By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The White House has renewed its threat to veto the fiscal 2010 intelligence authorization bill over a provision that would force the administration to widen the circle of lawmakers who are informed about covert operations and other sensitive activities.
When the bill passed the House on Feb. 25, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), hailed it for improving “congressional oversight by strengthening certain disclosure requirements of intelligence activities to the House and Senate intelligence committees.” Lawmakers had spent the previous six months working out provisions that the White House still opposes.
Under the House plan, which is similar to one passed by the Senate, the White House would have to inform all members of both intelligence committees of the “main features” of activities disclosed in detail to the Gang of Eight — the speaker and minority leader of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.
Tags: Misuse of Power·Power Hungry·Something To Hide·Transparency
Senate bill would reduce sentencing disparities in crack, powder cocaine cases
By Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A long-standing dispute over huge disparities in sentencing between crack vs. powdered cocaine appears to be headed for a resolution in Congress.
Senate lawmakers reached across the aisle and brokered a landmark deal this week to reduce criminal penalties for defendants caught with crack cocaine, hashing out the terms in, of all places, a congressional gym.
Opportunity struck when Sen. Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) encountered colleagues Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) in the Senate gym early Thursday, before they had started their workouts. Durbin seized the moment to advance the legislation and sent his aides an e-mail at 7:35 a.m., outlining the terms of his offer. The deal was sealed with a handshake two hours later at a committee meeting in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The often-divided Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the measure 19 to 0 the same day, addressing for the first time in two decades a sentencing disparity that has troubled civil rights organizations, prisoners rights advocates and officials in the Obama White House.
The compromise would reduce the sentencing disparity to 18 to 1 for people caught with crack cocaine vs. those who carry the drug in powdered form. The current ratio has rested since 1986 at 100 to 1, disproportionately hurting African Americans, who are convicted of crack possession at far greater numbers.
The Senate bill would increase the amount of crack cocaine required to trigger a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for possession with an intent to distribute from 5 grams to 28 grams. Possessing cocaine in rock form would no longer carry a mandatory minimum prison term, equalizing that penalty to that of other drugs and marking the first time that Congress has overturned a mandatory minimum.
The House Judiciary Committee passed a cocaine sentencing reform bill in July. That bill would treat all forms of cocaine the same for sentencing purposes, lowering the ratio to 1 to 1.
Durbin and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) continue to argue that equalizing the penalties would be the fairest approach, but gaining Republican and law enforcement support proved difficult.
Tags: Government Incompetence·I'll Say Anything To Get Elected·Misuse of Power·Obama-Nation·Something To Hide
By Howard Schneider Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 12, 2010
President Obama unveiled plans Thursday to double U.S. exports over the next five years in hopes of spurring job growth, an ambitious goal that may rekindle the battle over free-trade policy.
The president acknowledged the formidable barriers to his goal: doubts in Congress over new free-trade agreements, misaligned currencies that make Chinese products cheaper on global markets, and continued weakness in global demand, all problems that could dwarf efforts to promote U.S. products and services abroad.
But, Obama said in a speech, “in a time when millions of Americans are out of work, boosting our exports is a short-term imperative.”
“We are at a moment where it is absolutely necessary for us to get beyond those old debates. . . . Those who once would oppose any trade agreement now understand that there are new markets and new sectors out there that we need to break into if we want our workers to get ahead,” he said.
Tags: Government Incompetence·Misuse of Power·Wasteful Spending
