Law professor and former Tenth Circuit judge Michael McConnell puts the issue succinctly on Speaker Pelosi’s proposed “deem and pass” scheme. I don’t have a WSJ subscription, but fortunately, Michael Cannon does, and he has excerpted the pertinent analysis:
Under Article I, Section 7, passage of one bill cannot be deemed to be enactment of another.
The Slaughter solution attempts to allow the House to pass the Senate bill, plus a bill amending it, with a single vote. The senators would then vote only on the amendatory bill. But this means that no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form. As the Supreme Court wrote in Clinton v. City of New York (1998), a bill containing the “exact text” must be approved by one house; the other house must approve “precisely the same text.”
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Congress, Deem And Pass, Democrats, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Administration, Politics, Republicans, Self-Executing Rule, Senate
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Yeah, imagine having this guy as the chairman of the tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives:
Rep. Sander Levin will take over as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after Rep. Pete Stark, who held the gavel for a day, stepped aside.
The dominoes fell after Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) resigned the chairmanship of the powerful tax-writing panel Wednesday as Republicans and many Democrats were moving to oust him following an ethics committee ruling that found he violated House gift rules.
Levin, who had been chairman of the trade subcommittee, will helm the panel through the end of this Congress — barring the unlikely return of Rangel.
Officially, Stark stepped aside to keep the gavel of the panel’s health subcommittee. But lawmakers and aides said Stark faced a rebellion within the committee and the caucus over his sometimes bizarre behavior and penchant for making offensive comments.
None other than Pete Stark, whose reputation precedes him:
Stark was involved in a recent confrontation with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a quasi-independent body Democrats created in 2008 to help burnish the ethics committee’s reputation.
The OCE initiated in investigation into Stark and several other members after press reports began scrutinizing the lawmakers’ claim of homestead tax deductions for residences they own in the D.C. area.
Stark faced scrutiny for claiming a $3,770 tax break in Maryland because he was registered to vote in Fremont, Calif., and rented a house there.
Throughout his interview with investigators, the OCE report said Stark was “extremely belligerent and frequently insulted OCE staff members interviewing him.”
November 17, 2009 – 7:09 pm
Why do people consider the House health care reform bill to be a good piece of legislation?
November 15, 2009 – 1:16 pm
I am in favor of means-testing for programs like Social Security and Medicare; which would constitute one of the better policy responses to the out-of-control entitlement spending we are seeing take place. Something has to be done to control spending for entitlement programs, and means-testing is one of the most effective somethings there is out there.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Economic Ignorance, Economics, economy, Greg Mankiw, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Medicare, Obama Administration, Throwing Seniors Under The Bus
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November 11, 2009 – 1:22 am
The media feeds the narrative that one side of the abortion debate is “divisive” and that being a pro-lifer is synonymous with being a right-wing woman-hating extremist. The idea that there might be broader bipartisan support for the pro-life movement seems never to have occurred to them.
November 9, 2009 – 9:06 pm
Apparently, open government was only worth agitating about when Republicans ran the House of Representatives.
November 6, 2009 – 5:44 pm
It is no commitment at all:
August 28, 2009 – 3:47 pm
Why is Charlie Rangel allowed to keep his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee–which, in the event you didn’t know it, plays a decisive role in crafting health care legislation–when his continued presence on the committee makes a mockery of Nancy Pelosi’s claim to keep things on the up and up in Congress?
August 21, 2009 – 12:39 pm
And with Congress’s disapproval ratings hovering at about 70% among independents, it’s probably time for the Democratic leadership to get worried.
Because Blue Dog Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have joined up with Republicans in order to object to the House’s version of health care reform, committee Chairman Henry Waxman is now threatening to bypass his own committee, and bring a bill directly to the floor of the House for a vote. Otherwise, Waxman warns, Republicans on the committee may be “empower[ed].”
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Blue Dog Democrats, Congress, Democrats, Economic Ignorance, economy, health care, Health Care Policy, Health Care Reform, Henry Waxman, Higher Taxes, House Energy And Commerce Committee, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Administration, tax policy, taxes
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