From CQ Politics:
Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., sees the $816 billion economic stimulus bill as an opportunity to freeze lawmakers’ pay.
Rep. John Adler , a freshman Democrat from New Jersey, wants the government to send $500 in assistance to retired seniors and disabled veterans.
Arizona Republican Jeff Flake just wants to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t being spent on duck ponds, museums, skate or dog parks, equestrian centers, ski hills, historic homes, ice rinks, “splash” playgrounds or speaker systems — items of arguable stimulative value.
Their brainchildren are just three of the 206 amendments members of the House filed this week with the gate-keeping Rules Committee, which determines which of them will get a vote on the House floor.
Most of the amendments were headed for the legislative dust bin when the Rules Committee met for a marathon hearing Tuesday in a cramped committee room on the third floor of the Capitol.
Only 11 amendments, Democratic, Republican and bipartisan, were ultimately designated for floor votes, not including a handful of provisions that were combined into a single amendment that will be absorbed into the text of the bill when the House votes to adopt the rule governing floor debate on Wednesday.
