July 21 Week in Congress

A housing bill to shore up mortgage giants Fannie May and Freddie Mac hopes to bring some stability to a quaking economy. It passed the House mid-week and everyone knows the Senate and the President will support it. So what’s the holdup? Republican Jim DeMint is ticked off because Democrats wouldn’t allow any amendments.

SEN. JIM DEMINT (R-SC): "Yeah, I think if they’re going to send us bad policy and say, the place is on fire. Let’s do another knee-jerk congressional reaction to it, we’re at least going to have the 30 hours of debate."

The majority says it just wants to keep things moving. It doesn’t always look that way.

Consider what keeps happening to bills aimed at high oil and gas prices. The latest would dip into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for a short-term boost in supply. This week Democratic leadership once again called for a suspension vote – a parliamentary parlor trick that speeds things up by preventing amendments, but requires a full two-thirds majority to pass. And once again, the bill went down.

There’s growing energy angst in the Senate as well. Here’s New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici.

SEN. PETE DOMENICI (R-NM): "People look at us and say, why are you all so mad all the time? Why wouldn’t we be? I’m trying to smile. I turn on my smile button every day, but my face just won’t smile. Because here we are, living in a Senate that’s not a Senate. And we ought to turn on the Senate button."

Instead, the Senate VCR is stuck flashing 12 o’clock. Democrats aren’t about to take all the blame for the energy standoff. Dick Durbin points out that Republicans turned down an opportunity to have separate votes on amendments for off-shore drilling, oil shale and nuclear.

RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): "Here’s what it boils down to- Let’s strip it away and say what this is all about. They believe they have a winning hand. They believe ‘drill now’ is the winning message to take into November. They want that message to continue to be hammered away. They don’t want a vote to come up for them to lose and not return to it. They would rather drag out the debate. Of course, at the end of the day nothing happens under that strategy."

Seems everybody has something to gain by getting nowhere fast. Except, of course, everybody.

No recap of the week would be complete without mention of a certain high-profile visit with a whiff of celebrity

‘This man was made for this moment to bring this country to a better place…’

This is NOT about Barack Obama.

Simmons: "Hi Everybody!! ‘Say HI!!’"

Richard Simmons is a fitness force of nature in polyester short shorts.

He came to the Hill to motivate Congress to flex its muscle to fight childhood obesity.

RICHARD SIMMONS: "If you can feel good about yourself. If you have self-worth. If you can look in the mirror and know your worth – you will go a long way in life. But if you don’t exercise, if your self-esteem is low, if you’re not eating healthy, that leads to stress and depression. And we have to knock that out with our kids."

And that’s no laughing matter.

A look at what’s coming up in the week ahead with CNC’s Todd Zwillich:

The Senate should pass the big housing bill tomorrow and finally send it to the White House. They’ll also take a vote on home heating assistance for low income households. By next week the Senate will likely still be dealing with oil speculation and Democrats also plan to force a vote on a package of at least 40 small bills that one or two Republicans have been blocking. One of them has dedicated funding for Metro.

House Democrats meanwhile are likely to take another swing at an energy bill. This one will be on their version of speculation.

This Week in Congress reported by Elizabeth Wynne Johnson, Capitol News Connection.

Created by Bureau Chief and Executive Producer Melinda Wittstock, Capitol News Connection provides insightful, localized coverage of participating stations’ congressional delegations.

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