9/11 Christmas Widow Wants Congress to Finish Zadroga (Updated)

Congress Poised To Expedite 9/11 Responders Bill Over GOP Objections
After months of GOP obstruction, a bill to help 9/11 First Responders cover their mounting Health Care costs is expected to zip through Congress. In addition to being a feather in the cap of New York and New Jersey Democrats -- who have been pushing the bill for months -- it will likely enjoy the distinction of being the last legislative item to pass the unusually productive 111th Congress lame duck session. Republicans have blocked the bill in both the House and Senate over objections to its ...

Firefighters urge Coburn to drop opposition to 9/11 bill
Oklahoma City Firefighters are pressuring their senator to drop his opposition to a bill that would provide health benefits and compensation to Ground Zero First Responders. The Firefighters association, recalling its own tragic day in 1995 when an Oklahoma City federal building was bombed, urged its senators to support a bill that provides $6.2 billion to workers who got sick at the Ground Zero site in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks. With both chambers hoping to wrap up the...

The Yin, Yang of the 111th Congress
The door soon will close on what is turning out to be one of the more enigmatic chapters of American government. During the past two years, Congress has been its most productive in decades, yet ultimately is reviled by the American public. Regardless of how much longer Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decide to hold open the current lame-duck session, they cannot alter the march of time. January will come, and the 111th Congress will be history...

Today in Congress
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010 House Meets At: 11:00 a.m.: Legislative Business First Vote Predicted: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Last Vote Predicted: Evening ***Members are advised that further information about the schedule will be announced as it becomes available "One Minutes" Possible Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 847 - James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (Rep. Maloney - Energy and Com...

Has Tom Coburn (R-OK) Lost His Mind?
I guess in single-party states like Cuba, Syria, Laos, Turkmenistan, Liberia, Vietnam and Oklahoma, there's no sense among the political class that there's any real accountability from voters. The Democrats actually did have someone run against Tom Coburn last month, though you probably never heard of him. Jim Rogers, who also ran for president (of the United States) in 2008, managed to snag 265,519 votes (26%) against Coburn, just about half the number of votes that Andrew Rice got in 2008 wh...

Senate aims to end debate on 9/11 benefits bill
Senate Democrats have scheduled a key vote Wednesday on Legislation helping Rescue Workers who responded to the 9/11 attacks. Senate Democrats have scheduled a key vote Wednesday on Legislation helping Rescue Workers who responded to the 9/11 attacks. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that the Senate will hold a Cloture vote at around noon to see if the bill providing healthcare benefits to 9/11 First Responders can get the 60 votes needed to break a Filibuster. If the Senate votes to end d...

Last Chance for 9-11 Health Bill
After new START gets ratification today, we’re going to apparently get the first test vote on the 9-11 Health Care bill. With Tom Coburn committed to blocking or at least delaying the bill, there’s no chance of unanimous consent, but the leadership of both parties is working out some kind of agreement to consider it. The House is prepared to pass the measure as well, but they’re waiting to see what the Senate will do. Basically, nobody wants to come back the week after Chris...

Lame ducks, RINOs, and 'tolerance'
The Lame Ducks are doing as much damage as possible in their final hours. But they couldn't do it without help from Republicans, who have been complicit in the Repeal of DADT, in the sudden caving on the Food Safety bill, and in the ratification of the START Treaty. Nice Deb has video of a Press Conference given by GOP senators who are opposed to ramming this weak treaty through the Senate, 111th-style: Missing are Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, Scott Brown, and Judd Gregg, who, for some inexpl...

Obstruction-obsessed McConnell to Democrats: If you think its bad now, wait till next year
The 111th Congress witnessed a record amount of Republican obstruction. Wielding an unprecedented number of Filibusters, the GOP waged war against the Democratic agenda to defeat Obama, apparently viewing unemployed workers, judicial nominees, service members, and even 9/11 Rescue Workers as Collateral Damage. Think Progress has the story of the Senate Majority Leader’s plans to amp up GOP obstructionism in the next Congress. As Congress entered the lame-duck session, Senate Republicans ...

Obama Signs Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Into Law
Amid applause, cries of thanks and chants of "Yes we can!," President Obama on Wednesday repealed the U.S. Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which had banned gay service members from serving openly in the armed services. Proclaiming that the policy "will strengthen our National Security," the president vowed that "no longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie. Or look over their shoulders in order to serve the country they love." Paraphrasing Joint Chi...

Saving 'Don't Ask' Repeal Took Wily Band Of Lawmakers
What is this? As President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Joe Lieberman (obscured behind Collins) stand at the edge of the stage. As President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Joe Lieberman (obscured behind Collins) stand at the edge of the stage. At the signing of the Legislation repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" law, the 17-year-old ban on gays ope...

Ground Zero Workers Visit Coburns Office To Beg Him To Lift Hold On 9/11 First Responders Bill
Though GOP obstructionism in the Lame Duck session has failed to stop many important bills, including the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the likely the ratification of the START Treaty, one piece of Legislation Senate Republicans have successfully hindered thus far is a bill to provide health benefits to 9/11 First Responders. Though few GOPers have been willing to publicly discuss their opposition — indeed, not a single Republican came to the Senate floor to defend thei...

