Senate

A jobs packaging totaling $176 million passed the Oregon Senate today. The legislation is billed as an economic stimulus package that is expected to create 3000 jobs across the state. The plan targets infrastructure projects in all of Oregon's 36 counties. The vote on the package was bipartisan, but not by much.Predictably, leaders on the Republican side slammed the bill: To make his case, Senate GOP Leader Ted Ferrioli took a jab at one of the projects, a $1,200 job to clear moss from the roof of a Department of Transportation building in Sweet Home. "Why are we including moss...

So the Unites States Senate has confirmed admitted tax cheater and Obama appointee Tim Geithner to the US Treasury. (and of course Democrats Wyden and Merkley supported the tax cheater. Hope N...

Just after 6 pm on Thursday night, the Senate, now with a larger Democratic majority, passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. This is a cause for tremendous celebration and one of the first pieces of legislation that will hopefully extend a greater level of equity and fairness to all Americans. Many have been focused on the accomplishments and the potential of President Obama in these first few days of a new administration, but we must also relish and support the actions of congressional Democrats who are working to right the extraordinary wrongs of the Bush Administration and its...

Once again, credenzas are on the attack! Yes, the snobbish sounding piece of furniture that I first got to really know during last year's Senate campaign - remember when Democrat Jeff Merkley was slammed for allowing the purchase of $3,000-and-up...

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 270 to 155 against the second half of the $700 billion financial services industry bailout. It was, however, essentially a meaningless vote. From the O's Jeff Mapes: The House on Thursday voted 270-155 to "disapprove" releasing the second half of the money. The thing is, the vote was purely symbolic. Because the Senate earlier refused to block the funds, President Obama has all the authority he needs to go ahead with the bailout of the financial system. Rep. Peter DeFazio and Rep. David Wu voted against the bailout last fall, and voted against...

Jeff Merkley skipped the middle man MSM and went right to the netroots today to talk about his vote in the affirmative for TARP: From the moment we were notified of the pending vote, I worked night and day to convince the Obama team to dedicate a large chunk of the funds directly to working families for mortgage relief. Millions of working families have already lost their homes and millions more are behind on their payments. It is time that Congress and the President immerse themselves in assisting these families. Direct mortgage relief does three things. First, it restores the...

Progressive finger wagger par excellence David Sirota slams Jeff Merkley this evening for his vote to release the remaining $350 million of TARP funds without any new strings attached. In doing so, Merkley parted company with Ron Wyden, even though during his election campaign candidate Merkley spoke strongly in favor of Wyden's original vote opposing the Wall St. bailout. Rank hypocrisy? A vote of confidence in President-to-be-in-five-days Obama? For Sirota, Merkley "is starting his Senate career epitomizing the worst kinds of images people have of politicians - those who sound like they're for "the folks" at election time, and then...

Paula at "It's only words" draws our attention to SB6900 in Washington State. This Senate bill made it's way around the legislature in 2008 and is back again for another go around in 2009.

The gist...

And now it begins. The 75th session of the Oregon Legislature opens with supermajorities for the Democrats in the Oregon House and the Oregon Senate. A new Speaker, Rep. Dave Hunt, joins Senate President Peter Courtney. The all-Democratic team in the statewide offices has four new faces - Secretary of State Kate Brown, State Treasurer Ben Westlund, Attorney General John Kroger, and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. Governor Ted Kulongoski opened the session with his State of the State address (read in full here): We are assembled here this morning to answer only one question: What do we have to do...

I’m not sure if Elana Schor was intending to be humorous or not in her post on TPM yesterday, More House Members Stand Up to Israel Than in '06: The House just approved its version of the praise-filled pro-Israel resolution approved yesterday in the Senate. And though I've yet to see a co-sponsor tally that would show any senator courageous enough to resist the lure of AIPAC, the stiffened-spine caucus in the House reached 26 members today: 4 who voted no and 22 voting "present" in a gesture of stoic disapproval. 26 House votes against 390 voting “Yea” isn’t exactly...