A planned White House meeting to discuss immigration has already been postponed twice, and HAI has now learned the White House is expected to hold the highly anticipated meeting Thursday to discuss the prospects of overhauling the nation's immigration laws and giving millions of undocumented workers in the country some legal status.

Senators failed to agree last week on amendments to the tourism-promotion bill (S. 1023) being pushed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).  Reid has now said he wants to limit debate on the bill with a cloture vote possibly scheduled for later today, Monday, June 22. Reid said he hoped to avoid the cloture vote by reaching an agreement on amendments with Republicans.

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has signed a contract for three AW139 medium twin engine helicopters plus options for several additional aircraft.

HAI reports a group of influential House Democrats has sent a stern warning to the hedge fund industry not to stand in the way of federal efforts to curb foreclosures.

HAI continues to closely track legislative developments from Capitol Hill on the free-market views that fueled the financial crisis.

HAI is reporting that House leaders will likely form a select committee to explore a rewrite of the regulatory structure that governs the financial industry.

Bankruptcy experts are urging changes in the 2005 overhaul of the systemto increase the survival chances of affected firms and stop favoredcreditors from leaving others in the lurch. In testimony today, Friday, September 26 before the House Judiciary Committeeexperts said that because the 2005 reform law bill exempted large pools of financial holdings from the process, the most valuable assets of a firm like Lehman Brothers "are walking out the door at the moment a bankruptcy is filed." As a result, only the "dregs" of the company's holdings are left for other creditors.

The U. S. House of Representatives this evening, Friday September 26, approved a $60.7 billion economic stimulus package that includes a seven-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits, a $2 6 billion increase in food stamp benefits, and $14.7 billion to help states address rising Medicaid costs. The measure passed 264-158. Earlier today, Senate Republicans blocked the chamber from taking up a $56.7 billion economic recovery package that Senate Democrats unveiled Thursday. That procedural vote fell short, 52-42, of the 60 votes needed for approval. The Senate could try to take up the House package this weekend. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House said President Bush would veto the bill because it would "simply increase government spending, including self-perpetuating entitlement spending by tens of billions of dollars."

As reported last week on HAI’s RotorNews, legislation has been introduced in Congress that would address interchange rates electronic payment networks charge merchants for processing credit card and some debit card transactions.

President Bush has signed into law, as Public Law 110-241, the Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act.  Congress passed the law and the President signed it to “fix” a flaw in the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) law passed in 2003.  The FACT Act required retailers to truncate credit card numbers on electronically printed receipts and eliminate expiration dates.

As reported earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives will soon vote on a supplemental spending bill to cover educational benefits for veterans.  Pay as you go provisions pushed by House “Blue Dogs” require the cost of those educational benefits be fully offset.  The pay-go provision being pushed by the Blue Dogs would impose a .47 percent surtax on individual incomes over $500,000 and on the married couples’ income over $1 million.

Split down party lines, the Senate Budget Committee Thursday, March 6, moved its FY09 budget plan to the floor after staving off Republican efforts to rewrite key elements of the process.  By a 12-10 margin, the 23-member panel voted to approve a $3 trillion blueprint that would set the spending and taxing policies for FY09.

The Bush Administration’s new and largely classified plan to ramp up security of government computer networks yielded more questions than answers last week at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.  Members of Congress expressed doubts about leadership, privacy, and resource allocation for achieving real-time intrusion detection.

The House Homeland Security Committee continues to examine proposed legislation that would force chemical facilities to implement “inherently safer technologies” in their site security plans.  The legislation would make permanent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations and would also require certain high-risk facilities to take a risk-based approach to making their facilities safer, such as switching to less dangerous chemicals.

The White House and Congressional Republicans have ramped up their public pressure demanding that House Democratic leaders allow a vote on the Senate-passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).  Commercials on television and even President Bush in his news conference last week have repeatedly asserted that not having a new law in force is dangerous for the country.

HAI has learned President Bush's fiscal year 2009 (FY09) budget will not include the cost of fixing the growing alternative minimum tax (AMT) problem, proposing instead a one-year patch that will add only to this year's deficit, according to an administration official. The White House claims the budget can be balanced by 2012, a goal that would be harder to reach if the cost of a broader AMT fix is included.

HAI reports the head of the Financial Services Roundtable has once again renewed
his difficult bid to persuade Congress to pass legislation that would allow carriers to choose whether to continue to be regulated by states or opt for supervision by a new federal agency.

As Congress continues formulating the outline of an economic stimulus package, some business-related tax cuts have broad, bipartisan support among Democrats, particularly the moderate New Democrat and Blue Dog coalitions.  For instance, Blue Dog Congresswoman Melissa Bean, D-Illinois, will offer legislation aimed at business and job creation that Democratic leaders have expressed interest in placing in the package.

With both parties essentially set in considering one-time tax rebates as part of any economic stimulus plan, the focus has turned to their size and who is eligible -- and now how quickly they can get into the hands of consumers.  Some modest impact as a result of the 2001 tax rebates was felt, but Congressional Budget Office (CBO) officials told Senators yesterday, January 22 that checks might go out too late this year to help inject some life into the ailing economy.  That contention was based in part on difficulties the IRS would have in administering the rebates, as well as the Social Security Administration (SSA), which processes payroll tax contributions.

Offering a tax rebate to workers might not be on top of the list for much of K Street (where most Washington lobbyists call home); however, the idea has picked up steam with the nation's retail lobby, which argues that such checks could help provide a boost to the economy that is increasingly driven by consumer spending.  Increased retail sales could spur related wholesale and manufacturer activity.

Lawmakers pressed ahead Tuesday, January 22 with plans to kickstart the ailing U.S. economy, as the Federal Reserve Board stepped in with a big interest rate cut aimed at spurring growth and stabilizing a battered stock market.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-California), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nevada), and other leaders from both parties, met with President Bush at the White House to discuss a stimulus package, following up on a conference call last week.

After dominating the legislative agenda for most of last year, the Iraq war is taking a backseat to the economy at the start of the election year, but congressional leaders insist the war remains on the radar and cannot be ignored.

Congressional tax writers return in 2008 to tackle two of the same issues they struggled with in 2007: the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and expiring tax provisions.  And, as in 2007, the form and timing of significant tax legislation will be shaped by the pay-as-you-go budget rules that forced tough, divisive fights on revenue-raising offsets.