Capitol Briefing

By Paul Kane
Leaving Democrats one vote short with hours to go, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) declared Saturday she will support a key procedural step to advance President Obama's health-care legislation.

In a Senate floor speech just before 1 p.m., Landrieu said she would support the motion to begin debate on the legislation, ending days of silence on the matter. Landrieu's move leaves just Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) as the only undeclared Democrat, with the other 59 senators in the Democratic caucus backing this early step.

"My vote today to move forward ... should in no way be construed" as signaling what her final vote will be, Landrieu said, indicating that she wants to work on amending the bill on the Senate floor. "Much work needs to be done."

Her remarks came during a rare Saturday session during which the Senate launched the final hours of debate leading up to a nighttime vote that serves as a critical early test for President Obama's health-care proposal.

"Doing nothing is not an option," Landrieu said. Her support was garnered in part by a provision in the bill that would deliver higher Medicaid payments to Louisiana health-care providers.

Shaping up as a cliffhanger, all but one of the 60 senators in the Democratic caucus have indicated their support for this early vote, which, if successful, serves to begin what will likely be several weeks of debate on dozens of amendments before a possible final vote before Christmas.

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) needs the last holdout, Lincoln, to reach the 60-vote threshold to move forward with the debate. No Republican senator is expected to vote for this initial step.

In line with Lincoln's demand for a 72-hour period to read the legislation, the key vote is expected at 8 p.m. Saturday, exactly 72 hours from the point Reid unveiled his health-care proposal Wednesday night.

Debate began at 10 a.m., with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) - a 35-year veteran of the Senate - discussing the decades-long effort to achieve national health-insurance. Leahy quoted from Obama's address to a joint session of Congress two months ago, just after their close friend, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), died after a lengthy fight with cancer.

Leahy urged his colleagues to pass the legislation in Kennedy's honor. "What we face above all is a moral issue," Leahy said of Kennedy's wishes.

By Paul Kane
In a rare Saturday session, the Senate launched the final hours of debate leading up to a nighttime vote that serves as a critical early test for President Obama's health-care proposal.

Shaping up as a cliffhanger, all but two of the 60 senators in the Democratic caucus have indicated their support for this early vote, which, if successful, serves to begin what will likely be several weeks of debate on dozens of amendments before a possible final vote before Christmas.

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) needs the last two holdouts - Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) - to reach the 60-vote threshold to move forward with the debate. No Republican senator is expected to vote for this initial step.
In line with Lincoln's demand for a 72-hour period to read the legislation, the key vote is expected at 8 p.m. Saturday, exactly 72 hours from the point Reid unveiled his health-care proposal Wednesday night.

Debate began at 10 a.m., with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) - a 35-year veteran of the Senate - discussing the decades-long effort to achieve national health insurance. Leahy quoted from Obama's address to a joint session of Congress two months ago, just after their close friend, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), died after a lengthy fight with cancer.

Leahy urged his colleagues to pass the legislation in Kennedy's honor.

"What we face above all is a moral issue," Leahy said of Kennedy's wishes.

By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three centrist Democrats who had been undecided on Saturday's motion to debate the Senate health-care bill, has announced he will vote to bring the measure to the floor.

"The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," Nelson said in a statement.

But Nelson cautioned that he remains unsatisfied with portions of the $848 billion legislation, including language aimed at restricting federal funds from covering abortions.

His vote Saturday "is not for or against the new Senate health care bill released Wednesday," he said. "It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), another uncommitted moderate, said she would make her decision Saturday morning, hours before the vote, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. Like Nelson, Landrieu has negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) to shape the bill more to her liking. She has secured a Medicaid provision that could translate into $300 million in new benefits for her home state. "Yes, I've had to bargain for that," Landrieu said.

But she was still studying other aspects of the bill. Landrieu said she spent two hours on the phone Friday with Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and health-care consultant Jonathan Gruber.

