[Vision2020] House Wraps Up '100-Hour' Agenda

[Tom Hansen]

>From Today's (January 19, 2007) -

"The announcement came as Democrats completed their 100-hour agenda with
passage of a bill that would impose a "conservation fee" on oil and gas
taken from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico; scrap nearly $6 billion worth
of oil industry tax breaks enacted by Congress in recent years; and seek to
recoup royalties lost to the government because of an Interior Department
error in leases issued in the late 1990s."

Representative Bill Sali, who continues to be inaccessible to the citizens
of Idaho from his website at http://sali.house.gov/, voted against this
bill.

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House wraps up '100-hour' agenda 
Oil, gas royalty bill caps effort

Nicole Gaouette and Richard Simon
Los Angeles Times
January 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - As the House's new Democratic majority celebrated the
completion of its populist 100-hour agenda Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., unveiled the party's next legislative target: an ambitious plan to
wean the U.S. from foreign oil and slow global warming.

Pelosi announced that she intends to create a panel to help craft the
party's environmental agenda and has asked committee chairmen with
jurisdiction over the issue to pass legislation "to truly declare our energy
independence" by July 4.

The announcement came as Democrats completed their 100-hour agenda with
passage of a bill that would impose a "conservation fee" on oil and gas
taken from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico; scrap nearly $6 billion worth
of oil industry tax breaks enacted by Congress in recent years; and seek to
recoup royalties lost to the government because of an Interior Department
error in leases issued in the late 1990s.

Reps. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, and Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., voted against the
bill.

The legislation was the last of six bills the Democrats have plowed through
the House in two weeks, including measures to increase the minimum wage,
expand stem-cell research, implement Sept. 11 commission recommendations,
authorize Medicare negotiations for lower drug prices and cut interest rates
on student loans.

Yet even as Democratic leaders and freshmen clustered around Pelosi at a
news conference to tout their accomplishment, rumbles from the slower-moving
Senate signaled that the bills will face resistance there.

Pelosi's plan to create the energy panel also raised hackles among House
Democrats who chair committees with jurisdiction on the matter, especially
Rep. John D. Dingell, a lawmaker from Michigan who looks out for the
interests of the Detroit automakers.

And, although House Democrats backed the 100-hour agenda almost unanimously,
cracks in the caucus might appear as Democrats turn to energy, health care
and immigration, among other issues.

The office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., calculated that the
agenda passed in 42 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds of legislative time.

"In the November election, the American people signaled their wish for
change, a wish for our country to go in a new direction," Pelosi said.
"Democrats promised that we would, and these past two weeks we have
delivered on the promise."

The bill to repeal oil industry tax breaks was approved by a 264-163 vote,
but that and the other 100-hour measures are still far from becoming law.

President Bush has threatened to veto the stem-cell legislation, which would
expand funding for research using embryonic stem cells and the Medicare
legislation. And though Democrats also control the Senate, by a 51-49
majority, Republicans can use the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to
overcome, to kill House-passed bills.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Forty percent of the mass of every tree in the forest is crude oil.  Stop
and think about that.  We call them fossil fuels because they used to be
live stuff . . . now in the ground is turned into crude oil." 

- Bill Sali (September 21, 2006)