Macaca
05-05 07:15 AM
Democrats' Momentum Is Stalling (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050402262.html) Amid Iraq Debate, Priorities On Domestic Agenda Languish By Jonathan Weisman and Lyndsey Layton (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/jonathan+weisman+and+lyndsey+layton/) Washington Post Staff Writers, Saturday, May 5, 2007
In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol: Homeland security upgrades, a higher minimum wage and student loan interest rate cuts all passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.
"We cannot be a one-trick pony," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who helped engineer his party's takeover of Congress as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "People voted for change, but Iraq, the economy and Washington, D.C., [corruption] all tied for first place. We need to do them all."
The "Six for '06" policy agenda on which Democrats campaigned last year was supposed to consist of low-hanging fruit, plucked and put in the basket to allow Congress to move on to tougher targets. House Democrats took just 10 days to pass a minimum-wage increase, a bill to implement most of the homeland security recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, a measure allowing federal funding for stem cell research, another to cut student-loan rates, a bill allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, and a rollback of tax breaks for oil and gas companies to finance alternative-energy research.
The Senate struck out on its own, with a broad overhaul of the rules on lobbying Congress.
Not one of those bills has been signed into law. President Bush signed 16 measures into law through April, six more than were signed by this time in the previous Congress. But beyond a huge domestic spending bill that wrapped up work left undone by Republicans last year, the list of achievements is modest: a beefed-up board to oversee congressional pages in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal, and the renaming of six post offices, including one for Gerald R. Ford in Vail, Colo., as well as two courthouses, including one for Rush Limbaugh Sr. in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
The minimum-wage bill got stalled in a fight with the Senate over tax breaks to go along with the wage increase. In frustration, Democratic leaders inserted a minimum-wage agreement into a bill to fund the Iraq war, only to see it vetoed.
Similar homeland security bills were passed by the House and the Senate, only to languish as attention shifted to the Iraq debate. Last week, family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, gathered in Washington to demand action.
"We've waited five and a half years since 9/11," said Carie Lemack, whose mother died aboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. "We waited three years since the 9/11 commission. We can't wait anymore."
House and Senate staff members have begun meeting, with the goal of reporting out a final bill by Memorial Day, but they concede that the deadline is likely to slip, in part because members of the homeland security committees of both chambers, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the two intelligence committees all want their say. The irony, Lemack said, is that such cumbersomeness is precisely why the Sept. 11 commission recommended the creation of powerful umbrella security committees with such broad jurisdiction that other panels could not muscle their way in. That was one recommendation Congress largely disregarded.
The Medicare drug-negotiations bill died in the Senate, after Republicans refused to let it come up for debate. House Democrats are threatening to attach the bill to must-pass government funding bills.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has proposed his own student-loan legislation, but it is to be part of a huge higher-education bill that may not reach the committee until June.
The House's relatively simple energy bill faces a similar fate. The Senate has in mind a much larger bill that would ease bringing alternative fuels to market, regulate oil and gas futures trading, raise vehicle and appliance efficiency standards, and reform federal royalty payments to finance new energy technologies.
The voters seem to have noticed the stall. An ABC News-Washington Post poll last month found that 73 percent of Americans believe Congress has done "not too much" or "nothing at all." A memo from the Democratic polling firm Democracy Corps warned last month that the stalemate between Congress and Bush over the war spending bill has knocked down the favorable ratings of Congress and the Democrats by three percentage points and has taken a greater toll on the public's hope for a productive Congress.
"The primary message coming out of the November election was that the American people are sick and tired of the fighting and the gridlock, and they want both the president and Congress to start governing the country," warned Leon E. Panetta, a chief of staff in Bill Clinton's White House. "It just seems to me the Democrats, if they fail for whatever reason to get a domestic agenda enacted . . . will pay a price."
Republicans are already trying to extract that price. Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said Democrats are just "trying to score political points on the war. . . . Part of their party can't conceive of anything else to talk about but the war."
Norman J. Ornstein, a Congress watcher at the American Enterprise Institute, said a Congress's productivity is not measured solely on the number of bills signed into law. Bills and resolutions approved by either chamber totaled 165 during the first four months of this Congress, compared with 72 in 2005. And Congress recorded 415 roll-call votes, compared with 264 when Republicans were in charge and the House GOP leaders struggled to impose their agenda on a closely divided Senate.
