House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) spoke today at his pen and pad briefing about the state of the economy and gas prices. Hoyer said the the economy is in real trouble, and that the policies of the Bush Administration of economic growth have not been realized. Hoyer said that the president’s recent opening up of the outer continental shelf is an “attempt to divert attention from his failed energy policy.”

America is a nation of winners, but winners need good leadership and honest policies and the Bush Administration is not providing that, Hoyer said. Despite the President’s assurances that a second stimulus package is not necessary, Hoyer said he is hopeful that Congress can move forward in a bipartisan way on another stimulus package.

The housing bill that is currently going through Congress is currently being worked on to add in Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson’s recommendations for the bill. Hoyer said the House is working with the Administration and hopes to hold hearing this week or next before voting on the legislation.

News Director Lovisa Frost will attending President Bush’s press conference about the housing and financial markets. Correspondent Dawn Jones will be covering Missile Defense Agency director Lt. Gen. Henry A. “Trey” Obering III’s briefing on missile defense. Chief United Nations correspondent Dan Patterson will be covering Sudan updates and a panel discussion on Small Arms Trade and Children and Armed Conflict. (more…)

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) met today to introduce legislation, the Gas Price Reduction Act, as well as support the President’s lifting the administrative ban on offshore exploration. The senators criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (R-Nev.) plan saying he was only offering half of a roadmap.

Domenici said that there has never been a modern day analysis of the offshore potential and that the United States could be getting “double, triple or quadruple what we currently have right now as numbers.” He called the energy and economic crisis the most important issue of the day. Domenici said that because Reid will support no votes on anything that deals with production, Harry Reid is either scared, chicken to have a vote or he’s decided that he’s is going to dictate to the U.S. senate.”

Alexander said that “the key to bringing down record-high gas prices is to find more American energy.” The legislation he is proposing will allow states to decide for themselves if they will take up offshore drilling and having them receive some of the profits. Alexander said that he would not support legislation that only solved part of the problem, and that Reid was only offering a partial solution in alternative energy by not exploring American energy.

Zeyno Baran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, says that we must not confuse religious Islam and politcal Islamism. She says that all Islamist terrorists start with non-violent Islamism. (1:12)

 

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Peter Mandaville, associate professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University, says that violent Islamism is part of a global community. The United States must understand what draws people in and pushes them to extremist action in order to effectively combat extremism. Mandaville urges the U.S. to work with Islamists on the fringes. (0:32)

 

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Maajid Nawaz, director of the Quilliam Foundation, speaks about the four main beliefs that connect Islamists. He says that the state will save the global community from capitalism or communism and connect the people. The principles are fundamental to Islam, so that if someone says that they do not belief Islam is political they are viewed as heretics. (1:14)

 

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In a full Senate committee hearing on “The Roots of Violent Islamist Extremism and Efforts to Counter it,” witnesses spoke about where violent Islamist extremism begins and what steps the United States should take to maintain strong national security. (more…)

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Congresswoman Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) announce a bill, the Stop-Loss Compensation Act in the Senate (S. 3060) and the House (H.R. 6205), which requires the Pentagon to pay troops affected by stop-loss an additional $1,500 for each month their service is extended.

Stop-loss is a policy that involuntarily extends military service beyond soldiers enlistment contracts. 58,300 soldiers have been affected by stop loss since 2002, according to the Army. The bill will apply to service members who are forced to continue service after their enlistment is up and after their eligibility for retirement has been extended. There is a provision included that would be retroactive to October 2001 to compensate soldiers who had been stop-lossed since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Lautenberg calls for the Senate to recognize and hold a hearing for the legislation because, he said “we want our men compensated for the continued service.” The bill will additionally ease the burden and pain put on families of those service men stop-lossed. Sutton said that stop loss put an “unjust burden on soldiers and their families” and undermines the voluntary nature of the military.

The Senate passed the update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that grants immunity to telecom companies from lawsuits with a 69-28 vote.

Before the vote, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said, in his opening statement, that 40 lawsuits are being litigated. Retroactive immunity should be given to phone companies, Specter said. There is a way to protect the phone companies without giving up the details of their programs, Specter said. (more…)

Does the United States military need to be versed in more than one language? This was the question, front and center at the House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing today. Committee members heard from panelists with an array of backgrounds in everything from linguistics to communications and the armed services. (more…)