National Update
Congress Enacts Financial Services Rescue/Tax Extenders Bill, Bush Signs Into To Law This Afternoon
This afternoon the U.S. House of Representatives enacted the Senate's version of the financial services rescue and tax extenders bill by a 263-171 vote. The Senate had enacted the same bill on Wednesday by a 75-24 vote. Since both chambers passed the same bill, the measure was sent to President Bush this afternoon. The President signed the bill into law about an hour after the House adopted the measure.
As you know, the bill was enacted as a response to the Bush Administration's request for legislative authority to address the nation's financial woes, which were caused in large part by troubles in the housing sector. The bill is a compromise that makes available up to $700 billion to buy up bad mortgage debt to help struggling financial institutions recover after over extending themselves on risky home loans. It also provides for additional oversight authority on the banking industry and the Treasury Department as it manages this mortgage debt risk. Further, the bill limits "excessive" compensation for the CEO's and other top executives of financial institutions that agree to participate in the rescue plan.
The bill was highly controversial and was actually defeated on the House floor on Monday afternoon on a surprising 228-205 "no" vote. The bill was resurrected in the Senate when Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle made some changes. Among the changes were provisions that would increase the amount of bank deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from $100,000 to $250,000 and an update of several national accounting regulations. In addition, the Senate also attached the long suffering tax extenders package, which would, among other things, provide tax credits for the production of renewable fuels including wind and biodiesel. These changes were critical to securing sufficient support for the bill. Senator Burr voted for the bill while Senator Dole voted no.
After the Senate adopted the measure, it went to the House for today's vote. On today's vote, the North Carolina delegation voted 6 for and 7 against. Specifically, Reps. Coble, Etheridge, Miller, Myrick, Price and Watt voted "yes." Reps. Butterfield, Foxx, Jones, Hayes, McIntyre, McHenry, and Shuler voted "no." The interesting votes came from Reps. Coble and Myrick who both voted "no" during Monday's vote, but changed their votes this afternoon to support the package. It was an interesting week to say the least.
The American Farm Bureau Federation's Board of Directors issued a statement in support of the bill. As you know, Farm Bureau was also pleased the tax extender provisions were included in the package.
Congress Enacts 10 Acre "Fix" Bill; Now Goes to President for Signature
On Monday, Congress enacted the 10 acre provision correction bill I have told you about over the past several weeks. The measure spent a little time on the legislative ping-pong table going back and forth between the chambers and there was an uncertain time on Saturday evening when an unnamed Senator put the bill on hold, but in the end the bill was finally enacted by unanimous consent in both chambers. The provision was relatively non-controversial, but as often happens in Congress we needed a strong push from our congressional delegation to move the bill through the legislative process. Rep. Bob Etheridge deserves a great deal of credit for his hard work on the measure as do Reps. Butterfield, Jones, Hayes, McIntyre, McHenry, Myrick, Price and Shuler for cosponsoring the bill. In the Senate, Senator Dole cosponsored the bill. According to the Thomas bill tracking website, the bill has been formally presented to the President for his signature. Hopefully, he will sign it into law.
Well, that's it for this week and in all likelihood for the rest of 2008. The 110th Congress will again meet on January 3rd. It is possible that the House or Senate could come back to Washington for a lame-duck session in November following the election.