Articles & Op-Eds
April 21, 2010
The decision by congressional leaders Tuesday to shelve a D.C. voting rights bill, just days after announcing plans to move ahead, scuttles what supporters say was the best opportunity in a generation to give the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives.
April 21, 2010
In the midst of the unfolding Eric Massa scandal, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has asked three entities charged with internal congressional issues to work together to strengthen harassment protections for staffers who feel their rights have been violated.
April 8, 2010
Filing in to a caucus meeting in the middle of March in the Capitol Visitors Center, skittish House Democrats were just a few fragile days away from passing an historic health care overhaul, but leadership had yet to round up the necessary votes. Nervous members watched each other to see who would jump first.
March 30, 2010
ICYMI, wanted to make sure you saw today’s story in the New York Times about how health care reform will lower costs for women by forbidding gender discrimination in health insurance.
March 10, 2010
Isn’t it nice when a congressional leader does the right thing?
March 9, 2010
My fellow Roll Call columnist Norman Ornstein was one of the authors of a truly excellent chart on reconciliation that appeared in the New York Times on Sunday.
March 9, 2010
Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the
March 4, 2010
Support from his own party in doubt, President Barack Obama summoned more than a dozen House Democrats to the White House Thursday, pleading with them to put aside their qualms, seize a historic moment and vote for his massive health care overhaul.
March 4, 2010
President Obama's endorsement Wednesday of a risky legislative maneuver to complete health-care legislation sent Democratic leaders scrambling to settle policy disputes and assemble the votes necessary for passage in the coming weeks.
March 3, 2010
As Democrats on Capitol Hill prepared a risky effort to muscle sweeping health-care legislation to final passage, President Obama on Tuesday made a last gambit to split Republicans on the issue, proposing to incorporate a handful of GOP ideas into his signature domestic initiative.
March 3, 2010
It's an unlikely twist after all the beatings that Democrats and Republicans have laid on the Federal Reserve over the past year.
March 2, 2010
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is using Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) one-man filibuster of a package to extend unemployment and health benefits and highway programs to renew his argument that the Senate needs to change the way it does business.
March 1, 2010
Unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of jobless people ran out on Monday and highway programs across the United States suspended work after a Republican lawmaker prevented their renewal.
March 1, 2010
Raising the prospect of a "simple up-or-down vote" on health-care reform, White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle said on Sunday she thinks Democrats will secure enough ayes on the measure and signaled that the administration could be moving toward trying to pass it along party lines.
March 1, 2010
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned Monday afternoon that debt crises like the one gripping Greece will inevitably hit the United States if leaders fail to cut deficits, and he urged Republicans to join President Barack Obama’s fiscal commission and develop a package of budget cuts and revenue hikes by the end of the year.
February 27, 2010
Seeing no prospect of a bipartisan agreement on health care, Congressional Democrats said Friday that they would make another effort to pass sweeping health care legislation on their own.
February 26, 2010
If there was any question about how deeply divided Republicans and Democrats are about how to reshape the American health care system, consider that they spent the first few hours of President Obama’s much-anticipated health care forum on Thursday arguing over whether they were in fact deeply divided.
February 26, 2010
On Thursday, I sat down with President Obama and my congressional colleagues from both parties to try to find a way out of the health care crisis threatening our families and businesses.
February 22, 2010
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s gamble paid off Monday night, as five Republicans joined Democrats to cut off debate on a narrowed $15 billion package of tax breaks and spending aimed at fostering job creation.
February 22, 2010
President Obama made it clear Monday morning that he intends to make a final push for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's health-care and insurance system, offering a new health-care plan that largely embraces the approach already taken by the U.S. Senate.
February 16, 2010
House Democrats were eyeing the history books in November when they voted for a sweeping health care overhaul that carried the name of the chamber’s longest-serving member, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).
February 12, 2010
House Democratic leaders sent mixed signals Friday on a new jobs bill supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and a senior Republican senator predicted his party will block action on the Senate floor.
February 10, 2010
President Obama brought Republicans to the negotiating table on Tuesday, hoping to stem a steady deterioration in relations between the two parties that has brought business in Washington to a standstill, left the Democratic agenda in tatters and angered voters who are eager to have lawmakers address their concerns.
February 8, 2010
President Barack Obama, seeking to give new momentum to his languishing health-care legislation, said he would sit down with Republican and Democratic lawmakers to exchange ideas on an issue that has deeply divided the parties.
