Monday, March 23, 2009 | 9:20 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Greetings, Early Liners where the nation’s capital is poised to pick up where it left off in the blame game over the AIG bonuses while legislators in Carson City open Week Eight with a hearing today on accepting unemployment benefits from the federal stimulus package.
As my Sun colleagues wrote in Sunday’s paper, this legislative session in Carson is proving to be an executive-legislative tug-of-war, with today’s debate over jobless funds exhibit A.
In Washington, the Senate is expected to take up the bill to ban bonuses for AIG employees, even as the Obama administration is expressing doubts that steep taxes are the best way to fight the bonuses.
The Senate will also return to legislation promoting National Service, which First Lady Michelle Obama spoke passionately about last week. The bill passed the House with a provision sponsored by Democratic Rep. Dina Titus to create a National Service Reserve Corps.
But the AIG controversy continues to hang over the capital. If you thought the pummeling AIG exec Edward Liddy received last week at the hands of incredulous House lawmakers, tune when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner returns for not one, but two scheduled appearances before the House Financial Services Committee this week.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faces his own badgering by Republicans for having allowed the AIG bonuses via a loophole in the stimulus bill, including indirect questioning from his fellow Nevada Sen. John Ensign. Yet a Democrat said Friday that Reid was not in the room when the language was added.
On the House side, Nevada’s lawmakers will have a second chance to vote again on the massive 165-bill public lands package, which includes several items for Nevada.
Among the items for the state in the bill: Land for the Nevada Cancer Institute, 500 acres for development around Henderson airport and a massive land swap in Carson City.
Republican Rep. Dean Heller voted against the bill several weeks ago as it fell two votes short of passage, even though it contained the big Carson City lands bill he authored. He and others will get a do-over.
Later this week, Reid meets with Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Friday to discuss Yucca Mountain, and the formation of a Blue Ribbon committee to find alternatives to the proposed waste storage site.
Also, our colleagues at the RJ remind that the state Democratic Party will hold elections for chairman later this week.
Lots of good stories in the weekend papers. Be sure to read Sun colleague Brian Eckhouse’s Sunday piece as he tries to answer the moral question of 2009: Should you walk away from your home?
That’s it for now. Check back later for all the political news from Nevada.
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