By Alexa Gitler
Talk Radio News Service
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) showed strong opposition towards the Pentagon’s current and future budget proposal during a briefing Friday with the Sustainable Defense Task Force.
“Nobody here is for cutting back on America’s national security, what we object to is the equation of the current and projected Pentagon budget with national security,” Frank said.
Frank, along with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representatives Walter Jones (R-NC) and Ron Paul (R-TX), proposed a plan that would match America’s military spending to the country’s genuine military needs. This plan also includes being supportive of friendly nations that genuinely face external threats, while simultaneously reducing their overall dependency on American relief.
“It is our intention to circulate a letter to our colleagues pledging that we would not vote for any deficit reduction package that does not include substantial reductions in the planned level of military expenditures going forward,” Frank said.
In addition, Frank announced that they have reached out to groups of experts from across the political spectrum to provide suggestions on how to achieve cost reduction while still meeting America’s legitimate security needs.
“I do not believe after this [proposed plan] is circulated that people will be able to dismiss the argument that you can responsibly, and at no cost to America’s genuine security, make reductions of over a trillion dollars for what has been proposed for the military budget,” he said.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested Thursday morning that the federal government should share responsibility for the oil spill off the Gulf Coast.
“I think the people responsible in the oil spill, BP and the federal government, should take full responsibility for [the oil spill],” Boehner said during a press briefing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office claimed that Boehner’s remarks signaled his support for using public funds BP to help pay for the damage caused by the environmental disaster.
“House Republican Leader John Boehner … declared that American taxpayers should bailout the Big Oil giant,” a press release from the Speaker’s office stated. “House Democrats are siding with American taxpayers. BP should be held accountable.”
Boehner’s staff told several media outlets that the comments were only meant to reflect that the government should be responsible for oversight, and not the costs accrued by the clean up.
During the briefing Boehner also criticized the amount hearings being held on Capitol Hill to investigate the spill.
“Well, this is congress at it’s best,” Boehner joked, eliciting laughter from the journalists in attendance. “Why the hell don’t we get the oil stopped … figure out what the hell went wrong, and then have the hearing and get the damn law fixed?”

The Washington Bureau will be covering:
Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on “The U.S. China Economic Relationship: A New Approach for A New China.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.; former EPA Administrator Russell Train; Margie Alt, director of the Environment America; and Jonathan Murray, director of advocacy for the Truman National Security Project will hold a news conference to call on the Senate to reject Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) Environmental Protection Agency disapproval resolution.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, will hold his weekly briefing.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., will hold a news conference to introduce the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010,” which will modernize the government’s ability to safeguard the nation’s cyber networks from attack and bring government and industry together to set national cyber security priorities and improve national cyber security defenses.
The Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents will hold a briefing to introduce a new bipartisan Congressional initiative to encourage the pro-democracy movement in Iran.
The Free Gaza Movement will hold an event where participants will voluntarily make themselves available for arrest at the offices of Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., following Sherman’s public call to “prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization,” with regard to the flotilla delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza, which was attacked by Israel on May 31.

