Mar 07 2011
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
This week’s summary takes a look at House Joint Resolution 44, the continuing resolution that funds the government through March 18th while Congress continues to negotiate the budget for FY2011. This budget fight is the hot topic in DC, seeing as it will undoubtedly affect every issue going forward.
Feb 23 2011
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
This week, we look at H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, and discuss how this proposal differs from the long-standing Hyde Amendment. Beyond the “forcible rape” controversy, which is expected to be resolved at the next opportunity to markup the bill, H.R. 3 represents the most aggressive attempt to expand upon the Hyde Amendment since it was first enacted in 1976. That is why we chose to summarize this bill as it compares to Hyde (if you need more info about the Hyde Amendment, you can find a link to learn more at the bottom of the page).
And this week’s episode comes with a bonus video! David Waldman, the Editor in Chief of Congress Matters and our own Public Affairs Director, speaks in depth about the dangerous precedent that hides in H.R. 3. You can find that video below.
Lastly, in order to properly thank our sponsor without digging into the precious 90 seconds we have to summarize complicated pieces of legislation and other policy proposals, we have added a little bumper time. But we guarantee that every bit of summary fits into 90 seconds, and we introduced a countdown clock to prove it.
What’s that you say? Get on with it? Sure thing…
More below the fold…
Jan 11 2011
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
We’re back with the Season 2 Premiere of 90 Second Summaries! This season will have double the suspense, double the hilarity, and it just might move you to tears… Okay, not really. Our 90 Second Summaries will be what they always were, a clean and simple set of legislative summaries designed to help folks on Main Street keep up.
To kick off the new season, we are going to roll out a couple summaries of the more interesting provisions of the new Adopting Rules Package of the 112th Congress (then we will take a couple weeks off to evaluate new legislation before us). This week, we are looking at the transparency provisions of the new rules. These provisions are important to understand, if only because it will require pressure to ensure that they are followed properly. Without further ado, we present Season 2, Episode 1:
Dec 21 2010
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
Last week, in part one of our two-part series on filibuster reform, we examined the Constitutional Option to allow majority approval of rules changes. This week, in the 15th and final episode of Season 1,we look at the most prominent package of rules changes discussed to date. Roughly a month ago, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) circulated a “dear colleague” memo outlining a series of changes that are being strongly considered within current Democratic Caucus deliberations.
Enjoy this first season’s finale. It’s been a fun season for us and we’ll be back in January with a whole slate of brand new bills and other policy proposals to summarize!
*Full disclosure: David Waldman, our Public Affairs Director, is an active advisor to the Fix the Senate Now coalition.
Dec 14 2010
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
We’re nearing the end of our first season and to finish it off we are providing a couple summaries relating to changing the filibuster. Today we look at what is called the “Constitutional Option,” which applies only to the first day of a new session of Congress. This is expected to come up at the beginning of the 112th session.
As always, one-pager below the fold…
Nov 22 2010
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
There are several reasons that we decided upon the Tester Amendment to the Food Safety Bill for episode 12 of 90 Second Summaries. First and foremost, the amendment is a significant one that is essential to understanding this piece of legislation (legislation we summarized in episode 7). Not only is it the most substantial difference between the Senate’s version of the bill and the House’s, but without it the future of the legislation itself would be unclear. Therefore, we think it is important that people understand how this amendment changes the bill.
Another significant influence in our decision was you. When we summarized the Food Safety Bill in episode 7 a number of viewers brought up the issue of protections for small farmers. It was clear to us that this amendment was worthy of a summary.
Oct 12 2010
For Episode 7, we look ahead to next month’s lame duck session and preview a bill likely to be examined in the Senate in the first week back. The “food safety bill” enjoys strong bipartisan support and is likely to receive over 90 Senate votes if it gets that far, but is being blocked from consideration by Sen. Coburn for budgetary reasons.
Its fate at this point will be determined almost entirely by the amount of floor time Democratic leaders are willing to spend on it. But in case you’d like to nudge them one way or the other and want to learn more beforehand, here’s the skinny on S. 510, The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
One-page summary below the fold…
Oct 04 2010
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
This week, we’ve decided to branch out a bit. In Episode 6, we are looking at a report by the Sustainable Defense Task Force, convened earlier this year at the request of several Congresspeople led by Barney Frank and Ron Paul. The commission, whose members range across the ideological spectrum, have examined the defense budget in depth and issued recommendations for savings.
We decided this report would make for a good summary because it:
is directly relevant to a politically charged topic,
is directly associated with certain members of Congress in a way that resembles the sponsors of a bill, and
contains concrete policy prescriptions.
Expect to see more outside reports of a similar nature in the future. In the meantime, here’s Episode 6: Debt, Deficits and Defense!
Sep 27 2010
Cross-posted from Main Street Insider
Check back on Wednesday for our first Sponsor Special with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT3). One-page summary below the fold…
Sep 20 2010
Sep 15 2010
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
Episode 2, that’s right, the big wigs decided not to cancel us after the Pilot!
H.R. 2378 is being discussed in the Ways & Means Committee today and tomorrow. Our Executive Director, Jeremy Koulish has been livetweeting the hearing.
Sep 14 2010
A while back, a couple of us here at Sum of Change got involved in meetings with a great group of folks about working together to provide insider reporting of Capitol Hill with an outsider perspective. In time, we became Main Street Insider. Today, Main Street Insider released a new show, 90 Second Summaries.
The purpose of 90 Second Summaries is simple, provide citizens on Main Street with a quick synopsis of what a bill is all about. The first three episodes come out today, tomorrow and Thursday, with new ones every following Monday. Each video comes with a one-page summary (which you can view online or download as a pdf) containing everything you will need to learn even more about any piece of legislation.
Without further ado, presenting Season 1, Episode 1: H.R. 4790, Shareholder Protection Act
The following is cross-posted from Main Street Insider: