Photograph by Nate Jenkins/AP Photo

Loose horses sold for slaughter.

From Bloomberg Government’s Congress Tracker:

President Barack Obama’s budget envisions zeroing out money for horse inspections, a move that — if it becomes law — would effectively block the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the U.S.

Section 725, the very last provision of the Agriculture Department proposal released today, seeks to block funding for USDA meat inspection for horses. Under law, USDA inspectors must be on site during every stage of the slaughtering process to check animals and meat meant for human consumption.

The move comes amid an application from Valley Meat Co. to open a horse slaughterhouse near Roswell, New Mexico. Lawmakers led by Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat who owns a rescue horse named Oreo, have introduced legislation (S 541) that would ban such meat inspection of horses. The companion House bill is H.R. 1094.

About 4.6 million horses lived on U.S. farms in 2007. That was the last year the USDA counted them and the final year of domestic slaughter, which wound down after Congress stopped funding federal inspection of horse facilities. More than 94,000 horses were slaughtered in 2005, the last full year before funding dried up.

Without a U.S. plant, horses have been shipped for slaughter in Mexico or Canada, enduring thousands of miles of travel in trucks and on trains. That has been criticized both by animal-welfare groups as cruel and by agricultural organizations as an argument for a domestic industry. Exports of live horses to other North American countries numbered 197,442 last year, more than double the figure in 2007 and more than six times what it was a decade ago.

 Alan Bjerga and Amanda J. Crawford contributed.

Original post is Obama Budget: No Horse Meat by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

The Louisville Cardinals mascot cheers during the National Semifinal game of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Senate was supposed to vote  this afternoon on the nomination of Patty Shwartz as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That vote has been postponed until tomorrow because Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has other plans: Kentucky’s senior senator will be in the sea of red at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta as his University of Louisville Cardinals take on the University of Michigan Wolverines for the men’s NCAA basketball championship.

The Senate schedule e-mailed to reporters on March 25 had set the Shwartz vote for 5 p.m. today. Last week, the Senate leadership announced that they intended to delay the vote for a day — an action made formal by unanimous consent today.

Why the schedule foul-up? On March 31, Louisville knocked off Duke University to qualify for the Final Four, setting up a potential conflict for McConnell between the Senate vote and the championship game. He has been a frequent face in the crowd at the team’s NCAA tournament games this year.

A senior Democratic aide said the schedule was adjusted in the expectation that if Louisville made it to the final round, McConnell would want to go to the game. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart pointed out that the schedule change was made before Louisville won its Final Four game against Wichita State University on Saturday and the finals match-up was known.

McConnell graduated from Louisville in 1964 and worked with the university to establish the McConnell Center, which provides scholarships for students interested in public affairs. The center has hosted a number of high-level speakers, including Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Speaker John Boehner and Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

From Bloomberg Government’s Congress Tracker blog.

Original post is Basketball Trumps Senate Vote for Louisville Fan by Political Capital.

Photograph by Brian Kersey/Getty Images

Mike Davis clears snow from the Millennium Park skating rink on March 5, 2013 in Chicago.

A congressional hearing on asteroid threats has been postponed due to inclement weather.

As Washington girds for the snow from a storm blowing out of the Midwest, with heavy fluff predicted in the dawn hours of the nation’s Capitol tomorrow, all sorts of governmental activity will come to a temporary halt.

House leaders have advised all committees that they want to finish for the week after a 1 p.m. scheduled vote on continuation of government spending through the fiscal year.

So the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee has called off a hearing on U.S. government efforts to track and mitigate asteroids and meteors.

This is serious business.

Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, noted when the hearing was announced: “The meteor that struck Russia was estimated to be 17 meters, and wasn’t tracked at all. The smaller they are, the harder they are to spot, and yet they can be life-threatening. Some space challenges require innovation, commitment and diligence. This is one of them. ”

Just not on a snow day.

Original post is Snow Targets D.C., Asteroids on Hold by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mary Evans/LUCASFILM/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

Star Wars

Updated 3:08 pm EST

President Barack Obama is no Jedi knight, and no Vulcan — by his own accounts today.

And he’s certainly not both.

It would seem that to cross “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” in one reference, as the commander-in-chief did today at the White House, is best not done. At the same time, one expert tells us, Obama may have been on to something.

There was  Obama this morning, apparently mixing up his Spocks and Solos after meeting with congressional leaders in an apparently-futile meeting to dodge the budget cuts of sequestration.

“I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington,” the president said, “that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should, somehow, you know, do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.”