The Senate continued to look for ways on Wednesday to muster the votes needed to pass a jobs bill filled with tax breaks, unemployment benefits and aid packages to states.
With the House having passed a jobs bill before the Memorial Day recess, Senate Democrats this week have proposed making changes to their bill, such as restoring $24 billion in Medicaid funds, money that was dropped from the House’s package. Additionally, in a move designed to court moderate support, the Senate bill now features a softer approach on taxing investments than does its counterpart legislation.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called on both parties to put aside their differences and bring relief to folks struggling to make ends meet.
“Families are going through an emotional roller-coaster…and everyone knows around here that nothing is done in the Senate anymore without a filibuster, or two or three…It’s pretty outrageous.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said the bill would extend provisions within other bills — most notably the Recovery Act — that have “already changed the direction from a huge hemorrhaging of jobs…to several months of job growth.”
“We’ve gotta keep the pedal to the metal, we can’t now pull back,” Reed added.
At stake are several programs that need funding legislation to stay alive. In addition to the Medicaid dollars for states, there are matching $23 billion initiatives to prevent education layoffs and to reimburse physicians that accept Medicare. Stabenow said she supports the so-called “Doc-Fix,” and added that she plans on putting forth an amendment to extend COBRA benefits for the unemployed. She also downplayed concerns that the bill, totaling over $100 billion in cost, would add to the nation’s already-massive deficit.
“The reality is that this legislation is part of turning things around and I would argue lowering the deficit,” she said. “When people are working, they are paying taxes…and that’s part of how you lower the deficit.”
Republicans, however, say Americans should be skeptical of Democratic attempts to spark economic recovery and take on the ballooning budget. In an email to Talk Radio News Service on Wednesday, Parish Braden, a spokesman for the RNC, took aim at Reed, calling him an irresponsible steward of his struggling state.
“Senator Reed isn’t up for reelection and has the luxury of not having to match facts to his rhetoric,” Braden said. “It’s odd that the Senator would hold a news conference on the Democrats’ efforts to cut taxes and create jobs seeing as Rhode Island has lost over 18,000 jobs since the ‘stimulus’ became law and unemployment has jumped from 9.9% to 12.6% in the same period.
According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor, Rhode Island and Michigan possess two of the nation’s four highest state unemployment rates.

By Robert Hune-Kalter
Talk Radio News Service
Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were joined by other GOP members for a press conference on the upcoming vote on the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding disapproval resolution. Murkowski is putting forth a resolution that would prohibit the EPA from regulating carbon emissions.
“The overreach that we see by the EPA is truly unprecedented in terms of overreach into the legislative branch by the executive. The EPA intends to take control of climate policy, take it away from Congress,” said Murkowski.
Alexander said he was not happy that the EPA wants to impose regulations on any emitter of more than 250 tons of carbon.
“This means one-fifth of our restaurants, one-fourth of all of our schools, two-thirds of all hospitals and doctors offices, one-tenth of our churches, and millions of small businesses, in effect such a broad rule would run millions of jobs overseas looking for cheap energy,” said Alexander.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he believes that the EPA regulating carbon output by businesses would be a disaster because the agency does not have the tools Congress has for regulation. While he said carbon regulation would be a job killer, he added that it is a goal to work towards.
“When it comes to carbon pollution, I am in the camp that believes all the stuff being spewed out of the cars and trucks and the plants is not good for you, but I would like to find a business-friendly way to regulate carbon,” he said.
Murkowski’s resolution will be debated in the Senate on Thursday.

By Alexa Gitler-Talk Radio News Service
Christopher Jones, brother of Gordon Jones, one of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on what he described as the unjust nature of the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), a piece of legislation that limits how much families are entitled to following maritime deaths, and the necessity to update the current inequities for not only the families of the 10 other workers killed in the explosion but for all future maritime vessels.
“[BP] could potentially write a check for $1,000 dollars for a funeral costs and walk away, under the current Death on the High Seas Act,” Jones said.
DOHSA, passed in 1920 and not amended since, limits a corporation to compensating economic damages only and makes companies immune from entirely compensating families for additional costs incurred by the loss of life.
In 2000, after a Boeing 747-100 crashed off Long Island shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport, the families of those aboard were awarded exemption from DOHSA and as of now, companies are liable to grant non-economic damages to families of victims that die in the sea as a result of a plane crash.
“We are here today to ask for that same amendment, so that everyone who perishes in federal waters is protected equally under the law and is allowed to recover non-pecuniary damages, so that there is no cap,” said Jones.

