The House And Senate Intelligence Committees

By Justin Rood - December 7, 2006,

    In Republican hands these past few years, the panels became known more for what they didn't do than for what they did: for not learning about secret government spying projects, not inquiring about interrogation abuses, and for slow-walking investigations into intelligence failures.

But the two Democrats who will take charge of the panels next year say that's going to change.

Player: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Position: Chair, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)

Player: Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX)
Position: House Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence (HPSCI)

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   This should be an interest time when the investigations kick into high gear!

Sen. Rockefeller  said, It's not understandable to me, but the majority party sort of didn't want to do a lot of oversight."  The "terrorist surveillance program," will also be one of the subjects of insight.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes : “First and foremost, I want to prioritize committee work with the understanding that we need to work towards keeping a safe and secure nation, that we don’t want to take a chance we get hit again like on 9/11,” Reyes said in an interview.

    Dealing with the situation in Iraq will be one of his chief concerns also.

    Here is more on both of the gentlemen, from Muckraker.

Republicans Leaving A Mess

    You have to love the GOP, right? Or not! This out going group of idiots are more like children who should be bound for reform school! Nothing but a bunch of hooligans and other assorted crooks and liars!

   I am talking about these hoods that are just going home and leaving the federal spending bill in Washington for the Democrats to figure out! They are sticking the Democrats with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1     And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled.

With Congress turning off the lights this week, there seems no chance of saving the appropriations process. Instead, most of the government will remain on a stopgap bill through Feb. 15, and in kicking this can down the road, the Republican leadership has no idea where it will stop rolling.

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