Instantly Twitter lit up in high snark that the president had confused two of the most famous tactics of science fiction — the Jedi mind trick and the Vulcan mind meld — sparking “geek outrage”

Yet something triggered in my mind, stored in the files of years of sci-fi fandom, that perhaps the president wasn’t actually incorrect. Maybe Twitter was wrong. And somehow, I think LucasFilm was expecting my call.

Here’s the verdict, according to those who should know: Obama was actually — probably inadvertently — right.

There is such a thing in Star Wars books and spinoffs as a Jedi battle meld, according to Pablo Hidalgo, who goes by the informal title of “Star Wars guru” at LucasFilm. In such a battle meld, those fluent in the Force link their minds toward a common purpose at a time of great conflict.

And though Hidalgo — chuckling throughout the entire interview — suspects it was probably a mixup of of Star Wars and Star Trek, he can’t be 100 percent sure. While there’s no evidence the president of the United States reads or has read Star Wars books, or is conversant in extended Star Wars lore, Hidalgo said, “he may have tipped off deeper knowledge than anyone may have suspected.”

Twitter is still on the case:

Ease The Geek Rage: Obama’s Technically Right, There Is a Jedi Meld tcrn.ch/Z2P4y7 by @ferenstein

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) March 1, 2013

Even Spock weighs in:

Only a Vulcan mind meld will help with this congress. LLAP

— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) March 1, 2013

And finally the White House, with some more mixing of Wars and Trek:

We must bring balance to the Force. #Sequester #JediMindMeld twitter.com/whitehouse/sta…

— The White House (@whitehouse) March 1, 2013

Original post is Obama’s Magic Star Wars (Trek) Meld by Political Capital.

Photograph by Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA., Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA.,Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN., and Claire McCaskill, D-MO., during a news conference with Senate Democratic women on the Violence Against Women Act in this file photo.

From Bloomberg Government’s Congress Tracker blog

To get a sense of the size of the Republican divide over its version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, look at the guys with gavels.

Chairmen of committees with jurisdiction over the bill split on the Republican alternative with Judiciary’s Bob Goodlatte of Virginia voting in favor and Doc Hastings of Natural Resources, which oversees Indian affairs and the tribal provisions of the measure, voting against. They both opposed the Senate-passed version of the bill on final passage.

Hastings, of Washington state, issued a statement calling the bill’s consideration  “far from deliberate” and so politicized it went through in a “political stampede.”

Worth noting: neither committee marked up the bill, because leaders bypassed regular order.

Sixty Republicans defected on the GOP alternative; the vote was 166-257. Two Democrats voted in favor of the Republican alternative: Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

The House cleared the underlying bill, S. 47, by a vote of  286 to 138. Every Democrat voted in favor, while Republicans split 87-138.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, who led debate for Republicans in favor of the GOP alternative, then voted in favor of the Senate’s version.

“While I am disappointed a stronger version of the Violence Against Women Act did not pass, I am proud that such important legislation was reauthorized today with bipartisan support,” she said in a statement.

Original post is Failed Violence Against Women Act Substitute Divides Chairmen by Political Capital.

Photograph by Borna Ghassemi/AFP via Getty Images

A press conference in Tehran after the return of the capsule carrying this monkey was sent above the Earth’s atmosphere on Jan. 28, 2013.

Sen. John McCain, no fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, probably wouldn’t mind the Iranian leader blasting off into the wherever. Nothing there is new. How he said it today, though, has rankled some, including a Republican congressman who called the jibe “racist.”

“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week? McCain asked in a Twitter message.
The tweet also included a link to a news article with an “Iran launches monkey into space” headline and a link.

So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week? “Iran launches monkey into space” news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-…

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013

Said monkey was apparently launched upward 75 miles and retrieved alive last week, according to Iranian media. Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying he’d be willing to be the first human launched to space by Iran’s nascent space program. Spokesman Brian Rogers confirmed in an e-mail that the Twitter posting was McCain’s own, saying it “was obviously a joke poking fun at Ahmadinejad’s outer space ambitions, as he made clear in a follow-up tweet 52 minutes later:

Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013

Michigan’s Republican Rep. Justin Amash didn’t see the humor.

Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes. “@senjohnmccain: Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?”

— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) February 4, 2013

Original post is McCain’s Ahmadinejad ‘Monkey’ Line: ‘Lighten Up, Folks’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Cal Sport Media via AP Images

Notre Dame inside linebacker Manti Te’o during the Discover BCS National Championship between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Everybody on Twitter seems to have jokes when it comes to Manti Te’o and the hoax of his fictitious girlfriend. So far be it from the National Republican Congressional Committee to miss out on its chance.

“The last time the Senate passed a budget… Manti Te’o had not “met” Lennay Kekua yet.” the NRCC wrote on Twitter.

