Congress

In an e-mail sent to constituents, Senator Jeff Bingaman reviewed the 2009 accomplishments of Congress and said despite the fact that health care reform has yet to pass, overall, it was “a productive year.”

As hard as the Senate debate promises to be, many of the thorniest conflicts will likely be re-contested when Democratic leaders in both chambers meet to iron out the differences between their bills.

According to the Pew Research Group, the number of people who would like to see their own U.S Representative re-elected has reached a low point — the same type of low point seen in the 1994 and 2006 midterms when the parties in power suffered large losses.
“About half (52 percent) of registered voters would like [...]

Friday is traditionally the day when politicians release potentially embarrassing stories. The theory is that nobody’s really paying attention on Friday afternoon, and by Monday the news will already seem old (especially in the days of 24/7 cable news networks and internet reporting).
But for those same reasons, Friday can also be a pretty slow news [...]

The U.S. House voted Thursday afternoon “to eliminate billions of dollars in federal subsidies to private insurers offering low-rate student loans.” All three New Mexico Representatives, all Democrats, voted for the student loan reform bill.

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer praised three fellow Democrats — including U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich — for their work on the major climate change bill passed on Friday.

Though he was recently in Las Cruces to discuss immigration and border issues, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman — New Mexico’s senior senator — said renewable energy and health-care reform will be Congressional priorities this year.

Because U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici retired after 36 years of service and all three representatives left their positions, Roll Call has New Mexico’s congressional clout dropping from 19th at the start of the 110th Congress to 29th at the start of the 11th Congress.
New Mexico, in fact, had the largest drop in clout of any [...]

Over the next couple of weeks, Congress will debate the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009, otherwise known to all of us as the federal stimulus plan billed as a way to help the nation’s tottering economy.
And out with an outline of priorities is the House Appropriations Committee, which released a 13-page report of [...]

New Mexico transportation officials are quietly hoping Congress quickly passes a federal economic stimulus plan that includes billions for road and bridge construction.
If that happens, the state could see north of $100 million in much-needed funds for roads and bridges, depending on the size of the bill, state Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said Tuesday.

It looks like there may be an agreement to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. This means that the government is going to buy the bad debt from financial firms on the skids. But it faces a tough climate in the House of Representatives, where many don’t want to vote for [...]