Yesterday’s markup was an opportunity for reform of the abusive law, with amendments that could have brought the Patriot Act closer to compliance with the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guarantee of protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Yet, every single reform that was offer was rejected by the House Judiciary Committee.

In the 111th Congress, Dennis Kucinich promoted a profit-free single payer health care system through a bill he called Medicare for All. Today, he declared his intention to reintroduce the Medicare for All legislation.

Since switching his affiliation to the Republican party in December 2009, U.S. Representative Parker Griffith has introduced just one piece of legislation. H.R. 5005, sponsored by Rep. Griffith, is an exact word-for-word copy of H.R. 4972, sponsored earlier by Rep. Steve King. On second thought, that’s not exactly true. The action clause of H.R. 4972 [...]

In the wake of the passage of health care reform by both houses of Congress in March 2010, Republican legislators rushed for the title of The One who introduced repeal legislation. In the last days of March, representatives Michele Bachmann of Minnesota (H.R. 4903), Steve King of Iowa (H.R. 4972), Jerry Moran of Kansas (H.R. [...]

Most of the Senate debate on the afternoon of December 8 leading up to the rejection of the Nelson-Hatch Amendment was pretty predictable. The amendment itself, after all, was a near cookie-cutter copy of the Stupak Amendment that was passed earlier this month in the House of Representatives. Both amendments prohibit private health insurance plans [...]

Over the past few years of reading the religion pages in your local newspaper, you may have come across a reference to something called distant intercessory prayer. The word “intercessory” in this phrase refers to the notion of a deity interceding in worldly events. Distant intercessory prayer is a practice carried out by religious groups [...]

Rep. Janice Schakowsky of Illinois stood in the floor of the House of Representatives this evening to speak against the health care bill amendment offered by fellow Democrat Bart Stupak of Illinois. Under this amendment, as Schakowsky explains, even women who are NOT national health care plan participants — women who are paying for their [...]

Tonight, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois took to the floor of the House of Representatives to declare his opposition to a health care bill amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak. The Stupak Amendment would make it illegal for any health care plan accepting any national health care plan participants to provide abortion coverage for anyone at [...]

Among theitems at the center of Charles Boustany’s legislative agenda is expanded offshore drilling for oil. Is it a coincidence, then that the professional group that’s the 2nd largest contributor to Boustany’s 2010 re-election campaign is the fossil fuel industry?

I’ve just gotten off the phone with a staffer at the majority office of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I’ve been told that in tomorrow morning’s markup meeting, the Senate Judiciary Committee will indeed consider the provisions of Senator Russell Feingold‘s JUSTICE Act (S. 1686) when it works to finalize a bill regarding warrantless surveillance [...]