Democratic leaders remain hopeful that a burst of activity will put the doubts about them to rest. They have promised to pass a war funding bill and a minimum-wage increase that Bush can sign, to complete a budget blueprint and to finish the homeland security bill by Memorial Day. The House wants to pass defense and intelligence bills, its own lobbying measure and the first gun-control legislation since 1994, which would tighten the national instant-check system for gun purchases. The Senate hopes to complete a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee, said his party needs to get some achievements under its belt, but not until voters begin to focus on the campaigns next year. "People understand the Democrats in Congress are doing everything in their power to move an agenda forward, doing everything possible to change direction in the war in Iraq, and the president is standing in the way," he said.
Kyl was not so sanguine. If accomplishments are not in the books by this fall, he said, the Democrats will find their achievements eclipsed by the 2008 presidential race. Panetta agreed.
"This leadership, these Democrats have shown that they can fight," he said. "Now they have to show they can govern."
In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol: Homeland security upgrades, a higher minimum wage and student loan interest rate cuts all passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.
"We cannot be a one-trick pony," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who helped engineer his party's takeover of Congress as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "People voted for change, but Iraq, the economy and Washington, D.C., [corruption] all tied for first place. We need to do them all."
The "Six for '06" policy agenda on which Democrats campaigned last year was supposed to consist of low-hanging fruit, plucked and put in the basket to allow Congress to move on to tougher targets. House Democrats took just 10 days to pass a minimum-wage increase, a bill to implement most of the homeland security recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, a measure allowing federal funding for stem cell research, another to cut student-loan rates, a bill allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, and a rollback of tax breaks for oil and gas companies to finance alternative-energy research.
The Senate struck out on its own, with a broad overhaul of the rules on lobbying Congress.
Not one of those bills has been signed into law. President Bush signed 16 measures into law through April, six more than were signed by this time in the previous Congress. But beyond a huge domestic spending bill that wrapped up work left undone by Republicans last year, the list of achievements is modest: a beefed-up board to oversee congressional pages in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal, and the renaming of six post offices, including one for Gerald R. Ford in Vail, Colo., as well as two courthouses, including one for Rush Limbaugh Sr. in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
The minimum-wage bill got stalled in a fight with the Senate over tax breaks to go along with the wage increase. In frustration, Democratic leaders inserted a minimum-wage agreement into a bill to fund the Iraq war, only to see it vetoed.
Similar homeland security bills were passed by the House and the Senate, only to languish as attention shifted to the Iraq debate. Last week, family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, gathered in Washington to demand action.
"We've waited five and a half years since 9/11," said Carie Lemack, whose mother died aboard one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. "We waited three years since the 9/11 commission. We can't wait anymore."
House and Senate staff members have begun meeting, with the goal of reporting out a final bill by Memorial Day, but they concede that the deadline is likely to slip, in part because members of the homeland security committees of both chambers, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the two intelligence committees all want their say. The irony, Lemack said, is that such cumbersomeness is precisely why the Sept. 11 commission recommended the creation of powerful umbrella security committees with such broad jurisdiction that other panels could not muscle their way in. That was one recommendation Congress largely disregarded.
The Medicare drug-negotiations bill died in the Senate, after Republicans refused to let it come up for debate. House Democrats are threatening to attach the bill to must-pass government funding bills.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has proposed his own student-loan legislation, but it is to be part of a huge higher-education bill that may not reach the committee until June.
The House's relatively simple energy bill faces a similar fate. The Senate has in mind a much larger bill that would ease bringing alternative fuels to market, regulate oil and gas futures trading, raise vehicle and appliance efficiency standards, and reform federal royalty payments to finance new energy technologies.
The voters seem to have noticed the stall. An ABC News-Washington Post poll last month found that 73 percent of Americans believe Congress has done "not too much" or "nothing at all." A memo from the Democratic polling firm Democracy Corps warned last month that the stalemate between Congress and Bush over the war spending bill has knocked down the favorable ratings of Congress and the Democrats by three percentage points and has taken a greater toll on the public's hope for a productive Congress.
