Thursday News Roundup

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

House Votes to Boost Watchdogs' Power

Government watchdogs would gain more autonomy and protection from political retribution under legislation the House passed Wednesday. The White House threatened a veto, saying the measure infringes on presidential authority over inspectors general.

The bill is the latest proposal where the Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress have clashed over executive branch versus congressional authority. Other disputes have involved who should set policy on secret surveillance, the treatment of suspected terrorists and military operations in Iraq.

The inspector general legislation passed 404-11, well above the level needed for the House to override a veto. The full Senate has not yet taken up the issue.

FEC Nominee Von Spakovsky, Other Three Advance Without Recommendation

A Senate panel sent four nominees to the Federal Election Commission to the floor Wednesday without recommendation, as one contentious appointee threatened to derail the bunch.

Rules and Administration Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she could not support the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky. He has served on the commission as a recess appointee since Jan. 4, 2006, but has been harshly criticized for his earlier work at the Justice Department by career lawyers and civil rights groups.

“I don’t feel that this is an unbiased individual that we would confirm to go on the FEC,” Feinstein said.

Republicans, however, noted that commission nominees routinely move in pairs because the agency has three members from each party. The goal is to enable senators to accept partisan adversaries.

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Jobless claims jump by largest amount in 4 months

WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits shot up last week by the biggest amount in four months.

The Labor Department reported a total of 317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week. It was the biggest gain since jobless claims rose by 18,000 during the week of May 9.

The rise was bigger than analysts had been expecting and could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years and a severe credit crunch that roiled global markets in August.

Labor Department analysts said that the two-day auto strike involving General Motors Corp. did not appear to have a significant impact on the claims figures last week, according to preliminary information from the states.

Bush Vetoes Child Health Bill Privately

WEST HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa., Oct. 3 — President Bush on Wednesday made good on his promise to veto a bill that would have expanded government health insurance for children, but then said he was open to compromising with Congress by spending more money on the program than his budget has proposed.

"I do want Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a bill that focuses on the poor children,” Mr. Bush told a group of business people at a town-hall-style meeting here in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

He added, “And if they need a little more money to help us meet the objective of getting help for poorer children, I’m more than willing to sit down with the leaders and find a way to do so.”

But Mr. Bush did not make a specific offer, and his plan, to spend $5 billion more on the program over the next five years, falls far short of the $35 billion expansion that passed with bipartisan support in Congress.