The Congressional Budget Office came out with a cost estimate today for S. 3297, the Advancing America’s Priorities Act, which has also been called the “Coburn Omnibus.” It combines 36 pieces of federal legislation into one.

Yesterday, adding up all the pieces of the Coburn Omnibus, we came up with about $65 per U.S. family. When we crunch the CBO estimate into its per-family cost, we get just over $70.00.

If you’re curious, more on our methodology is here.

What do people think of all this? Here’s the current vote on S. 3297. As always, you can click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

Most every federal government form has a little notice on it called a Paperwork Reduction Act notice. (Sure, it’s ironic that government paperwork should have a notice about its own reduction, but there it is.)

Annnyway, H.R. 6113 would require each agency to include a contact telephone number in its Paperwork Reduction Act notices.

Y’know, so you could call.

It would also require the Comptroller General to conduct a study of complaints that agencies receive and whether or not they get resolved.

Which brings us to a key failing of the bill. It had better specify that someone should answer.

Here’s the current vote on H.R. 6113. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

S. 3313 would establish a Federal Polygamy Task Force and it would authorize assistance for victims of polygamy.

Well, of course. We’re against polygamy. But I’ve just reviewed the constitution again, and it doesn’t say anything about the federal government being in the anti-polygamy business. We have other levels of government for that.

S. 3313 is one of the things that would maintain our federal government as a jack of all trades and a master of none.

That’s what I think, but you’re entitled to your own views. Express them by clicking below to vote, comment, learn more about the bill, and edit the wiki article on it.

Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma didn’t come to Washington, D.C. to grow the government.

A long time critic of federal spending and power, he has made prolific use of “holds” to prevent legislation he doesn’t like from moving forward.

Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has reached his wit’s end. He has cobbled together into one bill a long list of measures that Coburn has been working to slow or stop. He’s hoping to roll over Senator Coburn and move them all forward. The bill is S. 3297, the Advancing America’s Priorities Act. But the nickname it has gotten is the “Coburn Omnibus.”

Majority Leader Reid is expected to try to bring the bill to the Senate floor later this week.

We have done our best to figure out which bills have been rolled into the Coburn Omnibus, using a copy of the bill he posted on his Web site. Thirty-six bills are listed below. The last would authorize the construction of a greenhouse in Suitland, Maryland.

Coburn has reportedly said the bills in the Coburn Omnibus would create 77 new federal programs. By our count, passage of the Coburn Omnibus would spend just under $65 per U.S. family, though six of the bills do not have cost estimates.

[UPDATE: Staff for Senator Coburn have noted to me that they count 35 programs the bill would create. The 77 number reported on FoxNews.com is the number of total programs Coburn has been holding up. Our count of 36 comes from treating an ocean exploration bill and an ocean mapping bill as separate.]

HEALTHCARE PROVISIONS

• S. 1382, the ALS Registry Act – $0.62
• S. 1183, the Christoper and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act – $0.85
• S. 999, the Stroke Treatment and Ongoing Prevention Act
• H.R. 20, the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act – $0.16
• S. 1117, the Vision Care for Kids Act of 2008
• S. 1810, the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act – $0.17

JUDICIARY PROVISIONS

• H.R. 5524, the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 2008
• S. 535, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act of 2007 – $0.58
• S. 2304, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008 – $4.34
• H.R. 4120, the Effective Child Pornography Prosecution Act of 2007
• H.R. 4136, the Enhancing the Effective Prosecution of Child Pornography Act of 2007
• S. 1210, the Drug Endangered Children Act of 2007 – $0.18
• S. 1079, the Star-Spangled Banner and War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission Act – $0.03
• S. 1738, the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007) – $4.93

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS PROVSIONS

• H.R. 2964, the Captive Primate Safety Act – $0.15
• S. 2707, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act – $0.04
• S. 2844, the Beach Protection Act of 2008 – $2.56
• S. 496, the Appalachian Regional Development Act Amendments of 2008

FOREIGN RELATIONS PROVISIONS

• H.R. 1469, the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2008 – $3.76
• H.R. 1084, the Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act of 2008 – $5.75
• H.R. 2798, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation Reauthorization of Act of 2008 – $0.66
• S. 2020, the Tropical Forest and Coral Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2008 – $0.65
• H.R. 1678, the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act of 2008 – $0.93
• H.R. 3320, the Support for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Act of 2008 – $0.05

COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION PROVISIONS

• S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act – $1.85
• S. 675, the Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2007 – $0.62
• H.R. 3352, the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act Amendments of 2008 – $5.92
• H.R. 1834, the NOAA Undersea Research Program Act of 2008 (National Ocean Exploration Program Act) – $2.36
• H.R. 2400, the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act – $1.03
• H.R. 5618, the National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2008 – $2.69
• S. 950, the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2008 – $6.36
• H.R. 4174, the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2008 – $0.70

HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS PROVISIONS

• S. 1446, the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2008 – $10.40
• H.R. 390, the Preservation of Records of Servitude, Emancipation, and Post-Civil War Reconstruction Act – $0.12
• S. 3175, the Predisaster Hazard Mitigation Act of 2008 – $6.18

RULES AND ADMINISTRATION PROVISIONS

• H.R. 5492, To authorize the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to construct a greenhouse facility at its museum support facility in Suitland, Maryland, and for other purposes – $0.02

Once again, we’ve updated the FY 2009 Budget and Spending Process page with information on a few more of the annual spending bills that are now making their way through Congress.

The new additions, and their cost per family (at current interest rates and population figures), are:

• Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies – $826.30
• Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies – $1,082.10
• State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs – $358.33

For continuing updates, check the FY 2009 Budget and Spending Process page regularly, or follow this blog, or subscribe to the WashingtonWatch.com email newsletter.

In a May, 1788 letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, Thomas Jefferson wrote a famous line: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

Watching the bills introduced in Congress can help illustrate the mechanics of that process 220 years later – in the government Jefferson helped found.

H.R. 674 is a bill to repeal a provision in current law that would terminate the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans as of December 31, 2009. Passage of the bill would cost the average family a mere three cents.

Is there anything wrong with looking out for minority veterans? None at all. It’s important, in fact, that they get a fair shake. But this same logic applies to just about every group and every bill that comes before Congress. Everyone should get a little something. And – heck – it’s only three cents.

But as we approach 10,000 bills introduced in the current Congress, we need to ask how many times we should pay three cents for every good cause that comes along.

Here’s something every lobbyist and congressman in Washington, D.C. knows: If you can’t get a program built and funded outright, start with a pilot program. Let a constituency grow around it, and work to extend it and expand it.

H.R. 674 is a nice, clean example of that happening. Somebody wanted a Commission on Minority Veterans. They got it put into law as a temporary measure. Now they’re working to make it permanent. It’s just three cents . . . .

The full quote from Jefferson is: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. As yet our spirits are free.”

Did minority veterans fight for a country where each group looks to the government for special treatment or a little cut of the loot from taxpayer? Or the country where the people’s spirits are still free? It remains to be seen . . . .

Fascinating bill: H.R. 6073, To provide that Federal employees receiving their pay by electronic funds transfer shall be given the option of receiving their pay stubs electronically.

It makes perfect sense to give federal employees the option of receiving pay stubs electronically, doesn’t it? So much sense, in fact, that they already can. From the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill:

CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 6073 would have no effect on the federal budget because, according to [the Office of Personnel Management], all federal employees already have this option.

There must be more to the story, but it looks like Congress is considering a law to mandate the existing electronic pay-stub option. Seems like there are better things it could be doing.

A WashingtonWatch.com visitor wrote in yesterday asking about a solicitation she had received to sign a petition about the Social Security Preservation Act. The solicitation came from an organization called The Seniors Center with a P.O. Box address in Washington, D.C.

Direct mail is a common fund-raising technique in Washington, D.C., but it’s good to be skeptical of these kinds of things. While there are plenty of legitimate advocacy groups that use donated dollars to help advance the public policy goals of their membership, there are plenty more that do not. These latter groups raise money claiming an advocacy goal but use the money they collect simply to send more mail solicitations to raise more money.

Seniors are often their targets because many seniors want to be involved but lack the ability to determine which groups are legitimate and which are not.

A rule of thumb that I would use to decide whether to give to any advocacy group is whether you have ever heard of them before. If you have seen the group quoted or cited in newspaper articles, magazines, or television news, that means they are engaged on the issues – and it means you are engaged enough to judge. If you have not seen the group, either they are not a real advocacy organization, or you are not focused enough to intelligently spend money in this area. There is no substitute for being directly involved in public affairs, and writing a check to a group with an important-sounding name or a good fund-raising letter is not a substitute for that kind of engagement.

Of course, searching the Internet for information about a group might do the trick too. I found enough stories with negative and strange information about The Seniors Center and its founder Gary Jarmin that this looks like one to avoid.

Smart people check around before they write a check, and that includes writing in to yours truly for advice.

A staple of modern lobbying is the self-identified consumer group. Claiming to represent the interests of consumers, these groups send letters to Congress and issue press releases to create the appearance that a large cross-section of people actually feel strongly about an issue. They often front for different interests than actual consumers, such as owners of corporations. (Owners of corporations are also consumers, of course, but their advocacy tends to be motivated by their special interests as owners, not their general interests as consumers).

Here’s a case in point, discovered through their release this morning about the anti-speculation legislation coming to the Senate floor this week: Consumers for Competitive Choice.