The third Democratic holdout, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), has remained mostly mum about the bill, other than to express general trepidation about its effect on her low-income home state. Lincoln is a top Republican target in 2010, and her colleagues believe her doubts are rooted in her sense of political vulnerability, rather than specific policy complaints.

Updated 12:33 p.m.
By Paul Kane
Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) has been admonished by the Senate ethics committee for his public comments about his appointment last December to the body.

In a three-page "public letter of qualified admonition" issued Friday, the committee formally reprimanded Burris for statements -- some made under oath to an Illinois legislative committee -- in which he denied trying to raise any campaign contributions for indicted former governor Rod Blagojevich for his political committees. (Here is a PDF of the letter.)

Several weeks after making those statements, and after being sworn in to the Senate, Burris amended his testimony to say that he had discussed trying to gather donations for Blagojevich.

Blagojevich appointed Burris to the Senate after being arrested by the FBI for allegedly trying to sell the seat, once held by President Obama, to the highest bidder.

Fearful of seating anyone selected by Blagojevich, Senate leaders had made Burris's truthful testimony about the appointment before the Illinois legislature a contingency for allowing him to join the chamber in January, becoming its only African American senator.

"You should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate, and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate," the committee, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, found in its unanimous opinion.

A letter of admonition is the mildest form of rebuke that the ethics committee can administer.

In a statement, Burris claimed the ethics letter cleared him because the panel noted that its investigation did not find "any actionable violations of law".

Doug Hoffman's campaign site on Nov. 19, 2009. (Screencapture by John Amick/The Washington Post)

Updated 7:14 p.m.
By Garance Franke-Ruta
For the second time this week, Conservative Party congressional candidate Douglas L. Hoffman sought to rescind his concession in the special election in New York's 23rd district, telling supporters that new information showing the results of the election closer than believed on election night made him reevaluate his decision to throw in the towel.

"I am therefore revoking my statement of concession," he wrote in a fundraising letter titled "Stop Another Stolen Election!" and posted on his Web site Wednesday night.

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he told supporters, naming the Democrat who claimed victory and has been seated in the House of Representatives, though election results will not be certified until next month. "I was forced to concede after receiving two pieces of grim news - - down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night -- and barely won my stronghold in Oswego County. On Election Night, the information we received was far different from what we received this week!"

But by Thursday night, Hoffman's hopes appeared dashed. "It's over. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, leads by 3,105 votes with 3,072 absentee ballots left to be counted," the Watertown Daily Times reported.

That this would be the outcome was widely expected, despite Hoffman's protestations. According to a report last Friday in the Daily Times, "it's mathematically possible" for Hoffman to pass Rep. Owens in the final count in the 11-county district, but "the math is daunting." Most observers saw little chance that the election outcome would change, with a recent unofficial result reported before Thursday evening showing Hoffman trailing Owens by 2,832 votes and 4,262 absentee ballots remaining to be counted, the Watertown paper reported.

Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner, told the Times that Hoffman's allegations of ballot-tampering and the election having been manipulated or stolen are "absolutely false."

"No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except board of elections staff -- and in a bipartisan manner," he said.

Brian Kettenring, ACORN's deputy director of national operations, called Hoffman's accusations unworthy of serious response. "We confess we stole the election in the 23rd and our lead staff person for it was Elvis Presley," he said sarcastically. "He ran a first rate organizing effort in the district and we're proud of his work."

In truth, Kettenring said, the group has no office in the district and made no political or volunteer contributions to the race.

Hoffman first walked back his concession on Glenn Beck's radio show Monday, saying, "If I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded."

"So are you un-conceding?" asked Beck.

"If that's possible, yes," Hoffman replied.

