Media

Today at 10:00 a.m. the House Budget Committee is holding a hearing entitled, "The Growing Budgetary Costs of the Iraq War." Dr. Peter Orszag, Director, Congressional Budget Office, Amy Belasco, Congressional Research Service and Professor Linda Bilmes, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University will be testifying.

Iraq and Afghanistan wars may total $2.4 trillion

Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY - October 24, 2007

Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor this afternoon on the need for federal assistance to help fight the wildfires in California and help the hundreds of thousands of residents affected by the fires:

"As we gather here this afternoon, wildfires are raging in my home state of California. The President has declared an emergency. I hope that it will be limited to that, but the way the fire is raging, I'm afraid it may come to the point of a major disaster.

"The governor of California, Governor Schwarzenegger, has just reported that 750 homes have been totally destroyed, 68,000 homes are in danger, 250,000 acres of land, an area the size of the entire city of New York, has been devastated by the fire, much of it wilderness areas. In addition, 365,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

From the Education and Labor Committee:

Chairman Miller Statement on President's Threat to Veto the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following response today to a White House statement of administration policy on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation to prohibit employers from discriminating against their employees on the basis of sexual orientation. The statement of administration policy says that the President's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the legislation.

The House has just passed the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, H.R. 327, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. The bill is named for an Iraq veteran who took his own life, and recognizes the special needs of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and elderly veterans who are at high risk for depression and experience high rates of suicide.

The Judiciary Subcommittees on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and Commercial and Administrative Law are currently holding a joint hearing, "Allegations of Selective Prosecution: The Erosion of Public Confidence in Our Federal Justice System." Witness include Richard Thornburgh of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP in Washington, DC; Donald C. Shields Ph.D. of the University of Missouri - St. Louis; and G. Douglas Jones Esq. of Whatley, Drake, and Kallas in Birmingham, AL.

Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott gives opening remarks:

Chairman Jerry Costello of the Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation and a senior member of the House Science and Technology and the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, today issued the following statement in response to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) refusal to release the data from a cancelled study of aviation safety:

Chairman David Obey of the Appropriations Committee issued the following statement on the nearly $200 billion war funding request the President sent the Congress today:

"It's amazing to me that the President expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term, but he doesn't blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago.

"Only this White House would call this progress.

"The President needs to rethink his position on both fronts."