Ouch.

The whole point of the missive — at the Notre Dame linebacker’s expense — is to highlight that the Senate hasn’t adopted a budget since April 2009. Budgets are, technically, supposed to be passed annually, though the business of government keeps on keeping on even if they don’t because spending decisions are made through appropriations.

And yes, the tweet does exist.

House Speaker John Boehner’s office got in on the action earlier today, sending out a YouTube clip of “the Bobs” from the movie “Office Space.” They’re consultants who ask a busybody employee who’s always “working” but has little to show for it just “what would you say, you do here?”

The House will vote next week on a plan to tie a three-month increase in the federal debt ceiling to a provision that would block lawmakers’ pay if the House or Senate doesn’t pass a budget in that time-frame.

Original post is Manti Te’o: Meet the Senate’s Budget by Political Capital.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, wrote on Twitter that Democrats should “keep faith with the people who elected you.”

“Its time for Dems to reject the Rep hostage-taking & present an ultimatum of their own – Pres Obama’s plan. Working people stand behind it.  No more tax cuts for 2% or millionaire estates.”

Adam Green, co-founder of the Democratic-aligned advocacy group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the White House should insist on its original proposal to raise taxes on annual income exceeding $250,000.

“Any deal must raise taxes on those making $250,000 at least to the Clinton rates — and no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits,” Green said. “Raising the threshold to $400,000 means billions of dollars of pain will be transferred to the working poor and our grandparents, and that is not acceptable.”

Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, warned that a chunk of the caucus may vote against such a package. “There’s just no question about it,” he said in an interview.

Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said in a speech on the floor that no deal would be preferable to a bad deal.

“We’re going to lock in forever the idea that $450,000 a year is middle class in America?” Harkin said. “Need I remind people that at $250,000 a year, that’s the top 2 percent income earners in America?”

Original post is For Some Democrats and Activists, No Deal Better Than Bad Deal by Political Capital.

Black opened a rare Sunday session yesterday by praying God’s presence “as we gather with so much work left undone.”

The work is basically all in the same category: Trying to avert really nasty things Congress threatened to do to itself if lawmakers couldn’t get something more sensible done instead.

Among them: More than $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to trigger at midnight tonight without action, as well as reverting to a Truman-era dairy law that could double the cost of a gallon of milk, as well as the price of butter and cheese.

“Lord, show them the right thing to do and give them the courage to do it,” Black prayed as the Senate gaveled in Sunday afternoon. “Save us from self-inflicted wounds.”

One more day for those prayers to work.

Original post is Senate Chaplain: Save Us From `Self-Inflicted Wounds’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ty Wright/Bloomberg

Wholesale milk prices may double if a Farm Bill is not passed soon.

One of the big questionmarks for the rest of the lame-duck session is what will become of the farm bill. As lawmakers were leaving last week for their break, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said only that he wanted Congress to address what he called the “farm issue” before adjournment.

Whatever the leaders come up with, the math could be tricky, since several retiring House members have said they may not be back for the final votes.

If Congress doesn’t extend the U.S. dairy support program, which is one of the programs covered in the larger farm-policy law, it will revert to the way it was in 1949, roughly doubling wholesale milk prices.

“Fiscal-cliff tax increases would hit middle-class families’ pocketbooks, but so would paying six or seven dollars for a gallon of milk,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat.

The average retail cost of a gallon of whole milk was $3.54 per gallon in November, according to Agriculture Department data compiled by Bloomberg. The base price of Class  III milk, from which all dairy prices are calculated, was $20.83 per hundred pounds (hundredweight) in November.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said that it would “take a while” to implement changes if the U.S. reverts to the 1949 law. He hasn’t offered any more specifics, telling reporters in a conference call last week that “the best outcome would be for Congress to do its job.” While the USDA doesn’t currently purchase much dairy, it could be forced to stockpile butter, cheese and other products should wholesale prices revert to the levels set in the 1949 law.

Oklahoma Republican Frank Lucas and Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson, the House Agriculture Committee’s chairman and ranking member, separately predicted that if Congress fails to act, the wholesale cost would rise to about $38 per hundredweight. A rise in milk prices could help generate support for congressional action, according to Peterson.

The committee plans to mark up a new bill on Feb. 27.  “Maybe the milk price will wake them up,” Peterson said, adding that the full impact of higher prices may not be seen at the grocery store until summer. “It’s not going to be a change on Jan. 2,” he said in an interview last week.  “How soon it goes up, nobody knows.”

Original post is Higher Milk Prices: Farm Bill Wake-Up Call? by Political Capital.