Health Care is not the only thing that Congress has been working on. Here is a short summary of the things that our government has been working on this week. If the people of this country don’t understand what their government is doing they can’t be informed enough to tell their representatives about how they feel on these issues.

S. 1603 – Veterans Education Tuition Support Act of 2009

Title: A bill to amend section 484B of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to students who withdraw from an institution of higher education to serve in the uniformed services, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH] (introduced 8/6/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: H.R.2456, H.R.2561
Latest Major Action: 8/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

From what I have read, the jist of this bill is that if you are enrolled in college and you decide to join the armed forces, if this bill passes into law your tuition will be reimbursed and you won’t have to pay back those loans because of your service to our country.

All well and good right? What are your opinions?

S. 147 – Close Guantanamo and Change Interrogation Policies

Title: A bill to require the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to limit the use of certain interrogation techniques, to prohibit interrogation by contractors, to require notification of the International Committee of the Red Cross of detainees, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (3)
Related Bills: H.R.374
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Obama promised to do this his first day in office. To close the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Cuba and to limit the way they interrogate detainees. Those “Enhanced Interogation Techniques” that were authorized by the white house that instructed CIA officers that they could use such torture as waterboarding, firing a gun off next to a blindfolded prisoner, use of a power drill on detainees, and other just nifty and fun techniques in order to try and get information out of people that were there so long that any information garnered from these techniques would be out of date anyway.

S. 1 – Stimulus Bill

Title: A bill to create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America’s middle class through measures that modernize the nation’s infrastructure, enhance America’s energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Reid, Harry [NV] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (17)
Latest Major Action: 1/7/2009 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 1.
Note: For further action, see H.R.1, which became Public Law 111-5 on 2/17/2009.

I bet you thought that the stimulus bill was a law now huh? I bet you thought it was all over. Nope, now the money has to be distributed to each state. So they have to bring up the bill before congress each time they decide to dole out money to states. But there is a way that you can keep track of all the money that is going out there. You should go to http://www.recovery.gov/. There are tools there you can use to see what money your state is getting, and where it is going. This is important for each American to be concerned about, after all it is your money that is being spent.

H.R. 2701 – Intelligence Authorization Act of 2010

Title: To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2010 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Reyes, Silvestre [TX-16] (introduced 6/4/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: H.RES.618, S.1494
Latest Major Action: 7/8/2009 Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 618 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 2701 with 1 hour of general debate. Previous question shall be considered as ordered without intervening motions except motion to recommit with or without instructions. Measure will be considered read. Specified amendments are in order. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived except those arising under clause 9 of rule XXI. It shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence now printed in the bill.
House Reports: 111-186

This is a general bill to fund the CIA and other intelegence services. I bet they will be happy to get our tax payer money.

H.R. 2454 – American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

Title: To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.
Sponsor: Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30] (introduced 5/15/2009)      Cosponsors (1)
Related Bills: H.RES.587, H.R.2998
Latest Major Action: 7/7/2009 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 97.
House Reports: 111-137 Part 1

This is what people in Michigan have been waiting for. This bill is to provide funding to companies to create clean energy jobs. See in Michigan the Auto companies are pretty much gone. People need to forget about Michigan as the home of the Big 3 and automotive manufacturing jobs. Instead Michigan needs to start really laying the groundwork to make sure that these companies look to the Rust Belt as the new home for these green jobs. Unfortunatly as usual the Unions will destroy any hope Michigan has to create jobs in this state. The greedy Unions will undoubtidly picket any company that actually wants to hire people based on hard work, but instead based on Union connections.

Unions make me sick, it’s the Unions that destroyed the Big 3 in Michigan, it’s the Unions that crippled the nations manufacturing market. If it wasn’t for the Unions companies wouldn’t outsource these jobs overseas and people would be employed. Yes it’s nice to have a decent wage, but honestly if you make it too expensive for the company to actually employ anyone, they will move their manufacturing somewhere where they can get cheaper labor. In the end making a little something is a whole lot better than making a whole lot of nothing and Unions don’t understand this. They in the end ruin any hope Michigan has for the economy here to recover. Thanks UAW, AFL/CIO, you suck.

H.R. 1388 – ‘A bill entitled “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws.”

Title: A bill entitled “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws.”
Sponsor: Rep McCarthy, Carolyn [NY-4] (introduced 3/9/2009)      Cosponsors (37)
Related Bills: H.RES.250, H.RES.296, S.277
Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 111-13 [GPO: Text, PDF]
House Reports: 111-37

H.R. 384 – Reform the Troubled Assets Relief Program (Financial and Auto Bailout)

Title: To reform the Troubled Assets Relief Program of the Secretary of the Treasury and ensure accountability under such Program.
Sponsor: Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] (introduced 1/9/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
Related Bills: H.RES.53, H.RES.62
Latest Major Action: 1/22/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

H.R. 227 – Deem that human life begins with fertilization

Title: To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization.
Sponsor: Rep Broun, Paul C. [GA-10] (introduced 1/7/2009)      Cosponsors (54)
Latest Major Action: 1/7/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

This is a sneak attack against Roe V Wade. People if you are pro-choice please contact your representative and tell them to kill this bill.

H.R. 157 – Congressional Seat/Vote for DC – Increase House to 437 Seats

Title: To provide for the treatment of the District of Columbia as a Congressional district for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (3)
Related Bills: S.J.RES.11, S.160
Latest Major Action: 3/2/2009 Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 8.
House Reports: 111-22

Washington DC is not a state, it is the District of Columbia. But there are Americans that live there and so if they pay taxes they should have representation.

H.R. 155 – Ban Taxes on Unemployment Benefits for Two Years

Title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to suspend the taxation of unemployment compensation for 2 years.
Sponsor: Rep McHugh, John M. [NY-23] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (42)
Related Bills: S.155
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

This bill helps people that are on Unemployment keep their homes. It’s hard enough for people to live on Unemployment as it is, without the government taking taxes out of what is essentially half of your previous income.

H.R. 15 – Nationalized Health Insurance

Title: To provide a program of national health insurance, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Dingell, John D. [MI-15] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Make up your own mind.

H.R. 11 – Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Title: To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Miller, George [CA-7] (introduced 1/6/2009)      Cosponsors (195)
Related Bills: H.RES.5, S.181
Latest Major Action: 2/11/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Note: Pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 5, the text of H.R. 12 as passed by the House was appended to the end of H.R. 11 as new matter. For further action, see S.181, which became Public Law 111-2 on 1/29/2009.

Basically this is to try and curb the discrepancy in pay between men and women. In this day and age its odd that a woman would get paid less than a man for the same work.

H. CON. RES. 5 – Congress and War Powers

Title: Expressing that Congress has the sole and exclusive power to declare war.
Sponsor: Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] (introduced 1/7/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 1/7/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

This is because of Bush. Bush decided to launch a war in Iraq without anyones approval. This bill would fix that problem. So that Presidents allone won’t have the power to start a war without the approval of Congress. We may not be in the war in Iraq today if Congress were the ones that started it instead of the President alone.

So that is what your representatives have been working on this week. If you want to voice your opinion on any of these proposals please write your congressmen. Let them know what you think. It is time that people in this country keep abreast of all the issues that are before the house and senate.