Hoffman's attack on the community-organizing group ACORN in his fundraising letter continues a theme he hammered home during the election contest. "Bill Owens should request that Justice Department monitors be put in place to insure that ACORN's political arm in New York State, the Working Families Party, does not steal this election," he said in a statement in late October, according to a report in the Washington Independent. That month Republican Party candidate Dede Scozzafava also was cast as "An ACORN-Friendly, Big Labor-Backing, Tax-and-Spend Radical in GOP Clothing" by conservative blogger and Hoffman supporter Michelle Malkin.

The full Hoffman letter follows:

Updated 12:57 p.m.
By Ben Pershing
A Senate committee on Thursday morning launched the first public hearing into the Fort Hood shooting attack with a focus on the perils of homegrown extremism and "political correctness" and with partial cooperation from the Obama administration.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hopes to probe what the government knew about shooting suspect Army Maj. Nidal Hasan and whether federal agencies either missed key warning signs or failed to communicate with each other before the attack. The panel heard from five experts on terrorism and homeland security.

Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) started the hearing by calling the investigation "as serious as any this committee has even undertaken."

"The purpose of our investigation is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented, whether the federal agencies and employees involved missed signals or failed to connect the dots in a way that enabled Hasan to carry out his deadly plan," he said. "If we find such negligence we will make recommendations to guarantee, as best we can, that they never occur again."

Lieberman had hoped to have current administration officials appear, and specifically requested investigators from the FBI and the Department of Defense. But he was rebuffed by the White House, despite having made a direct appeal to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Lieberman said in his opening statement that he had spoken with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday, and that both said they "wanted to cooperate so long as it did not hamper or compromise the criminal investigation and prosecution of Nidal Hasan."

Lieberman sounded cautiously optimistic that more information would be forthcoming, adding that the committee had received access to important classified documents.

"We're off to a good cooperative start," Lieberman said.

The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. ET. Following morning business, the Senate will resume post-cloture debate on the nomination of David Hamilton to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit.

The Senate also reached an agreement to consider S.1963, Veterans Health Care initiatives bill upon disposition of the Hamilton nomination. Under the agreement, the only amendment in order is the Coburn amendment regarding funding priorities. There will be 30 minutes of general debate on the bill and 3 hours for debate on the amendment.

The House meets at 10:00 for legislative business. The House will consider, among other legislation, H.R. 1842, Expanding Entrepreneurship Act of 2009.

For a list of Congressional committee hearings, visit Today in Congress.

Visit our Votes Database for more information on the House and Senate, including vote history and member profiles.

By Lori Montgomery
Now that they've finished their health-care bill, House leaders are turning their attention to the soaring unemployment rate. But don't look for another economic stimulus package. This time, House leaders said, they want to put together a "jobs bill."

"It's jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.), the No. 4 Democrat in the House, said shortly before convening a meeting of rank-and-file lawmakers late Monday. "Members of this caucus feel ... that a jobless recovery is just simply unacceptable to us. This caucus, every caucus going forward, is going to be focused on putting Americans back to work."

Senior Democratic aides said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who banished the term "stimulus" two weeks ago, has yet to decide what form such a measure would take. But a number of possibilities are under discussion beyond the safety-net measures so far approved by Congress, including an expanded highway reauthorization bill aimed at generating construction jobs and a variety of hiring incentives for small businesses. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday that House leaders have asked key committee chairmen to offer up proposals that would be compiled into a single larger piece of legislation, with a goal of bringing something to a House vote before Dec. 18, when the House hopes to adjourn for the year.

"I would certainly want to see us move something on jobs before that," Hoyer told reporters at his weekly briefing.

Congress has already approved, and President Obama has signed, measures expanding unemployment benefits, health-care benefits for unemployed workers and an extension of the tax credit for first-time home buyers that was contained in the $787 billion stimulus package Obama signed soon after taking office. That package is widely credited by economists with helping to halt the nation's slide into what looked at the time like an economic abyss. But although the economy appears to be growing again, businesses have yet to start hiring, and the unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October. That has fueled Republican claims that the original package failed to do much more than increase the nation's bloated budget deficit, leaving Democrats feeling skittish about dipping into the stimulus well again.

