| December 19th, 2010, Michael Colliss  History happened on Saturday, December 18, 2010. The United State Senate by a vote of 65 to 31 ending the last officially sanctioned discrimination from United States regulations. The Senate voted to end the 17-year-old policy banning gays from serving openly in the military. Eight Republican senators joined almost the entire Senate Democratic conference to approve by a vote of 65 to 31 a measure repealing the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Republican Senators Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) voted yes. Senators Richard Burr (N.C.), John Ensign (Nev.). Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and George Voinovich (R, Ohio) who also voted yes were unexpected supporters of the measure. → Read More December 19th, 2010, Michael Danielson  On his Fox News show this Saturday, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee brought up an idea that he believes Republicans would support as a variation of the Tier 5 unemployment extension. According to Huckabee, Tier 5 “should not be in place without the people earning it.” His idea came out in a segment specifically about the notion of creating a Tier 5 unemployment extension that would move the 99-week boundary back for the duration of the economic crisis. Essentially, Huckabee is suggesting a contingency attached to the unemployment money: you work for it or you don’t get it. He proposed that the government organize some form of ‘community service’ that the unemployed must perform in order to collect benefits. → Read More December 18th, 2010, Michael Colliss  The Republican fillbuster to block any consideration in the Senate of the DREAM act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) succeeded in the Senate on Saturday. The bill – which has already passed in the House of Representatives – envisioned the creation of a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrant students who came to the United States as children, completed two years of college or military service and met other requirements including passing a criminal background check. The measure would have helped grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students and recent graduates whose lives are severely restricted because they are illegal residents, though many have lived in the United States for nearly their entire lives. → Read More December 18th, 2010, Michael Colliss  On the morning of Friday December 17, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) told reporters “the work of the House of Representatives is accomplished” and indicated to reporters that she had alerted Members to the fact that the final vote of the House would take place early Friday evening and then the House would adjourn for good and not return until January 5, when the 112th Congress constitutes itself. When asked about a bill that would fund the government beyond midnight on December 18, Speaker Pelosi said she had been in close contact with the Senate leadership and “fully expected” the Senate to pass a continuing resolution that would fund the United States Government well into next year, which she predicted would be acted open late Friday evening and then the House would adjourn for good. → Read More December 18th, 2010, Michael Colliss  At 4:20 PM President Barack Obama signed “The Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010,” the legislation that completed its path through the U.S. Congress on Thursday night. The President hailed the bill as “a sign of what can happen when we work together” and cited the bill as an “early Christmas present for the middle class.” The bill extends all Bush era tax breaks for the middle class, reinstates the federal inheritance tax on estates over $5 million and reauthorizes the four tiers of federal unemployment extensions that expired on November 30. Despite sustained lobbying by unemployment activist organizations and millions of unemployed nationwide, the bill did not expand the number of weeks through the creation of a Tier 5. → Read More December 17th, 2010, Michael Colliss  Late last week, the House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion bill that would have funded all government operations through September 2011. This massive bill, called an “omnibus spending bill” had received significant Republican support and it was expected to pass the Senate fairly easily on either Friday or Saturday. Unless there is some Congressional action the government will have to shut down all operations except for national defense and public safety operations at 11:59 PM on Saturday, December 18. By Thursday afternoon, many Senators – on both sides of the aisle – were predicting passage of the House bill. → Read More December 17th, 2010, Michael Colliss  The following is the recorded votes on legislation that incorporated the agreement with the Republican leadership. The bill extended all Bush era tax cuts and renewed the levels of unemployment extensions that expired on November 30 through January 2012. No Tier 5 was added. Since the House voted on the Senate version with no amendments, it now goes to the White House, President Obama has said he is “looking forward” to signing this legislation into law, and is expected to do so almost immediately. The following are the votes as recorded by the clerk of the respective houses. → Read More December 17th, 2010, Michael Colliss  The U.S. House of Representatives late on Thursday night passed the Senate bill that incorporated the agreement between the President and Senate Republicans with no amendments. The bill will now go to the White House where President Obama has indicated he will sign it into law. The bill extends all Bush era tax cuts for all income levels, allows tax breaks which supporters will encourage hiring. The bill also extends the federal unemployment extensions that expired on November 30. The bill makes the extension of unemployment benefits retroactive so that any individual who has not used all available weeks but whose benefits had been suspended pending renewal of the federal extensions will receive payment for those weeks. → Read More | Listen to Mike Colliss Interviews |
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