An Unpaid Debt
Anyone who was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers how the ash, paper and dust of the collapsing towers blew across Lower Manhattan. For days afterward, there was that peculiar smell — of burned paper and chemicals and death. That was the air that filled the lungs of tens of thousands of Firefighters, police officers, nurses, Paramedics, Soldiers and civilian volunteers who toiled for months to uncover the dead. More than nine years later, many of those First Responders are dead...

Tom Coburn looks to block passage of health-care benefits for 9/11 First Responders
By Michael J.W. Stickings Full credit, or almost full credit, to Jon Stewart for raising awareness of the urgent health-care needs of 9/11 First Responders at a time when most in the media, and so many in Washington, couldn't be bothered, and for advocating swift passage of the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. As Slate's Chris Beam notes, examining Stewart's undesired role as partisan Political Activist, "[t]he bill wasn't as far from passage as it seemed -- Stewart just shined a ligh...

The Senate Majority Grinch, Stealing Christmas Again...
Just like last year, the Nevada gangster, "Dingy" Harry Reid, is using the Christmas break to pressure the Senate to ram through the Democrat's Socialist Agenda....while they still have as much power as they can (Politico). There’s still no clear endgame in sight as Democrats struggle to close out the lame-duck session of Congress in time for Christmas. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is in limbo, the continuing resolution funding the government is still lingering, a Sept. 11 first re...

Neglected by press, Senate Dems use YouTube to batter GOP over 9/11 health bill
All but one of the 42 Republican senators stood together last week to wage a successful Filibuster against the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010. The bill would provide $7 billion in benefits to workers that responded to the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those workers are now experiencing Health Problems such as Cancer, Heart Disease and respiratory disease. The video begins by recalling that then-President George W. Bush stood at Ground Zero after the attacks...

Time runs out on wilderness bill
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoning hopes of passing an omnibus public lands bill during the Lame Duck session, it appears that securing the permanent wilderness designation for hundreds of thousands of acres in Doña Ana County is going to have to wait. Some think wilderness supporters have missed what may be their best chance for a long time of winning the Federal Government’s highest level of protection for the land. Reid confirmed Tuesday that plans for an omnibus pub...

Pelosi says House won't "re-originate" 9-11 bill
The problem facing the House on the 9-11 bill is time. If the Senate has to invoke Cloture on 9-11 health, that could take days taking us past the Christmas holiday. So House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is trying to get the 9-11 health bill on the floor tomorrow and pray that the Senate can get him a bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells Fox the House wouldn't "re-orginate" the bill. In other words, re-start the process by passing the same bill the Senate hopes to approve and then wash their hands of...

Obama signs 'Don't ask' repeal in big victory for LGBT voters
President Obama signed Legislation on Wednesday to do away with the Military's ban on Openly Gay and Lesbian members, following through on a key campaign promise to the LGBT community.  Obama hailed the new law he approved to do away with the Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, the 1993 standard set by President Clinton on Gays in the Military. "This morning I am proud to sign a law that will bring an end to 'Don't ask, don't tell,'" Obama said at a signing ceremony marking the end of...

Democrats take victory lap, claiming a 'do-something Congress'
Democrats celebrated on Wednesday what they said was the "do-something Congress" that has been in session since the election. On what appears to be the last day of the lame-duck Congress, Democrats said the session was anything but lame, pointing to the litany of legislative accomplishments in the seven weeks since the election. "The bottom line is that this lame-duck, as it's called, was not lame at all," outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday. "It actually took f...

Don't Ask Don't Repeal Signed
So it is done.President Obama this morning signed into law the bill repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. "I am just overwhelmed," Obama said as he took the stage among chants of "Yes we can!" and whoops from the audience. "This is a very good day." "No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who were forced to leave the Military, regardless of their skills, no matter their Bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance, because they h...

Bipartisaney
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at fellow Republicans Tuesday for a "capitulation ... of dramatic proportions" to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress. Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for allowing ratification of the New START Treaty and other Legislation in the period before new lawmakers are sworn in in January. "When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch," Graham said on Fox News r...

The lefts anti-filibuster astroturf campaign
Sometimes in Washington, D.C., the irony is laughable. A new coalition formed to fight the Filibuster and eliminate secret holds in the Senate is hiding behind the veil of secrecy. I’m not making this up. A coalition of mostly anonymous liberal interest groups recently announced the formation of Fix the Senate Now -- an umbrella organization with an eight-point platform for revolutionizing the world's greatest deliberative body. The coalition consists of more than a dozen liberal groups, y...

The Haunting Specter
By Carl I need to digest some of what he said yesterday, but Arlen Specter left a flaming bag of poop on the Senate doorstep: Partisanship, a quest for ideological purity, and the "abuse" of procedural rules have bled collegiality from the U.S. Senate and mired "the world's greatest deliberative body" in gridlock, Specter said. This was not...

Obama Signs DADT Repeal Into Law
President Obama this morning signed into law the bill repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. "I am just overwhelmed," Obama said as he took the stage among chants of "Yes we can!" and whoops from the audience. "This is a very good day." "No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who were forced to leave the Military, regardless of their skills, no matter their Bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be ...