Other Political News

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Pressure points

Advocacy groups that challenge corporations on social issues have had a hit-and-miss record:

Ford Motor Co., December. Ford renews advertising its vehicles in gay-oriented publications following protests by gay-rights groups after Ford stopped running those ads. The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., resumed its call for a boycott of Ford, which it had suspended in 2005 after Ford met with the AFA.

Target, December.

The AFA calls for a boycott of Target stores for using the generic term "holiday" rather than "Christmas." AFA dropped the boycott later the same month, saying Target started using "Christmas" in its advertising promotions.

Wells Fargo, December. Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, pulls an estimated $146million on deposit at Wells Fargo due to the San Francisco- based bank's donation to a gay- rights group.

American Girl, November. Pro- Life Action League of Chicago calls for a boycott of the Middleton, Wis.-based company, including a picketing campaign at stores, for the abortion-rights policies of the nonprofit group Girls Inc., to which American Girl donated.

Microsoft Corp., April 2005. One of the first corporations in the country to provide same-sex domestic partnership benefits, in 1993, Microsoft faced criticism from a prominent minister in 2005 for supporting a proposed Washington state law that would have banned discrimination against gays and lesbian in housing, employment and insurance. Microsoft pulled its support for the proposal but later backed a similar one that passed in January.

Procter & Gamble, September 2004. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the AFA call on supporters to boycott Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent to protest Procter & Gamble's support of gay rights in Cincinnati, where the company is headquartered. The boycott was called off in 2005 after the AFA claimed success.

Walt Disney Co., 1997. Christian advocacy groups, including the AFA and Focus on the Family, call for boycotting Disney for its negative portrayal of Christians in TV and movies and for its gay-friendly employment policies. The AFA ended the boycott in May 2005.

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Senator ditches bill tied to 'superstate'
Makes decision after WND points out link to 'North American Union'

Responding to information from WorldNetDaily, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has taken steps to ensure the Senate will not act on a bill that would further a plan to create a European Union-style alliance in North America.

Cornyn made the decision after WND pointed out Friday the legislation – the North American Investment Fund Act – would constitute an attempt to pass a key piece of American University Professor Robert Pastor's plan to create a "North American Union."

Yesterday, Cornyn's office notified WND the senator had been assured by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that no action will be taken on Senate bill 3622 in the 109th Congress. If the Senate Foreign Relations Committee does not act, the bill will expire at the end of the term in January.

"Senator Cornyn has no intention of filing the bill again until after we have conducted an internal review and inquiry," a spokesman for Cornyn told WND.

The spokesman clarified Cornyn "is adamantly opposed to any 'North American Union' being formed like the EU has been formed in Europe."

Cornyn's office had no explanation, however, for why the legislation was introduced, except to note the senator "continues to believe that if Mexico would adopt free market principles, it would be in the best interest of the United States."

The spokesman further added that Cornyn will continue "to look for ways to encourage the forces of reform within Mexico."

WND showed Cornyn's office Friday that a content analysis of the bill demonstrated its similarity to some of Pastor's writings. The correlation was so strong, WND told the senator's staff, a conclusion could be reliably drawn that the person drafting and proposing the legislation drew from Pastor's writings and intended to advance his political agenda to create a "North American Union."

Pastor's extensive writings repeatedly have called for the creation of a North American Investment Fund, to develop Mexico, as a key step on a road map to a new regional government.

In his 2001 book "Toward a North American Community," Pastor argued a North American Development Fund would advance the "North American integration" needed to produce the union as a regional super-government along the model of the European Union.

Pastor was vice chairman of a May 2005 task force report by the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "Building a North American Community." Creating a North American Investment Fund was a key recommendation of the CFR task force report.

On March 14, 2005, Pastor published a 57 page paper entitled "The Paramount Challenge for North America: Closing the Development Gap."

The paper is Pastor's most comprehensive statement explaining why a North American Investment Fund is central to his plan to integrate North America as a first step in the creation of a continental union.

