Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said that Senate Republicans were “protecting the president rather than protecting our troops” by denying a vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that would require troop redeployment in Iraq.
As a result, Reid threatened that if Republicans continued to filibuster the Reed-Levin redeployment amendment Monday or Tuesday he would pull the Senate into an all-night session on Tuesday, using his power as majority leader to keep the Senate open and let the debate continue, essentially forcing Republicans to prove and show their filibuster.
“But now, Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end,” Reid said. “They are denying us an up or down – yes or no – vote on the most important issue our country faces.”
Iowa’s Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin supports Sen. Reid’s move, said Harkin spokeswoman Jennifer Mullin in an e-mail exchange with Iowa Independent.
“Every day Republicans delay on changing course in Iraq, they are endorsing a failed strategy,” Mullin said. “Through procedural maneuvering, [Republicans] have forced the Senate to waste hours upon hours debating meaningless motions, wasting Congress’ time and the American people’s time.”
Mullin noted that during the 108th and 109th Congress, which were under Republican control, there were only four total cloture motions filed on motions to proceed. Since January, when Democrats took over control of Congress in the 110th session, there have already been 13 cloture motions filed on motions to proceed.
Only three Republicans – Sens. Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snowe and Gordon Smith – have said they will vote with the Democrats. A fourth Republican, Susan Collins, says she’s considering voting for the Reed-Levin amendment.
The authors of the amendment, Sens. Jack Reed and Carl Levin, recognize the vote on the amendment will likely fail but want to show the American people how Republicans are stymieing the efforts of Congress to bring American troops home and end the war in Iraq.
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