Think Progress

ENVIRONMENT -- CONTROL OF KEY HOUSE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE SHIFTS TO MARKEY: Jurisdiction over energy and environmental issues -- including global warming legislation -- in a key House committee will be moving from two lawmakers sympathetic to industrial polluters to a progressive environmentalist. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) will become chair of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Markey's new subcommittee will replace the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), a coal-country representative, and the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), an oil-patch Democrat.Waxman, who, like Markey, is a strong proponent of progressive action to combat climate change, is in the process of reorganizing the energy and commerce committee after wresting control of it from Rep. John Dingell (D-MI). As chair of the new subcommittee, Markey will have jurisdiction over greenhouse gas emissions legislation, such as the iCAP bill he proposed last year. He will also oversee the Clean Air Act, fossil fuel energy, nuclear energy, drinking water, and Superfund cleanups. Markey will remain chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which has no power over legislation. Boucher will take Markey's former seat as chair of the subcommittee in charge of telecommunications and the Internet. Boucher, like Markey, is a champion of network neutrality and patent reform.

CIVIL RIGHTS -- COURTS USING LEDBETTER DECISION TO 'UNDERMINE CIVIL RIGHTS PRINCIPLES': Today the House of Representatives plans to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in an attempt to overturn a Supreme Court decision that restricted a woman's right to bring pay discrimination lawsuits. After 19 years on the job, Ledbetter "sued her employer when she discovered she was the lowest-paid supervisor at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant where she worked, despite having more experience than several male co-workers." While a jury found she was the victim of discrimination, an appeals court claimed she waited too long to sue, and last year, the Supreme Court agreed. On a conference call yesterday organized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, explained that the faulty Supreme Court decision has been stretched to cripple all kinds of anti-discrimination laws. "[W]e've got these judges taking the Ledbetter decision to absurd lengths and saying that the most entrenched and invidious discrimination," Greenberger said. "It's now causing real misery, as was described not only for women and their families in pay...but for all victims of discrimination."

ADMINISTRATION -- FDA SCIENTISTS TO OBAMA: AGENCY IS 'FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN': Nine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists have sent a letter to President-elect Obama's transition team, urging the incoming administration to reform the "fundamentally broken" agency. The letter's authors wrote that President Bush's FDA managers "ordered, intimidated and coerced scientists to manipulate their research results in violation of federal law." Scientists who did not comply with managers were threatened with disciplinary action. According to the Kaiser Foundation, "The scientists wrote that they have raised their concerns with FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach and Bill McConagha, an attorney and the assistant commissioner for accountability and integrity," but that the agency "has taken no action to address the issues." The scientists also claimed that the FDA has promoted and rewarded the managers who were involved in the inappropriate practices. During his confirmation hearings yesterday, Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle said he aims to ensure that the FDA "is restored as the leading science based regulatory agency in the world. ... I expect key decisions at the FDA to be made on the basis of science -- period."

A 21-member bipartisan investigative committee of the Illinois House voted unanimously yesterday in favor of the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). The move "cleared the way for an impeachment vote by the full House, expected Friday. A majority vote there would send the matter to the State Senate for trial, where two-thirds approval would remove the governor."

CentCom Commander Gen. David Petraeus said yesterday that Afghanistan will require a "sustained, substantial" commitment from America and other nations to stop the spread of violence and the rise of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Petraeus added that Iran has common interests in Afghanistan and “hinted that such interests might make talks with Iran feasible."

"Intent on blocking organized labor's top legislative goal," corporations are pouring money into lobbying groups like the Workforce Fairness Institute and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace as part of "a multimillion-dollar campaign" aimed at "killing legislation that would give unions the right to win recognition at a workplace once a majority of employees sign cards saying they want a union."

The congressional oversight panel charged with monitoring the Wall Street bailout slammed the Treasury Department in a new report. The report states the "U.S. Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system, not answered questions asked by a government watchdog, and has done nothing to help struggling homeowners." It also cites "significant gaps" in Treasury's ability to track the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate agreed on a voice vote to a non-binding resolution in support of Israel's attack on Gaza. The House was expected to pass a similar resolution. See the draft text here. 

Aid groups are increasingly critical of Israel's military operations on the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, the United Nations "declared a suspension of its aid operations after one of its drivers was killed and two others were wounded." After discovering "four emaciated children next to the bodies of their dead mothers," the Red Cross said, "the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded."

Yesterday, outgoing DNC Chairman Howard Dean was conspicuously absent from a press conference at which Barack Obama announced Gov. Tim Kaine as the new chairman. "If he had been asked to go to that event, he would have been there," Jim Dean, the chairman's brother, noted twice in an interview. Washington Monthly's Steven Benen writes that Dean "deserves his due."

Yesterday, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for the first time called on Congress to enact a carbon tax, saying that it is a "more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach" than a cap-and-trade system. In 2007, Tillerson "said he didn't support any particular policy for curbing carbon-dioxide emissions."

And finally: For one night, U.S. soldiers in Iraq are getting a "taste of home: football and beer." On Wednesday, Gen. Ray Odierno issued a waiver, allowing troops to have two alcoholic drinks on Super Bowl night, marking "the first time all American service members in Iraq will be allowed to break the ban on liquor in combat zones without risking being court-martialed."