Congresspedia Review: This Week in Congress (March 31 - Apr. 4, 2008)

Submitted by Conor Kenny on

The mortgage crisis bill was the big action in Congress last week, with other movement on the global AIDS program and endangered species designation for polar bears. Two Democratic congressmen also had big days in court, five superdelegates came out for Obama, too and it wouldn't be 2008 without several members announcing retirement from Congress.

Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) unveiled a bipartisan compromise housing bill that gives $6 billion to homebuilders and other businesses suffering from the economic downturn but provides little relief for struggling homeowners. Dodd and Shelby said the bill was just a starting point and Democrats hope to include a provision stridently opposed by most congressional Republicans and the mortgage industry to allow judges to reduce high interest rates and even loan amounts on "underwater" home mortgages of people entering bankruptcy.

(More after the jump...)

Democrats in the House, particularly Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will likely try to add that provision and others if the bill doesn't contain it by the time it gets to the House. Even if it is not attached to the main bill, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) got the provision approved as its own piece of legislation and is likely to try to bring it to the floor for its own vote. See the Congresspedia article on Federal housing and mortgage legislation (U.S.) for full details.

Miscellany:

  • A federal judge ordered Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wa.) to pay over $1 million in legal fees to House Minority leader John Boehner (R-Oh.), settling the two lawmakers' decade-long legal dispute over McDermott's actions in leaking the contents of an intercepted 1996 conference call involving Boehner and other Republican leaders.
  • Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) held hearings criticizing the Bush administration's failure to meet a legal deadline on classifying polar bears as endangered species.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Department of Justice appeal regarding an FBI raid of Rep. William Jefferson's (D-La.) office in 2006.

    Superdelegate updates:

    It was a big week for Barack Obama as five more superdelegates endorsed his run.

  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN)
  • Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Al Edwards (TX)
  • Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal
  • DNC member John Melcher (MT)
  • DNC members Steven Alari (CA)

    See the Superdelegate Transparency Project for full breakdowns and other superdelegate info.

    Elections

    In 2008 congressional election news:

  • There were two primary run-offs for two open seats in Mississippi
  • Thirteen Republican candidates (including the guy who got his name changed to "Pro-Life") are running in Portal:Idaho and the U.S. Congress for retiring Sen. Larry Craig's (R) seat.
  • Al Wynn (D-Md.), who will resign his seat in June, and Reps. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) and Bud Cramer (R-Ala.), who will not seek reelection in November.
  • Andre Carson (D-Ill.) was elected to fill the remainder of the term of his later grandmother, Julia Carson.
  • Bill Foster (D) was elected to fill the remainder of the term of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who resigned in 2007.

    For more details, see the full election blog post and the state-by-state candidate lists at the WikiTheVote portal on Congresspedia.

    • U.S. Congress

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