I never heard of “C4CC” before, so I went looking to see who they are – or, it turns out, who he is. “About” pages aren’t much good for this, but here’s an excerpt from theirs/his:

Consumers for Competitive Choice (formerly Consumers for Cable Choice) is an alliance of consumer organizations with one million members throughout the United States who are committed to the development of a competitive, vibrant consumer market in the communications, energy, financial and health sectors. Our goal is the creation of an open, diverse, pro-consumer market that will stimulate price, expand choice and improve service. Our group members provide invaluable counsel and support in this endeavor.

Consumers for Cable Choice, huh?

Researching a bit further, we find that the Web domain name of this organization was registered to a lawyer in Indianapolis named Robert Johnson, who speaks for the organization in the press release. Mr. Johnson’s client list includes a number of telecommunications companies. It appears that he’s been advocating their policy interests in the name “Consumers for Cable Choice,” and is branching out into other fields like energy, health care, and financial services.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with this. Companies and their owners are entitled to advocate for their interests. But we can discount the idea that there are a million consumers behind this effort. There’s probably something like ten or twenty companies behind it.

The C4CC letter and release are focused on favoring S. 3268, the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008, which will get consideration in the Senate this week, and H.R. 6330, the Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices (PUMP) Act, which is very cleverly named, and so almost certainly will pass with unanimous support. (Just kidding.)

Here’s the voting on S. 3268, the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.


And here’s the same for H.R. 6330, the Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices (PUMP) Act:

Here’s the WashingtonWatch.com email newsletter for the week. Subscribe here.

email newsletter | tell a friend | wiki | about | home | log in From the WashingtonWatch.com Blog Lots of interesting issues appear on the WashingtonWatch.com blog. Visit the blog to see posts on the oil speculation legislation being debated this week, the global nursing shortage, and commercial fishing subsidies, to name just a few. The WashingtonWatch.com blog will tie the bills in Congress to the day’s headlines, discuss the bills being debated on the House and Senate floor, and reveal some hidden stories. Featured Items This week, the Senate will debate legislation to curb speculation in oil and natural gas. S. 3268, The Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008, would suppress trading that is not regarded as “legitimate” hedge trading. It’s intended to prevent excessive price speculation in energy commodities, hoping that this would bring prices down. Cost information for the bill is not yet available. It was discussed in a recent post on the WashingtonWatch.com blog. The House will debate H.R. 3221, The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. The bill takes many steps intended to reform housing. It would modernize the Federal Housing Administration, protect military servicemembers against foreclosure, give money to state and local governments for redeveloping abandoned and foreclosed homes, and more. Passage of H.R. 3221, the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, would cost the average U.S. family a little over $190. The House will also take up H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, which passed the Senate last week. The bill would authorize spending for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 to provide assistance to foreign countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. It was mentioned in our recent blog post on the passing of Senator Jesse Helms. Passage of H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, would cost the average U.S. family just about $300. S. 3268 The Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008 H.R. 3221 The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 Costs $193.68 per family H.R. 5501 The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 Costs $299.97 per family What People Think The Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008 50% For, 50% Against Vote on this Bill The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 39% For, 61% Against Vote on this Bill The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 43% For, 57% Against Vote on this Bill Displayed below are new, updated, and passed items with their cost or savings per family. New Items H.R. 4049 The Money Service Business Act of 2007 Costs $0.00 per family H.R. 6309 The Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2008 Costs $0.18 per family S. 3258 The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009 Costs $315.23 per family S. 3260 An original bill making appropriations for financial services and general government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes Costs $425.29 per family S. 3261 An original bill making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes Costs $1,111.84 per family S. 531 A bill to repeal section 10(f) of Public Law 93-531, commonly known as the “Bennett Freeze” Costs $0.00 per family S. 2533 The State Secrets Protection Act Costs $0.00 per family S. 2489 The Oglala Sioux Tribe Angostura Irrigation Project Modernization and Development Act Costs $0.05 per family Updated Items none Passed Items P.L. 110-273 The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority Independence Preservation Act P.L. 110-274 To amend the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to clarify the authority of the Secretary of the Army to provide reimbursement for travel expenses incurred by members of the Committee on Levee Safety P.L. 110-275 The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 Costs $24.90 per family P.L. 110-277 The American Veterans Disabled for Life Commemorative Coin Costs $0.06 per family P.L. 110-278 The Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act Costs $0.01 per family P.L. 110-279 A bill to provide for certain Federal employee benefits to be continued for certain employees of the Senate Restaurants after operations of the Senate Restaurants are contracted to be performed by a private business concern, and for other purposes email newsletter | tell a friend | wiki | about | home | privacy | contact | log in WashingtonWatch.com P.O. Box 77576 Washington, D.C. 20013