Pastor presented his recommendation that a North American Development Bank should be created in an address to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada, Feb. 7, 2002.

    The three leaders [of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.] should establish a North American Development fund, whose priority would be to connect the U.S.-Mexican border region to central and southern Mexico. If roads were built, investors would come, immigration would decline, and income disparities would narrow. If Mexico's growth rate leaped to twice that of its neighbors, the psychology of the relationship would be changed.

The language is similar to Senate bill 3622, which in Section 4, "Projects Funded," states as the first purpose of the fund "to construct roads in Mexico to facilitate trade between Mexico and Canada, and Mexico and the United States."

Section 4, part (b)(2) of the bill further specifies: "PRIORITY – in selecting grantees to carry out projects in subsection (a)(1), priority should be given to projects in the interior and southern regions of Mexico that connect to more developed markets in the United States and Canada."

When Pastor's proposal surfaced in the May 2005 CFR task force report, the name had evolved to the "North American Investment Fund," identical to the title of Senate bill 3622. On page 14, the CFR report says:

    The United States and Canada should establish a North American Investment Fund to encourage private capital flow into Mexico. The fund would focus on increasing and improving physical infrastructure linking the less developed parts of Mexico to markets in the north, improving primary and secondary education, and technical training in states and municipalities committed to transparency and institutional development.

The Senate bill in Section 4(a)(2) says a secondary purpose of the fund proposed by Cornyn would be "to encourage the development and improve the quality of primary, secondary, and post-secondary education throughout Mexico," a purpose consistent with the intent and language of the CFR task force report.

Cornyn's decision, however, effectively kills the bill or any effort this year by his office to introduce or sponsor legislation to form a North American Investment Fund to develop Mexico.

[Soldier4Christ]

Specter Prepping Bill to Sue Bush

A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

"We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.

Specter's announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.

Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, reserving the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," said ABA president Michael Greco. The practice, he added "is harming the separation of powers."

Bush has challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers compiled by Specter's committee. The ABA estimated Bush has issued signing statements on more than 800 statutes, more than all other presidents combined.

Signing statements have been used by presidents, typically for such purposes as instructing agencies how to execute new laws.

But many of Bush's signing statements serve notice that he believes parts of bills he is signing are unconstitutional or might violate national security.

Still, the White House said signing statements are not intended to allow the administration to ignore the law.

"A great many of those signing statements may have little statements about questions about constitutionality," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "It never says, 'We're not going to enact the law.'"

Specter's announcement intensifies his challenge of the administration's use of executive power on a number of policy matters. Of particular interest to him are two signing statements challenging the provisions of the USA Patriot Act renewal, which he wrote, and legislation banning the use of torture on detainees.

Bush is not without congressional allies on the matter. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a former judge, has said that signing statements are nothing more than expressions of presidential opinion that carry no legal weight because federal courts are unlikely to consider them when deciding cases that challenge the same laws.


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Just another means of causing division by a disgruntled Senator.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hillary: It's the American dream, stupid

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House contender in 2008, said on Monday the Bush administration had hurt working Americans and Democrats must offer new ideas to strengthen the middle class.

"Americans are earning less while the costs of a middle-class life have soared," Clinton told the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, a group that aided her husband Bill Clinton's rise to the presidency in 1992 but has clashed in recent years with the party's more liberal wing.

"A lot of Americans can't work any harder, borrow any more or save any less," she said in unveiling the group's "American Dream Initiative," a package of proposals to make college and home ownership more affordable, help small businesses, improve retirement savings and expand health insurance coverage.

Clinton said President George W. Bush and Republicans had "made a mess out of the country's finances." Rewriting her husband's famous 1992 campaign slogan, "It's the economy, stupid," she declared: "It's the American dream, stupid."

The yearlong initiative headed by Clinton was designed to give the party new ideas for midterm elections in November and for the White House race in 2008.

