Congressional Dish

Low-lights of the Ryan budget are described after we run down the bills passed by the House this week. We also look into an eighteen-year emergency continued this week by President Obama.

We take a close look at the Violence Against Women Act re-authorization as the President signs it into law. We also look at the continuing resolution passed by the House, which funds defense while leaving the rest of the government in chaos.

No one really tried to avert the sequester, the House of Representatives travels in style, and something good actually happened this week in Congress.

House Republicans tried hard during their week off to label the huge March 1 cuts as "the President's sequester", but was President Obama really the cause? We go back to August 1, 2011, the day sequester was born, to see who was celebrating the cuts and how they passed the House.

Hydropower and veterans get some love from the House this week, while churches get taxpayer money and Federal workers get screwed… again.

The House passes a surveillance bill masked as pediatric research and then wastes our time. Also, highlights from the leaked legal justification for the Obama Administration's "lawful" drone bombing of American citizens.

A quick fact check followed by an introduction to ALEC, the association of lawmakers and corporations working together to write bills.

Lobbyist Jo Ann Emerson quits Congress early, the House votes to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and probably-not postpone their own paychecks, and the Brineys drunkenly ramble on a Friday night.

Before the House (finally) agreed to give recovery money to Hurricane Sandy victims, they made new rules for the 113th Congress, including more private jets for themselves and less rights for gays. Then, despite Republican efforts to short them, the House finally voted to give Hurricane Sandy victims the $60 billion they asked for... Well, sort of.

The back story on the "fiscal cliff" debacle, the House's sad excuse for a compromise, and the contents of the fiscal cliff bill that became law on 1/3/13.

Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013; highlights include lots of money for other countries, a continuation of indefinite detention, Christmas gifts given to Northrup Grumman and other campaign contributors, and rules will finally apply to defense contracting. All that and more in this summary of 2013's NDAA…

Doing nothing, literally, is planned until 12/28 and a special guest helps filter fact from fiction in regards to solar power.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson quits Congress to become a lobbying titan, the Coast Guard is funded, Louie Gohmert votes for 'lunatic', GOP confuses net neutrality, and a crisis is engineered during a short week in Congress.

During another slow week in Congress, Jesse Jackson Jr. resigns, Nydia Velazquez (NY) ignores a subpoena, the Department of Homeland Security gets investigated, the Senate fights about filibusters, and the Trans-Pacific-Partnership is confirmed as real, secret, and scary.

During a slow week in the House of Representatives, inhalers are given relief, airlines are forced to ignore a European carbon law, and trade with Russia is "normalized."