110th United States Congress

The 110th United States Congress was sworn in on January 4, 2007. It will be in session through noon, January 4, 2009.

Caucus totals are 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 2 Independents (who plan to caucus with Democrats) in the U.S. Senate.

Democratic Leadership
The following members were selected by House Democrats to serve in the leadership during the 110th Congress:

Republican Leadership
The following members were selected by House Republicans to serve in the leadership during the 110th Congress:

Committee chairmanships
The following members were selected to serve as committee chairs during the 110th Congress. Also listed are the members who previously headed the respective committees during the 109th Congress.

* Committee names changed at the beginning of the 110th Congress.

Democratic Leadership
On November 14, 2006, the Democratic caucus met in the Old Senate Chamber to decide on party leaders. The following members were selected to serve in the leadership:

Republican Leadership
On November 15, 2006, the Senate Republican caucus met to determine Senate Minority leadership. The following members were selected:

Committee Assignments
The following members were selected to serve as committee chairs during the 110th Congress. Also listed are the members who previously headed the respective committees during the 109th Congress.

* At the beginning of the 110th Congress, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) was in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was named interim chair until his return. (Monterey Herald Story)

Calendar
The House and Senate are generally in session in 2008 with the exception of these dates:
 * Jan 1-14 (House): Christmas recess
 * Jan 1-21 (Senate): Christmas recess
 * Jan 21: (Both) Martin Luther King Day

Source: Congress Daily calendar (pdf)

Rule changes
The Democratic-led House enacted several rule changes at the beginning of the 110th Congress. These included the following:


 * Rule X - Organization of committees: Several committee names were altered. The Committee on Education and the Workforce became the Committee on Education and Labor, the Committee on International Relations became the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Resources became the Committee on Natural Resources, the Committee on Government Reform became the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Science became the Committee on Science and Technology.


 * Rule XI - Procedures of committees and unfinished business: Annual ethics training is now required for members, delegates, and employees of the House and will be conducted by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.


 * Rule XX - Voting and quorum calls: The Speaker of the House is now prohibited from holding votes open beyond the 20 minute limit for the express purpose of changing the outcome of the vote (a dig at former Speaker Dennis Hastert's holding the 2003 vote on the Medicare Modernization Act for nearly three hours).


 * Rule XXI - Restrictions on certain bills: New so-called "pay/go" provisions state that all spending increases must be offset by spending reductions or revenue increases. The rule change also institutes restrictions on earmarking by mandating that no bill can be considered that is not presented with a list of earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits attached and included in the Congressional Record. This applies to all bills coming from committee, conference committee, joint committee, or bills that forgo the committee process.

New rules
The Democrats also created several new rules upon taking control in the 110th Congress:


 * Rule XXII - House and Senate relations: This new rule bans the practice of changing a conference report after it has been agreed upon and signed by conferees, a not-uncommon tactic used by the House Republican leadership in previous congresses.


 * Rule XXIII - Code of Official Conduct: This new rule aims to end the "K Street Project" by prohibiting members from threatening to retaliate against firms that hire employees who do not have similar partisan affiliations, prohibiting members from using funds (official, personal, or campaign) to pay for the use of privately-owned airplanes and requiring members to disclose all earmark requests and confirm that neither they nor their spouses have a financial stake in those requests.


 * Rule XXV - Limitations on outside earned income and acceptance of gifts: This new rule bans lawmakers from receiving gifts or travel reimbursements from lobbyists and foreign agents.

Rules carried over from the 109th Congress
Democrats chose to preserve a Republican-initiated rule from the 109th Congress limiting members from serving as committee chairs on the same committee for more than three consecutvie Congresses (six years). The rule was originally put into place by a newly-elected Republican Congress in 1995 led by former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

John Santore, a spokesman for Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), said that the term limits issue was not, "an area of contention" for most Democrats. He did add, however, that some Democrats disagreed with the continuation of the rule and that the issue could be revisited in the future. 

House
The following legislative issues were addressed by the House during the 110th Congress:


 * Implementation of 9/11 commission recommendations
 * Increase in the federal minimum wage
 * Allowing for expanded funding of embryonic stem cell research
 * Changing the medicare prescription drug benefit to allow the government to negotiate prices with drug makers
 * Reducing the interest rate on subsidized student loans
 * Eliminating tax breaks for (and imposing new fees on) oil and gas companies

Iraq
In a poll released by The Washington Post on February 26, 2007, 54% of Americans trusted Congress to solve the situation in Iraq compared to 34% who trusted President George W. Bush. 

In balance and dispute of the currency of the above as a more current reflection of the entirety of the American public as polled on the issue. The following is a more Current reflection of opinion that comes from a September 2007 NY Times/CBS poll.

Military Holds Most Trust in Iraq Debate, New Poll Finds;

Only "5 percent" of Americans — a strikingly low number for a sitting president’s handling of such a dominant issue — said they most trust the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found. Asked to choose between the administration, Congress and military commanders, "21 percent" said they would most trust Congress and "68 percent" expressed the most trust in military commanders.



Agenda
The following are among suggested items to be included on the agenda by the 110th Congress:


 * adopting anti-terrorism agenda of the 9/11 Commission
 * arms control
 * domestic surveillance
 * education (including tuition tax credits, reduced student loan interest rates, and grant amount increases)
 * environment and global warming
 * ethics and campaign finance reform
 * free trade (opposition)
 * gun control
 * health care (including expanding children's health care insurance, negotiated drug prices, and insuring the uninsured)
 * identity theft
 * illegal immigration / immigration reform
 * Medicare (lowering drug prices)
 * net neutrality
 * nuclear weapons (including in North Korea and Iran)
 * Social Security (retirement plans vs. Social Security privatization)
 * stem cell research
 * U.S. budget deficit
 * U.S. minimum wage
 * U.S. tax cuts
 * war in Iraq (also see New Iraq and post-war Iraq) and war in Afghanistan (stay the course? or redeployment? based on recommendations of the Iraq Study Group)
 * war on terrorism

Investigations
The following are among suggested topics for investigation by the 110th Congress:


 * abandonment of habeas corpus; individual rights versus national security; personal data leaks and invasion of privacy; and Patriot Act abuses (including domestic spying)
 * Central Intelligence Agency
 * defense contractors and war profiteering (particularly Halliburton/Kellogg Brown and Root)
 * extraordinary rendition and the global detention system
 * financial misconduct and lack of accountability
 * funding the war in Iraq
 * Hurricane Katrina
 * impeachment of President Bush (including; Bush's abuse of the U.S. Constitution and a Constitutional crisis)
 * intelligence community and cooked intelligence
 * lies and deceptions
 * rationales for war in Iraq
 * scandals; cronyism and incompetence; and the Republican 'culture of corruption' (particularly Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, and Tom DeLay)
 * September 11, 2001
 * tobacco industry
 * war in Iraq (also see New Iraq and post-war Iraq) and war in Afghanistan
 * yellowcake forgery
 * Investigations surrounding Randy "Duke" Cunningham

On August 3, 2007, the House created a select committee, with subpoena power, to investigate a voting controversy surrounding an August 2 vote on the FY2008 agriculture appropriations bill.

Related SourceWatch/Congresspedia Resources

 * Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002
 * Bush administration / Bush's White House Staff
 * Lame Duck Presidency


 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Four
 * U.S. congressional elections in 2006
 * U.S. congressional elections in 2006: Campaign Issues

Websites

 * WashingtonWatch.com. Go to "Bill Categories" for status of current legislation.
 * Name Pronunciation Guide to the 110th U.S. Congress

Articles & Commentary
Note: This page created November 10, 2006.