Lame Duck Promises; Agenda Items for New Congress

Shortly before Election Day, Reid promised during an interview with Univision, a Spanish-language television network, that he would bring the DREAM Act up for a vote before the end of the year. [As Wikipedia describes it: The purpose of the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, also called the DREAM Act, is to help those individuals who meet certain requirements, have an opportunity to enlist in the military or go to college and have a path to citizenship which they otherwise would not have without this legislation.]
Reid has also given assurances to labor officials that he will bring the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, according to a senior labor official. The bill would set minimum standards for state collective bargaining laws for firefighters and police officers. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/128027-reid-on-the-hook-for-election-promises-in-lame-duck-session
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As I've written in the past, from the mouths of Democrat Congressmen, they want to consider ramming through, while they still have the majority: card check (Raul Grjalva); raise taxes (Jay Rockefeller); the new Start Treaty with Russia; Universal Voting Registration; lock in increased agency spending; lots of pork; a VAT tax on top of current taxes; cap and tax (John Kerry), and a global transaction tax (Nancy Pelosi).  We must be prepared to let our Senators and Representative know that this is not the will of the people.
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Reuters reports: Republican Representative Ron Paul on Thursday said he will push to examine the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions if he takes control of the congressional subcommittee that oversees the central bank as expected in January. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A35QB20101104
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The Hill writes: Republicans are calling for a cut in Congressional pay in order to show how serious they are about mending the amount of debt our country has.  http://thehill.com/homenews/house/127879-boehner-pressed-to-cut-pay-of-lawmakers
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The Washington Times writes: This week's elections weren't just about the economy. Concerned about judicial tyranny, Iowans booted all three of the state Supreme Court justices who appeared on Tuesday's ballot - the first high court justices to be defeated since 1962, when Iowans created a system of voting on whether or not judges should be retained.
The Hawkeye State's judicial elections rarely generate much controversy or interest, with most judges generally enjoying approval levels of around 75 percent. That changed with the high court's unanimous 2009 decision discovering a right to homosexual "marriage" in the state constitution - a view that would have shocked those who drafted the document long before homosexuality was the subject of polite conversation, let alone political debate.
Most of the voters repudiating those justices oppose homosexual marriage, but the rebuke did not come just from traditional conservatives.
For those voters, the uncharacteristic ousters appear to have been driven by a distaste for judges who attempt to rewrite the law.
When judges step outside this role and act as robed political leaders, they don't just become controversial, they become a threat to our political system based on the separation of powers. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/4/a-blow-to-judicial-tyranny/
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Fox News reports: Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who is expected to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said immigration reform will be pushed aside for streamlined enforcement of current laws.

"The enforcement of our immigration laws is critical to both our national security and economic prosperity," he told the San Antonio Express. "We need to know who is entering our country, and why."

He told the newspaper that the committee under his leadership would "enact policies that will better secure our border and discourage illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking." http://politics.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=23888&external=555038.proteus.fma
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Yahoo News reports: Washington – President Obama and the Democrats have just endured one painful political tsunami. Now they’re bracing themselves for another: Darrell Issa.
The House Republican from California is set to take over the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and he has made no secret of his love of hearings. He wants hundreds of them – one or two a week, times seven subcommittees, times 40 weeks, he told Politico. That’s at least 280 hearings a year. By way of comparison, Rep. Henry Waxman (D) of California held 203 oversight hearings in two years when he chaired the committee during President George W. Bush’s last two years in office, Politico notes.
Representative Issa doesn’t want to bother with sideshows, like Roger Clemens and steroids. He wants to go after the executive branch.
IN PICTURES: Election Day 2010
“We need serious reforms within the federal bureaucracy, and I will target areas of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement to ensure that we are better stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Issa said Tuesday on CNBC. http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101109/ts_csm/342292
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The Washington Post on Issa:  [He] certainly knows that the nation needs a more accountable, efficient and productive bureaucracy. But what he may not realize is that there is $1 trillion in savings through long-overdue reform.
The options are already there for the taking: $1 billion over the next ten years by cutting the number of presidential appointees; $100 billion by eliminating needless management layers throughout the bloated federal hierarchy; $200 billion by eliminating many of the federal jobs about to be vacated by the baby boomers; $200 billion by cutting the contracting workforce; $100 billion by increasing federal productivity; $300 billion by merging duplicated programs; and $200 billion by eliminating programs that either do not produce results or are too trivial to bother. http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/light/2010/11/darrell-issa-government-oversight.html