Word: bille
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, says that even the GOP leadership is uninterested in making it an issue. "I don't think people are looking for a fight they're going to lose," she says. She predicts little fuss, except from "back benchers." How much of a political issue the bill will create won't be known for some time. Jennifer E. Duffy, political analyst and editor with the Cook Political Report, says any political grist for Republicans will probably depend on the level of opposition in Congress and how the issue is raised. Republicans could look for allies within...
...issue here, there has been little doubt about whether the legislation will succeed. Nine of Catania's colleagues on the 13-member council have co-sponsored the measure, prompting him to say he was "completely confident" in its passage. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has also pledged to sign the bill. If that were not guarantee enough, a precursor bill that allowed Washington to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions sailed through 12 to 1 in May, with the sole opposition vote coming from council member and former mayor Marion Barry. The Democratic-controlled Congress, which can reject legislation affecting...
While passage of the bill is almost certain, the prospect of wedding bells for gay and lesbian couples in the nation's capital will nonetheless almost certainly stir up political heat before the bill is passed, which under council rules probably wouldn't happen until December. Some Republicans in Congress, while acknowledging that they are powerless to block same-sex marriage in the capital, will probably still try. Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who is the ranking GOP member of the subcommittee with oversight over Washington, says he intends to support any effort to block the bill...
Opponents of the bill in Washington, blocked at every turn, continue to loudly condemn the effort, saying the council is acting against the wishes of residents. As in California, much of that opposition has been organized through churches. A network of pastors at predominantly black churches have been vocal opponents, and over the summer, Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl joined the fray, reminding hundreds of Catholic priests in the area of the church's opposition. However, Pastor Patrick J. Walker, chairman of a task force opposing same-sex marriage in the Missionary Baptist Ministers' Conference of D.C. and Vicinity, predicts...
...several months, Capitol Hill has been ground zero for the battle over President Obama's ambitious effort to reform the health-care system. But there are growing indications that if and when Congress actually manages to pass a bill, the real action may well be in the states, which could have a surprising degree of autonomy in determining how they implement the federal legislation, and whether it delivers on the promise of curbing soaring costs and providing coverage for the nearly 50 million uninsured. Though most everyone recognizes that the Federal Government can't impose a rigid approach, some critics...