Hence, a "jobs bill" -- which, Larson was quick to note, House leaders fully intend to pay for, though they were unwilling to discuss the size of the package or any possible sources of revenue. It was also unclear whether the Senate would be willing to go along with the idea. And Obama administration officials are less than enthusiastic, congressional sources said, preferring to address the issue through the regular budget process early next year. Obama has also scheduled a "jobs summit" at the White House on Dec. 3 and is planning to tour hard-hit regions, starting with Allentown, Pa., over the next few months.

The Senate convenes at 10:00 a.m. ET. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3082, Military Construction/VA Appropriations. The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons.

At 2:15, the Senate will proceed to vote in relation to the Inhofe amendment #2774 (Guantanamo) to be followed by a vote on passage of H.R. 3082, as amended.

Upon disposition of H.R. 3082, there will be up to 60 minutes for debate with respect to the nomination of David Hamilton to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit. Upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the nomination.

The House will begin legislative business at noon. On the schedule: A possible consideration of a motion to go to conference on H.R. 2847, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010.

For a list of Congressional committee hearings, visit Today in Congress.

Visit our Votes Database for more information on the House and Senate, including vote history and member profiles.

By Ben Pershing
The first public congressional hearing on the Fort Hood attack will not include testimony from any current federal law enforcement, military or intelligence officials because the Obama administration "declined to provide any" such witnesses, according to a Senate committee source.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has released the witness list for its hearing "The Fort Hood Attack: A Preliminary Assessment," scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. The list includes four experts on terrorism and intelligence issues: retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former U.S. Army vice chief of staff; Brian Jenkins, a senior advisor at the Rand Corp.; Mitchell Silber, the director of analysis for the New York City Police Department's Intelligence Division; and Juan Zarate, a senior advisor for the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But the list does not include anyone actively involved in investigating the Fort Hood attack, or anyone who might have been responsible for decisions made by various government agencies before the attack about whether to investigate the shooting suspect, Nidal Hasan. The Senate committee source said HSGAC Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) had hoped to have witnesses from the FBI and the U.S. Army, but was rebuffed in his requests.

Asked for comment Monday, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said: "Tomorrow morning, an inter-agency briefing team will go to the Hill to brief House and Senate leaders and committee chairs and ranking members. This is the latest in a series of engagements with the Hill since the horrific events at Fort Hood, and further evidence of the Administration's commitment to appropriately inform Congress without interfering in the prosecution of this case."

Vietor did not address the specific question of why witnesses would not be provided for Thursday's hearing.

President Obama has already ordered a federal review of the circumstances that led up to the Fort Hood attack, and how government agencies handled intelligence related to Hasan. But in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama urged caution on Capitol Hill.

"I know there will also be inquiries by Congress, and there should," Obama said. "But all of us should resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater that sometimes dominates the discussion here in Washington. The stakes are far too high."

While most lawmakers have said they will wait for the results of the Fort Hood criminal investigation and Obama's announced review before rendering judgment, some have already been critical of the Obama administration's handling of both the prelude to the attack and its aftermath. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has been particularly sharp in his criticism.

Lieberman, for his part, has said the Fort Hood attack appeared to be the work of a "self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist," and he and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the panel's top Republican, have vowed to cooperate with the administration if it returns the favor.

"To carry out our investigation, Congress will require the prompt and full cooperation of the Executive Branch -- cooperation that must start as soon as possible," Lieberman and Collins said Saturday. "We totally agree with the President that this inquiry must not turn into 'political theater' and it will not."

Separately, a closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee briefing on the status of the Fort Hood investigation has been postponed, after initially being scheduled for Monday afternoon. That session was scheduled to feature top officials, including Army Secretary John McHugh and Arrny Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey. Committee aides aid the session was postponed only to assure that everyone Senators wanted to hear from could attend, and would likely be rescheduled for later this week.