Former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced this week the second plank of his economic policy: a clean energy and infrastructure plan, encompassing some of his most progressive policies yet. In a July 14 speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Vice President Biden announced plans to create “millions of high-paying union jobs by building … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Reid, Paul Working on Repatriation Bill to Fund Transportation Infrastructure On June 10, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) indicated that they are working on legislation that would allow corporations to repatriate foreign earnings at lower rates, suggesting that this revenue could be used to fund improvements to … Continue Reading
Legislative Branch Activity National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Last week the House Armed Services Committee marked-up and passed, by a vote of 59-2, its FY 2014 NDAA bill. H.R. 1960 complies with the House Budget Act, funding national defense at pre-sequester levels but within the sequester budget cap of $966 billion for discretionary funding. Next week, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Tax Writing Committee Meetings Continue The Senate Finance Committee has continued its series of closed-door committee meetings on tax reform, recently issuing their latest Option Paper on May 23 – this one on Economic Security. The closed-door meetings are intended to facilitate discussion among senators in an attempt to find where agreement on … Continue Reading
Executive and Legislative Branch Activity Syria During last week’s Congressional recess, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) slipped over the Turkish border into Syria to meet with the leaders of the Free Syrian Army. Syrian opposition leaders reportedly called on the United States to increase its support by providing heavy weapons, instituting a no-fly zone and employing … Continue Reading