In the News
Below is an update from the State Department:
The State Department is cooperating with the Philippines Typhoon Disaster Relief Fund established by The mGive Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit organization, to coordinate donations via mobile phones to benefit victims of the typhoon.
CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – FOREIGN POLICY
Sept. 20, 2012; Updated 6:06 p.m.
By John M. Donnelly and Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
House appropriators raged Thursday about the continuing flow from Pakistan into Afghanistan of fertilizer that forms the main ingredient in the roadside bombs that are killing about half the troops who die in the war zone.
"The Administration should have stopped with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement which at least defended U.S. constitutional freedoms and reinforced that those freedoms are never an excuse for violence.
"Through this Administrative action, President Obama is once again bypassing Congress. President Obama had previously stated that he could not unilaterally enact the DREAM Act through Administrative action and yet just eight months after making those statements, Obama has done exactly that.
Today Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) introduced the Reducing Environmental Barriers to Unified Infrastructure and Land Development (REBUILD) Act of 2011. The legislation builds upon the success of the NEPA Pilot Program, enacted as part of SAFETEA-LU bill, which was signed into law in August 2005.
"The passage of the military construction and veterans funding bill marks a return to regular order and an open process in which every Member can represent their constituents' interests," said Rep. Calvert. "Most importantly, the bill provides the necessary resources for our military and veterans communities."
After the current continuing budget resolution expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday, all "nonessential" government employees will be sent home until Congress passes and the president signs a budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. The problem is, no one knows exactly who is considered "essential." A senior administration official said about 800,000 federal employees would be prevented from working in the event of a shutdown. These furloughed workers would not be paid during the shutdown, zapping $1.1 billion out of the economy in unpaid wages for a week-long shutdown.
The head of the Interior Department defended Obama's fiscal 2012 budget request for the agency during a hearing before the House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.