3 decisions from the Court today:
Krupski v. Costa Crociere
Krupski broke her leg on a cruise ship and sued Costa Cruise Lines, the agent who sold her the ticket. After the limitations period had expired, Costa Cruise told Krupski that she should have sued Costa Crociere instead, since they operated the ship. Krupski amended her lawsuit to be against Costa Crociere, but they claimed it was too late for her to sue them. She said Crociere should have known she was going to sue them.
The Supreme Court unanimously agreed with Krupski, so the lawsuit will go forward.
Some color: When announcing her opinion, Sotomayor jokingly asked Justice Scalia to pronounce “Crociere,” since she said she wanted to put a Spanish accent on it. Scalia obliged.
Hamilton v. Lanning

When a bankruptcy court is calculating disposable income in order to figure out how long a debtor can take to pay off creditors, can the court take into account foreseeable changes in adebtor’s income or expenses?
In this case, Lanning had received a buyout from her employer a few months before declaring bankruptcy, and therefore her income for the 6 months preceding filing—the time period usually used to calculate income—was significantly greater than it would likely be in the future.
Justice Alito, writing for the Court, said that a judge is allowed to consider foreseeable changes in income and expenses. Justice Scalia dissented.
Barber v. Thomas
Federal law allows the Bureau of Prisons to allocate to prisoners up to 54 days of “good time credit” for each year of prison served. At the end of each year, the bureau figures out how many days should be given. In the last year of the prisoner’s sentence, CALCULATED USING THE TERM SHORTENED BY THE CREDITS, the bureau allocates a prorated amount of credits (54 days per year = 1.77 days per month). Thus, a prisoner sentenced to 10 years can earn a maximum of 470 days of credit.
Some prisoners sued, arguing their entire sentence should be used for calculating possible good time credit, rather than the amount of sentence they serve. In other words, on a 10 year sentence they should be eligible for 540 days. The Court focused on the term “term of imprisonment” in the law. Justice Breyer, writing for 7 Justices, said the Bureau’s method was proper.
Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices Stevens and Ginsburg, dissented.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs held a gaggle with the press corp on Air Force One en route to the Gulf of Mexico coast.

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By Miles Wolf Tamboli – Talk Radio News Service
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs delivered remarks Thursday afternoon on Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, and immigration reform.
Gibbs was questioned on the heated and controversial conflict between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian supporters on the Gaza flotilla Monday. He addressed the death of the pro-Palestinian American citizen who was killed in the attack.
“We have called for… a full and credible investigation so that we have all the facts about what happened; that is tremendously important.”
However, Gibbs later conceded that, “It’s an Israeli investigation … that could include international participation,” leaving some questioning the accountability of the report.
When asked about the government’s response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf, Gibbs assured reporters that the Federal government will, “hold BP responsible throughout this process.”
“The Federal government will, at some point today, send…a bill for 69 million dollars of expenses incurred up to this point to BP,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs expressed the President’s position that states’ individual handling of immigration law has been the result of a lack of action on the part of the Federal government to reform its own laws, but stated that he doesn’t think the nation can, “deal with comprehensive immigration reform and the circumstances around the border without dealing with Arizona.”
The Press Secretary touted Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as being “instrumental” in bringing immigration reform into the spotlight and stated that he doubts the U.S. can develop comprehensive immigration reform legislation without McCain “doing what he did” in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

By Linn Grubbstrom – Talk Radio News Service
Brad Johnson, a Climate Researcher for the Center for American Progress, commented on the shearing of the oil pipe earlier Thursday morning.
“Cutting the pipe is not a great accomplishment,” Johnson said. “It would be good if they can start to take steps to limit, or at least start capturing some of the oil directly from the site.”
Johnson argues that the American Government needs to take more initiative in getting the situation in order so they can progress to more efficient methods in containing the spill.
“I believe that in the short term, one of the most important things that the government can do is take much greater control over the disaster spot. I believe that it’s a problem to have have this environmental criminal be in charge of its own crime scene.”
Currently, approximately 37% of the gulf waters are still closed to fishing and the upper edge of the spill is on its way to Florida.