Clinton said she hoped the agenda would "unite Democrats and help elect Democrats" in November, when the party must pick up 15 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the Senate to regain control of Congress.

"This plan will make the basics of life in the middle class -- health care, education and retirement -- affordable for those who take responsibility," Clinton said.

"These ideas will make sure every American will get a fair wage, access to college and home ownership and a path out of poverty and into the middle class," she said.

Two other possible 2008 presidential contenders, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), also addressed the conference of 375 elected Democratic officials from 42 states.

"Everybody in the country understands what this administration has done wrong," Vilsack said. "It is important now for this country to understand what we need to do that's right."

Bayh said Democrats needed to reach out to the middle class if they wanted to reclaim control of Congress.

Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz rejected the Democratic claims about the economy.

"Only liberal Democrats like Hillary Clinton could attack an economy that has produced 5.4 million jobs in the last three years, grew 5.6 percent in the first quarter, increased payroll employment in 47 states and is the envy of the industrialized world," he said.

While much of the agenda covers familiar Democratic territory, it adds some new flourishes. An "American Dream Grant" would award money to states based on attendance and graduation from state colleges, while American Dream Accounts would enhance retirement savings and federally funded $500 "baby bonds" would be issued to each child born in America.

It also includes a commission to evaluate corporate subsidies and new rules to rein in federal spending.

The agenda is one of several packages of Democratic ideas floated by party groups and leaders who have yet to rally around a single party-wide agenda similar to the successful Republican "Contract with America" in 1994.

[Soldier4Christ]

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House contender in 2008, said on Monday the Bush administration had hurt working Americans and Democrats must offer new ideas to strengthen the middle class.

Yep, by planning on taking away more of their rights.

[Soldier4Christ]

Washington Supreme Court to announce same-sex marriage decision
Long-awaiting ruling coming tomorrow

The state Supreme Court is set to announce tomorrow whether Washington will become the second state to let same-sex couples marry -- a controversial issue that's left people on both sides waiting more than a year for an answer.

In a case that some have called the court's most significant in years, justices could decide Washington's law that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman is unconstitutional, opening the door for same-sex couples to tie the knot.

A notice of the pending decision was posted today on the court's Web site.

Justices could also uphold the law, preventing same-sex couples from marrying, or strike it down while leaving it up to state lawmakers to decide what to do.

Either way, attorneys have been anxiously speculating on what the delay might mean. Some have wondered if justices were waiting until after the election, when three justices are running to keep their seats on the high bench, though that apparently isn't the case.

Some think the case prompted more than a couple justices to put their opinions to paper and circulate them through the justices' chambers, a process that takes back-and-forth debate, revisions and time.

It could also lead to a number of concurring and dissenting opinions.

"There could well be three or four or five," attorney Phil Talmadge, a former Supreme Court justice, guessed recently.

Hugh Spitzer, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Washington and filed a written argument supporting the same-sex couples, said he thinks justices had probably been passing around several opinions for quite a while.

The state's highest court heard the case on March 8, 2005. Attorneys gave technical, constitutional arguments inside the Temple of Justice as thousands of people rallied under clear skies outside.

Many covered the lawn of the capitol with signs that read, Marriage: one man, one woman. Others rallied for diversity and gay rights.

In court and in writing, attorneys for the state and King County -- as well as a group of state lawmakers and religious leaders opposing same-sex marriage -- argued that the question of who should be allowed to marry should be left to state lawmakers.

They said lawmakers had a rational reason for limiting marriage to people of the opposite sex: Only those couples are biologically capable of having children, and keeping them together is generally best for those children.

But attorneys for the same-sex couples -- whose case was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Northwest Women's Law Center and Lambda Legal -- say the law discriminates against loving couples.

They argued that keeping same-sex couples from marrying makes it more difficult for them to raise their children, though at the same time it accomplishes nothing for the kids who are being raised by a mother and a father.

The case was an appeal from two lawsuits, one in King County and one in Thurston County, filed by 19 same-sex couples raising the momentous social question of who can marry.

Justices must decide the fate of state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act. The law, passed by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers over Gov. Gary Locke's veto, defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Superior Court judges in both counties struck down the law banning same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in 2004.

King County Judge William Downing ruled that there's no logical way that banning same-sex marriage encourages procreation -- a similar position taken by courts in Massachusetts, the only state that now allows same-sex couples to marry.

Downing said the couples had a fundamental right to wed, and Thurston County Judge Richard Hicks reached the same conclusion.

More than 40 states have a law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and roughly 20 have written that definition into their constitution.

But challenges are pending in a number of states.

Earlier this month, New York's highest court ruled that its law preventing gay couples from marrying did not violate the state constitution - a blow to same-sex couples, who had high hopes that the case would go their way.

The decision is expected to be posted at 8 a.m. Wednesday on the court's Web site.

[Soldier4Christ]

Senate to start on Vietnam, Peru trade bills

The Senate Finance Committee granted U.S. business groups two wishes on Tuesday by announcing plans to begin work on Vietnam and Peru trade bills later this week.

Business groups have been worried the trade bills could fall victim to the tight legislative schedule ahead of the U.S. congressional elections in November.

The collapse of world trade talks in Geneva on Monday also has intensified interest in showing the rest of the world the United States has other trade options.

Republicans on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee last week pushed through a draft bill to implement a free trade agreement with Peru, with Democrats voting no.

Senate Finance Committee action on Thursday would set the stage for Congress to move toward final votes on the Peru agreement after the August congressional recess.

However, some observers believe a vote could be delayed until a lame duck session after the November elections because of strong opposition to the Peru pact.

Business groups want congressional approval of a bill establishing "permanent normal trade relations" with Vietnam as soon after the August recess as possible.

That's driven partly by Hanoi's desire to be a member of the World Trade Organization by the time it hosts the annual APEC summit meeting in November. That requires the United States to approve PNTR.

Senate Finance Committee action would be a step toward that goal. House Republicans have indicated they may not take up Vietnam until after the Peru bill is done.

[Soldier4Christ]

Internet gambling bill seen delayed in Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to outlaw most forms of Internet gambling appears unlikely to win U.S. Senate passage before senators begin a month-long recess on August 4, two Republican leadership aides said on Tuesday.

They said backers of the legislation were trying to build support for it and resolve differences as the Senate focuses on other legislative matters and gets ready for a summer break.

The bill was not among the priorities outlined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, during a session with reporters on Tuesday in which he laid out measures he hopes to wrap up before the August vacation.

"I don't expect it (Senate passage of the Internet gambling bill) to happen in the next two weeks," one Republican aide said.

"It's always a possibility, but right now it is not on the schedule," another aide said.

Backers of the legislation had hoped to swiftly push it through the Senate this month after the U.S. arrest of David Carruthers, the former chief executive of U.K.-listed BETonSPORTS, on charges of racketeering and conspiracy.

The Senate bill is virtually identical to legislation overwhelmingly approved earlier in July by the U.S. House of Representatives. It would prohibit most forms of Internet gambling and make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

The horse racing industry has some concerns with the legislation, one gaming source said.

Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, tried to fast-track passage of the bill in the Senate by getting unanimous consent to approve it but some lawmakers objected, according to sources following the matter.

Kyl told reporters on Tuesday that supporters of the bill are making progress toward resolving the objections. He declined to elaborate.

Congress has relatively few work days left this year because of the congressional elections scheduled for early November. Lawmakers are scheduled to return from vacation in September for several weeks, then adjourn again before the elections, and then return in December.

The Republican-backed bill has been criticized by some as an election-year appeal to the party's conservative base.

Supporters of a crackdown on Internet gambling say legislation is needed to clarify that a 1961 federal law banning interstate telephone betting also covers an array of online gambling.

Among the priorities listed by Frist were passage of an energy and defense appropriations bills and possibly a military construction appropriations bill and an extension of the estate tax repeal.

[Soldier4Christ]

US Senate passes Indo-US energy Bill


The US Senate today unanimously cleared a Bill seeking the diversification of sources of energy and stimulating development of alternative fuels, thereby paving the way for India and the United States to work together in enhancing global energy security.

The 'United States-India Energy Security Cooperation Act of 2006' sponsored by the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Richard Lugar declares as the policy of the United States to cooperate with India to address common energy challenges, ensure future global energy security and to increase the world-wide availability of clean energy.

It also calls for promoting dialogue and increased understanding between India and the US on respective national energy policies and strategies as an integral part of the expanding strategic partnership.

The Bill also seeks to collaborate with India in energy research that fosters market-based approaches to energy security and offers the promise of technological breakthroughs that reduce oil dependency globally.

 
The legislation also authorises the US President to establish programmes to support greater Indo-US energy cooperation.

Assistance for cooperation related to research, development and deployment in selected areas, such as clean coal and emission reduction technologies and carbon sequestration projects; alternative fuel sources such as ethanol, bio-mass, and coal-based fuels and energy efficiency projects also come under the scope of the Bill.

 

[Soldier4Christ]

Senator Wants To Ban Tobacco Sales In Senate Buildings
Cigarette Sales In Senate Are Untaxed

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg wants to ban the sale of all tobacco products at shops in the Senate complex.

Lautenberg, who wrote the law banning smoking on commercial airlines, sent a letter Monday to the Senate's food service management office, saying selling tobacco products is inconsistent with the Senate's commitment to protecting the public's health.

Tobacco products are sold at various Senate sundry shops at a discount because no state excise or sales taxes are applied.

"Selling cigarettes free of state taxes encourages tourists and local residents to shop for cigarettes in the Senate where they can buy them at a discount," Lautenberg said. "The United States Senate must stop operating as a discount cigarette outlet."

The District of Columbia and the state of Maryland impose excise taxes of $1 per pack on cigarettes in addition to the sales tax, Lautenberg noted.

Lautenberg also noted that a 21-year-old intern in his office bought a pack of cigarettes at a Senate shop without showing identification but was asked for ID when she went across the street to another store. Stores are supposed to ask for ID for cigarette purchases if the customer does not appear to be at least 27 years old.

Lautenberg and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., led the fight to ban smoking in the Senate. The two senators were joined in the effort to ban the sale of tobacco products in the Senate by Democrats Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Smoking was severely limited in the House in June. Smoking is permitted only in two designated public areas within the buildings. It is also prohibited outside of House buildings within 25 feet of any public entrance or exit.

[Soldier4Christ]

US House raises FHA loan limits, eases rules

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to raise the Federal Housing Administration's lending limits and ease downpayment rules to make FHA assistance for first-time and low-income home buyers relevant in high-cost housing markets.

The bill to modernize the FHA, sponsored by Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney, was approved 415-7, easily surpassing a two-thirds majority required for passage under House suspension rules.

The bill amends the National Housing Act to change the factors for determining the maximum single-family mortgage amounts insurable by the FHA.

It allows the FHA to insure mortgages for up to the full median house price in high cost areas and conform with lending limits imposed on government-sponsored housing enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allow loan terms up to 40 years.

It would eliminate the 3 percent minimum downpayment on loans and scrap a flat mortgage insurance premium structure in favor of tiered premiums based on the borrower's credit history and debt-to-income ratio, the property's loan-to-value ratio and on the FHA's historical experience with similar borrowers.

The FHA, a part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides mortgage insurance on loans made by approved lenders, which helps to shield lenders from potential defaults.

For low-income buyers or those with little downpayment cash, FHA mortgages are typically cheaper than insured private mortgages.

But statutory FHA lending limits have been left behind by the massive run-up in house prices in recent years, particularly in urban areas, pushing low-income buyers to higher-cost private mortgages aimed at the sub-prime market.

For example, the maximum FHA insurable mortgage for the District of Columbia, is currently $362,790.

In June, Washington's median home sales price was far higher than the FHA's limit, at $430,000, compared to $415,000 a year earlier, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc, which runs the area's real estate listing service.

In addition to making FHA programs more competitive, the legislation also is viewed as aiding Ginnie Mae, the government-owned housing finance company that securitizes more than 95 percent of FHA mortgages. Ginnie Mae will be able to lend more effectively in high-cost markets.

"Modernizing FHA will improve competition in the prime home loan mortgage industry and effectively assist the industry in combating abusive and discriminatory lending practices," Ney said in a statement. "This bill helps further increase the country's homeownership rate, especially among low- and moderate-income and minority families."

The bill also eliminates the cap on federally insured reverse mortgages, which allow the elderly to convert part of their home equity into cash income without selling their houses.

[Soldier4Christ]

US House delays vote on state corporate tax bill

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday postponed consideration of a bill to forbid states from imposing corporate taxes on companies lacking a physical presence within their borders.

House leadership and the bill's sponsors decided to delay a vote on the measure until questions over its effect on state revenues could be cleared up, said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner.

"There were some misperceptions about its effect on states, and it has been postponed in an effort to clear up those misperceptions," Madden said, adding that he could not predict when the bill may be taken up again.

The Business Activity Tax Simplification Act, sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, imposes a physical presence standard for determining when a state can tax a company earning income within its borders.

The bill would enable many Internet-based firms and other sales and service companies with limited locations to avoid paying corporate income taxes, gross receipts or other taxes in states where they have no physical presence.

Under the bill, the business must lease or own real or tangible property in the state or have more than one employee in the state for more than 21 days in order for it to be subject to state corporate taxes.

The National Governors Association, which opposes the bill, says it would reduce collective state tax revenues by some $6.6 billion annually.

That could grow in future years as companies undertake long-term tax planning to avoid paying state corporate taxes by concentrating operations in certain states or or setting up shell companies in offshore locations, said David Quam, the association's director of federal relations.

"This legislation essentially would shift the tax burden to small businesses and locally owned stores, while favoring out-of-state corporations and larger in-state companies with the means to exploit loopholes," Quam said. 

 "This bill is neither clear nor fair, and its real legacy would be to encourage tax sheltering and discriminate against the local shop owner."

Proponents of the bill cite Congressional Budget Office figures showing that the reduction in state tax revenues will be only $1 billion in the first year. The resulting effect on overall corporate profits and reduced deductions against federal corporate tax liabilities will boost federal corporate tax collections by $107 million in the first year, according to the CBO.

The bill should be viewed as a fair and prudent tax cut for businesses, said the Tax Foundation, which supports the bill. It said a typical company with $5 million in Ohio-based sales but no physical presence in Ohio would save the $13,000 that it currently pays to Ohio. But the firm's federal tax payments would rise by $4,550 if the bill were enacted.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. House's Boehner wants pension deal Tuesday

U.S. House Majority Leader John Boehner said on Tuesday he hoped House and Senate negotiators could reach agreement on a bill to overhaul the private pension system later in the day.

"Things are moving towards a conclusion and I'm hopeful we'll have one today," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters.

But provisions to give special relief to struggling airlines had still not been finalized, Boehner said.

Other outstanding issues included Boehner's own proposal to make it easier for mutual fund companies to advise workers on investment choices for tax-deferred 401(k) retirement savings plans sponsored by employers.

"We're still working on it," he said of the investment advice provision.

But Boehner rejected a suggestion the way was cleared for the pension agreement after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist decided not to try and add contentious legislation to cut estate taxes to the pension bill.

 "I don't think it had anything to do with it," he said.

Senate and House lawmakers working on the pension bill had never discussed the possibility of adding the estate tax cut during their negotiations, he said.

Boehner said the aim of the pension legislation was to protect workers' pensions and prevent a taxpayer bailout of the agency that insures the pensions. There has been massive underfunding of employer-sponsored pensions and the agency that insures them is running a $22.8 billion deficit.

Under the proposed legislation, most companies will have seven years to make up pension underfunding. A point of contention has been how much extra relief to give struggling airlines.

Bankrupt carriers Delta Air Lines Inc. (DALRQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWACQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) want 20 additional years to pay off the underfunding in their pension plans. The airlines warned that, if they do not get such a provision by August, they may have to default on the pensions of thousands of their workers.

[Soldier4Christ]

House OKs Emergency Communication Bill

WASHINGTON -- The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at improving communication among police, firefighters and emergency crews.

If enacted, supporters say, the measure could go a long way toward fixing an all-too common problem: emergency workers unable to communicate with each other because they use different radio systems.

The bill, approved 414-2, would require that states and local governments develop guidelines among first responders to be eligible for federal homeland security grants. The measure stresses the importance of the issue by establishing a new Office of Emergency Communications, headed by an assistant secretary of homeland security.

The bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., called it a response both to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Both events demonstrated _ with tragic effect _ the reality that first responders from different agencies and jurisdictions still have trouble communicating with each other, he said.

"It is intolerable that our nation's law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical services personnel still confront many of the same emergency communication problems I did as a rookie cop in 1972," Reichert said.

Some Democrats criticized the bill's timing, saying it was inexcusable that five years after the 2001 attacks _ and a year after Katrina _ the Republican-led Congress was finally getting around to addressing the issue.

"Time and again, the lack of interoperable communication has significantly hindered the ability of our nation's first responders to successfully do their jobs," said Rep Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

He and other lawmakers noted that some New York City firefighters never received a police warning to evacuate the World Trade Center's north tower because their radio system was incompatible with police communications.

"Four years later, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, the same story emerged: Firefighters and police in the region didn't have the means to communicate," Thompson said.

Thompson and other Democrats complained that the bill does not authorize any federal money, and said states and local communities could be left to foot the bill.

Reichert challenged that, saying the Homeland Security Department has more than $1.6 billion in grant money available for local communities. The House bill would prohibit federal money from being spent on equipment that doesn't meet federal standards and statewide communications plans, Reichert said.

The measure now goes to the Senate.

[Soldier4Christ]

House Votes to Block Some Gun-Seizing

The House voted Tuesday to prevent law enforcement officers from confiscating legally owned guns during a national disaster or emergency.

Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said firearms seizures after Hurricane Katrina left residents unable to defend themselves.

"Many of them were sitting in their homes without power, without water, without communication," he said. "It was literally impossible to pick up a phone and call 911."

The House voted 322-99 in support of the bill. Senators voted 84-16 earlier this month to include a similar prohibition in a homeland security funding bill.

The limitation would apply to federal law enforcement or military officers, along with local police that receive federal funds.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., repeatedly called the bill "insane."

He and some Democrats said the bill might satisfy the gun lobby, but it would put people into more danger during already perilous disasters.

"The streets of an American city immediately after a disaster are no place to abandon common sense," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y.

The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the measure. In a letter to Jindal, National President Chuck Canterbury said law enforcement officials concentrate on search and rescue during major disasters, and breakdowns in communications and transportation can lengthen police response times to calls.

"A law-abiding citizen who possesses a firearm lawfully represents no danger to law enforcement officers or any other first responder," Canterbury wrote.

The National Rifle Association also supported the bill and has been asking police chiefs and mayors to pledge they will not forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.

Jindal said the bill does not inhibit police from enforcing gun laws, nor does it overwrite state and local laws prohibiting people from bringing guns into shelters.

Nadler said the bill would prevent police from pickup up guns that could be seized by looters. Police and other law enforcement officials could face a personal lawsuit for picking up guns they later found to be legally owned, he said.

The bill allows the Coast Guard to require that people surrender their weapons before boarding a rescue vehicle.