Blog Post

With the President's veto of the Children's Health Insurance Program having been delivered moments before, the House debates overriding it. The override vote will be held in two weeks:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Today Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, and Subcommittee Chairpersons Robert C. Scott, Jerrold Nadler, and Linda Sánchez sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler seeking answers about allegations of voter suppression in battleground states across the country, using a technique called "phone jamming," as well as failing to register Democratic voters and destroying Democratic voter registration cards.

An excerpt of the letter:

The Education and Labor Committee is currently holding a hearing, "The Perspective of the Families at Crandall Canyon."

Chairman George Miler gives opening remarks:

Moments before President Bush vetoed the expansion of children's health care this morning, Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04) spoke on the floor about the veto and the contrast with the President's request for nearly $200 billion more for the war in Iraq:

Rep.

Today the President had an opportunity to sign a bipartisan bill that will bring health care to 10 million children in families struggling to make ends meet. Instead, President Bush used his cruel veto pen to say 'I forbid 10 million children from getting the health benefits they deserve.

Despite the President's veto, we will continue to work with a bipartisan majority in Congress and 43 governors from across the country to increase support for SCHIP in the House so we can override the veto and provide 10 million children the health coverage they need and deserve.

The Financial Services Committee is currently holding a hearing, "The Fight against Global Poverty and Inequality: the World Bank's Approach to Core Labor Standards and Employment Creation." Representatives of the International Trade Union Confederation/Global Unions, Millers Rock Consulting, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the AFL-CIO, the Brookings Institution and the ABN-AMRO will testify.

Today, the House voted 413-2 in favor of H. Con. Res. 200, Condemning the Violent Suppression of Buddhist Monks and Other Peaceful Demonstrators in Burma, which denounces the violence and human rights violations in Burma and calls for the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Oversight Committee is currently holding a hearing, "Private Security Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan." The hearing will examine the mission and performance of private military contractor Blackwater USA in Iraq and Afghanistan. Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, testified in the first panel, with three State Department officials testifying in this second panel.