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By a vote of 234 to 191, the House has passed the Helping Families Save their Homes Act (HR 1106). Before final passage, Chairman Barney Frank argues against the Republican Motion to Recommit which would have weakened the bill if agreed to:

Speaker Pelosi on passage:

"It may not have the cachet of the Oval Office, but there is no more commanding view in Washington than the one enjoyed by the speaker of the House. The picture windows in Nancy Pelosi's office frame the National Mall, where, only three weeks earlier, 2 million Americans gathered to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration. In the distance, centered in the windows, rises the pinnacle of the Washington Monument."

"For the moment, Pelosi is cloaking her instincts as an experienced street fighter in the soothing tones of bipartisanship. Though her eyes flash green when she puts a sharp point on an argument, she seems reticent to take shots at the House Republicans who voted en masse against the recovery package. For the first time since she rose to the speakership two years ago, Pelosi can at last brush aside the GOP's obstructionism and get on with the work of undoing the damage done by eight years of Republican misrule."

The Wall Street Journal reports there is a foreclosure every 13 seconds in America. Today, the House will complete consideration of the Helping Families Save their Homes Act (HR 1106), which begins to put part of President Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan into law. The Obama plan will help up to 7 to 9 million families restructure or refinance their mortgages to avoid foreclosure--as well as their neighbors whose own house values will drop as a result of nearby foreclosures.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and the former Bush Administration have reached an agreement in which Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers will testify on matters related to the dismissal and retention of U.S. Attorneys. Rove and Miers will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in transcribed depositions under penalty of perjury, and the Committee reserves the right to have public testimony from Rove and Miers.

From the Judiciary Committee:

Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision preserving the right of patients injured by FDA-approved drugs to seek compensation through lawsuits against drug makers. USA Today explains:

Today, while speaking at the Department of the Interior, President Obama announced that his Administration would reverse a Bush Administration regulation that allowed federal agencies to decide on their own whether or not to comply with the consultation requirement of the Endangered Species Act, saying: