President Obama raises the curtain Thursday night on a $400 billion plan to jump start the nation’s economy. It’s called the American Job Act. But will it work?
It would pour thousands of jobs into the marketplace and bring down the 9.1 percent unemployment rate, for sure. But there is one big bump in the road: It has to be approved by Congress. Keep reading →
In Washington, you can’t go too long in cocktail party banalities without people asking “So…what do you do?”
It wasn’t too long ago that my response, “I’m a budget geek”, used to elicit a half-hearted, “Oh. Great.”, as their eyes glazed over, scanning the crowd looking for the next target. But that’s beginning to change. Keep reading →
The Federal Disaster Relief Fund, the pot of money used to help communities and individuals hit by disasters, is nearly depleted. That’s bad news for victims of both Hurricane Irene and other disasters like the tornadoes that hit earlier this year.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said Monday that the agency’s fund has fallen to less than $800 million. With less that $1 billion on hand, the agency is only authorized to pay for emergency repairs. That means that long-term projects, like rebuilding roads, schools and other damaged structures in the tornado-ravaged southeastern states and Joplin, Mo., will have to wait. Keep reading →
Federal agency and department leaders should plan for a 5 percent reduction in discretionary spending in fiscal year 2013, and prepare for more cuts –at least 10 percent–according to a White House Office of Management and Budget memo. At the same time, OMB urged agencies to look for opportunities to enhance economic growth.
Unless agencies have been given explicit direction to the contrary by OMB, overall agency funding requests for fiscal year 2013 should be “at least 5 percent below your 2011 enacted discretionary appropriation,” OMB Director Jacob Lew wrote in an Aug. 17 memo to federal agency and department heads. Keep reading →
When I was a kid, I would read from an old set of encyclopedias – just randomly, but with a predilection for famous and not-so-famous people. As a result, I still remember at least something about the lives of the Roman-era scholar-king Juba II of Mauretania, the Seneca chief and orator Red Jacket, the World War I field marshal August von Mackensen, and scads of other people. It’s useless knowledge, I suppose, but it entertains me and is tolerated (mostly) by friends and family members.
Given my fondness for small-scale biographies, a hefty reference work like Women in Congress, 1917-2006 could put me out of action for days. These meticulously researched biographies, including sources for further reading and a photograph of each Senate or House member discussed, are a treasure trove for fans of American politics and history and trivia buffs alike.
Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a life-long pacifist, voted against going to war with Germany in 1917, didn’t get elected again until 1940, and promptly voted her conscience again by opposing the declaration of war against Japan after Pearl Harbor. Like the others in this book, Rankin was more than just a source for a Jeopardy question – in the 1960s, she was still marching for the causes she held dear.
Although many of those discussed in Women in Congress, especially prior to the 1960s, arrived via the “widow’s mandate” – succeeding their deceased husbands in office – many of them stayed to make significant careers on their own. Take Edith Nourse Rogers, for example. After being elected to her husband’s seat in the House of Representatives, this self-proclaimed “Republican by inheritance and by conviction” served 18 terms, noted for her advocacy on behalf of veterans, steadfast opposition to fascism in Nazi Germany andItaly, and dedicated anticommunism during the Cold War.
After World War II, Helen Gahagan Douglas, a former movie actress, was labeled “The Pink Lady” by an opponent targeting her liberal political views. She, in turn, enriched the language of American politics by dubbing her final opponent, Richard M. Nixon, “Tricky Dick.”
Millicent Fenwick, a fiscally conservative but independent Republican of the 1970s and 1980s, was the inspiration for the Lacey Davenport character in Garry Trudeau’s long-running Doonesbury comic strip)
Okay, I’d better stop or this post will never end. Every one of the entries in Women in Congress is worthy of mention, and I know a lot of you have your own favorites, but I just can’t do it all. Happily, you can browse as much as you want right here, get your own copy, or find it in a library.
Oh, and did you know that King Juba II of Mauretania married Cleopatra’s daughter?
Jim Cameron is editorial and social media consultant for the Government Printing Office and writes regularly on books about government topics.