Quick Hits: A new Congress gets underway

Kari Chisholm

A bunch of notes from the nation's capital:

• This morning brings news that Senator Jeff Merkley will be joining the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee - colloquially known as the HELP committee. The committee, chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy, will be a central player in this Congress - as health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act will likely move through the committee. Previously, we learned that Merkley would be on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Merkley is expected to be named to a total of three or four committees.

• Senator Ron Wyden is helping lead the charge to undo a bunch of last-minute regulations from the Bush Administration:

  “Congress is going to have to roll up its sleeves and review these midnight regulations,” Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said in an interview, “because it’s clear that they are part of a desire for the administration, as it heads out the door, to put some ideological trophies on the wall.”

  Mr. Wyden, the chairman of a subcommittee on natural resources, said he was focusing on a series of recently issued environmental rules. Among them are measures relaxing protections for endangered species, allowing uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, and making it easier for coal companies to dump mining debris in nearby streams and valleys.

• The New York Times profiled Congressman Earl Blumenauer - and his work to encourage cycling, and other forms of sustainability. It seems that Blumenauer's ahead-of-the-curve thinking is now going mainstream:

  In addition to bicycles, Mr. Blumenauer is particularly interested in public broadcasting and the plight of pollinators like honeybees. He is a founder of a “livable communities task force” whose goal, he said, is to educate members of Congress and their staffs on the benefits of transportation alternatives, open space, sustainability, vibrant downtowns, affordable housing and transparency in government.

  Initially, he said, these interests marked him as “kind of left coast.” Not anymore. “They are becoming very mainstream,” said Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat who represents in Congress the area around Pasadena, Calif., and who, with Mr. Blumenauer’s bicycle advice, now regularly rides to work from his home in Maryland. “He has been way out in front of the Congress,” Mr. Schiff said. “Now the rest of us are trying to catch up.”

• Senator Wyden believes that universal health care will pass in 2009 - with 65 to 70 votes in the U.S. Senate:

  Wyden believes there is "a real path to 65 to 70 votes" in the Senate for a health bill that gives all Americans access to "good-quality, affordable coverage". In fact, he added, major health reform could receive a vote in Congress by the summer. ...

  Wyden made his case cogently. Health care is an intensely complicated issue, he explained, but "Barack Obama's strength is walking the country through the choices" -- a public-relations mission the president-elect is executing with success on the stimulus bill.

  And Wyden has another new year's resolution to keep health care legislation from imploding: stick to the committee process. Unlike the so-called 2007 "grand bargain" on immigration, which went down in flames when negotiators defected from the pieced-together bill, the health care package Wyden envisions would be shepherded by two powerful chairman, Max Baucus (D-MT) of the Senate Finance Committee and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) of the Senate health committee.

Ain't it nice to think that we can actually move progressive legislation on all these fronts - and know that George Bush and Dick Cheney won't be standing in the way?

Oh, and one more, from the other side of the aisle:

• Congressman Greg Walden has been named the vice-chair of the NRCC, the campaign arm for the House Republicans. Once again, it appears that it GOP circles, there's nothing that succeeds like total, epic failure. Here's an excerpt of what I wrote last spring:

  First, a recap for those new to the story: The FBI is investigating the loss of at least a million dollars from the campaign operation for US House Republicans. It's alleged that a contract committee treasurer faked audit reports for the members of Congress overseeing the operation. Among those involved? Our very own GOP Congressman Greg Walden, who chaired the audit committee while the fraud was perpetrated, right under his nose. ...

  So, how did Congressman Conaway finally break this gigantic scandal? How did he uncover this massive fraud? How did he discover that the NRCC's treasurer had faked audits for years?

  Conaway, a caped crusader to be sure, tried something radical, something astonishing, something SOOOO creative that Greg Walden couldn't possibly be expected to have tried it.

  Conaway picked up the phone. And called the number on the fake audit's letterhead. ...

  Not only did Greg Walden fail to meet with the auditing firm before they hired them, he failed to meet with them for three straight years, and when he tried - oh, how he tried - to get a meeting... he never bothered to pick up the phone and call direct.

  It's a telephone, Greg. Just pick it up and dial.

  You could have saved your party a million dollars. You could have been a hero. You could have been a contender.

Unbelievable.

By Kari Chisholm Jan. 14, 2009