse, increase disclosure requirements for Presidential records, require disclosure of big donors to Presidential libraries, and provide long overdue and constitutionally-mandated oversight of the veterans' health care crisis and other federal issues. Taken in context with what the 110th Congress has already put in place, these bills are strong step forward to restoring accountability and public trust in Washington.

The 5 bills Waxman will shepherd through Congress:

H.R. 1309 - The Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007
This bill amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a dozen substantive provisions to provide for more timely disclosure of government documents, including restoring the presumption of disclosure to FOIA, helping FOIA requesters obtain timely responses, improving transparency in agency compliance with FOIA, providing an alternative to litigation, and providing accountability for FOIA decisions.

H.R. 1255 – Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007
Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, Bush issued Executive Order 13233 which overturned an executive order issued by President Reagan and gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 nullifies the Bush executive order and establishes procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

H.R. 1254 - Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2007
This bill requires the disclosure of donors to Presidential libraries. Presidential libraries are built using private funds raised by an organization or foundation working on behalf of the president. Under current law, donations for the presidential library can be unlimited in size and are not required to be disclosed. The bill would require that all organizations established for the purpose of raising funds for presidential libraries or their related facilities report on a quarterly basis all contributions of $200 or more. You want to guess why?

H.R. 985 - Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007
This bill strengthens protections for federal whistleblowers to prevent retaliation against those who report wrongdoing, waste, fraud, or abuse to authorities.

H.R. 1362 - The Accountability in Contracting Act
Under the Bush Administration, spending on no-bid contracts has more than doubled and the Administration has hidden contractor overcharges from Congress, international auditors, and the public, impeding oversight and diminishing accountability. This bill changes federal acquisition law to require agencies to limit the use of abuse-prone contracts, to increase transparency and accountability in federal contracting, and to protect the integrity of the acquisition workforce. The bill limits the duration of no-bid contracts awarded in emergencies to eight months, requires large federal agencies to develop and implement a plan to minimize the use of noncompetitive contracts, requires an agency to prepare a public letter explaining why it awarded a no-bid contract, requires that contract overcharges more than $1 million be disclosed to Congress, mandates that agencies devote at least an additional 1% of their procurement budgets to contract oversight, planning and administration, and closes the revolving door, requiring that former federal procurement officers wait one year before seeking employment at a lobbying or contracting firm.


PEELING BACK THE MOLDY, DARK CURTAINS OF SECRECY BUSH AND CHENEY USE TO MASK THEIR CRIMES

The House overwhelmingly passed Waxman's Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, 333-93. Not one Democratic congressman voted against it and only the worst rubber stamp partisans among Republicans backed Bush and Cheney on this. Even one of the worst right-wing extremists in the whole Congress, Roy Blunt, their whip, broke ranks with Bush on this one and voted with Speaker Pelosi! This is how the bill is described on Speaker Pelosi's website:

Overturning the Bush Executive Order. Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233 which overturned an executive order issued by President Reagan and gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

Among the far right loons who voted in favor of keeping information away from historians and the public are all the usual villains: Duncan Hunter (CA), John Kline (MN), Joe Barton (TX), Michele Bachmann (MN), "Buck" McKeon (CA), Dan Lungren (CA), Don Young (AK), John Doolittle (CA), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Gary Miller (CA), Howdy Doody (FL), Tim Walberg (MI), Brian Bilbray (CA), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Denny Hastert (IL), Steve King (IA), Thelma Drake (VA), John Boehner (OH), Barbara Cubin (WY), Lynn Westmoreland (GA), Heather Wilson (NM), "Doc" Hastings (WA), James Sensenbrenner (WI), Doug Lamborn (CO), Jim McCrery (LA), Patrick McNutcase (NC), Sue Myrick (NC), Virginia Foxx (NC), Tom Tancredo (CO), and the 3 far right Rogers (AL, MI and KY).


UPDATE: THREE PASSED SO FAR! GO, HENRY!

With the Regime fuming, the House overwhelmingly passed the first 3 of Waxman's 5 "sunshine" bills today, bills pushed by the media to make the Regime less hostile to the Freedom of Information Act. Predictably, Bush says he'll oppose, or even veto, the bills. The bills Bush-- the perfect little authoritarian shit-- most fears are the ones that open up presidential records and the ones that protect government whistleblowers. The votes were 390-34 on the presidential library bill, 333-93 on the presidential records bill and 308-117 on the FOIA legislation.