Congress
"The ruling by the World Trade Organization shows that President Obama continues to stand tough against China and is fully committed to ensuring American businesses are competing on a level-playing field. This is just one in a number of cases the Obama Administration has taken to the WTO to hold China accountable for their illegal trade practices...
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after the Committee on House Administration issued a report detailing the nearly $1.5 million in taxpayer-funded legal bills accumulated over the past 15 months to pay an outside law firm to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA):
“Thank you Madam Leader. We met today and as so often been the case, the Speaker representing the Republican party walked away. He walked away when we asked for unanimous consent to proceed on some important business, or at least to talk about it.
“I thank the Leader for yielding and I want to simply say that once again we have this morning a demonstration of Republicans walking out on the American people – not on us.
House Republicans may be able to put their jobs in the Capitol out of sight and out of mind, but Democrats will continue to remind them of the long list of unfinished legislation they abandoned when they left for recess. Today, Congressmen Chris Van Hollen and Henry Waxman were on the House Floor to remind House Republicans of the critical legislation they left undone.
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer today sent a letter to the House Democratic Caucus urging Democratic Members to highlight the past 20 months of the Republican Majority’s record of missed opportunities and obstruction in addressing the nation’s central challenges.
MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
Today, House Republicans left town without completing a long list of unfinished business. Instead of working on behalf of the American people to pass a comprehensive jobs bill, extend middle class tax cuts, pass a Farm Bill, reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, or agree to Postal Reform, Republicans decided to put politics ahead of policy. On their last day of session before the election, the Republica
“Our Republican colleagues are leaving without getting their work done. I say their work done. Without getting our work done. The work of the American people. Comprehensive jobs bills, middle-class tax cuts have not been extended, farmers are left on their own to face the worst drought in decades, … and a Farm bill reported out of the Republican committee lays unconsidered by this Floor. Reported out of their committee from their majority and they haven't brought it to the Floor while farmers remain in trouble. We've not re-authorized the Violence Against Women Act, and we have not passed a postal reform bill. I am glad to take this special order, Mr. Speaker, to say to the American people that we're prepared to stay. we're prepared to stay and work on these bills.”
"What we are seeing this week is a convulsing end to a dismal Congress. Two distinguished political scientists [Tom Mann and Norman Ornstein] in our country said this: 'The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.'