"The primary message coming out of the November election was that the American people are sick and tired of the fighting and the gridlock, and they want both the president and Congress to start governing the country," warned Leon E. Panetta, a chief of staff in Bill Clinton's White House. "It just seems to me the Democrats, if they fail for whatever reason to get a domestic agenda enacted . . . will pay a price."
Republicans are already trying to extract that price. Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said Democrats are just "trying to score political points on the war. . . . Part of their party can't conceive of anything else to talk about but the war."
Norman J. Ornstein, a Congress watcher at the American Enterprise Institute, said a Congress's productivity is not measured solely on the number of bills signed into law. Bills and resolutions approved by either chamber totaled 165 during the first four months of this Congress, compared with 72 in 2005. And Congress recorded 415 roll-call votes, compared with 264 when Republicans were in charge and the House GOP leaders struggled to impose their agenda on a closely divided Senate.
Democratic leaders remain hopeful that a burst of activity will put the doubts about them to rest. They have promised to pass a war funding bill and a minimum-wage increase that Bush can sign, to complete a budget blueprint and to finish the homeland security bill by Memorial Day. The House wants to pass defense and intelligence bills, its own lobbying measure and the first gun-control legislation since 1994, which would tighten the national instant-check system for gun purchases. The Senate hopes to complete a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee, said his party needs to get some achievements under its belt, but not until voters begin to focus on the campaigns next year. "People understand the Democrats in Congress are doing everything in their power to move an agenda forward, doing everything possible to change direction in the war in Iraq, and the president is standing in the way," he said.
Kyl was not so sanguine. If accomplishments are not in the books by this fall, he said, the Democrats will find their achievements eclipsed by the 2008 presidential race. Panetta agreed.
"This leadership, these Democrats have shown that they can fight," he said. "Now they have to show they can govern."
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nmdial
06-22 12:51 PM
Dear All:
I am trying to add my wife (H-4 dependent) to my bank account. The bank (a credit union in PA) has asked me to fill in and submit a W-8BEN among other documents. Please shed some light on this. Your help is much appreciated.
I am trying to add my wife (H-4 dependent) to my bank account. The bank (a credit union in PA) has asked me to fill in and submit a W-8BEN among other documents. Please shed some light on this. Your help is much appreciated.
vdlrao
11-06 10:44 PM
You can initiate the process for both of you individually. Means u can apply Labor, I-140 individually. After that while applying I-485 its advaisable to move with the lawyer suggestion. So till I-140 you both can apply individually.
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camphor
07-03 02:48 PM
My 485 application for EB2 was filed with USCIS on Sunday, July 1st 2007. My lawfirm is not sure if it will be accepted by USCIS since the filing was done in the weekend. Any comments? There could be lot of us in a similar situation. For those who are in the same boat, I would appreciate any updates you have received from your lawyer.
Thanks,
Thanks,
more...
Steve Mitchell
February 24th, 2005, 05:00 PM
Here's a link to a review of the new Nikon D2X by Bjorn Rorslett. Click here (http://www.naturfotograf.com/D2X_rev00.html#top_page).
smarth
09-22 09:57 AM
application sent on 08/09 to Nebraska
more...
kumar1305
01-22 07:20 PM
Lets see what these fanatics have to say regarding fanatics
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gsrao18
12-06 02:04 PM
Hello ... Please, answers my question
My 6years of H1 expires on Apr'2011. Company A filed for perm, perm went to Audit, Got 7th year extension which expires Apr'2012
Later, moved to Company B, got Change of Employer approved until Apr'2012.
Now I am going to India and need to get stamping. Will I have any issues in getting the visa stamping for 7th year? Please advice.
Both Company A and B are very big companies and I am direct employee not a contractor.
I have the CompanyA's perm screenshot and email, but don't know what its status, as i left the company and I am not in touch with them
Thanks in advance
My 6years of H1 expires on Apr'2011. Company A filed for perm, perm went to Audit, Got 7th year extension which expires Apr'2012
Later, moved to Company B, got Change of Employer approved until Apr'2012.
Now I am going to India and need to get stamping. Will I have any issues in getting the visa stamping for 7th year? Please advice.
