David Obey News

Green Bay man tries to save at-risk freighter Eds: APNewsNow. GREEN BAY, Wis. The nephew of a man who perished on the shipwrecked Edmund Fitzgerald is trying to save an endangered Great Lakes freighter whose crew at the time tried to help the doomed ship.

During the waning years of the Bush administration, officials with the U.S. Department of Interior got a little too cozy with -- hold on to your Sierra Club card -- environmentalists .

Updated: Largely along party lines, a move that would have derailed the bill, was defeated by a vote of 247 to 187.

A government report that the U.S. unemployment rate hit a 26-year high of 10.2 percent last month sparked political clashes between Democrats who supported government spending to stimulate the economy and Republicans who want tax cuts.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says Democrats haven't yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill and may push the vote set for Saturday back one day or more.

This story was written by David Brown . Two state and city public health officials briefing Congress on Wednesday said they don't expect to have enough pandemic-flu vaccine to meet the needs of their high-priority population groups until well into December, and possibly not until January.

Two top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged to a congressional panel Wednesday that the government had overpromised and made poor judgments on vaccination production against the current H1N1 flu pandemic.

Appropriations committees in the House and Senate are proposing to extend the temporary limits for conforming jumbo loans either insured by the Federal Housing Administration or purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae .

Amid all the hullabaloo over health care in Congress last week, a revealing battle over Great Lakes shipping played out almost unnoticed in the background.

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology Article Date: 30 Oct 2009 The fiscal year 2010 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill will likely be rolled into a small omnibus package with other remaining appropriations bills to allow quick passage by the end of the calendar year, CQ Today reports.

After more than a year of contraction, the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter, signaling a possible end to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

WASHINGTON I t's a time-honored NASA tradition to give every new astronaut class a derogatory nickname, chosen by the class that preceded it.

JOHN FLESHER TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. a ' Congressional negotiators reached a deal Tuesday that would effectively exempt 13 ships that haul iron ore, coal and other freight on the Great Lakes from a proposed federal rule meant to reduce air pollution.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey appeared Monday night to have won an exemption for at least 13 older U.S. vessels threatened by the regulations.

For reasons that would require an actuary and a congressional historian to explain, Wisconsin gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Medicare.

The draft cap-and-trade bill sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry , D-Mass., and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., is receiving "heightened focus today... amid signs of progress," CongressDailyAM reports.

Bipartisan consensus building on A-Stan strategy. America's not as divided as some would have us think.

"I do not believe the American people will buy . A policy that is not sustainable is no policy at all; it is a Hail Mary pass that even Brett Favre would be highly unlikely to complete." -- Rep.

Sen. Kerry: It would 'irresponsible' for Obama to commit more troops to Afghanistan right now.

Environmentalists are scratching their heads and wondering if U.S. Rep. Dave Obey has abandoned them.