Indefinite detention of "enemy combattant" legislation is apparently becoming commonplace up in the House of Representatives.
Phone record privacy?
Sorry, Denny doesn't want that.
While the House passed one bill that would address this issue, a second piece of legislation was due to be debated on the House floor on the same day that US Today revealed that Bush was using AT&T and other phone companies to spy on you. That day the House legislation suddenly disappeared and never was to be seen again. No one knows how it disappeared or who pulled it (though it had to be a Republican, like Denny Hastert, since they control the House).
Rep. Markey's
letter to Dennis Hastert:
"With no notice or explanation, H.R. 4943 summarily disappeared from the House floor schedule that day and it has not been seen or heard from since. I am concerned about reports that some intelligence agency or interest had a hand in the bill's disappearance. . . Is it currently in some legislative `Guantanamo Bay?'"
Who has the ability to remove bills from the legislative calendar? The Speaker of the House.
Want stronger border protection and comprehensive immigration reform? So what.
Denny doesn't.
Boehner on Tuesday was upbeat in addressing a breakfast forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports a guest worker program. He indicated he would resolve differences between the restrictive House bill and the much more liberal Senate bill by the Fourth of July.
But at a closed luncheon Wednesday at Charlie Palmer's restaurant, attended by financial contributors to House Republicans, Boehner declared that the immigration bill was all but dead. That change followed Boehner's conversation late Tuesday with Hastert, who made clear he did not want to pursue the issue that splits the Republican Party.
See, if Hastert doesn't want it, nobody gets it.
Minimum wage increase? Um, no.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $2.10-an-hour increase to the minimum wage, despite the demands of Republican leaders, when the committee took up a spending bill for labor, health, and education programs. Seven House Republicans joined the Dems on the increase, but House Speaker Dennis Hastert responded by indefinitely putting the appropriations bill on hold.
Undeterred, Dems are going to try to add the same minimum-wage increase to another spending bill today, this time on funding science and law-enforcement agencies. If the same thing happens, Hastert will probably put this bill on the permanent back-burner as well. This could go on for a while.
In 1910, the Republican Speaker from Illinois
Joseph Gurney Cannon so abused House rules and committee appointments a bipartisan insurgency rose up in the House and stripped Cannon of much of his power. Until Hastert, Cannon was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history.