Capitol View V O L U M E 4 , N U M B E R 3 J U L Y 2 0 0 6 SUMMER AGENDA The Congress returned to work after its July 4 Recess with only a month of legislative activity before the month-long Recess scheduled to begin on August 7. This leaves only about seven weeks available for business before Congress leaves for the Mid-term election season. The House has passed all but one of its FY2007 Appropriations bills but still needs to consider the Labor, Health, Human Services and Education bill (H.R.5647). The Senate began consideration of its 11 Appropriation Bills with the bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (H.R.5441) first on the agenda. On July 13 the Senate unanimously passed the $32.8 billion bill. It may soon turn to consideration of the Energy and Water Appropriation (H.R.5427), as well as funding for the Department of State (H.R.5522) or the Department of the Interior (H.R.5386). The Senate Majority Leader has also indicated he plans to bring up legislation during the week of July 17 concerning stem cell research. One bill, the Fetus Farm Prohibition Act (S.3504) sponsored by Senators Santorum (R-PA) and Brownback (R-KS) would make it illegal to perform research on embryos from fetuses specifically gestated for research purposes. Debate will also include the Alternative Pluripatent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S.2754) introduced by Senators Specter (R-PA) and Santorum which would encourage research into ways to obtain stem cells with the same properties as embryonic cells without destroying embryos. The Senate will also likely consider a stem cell measure, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R.810) which passed the House on May 24 of last year by a vote of 238-194. This bill would allow Federal funding for research on stem cells taken from surplus embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics. Senate supporters of H.R.810 believe they have enough votes to pass this bill, but President Bush has threatened to veto it. On July 11 the House considered and passed a bill to prohibit the use of certain financial arrangements for supporting illegal Internet gambling, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (H.R.4411), by a vote of 317-93, and on July 12 it passed the Credit Rating Agency Duopoly Relief Act (H.R.2990) which reforms the system for overseeing credit agencies by 255-166. It also debated and approved, by a vote of 390- 33, legislation (H.R.9) to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act first passed in 1965. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, would like the Senate to pass its reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act before the August Recess. Speaker Hastert intends to debate and vote on a series of bills which he labels the "American Values Agenda." In addition to H.R.4411, this agenda includes the Pledge Protection Act (H.R.2389) which would remove jurisdiction from Federal Courts to take cases concerning the Pledge of Allegiance, the Unborn Child Pain Protection Act (H.R.356) to require abortion providers to inform women seeking late term abortions that the fetus feels pain, and the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R.1357) to ban human cloning. V A L U E A D D E D , V A L U E S D R I V E N. M S
C A P I T O L V I E W J U L Y 2 0 0 6 2 One of the most important and contentious issues the Congress is trying to resolve is the final version of immigration legislation. The House passed its Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R.4437) on December 16, 2005 by a vote of 239-182. It was primarily devoted to increasing border security and enhancing enforcement of existing immigration laws. After many days of heated Floor debate, on May 25 the Senate adopted the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S.2611) by a vote of 62-36. The Senate version of immigration legislation addresses not only enforcement issues but also institutes a new guest worker program, allows undocumented aliens to become legal residents if they meet certain conditions, and provides a path for citizenship for immigrants who fulfill specific standards. The very different approaches in addressing the highly contentious problem of illegal immigration embodied in these two bills presages a difficult Senate-House Conference to resolve the differences. Several House leaders, including the author of the House bill and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), have insisted that the House will not accept any guest worker or path to citizenship provisions at the Conference. On June 20, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) announced that House Committees would undertake a series of field hearings during the July and August Congressional recesses on the Senate- passed bill to gauge public sentiment on that bill's approach to immigration reform. This plan ensures that the Conference will not actually begin, if at all, until September. However, informal talks between likely Senate and House conferees have already begun. The Speaker has also indicated his first priority is to secure the border rather than engage in extensive reform of existing immigration laws. A recent Supreme Court decision has presented Congress with a problem which may require the enactment of legislation to deal with enemy combatants held since the attacks on September 11. On June 29, the Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that Commissions established by the President to try enemy combatants for crimes were not properly constituted because they were not authorized by Congress and did not follow international law. Both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee have held hearings on proposals under which Congress would establish procedures to criminally prosecute combatants. It is not clear if Congress will be able to act before it leaves for the election season. As usual, the Senate has taken time to mark some historical milestones. On July 12 it adopted S.Con.Res.96 commemorating the 50 th anniversary of the adoption of "In God We Trust" as the national motto. On June 13 Democratic and Republican Senators came to the Floor to note the date as the 17,327th day that Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) has served in the Senate, becoming the longest serving Senator in the history of that body. Added to the six years that he served in the House, this record means that Senator Byrd has been in the Congress fully one quarter of the time the institution has been in existence. Kevin Faley is the Editor of Capitol View and a partner in Venable's Legislative Practice Group. Mr. Faley can be reached at 202-344-4706 or at kofaley@venable.com. A VENABLE VICTORY Venable’s Legislative Group recently won a tremendous victory on behalf of its clients in the broadcast industry. On June 15 th , President Bush signed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 (P.L.109-235) into law. The bill, which increases the fines against radio and TV broadcasters who violate federal decency standards, was the culmination of a two and a half year legislative struggle in which the Legislative Group was V A L U E A D D E D , V A L U E S D R I V E N. M S
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