To learn more about GOP plans for the lame-duck session visit Lameduckhunt.org

If national polls are right, the upcoming midterm election could bring a dramatic shift of power on Capitol Hill. But that may not save us from a last-minute assault on Net Neutrality by members of the outgoing Congress.

To find out more on the lame-duck congress visit Lame Duck Hunt.

When Congress returns in November, it must deal at least temporarily with most appropriations bills before funding runs out on November 17. The Coalition on Human Needs is extremely concerned about the threat of cuts to many human needs programs as Congress takes up domestic appropriations. Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have proposed difficult cuts in many health, education, job training, and social services programs. (For detailed examples, click here - PDF.)

These new reductions would follow upon $12 billion in domestic appropriations cuts over the past two years. Since FY 2002, direct services such as youth training have been cut 25 percent; the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant has dropped 15 percent; the Community Food and Nutrition Program was eliminated; Even Start was slashed 65 percent; and the Mental Health Performance Partnership Block Grant was cut 16 percent, just to name a few. There has been strong bipartisan opposition to making things worse. But so far votes have been ignored and promises broken.

Please take action by writing a letter to the editor and sending it to your members of Congress.

• Dow Jones reports that lobbyists for the financial industry are trying to use the lame-duck session to water down legislation that is meant to reduce the debt burden for military families. The debt problems of servicemen and women is a growing problem, according to DJ. "This summer, Defense Department officials released a report alleging that many lenders stationed around military bases attempted to hook servicemembers into predatory short-term loans with high interest rates that would be difficult if not impossible to repay. Defaulting on such loans has a devastating impact on servicemembers, including the loss of security clearance. In fact, the Associated Press reported last week that there has been a ninefold increase from 2002 to 2005 in the number of military servicemembers who have lost their security clearance because of debt problems, with security clearance stripped from 2,654 Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel last year." For more info on the fight around this bill, read Ed Mierzwinski's blog here.
• The Indian press is reporting that a lobbying group called the The Coalition for Partnership with India has been formed to lobby Congress for approval of the India nuclear deal. "Success will require a Senate vote early in the lame-duck session in order to permit time for reconciliation of differences with the House version and final approval in both chambers," the CPI has said in a statement. "The first step is to secure a unanimous consent resolution (UC) defining the number of amendments to be considered and the amount of time for debate. Republicans and Democrats do not appear to be that far apart on either issue. The coalition asks its supporters to urge each side to talk to the other, to compromise, and to reach an agreement so that the bill can be taken up immediately in the lame duck session," it said. But even before talking of priorities of the lame duck session it is being pointed out that the civilian nuclear deal runs into major problem if the Democrats win either the House of Representatives or the Senate or both. The point made is that in spite of all that talk of strong bipartisan support for the deal, the Democrats will be unwilling to give anything to the President George W Bush and that too on his terms." Reuters also reports on this story, here.
• OMB Watch is trying to rally opposition to the shoddy procedure surrounding the confirmation hearing of a key White House regulatory appointee Susan Dudley, which the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs plans to conduct with only one witness: Susan Dudley. The Committee plans to have its hearing on November 13 (the first day of the lame duck) at 2:30 pm.
• Taxpayers for Common Sense is predicting that Congress could go wild on earmarks during the lame-duck session as a result of inadequate reform legislation earlier this year.
  
• New York's The Daily Star reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will be asking outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to renew in the lame duck the College Tuition Tax Deduction for middle-class families, which is expiring this year.

It should be against the law, but it isn't... yet. But that's the kind of sneak attack that President George W. Bush, Speaker Dennis Hastert, GOP House Majority Leader John Boehner and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds' are planning for November and December. Confronted with the likely loss of one or both congressional chambers in the 2006 midterm elections, the GOP leadership seems determined to hoist one final raspberry to public accountability by calling for a rump session of this Congress after the election to vote on harmful legislation they did not bring up earlier because it would have cost the GOP the election! This plan for a lame duck congress would be the GOP's "screw you" finale to the American electorate.