Top Stories From National Journal Group
INTELLIGENCE: Pelosi Announces Panel To Oversee Intelligence Budget
HOMELAND SECURITY: European Officials Seek Answers On Use Of Passenger Data
LABOR: Miller Sets Education, Oversight Agenda For Next Year ...
POLL TRACK: Americans See Trouble On The Fiscal Horizon

Political Roundup -- What's In The Headlines
IRAQ: Rice Rejects Overture To Iran And Syria
IRAQ: Military Brass Recommend New Tactics To White House
CONGRESS: Johnson Recovering; More Tests Expected
ECONOMY: Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady





Top Stories From National Journal Group

INTELLIGENCE
Pelosi Announces Panel To Oversee Intelligence Budget
Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday the creation of a Select Intelligence Oversight panel under the auspices of the Appropriations Committee to examine intelligence funding. Pelosi said the aim is to strengthen oversight by examining the administration's intelligence budget and making recommendations, adding that the move "will make the American people safer." The annual intelligence budget -- a classified portion of the Defense spending bill -- would come under the panel's purview along with oversight of intelligence agency spending. The panel will consist of members of the Appropriations and Intelligence committees appointed by the speaker and minority leader. The chairmen and ranking members of the Appropriations Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee would serve as ex officio members. (CongressDailyPM, Dec. 14)

(Back to Contents)

HOMELAND SECURITY
European Officials Seek Answers On Use Of Passenger Data
The European Union Wednesday asked the Homeland Security Department to clarify how its controversial traveler screening program is using and protecting information on European citizens, expressing concern that it could violate agreements between the U.S. and E.U. governments. The international body is only the latest in a growing number of groups challenging the program, called the Automated Targeting System, since the department disclosed details last month that it screens travelers entering the country. The European Union is also seeking assurances the department is complying with previous agreements -- called undertakings -- when using the program to screen European citizens (CongressDailyPM, Dec. 13)

(Back to Contents)

LABOR
Miller Sets Education, Oversight Agenda For Next Year ...
Incoming House Education and the Workforce Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said Tuesday his committee will focus next year on workforce competitiveness and improved access to public education. After January, when the House will act on a number of the committee's priorities -- such as a minimum wage hike and cutting student loan interest rates -- Miller will hold hearings focusing on the "middle-class squeeze" that will touch on union issues, wages and benefits. iller also plans an aggressive role overseeing the Labor and Education departments, saying he will examine the government's commitment to job training and creating high-paying jobs. (Compiled by CongressDailyPM, Dec. 12)

(Back to Contents)

POLL TRACK
Americans See Trouble On The Fiscal Horizon
Despite a few economic bumps in the road -- skyrocketing gas prices during the spring and summer months, signs of cooling in the housing market -- 2006 was not a particularly bad year for the U.S. economy.But try telling that to the American people. Through most of the year, ABC News/Washington Post pollsters chronicled a persistently negative view in their weekly survey of attitudes toward the national economy. Only recently has the ABC/Post poll begun to track a positive uptick in public opinion, with 46 percent rating the U.S. economy excellent or good in the latest survey, compared with just 33 percent giving a positive assessment at the end of August. (NationalJournal.com's Poll Track, Dec. 13)

(Back to Contents)

Political Roundup -- What's In The Headlines

IRAQ
Rice Rejects Overture To Iran And Syria
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" on Thursday "rejected a bipartisan panel's recommendation that the United States seek the help of Syria and Iran in Iraq, saying the 'compensation' required by any deal might be too high. She argued that neither country should need incentives to foster stability in Iraq," the Washington Post reports. "Rice also said there would be no retreat from the administration's push to promote democracy in the Middle East, a goal that was de-emphasized by the Iraq Study Group in its report last week but that Rice insisted was a 'matter of strategic interest.'" (Compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, Dec. 15)

(Back to Contents)

IRAQ
Military Brass Recommend New Tactics To White House
"The nation's top uniformed leaders are recommending that the United States change its main military mission in Iraq from combating insurgents to supporting Iraqi troops and hunting terrorists, said sources familiar with the White House's ongoing Iraq policy review," the Washington Post reports. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "met with the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Wednesday].... The chiefs made no dramatic proposals but, at a time of intensifying national debate about how to solve the Iraq crisis, offered a pragmatic assessment of what can and cannot be done by the military." (Compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, Dec. 14)

(Back to Contents)

CONGRESS
Johnson Recovering; More Tests Expected
"Following surgery Wednesday night to drain the bleeding" in his brain "and repair the circulatory defect that caused it," Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., "began to regain consciousness Thursday," the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. "Johnson's wife, Barbara, cast that dry report in more human, hopeful terms. The senator was responding to her voice and following directions after surgery, she said. By Thursday morning, he was reaching for and holding her hand." (Compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, Dec. 15)

(Back to Contents)

ECONOMY
Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged Tuesday for the fourth straight time as worries about inflation continued to trump concerns about the slowing economy, the Associated Press reported. At its final meeting of 2006, the central bank left its target for the federal funds rate at 5.25 percent. The funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, has been at that level since June, when the Fed raised rates for the 17th consecutive time in a two-year effort to combat rising inflation. The decision means that banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, will remain unchanged at 8.25 percent. (Compiled by CongressDailyPM, Dec. 12)

(Back to Contents)