Both Company A and B are very big companies and I am direct employee not a contractor.
I have the CompanyA's perm screenshot and email, but don't know what its status, as i left the company and I am not in touch with them
Thanks in advance
more...
gc_buddy
03-26 07:22 PM
Hi All,
Can any one give me what is the usual time frame given to respond to an RFE for I 140. I have seen in various threads that it is usually 12 weeks.
On Feb 22nd, I got an RFE on my 140 and the letter reached attorney's office on Mar 6th. On the RFE letter, USCIS has asked to repsond by April 7th. That is hardly 6 weeks and 4 weeks from the data I recd the letter. Is this usual?
Can any one give me what is the usual time frame given to respond to an RFE for I 140. I have seen in various threads that it is usually 12 weeks.
On Feb 22nd, I got an RFE on my 140 and the letter reached attorney's office on Mar 6th. On the RFE letter, USCIS has asked to repsond by April 7th. That is hardly 6 weeks and 4 weeks from the data I recd the letter. Is this usual?
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PIXELTRON
03-28 02:24 PM
The promised version.
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imh1b
04-13 01:19 PM
Is there a way to find if spillover is happening this year?
How much do you think it will be this year?
How much do you think it will be this year?
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sargon
10-19 09:16 PM
^^^^
Please see the linked thread.
Please see the linked thread.
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whattodo21
04-26 03:02 PM
My friend opted for consular processing and he is now thinking it was a bad idea. He is in EB2, and his PD is sometime in 06 (not sure of the month)
Can he file for an AOS now?
Thanks for your inputs
Can he file for an AOS now?
Thanks for your inputs
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Rudy2098
08-08 06:38 PM
I got my visa B-1, B-2 on march 2000 since them i stay here but before i was here ilegal ( not visa) but i had two children 1990 and 1994 here and both are american. I got married now and my husband is going to the document !-130 ,1-485 ectt...
THIS IS MY QUESTION I COME LEGALY BUT WITH MY CHILDREN the will know that was ilegal from 1990 to 1990. what will happen to my . any case similar case:(:( like my. please PLEASE HELP ME .
THIS IS MY QUESTION I COME LEGALY BUT WITH MY CHILDREN the will know that was ilegal from 1990 to 1990. what will happen to my . any case similar case:(:( like my. please PLEASE HELP ME .
more...
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dkshitij
06-07 12:32 PM
my first PWD was submitted on feb 8 and it came back apr 8. the wage was too high. so a new pwd was submitted on apr 16. it came back today with a proper wage.
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kanchiru
11-09 06:43 PM
Hi All,
I have applied I-485,I-765 and I-131(AP) for my wife as derivative when my priority date(March 26th 2006) became current on September 1st.
We recieved the Reciept notices for I-485,I-765 and I-131(AP) for my wife on September 30th.
My I-485 got approved on 11/05 .We didnot recieve FingerPrint notice still.
I would like to know how much time it generally takes for derivative I-485 approval .
-kanchiru
I have applied I-485,I-765 and I-131(AP) for my wife as derivative when my priority date(March 26th 2006) became current on September 1st.
We recieved the Reciept notices for I-485,I-765 and I-131(AP) for my wife on September 30th.
My I-485 got approved on 11/05 .We didnot recieve FingerPrint notice still.
I would like to know how much time it generally takes for derivative I-485 approval .
-kanchiru
more...
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kirupa
07-14 04:13 AM
Added! :)
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martinvisalaw
07-14 11:31 AM
This shouldn't be a problem provided that she has the AP when she is leaving. AOS applicants don't need to be in the US while the AOS is pending, except to go to fingerprint appointments, interviews, etc. They must be in the US when the AOS is filed, and need to be careful to always have AP before leaving, but a 3-month gap should not be a problem.
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sheela
01-01 08:39 AM
Wishing you all a Very-Very Happy & Prosperous New Year.
glus
11-02 09:27 AM
I130 petition shows an "immigrant intent" so that could come up as a ground of not allowing a person into the U.S. on a purely non-immigrant visa. I would suggest to speak to an attorney.
paragpujara
10-18 09:35 AM
It could be for photographs / copies of personal pages of the passport / missing signature / Photo Id.
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