The purpose for this post is to inform you of the new laws and acts enacted by Congress and President Obama. With the advent of the Internet it’s gotten easier to watch every step our government takes. And President Obama is making some nice moves to make what they do more transparent to the American people. We elect them, so we need to make sure they are doing their job. The laws I list are posted at govtrack.us, which is a nice site for checking laws in any stage their in. As always feel free to leave any additional comments.
On Feb 3, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: H.R. 4508: Small Business Act Temporary Extension. To provide for an additional temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, and for other purposes.
On Feb 3, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: S. 692: A bill to provide that claims of the United States to certain documents relating to Franklin Delano Roosevelt shall be treated as waived and relinquished in certain circumstances.
On Feb 3, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: H.R. 1377:Amend title 38. To amend title 38, United States Code, to expand veteran eligibility for reimbursement by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for emergency treatment furnished in a non-Department facility, and for other purposes.
On Feb 12, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: H. J. Res. 45: Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010. Increasing the statutory limit on the public debt.
On Feb 16, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 730: Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act. To strengthen efforts in the Department of Homeland Security to develop nuclear forensics capabilities to permit attribution of the source of nuclear material, and for other purposes.
On Feb 27, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 3961: Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. An Act to extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 until February 28, 2011.
H.R. 4532: Social Security Disability Applicant’s Access to Professional Representation Act of 2010. To provide for permanent extension of the attorney fee withholding procedures under title II of the Social Security Act to title XVI of such Act, and to provide for permanent extension of such procedures under titles II and XVI of such Act to qualified non-attorney representatives.
Note: There were a lot of post office related name change laws this month. But since that’s not really a big deal, I decided not to post each one.
The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States, and is required by the Constitution to take place every 10 years. Mid-March the census forms will be delivered to every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico. When you receive yours, just answer the 10 short questions (they say it take around 10 minutes) and then mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope provided. If you don’t mail the form back, you may receive a visit from a census taker, who will ask you the questions from the form.
The majority of the country will receive English–only materials. Households in areas with high concentrations of Spanish-speaking residents may receive a bilingual (English/Spanish) form. Any personal data you provide is protected under federal law.
Please take the time to fill out the Census and mail it back because the information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. People from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more. It also helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:
If you are in need of a job, the U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting temporary, part-time census takers right in your own community. These short-term jobs offer good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses, such as mileage incurred while conducting census work. For more information on the job opportunities they offer, visit http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs.
The President takes a moment to congratulate our Olympic athletes. Discussing the unity and pride Americans feel in cheering them on, the President relates that sentiment to his own desire for bipartisanship in Washington. He praises the recent bipartisan meeting and talks about moving forward on health reform.
Okay, once again, I’ve dropped the ball on my monthly posts of the bills passed by the White House. The purpose for this post is to inform you of the new laws and acts enacted by Congress and President Obama. With the advent of the Internet it’s gotten easier to watch every step our government takes. And President Obama is making some nice moves to make what they do more transparent to the American people. We elect them, so we need to make sure they are doing their job. The laws I list are posted at govtrack.us, which is a nice site for checking laws in any stage their in. As always feel free to leave any additional comments.
On Jan 22, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: H.R. 4462: Small Business Act Temporary Extension. To accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
On Jan 27, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law: S. 2949: Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act. A bill to amend section 1113 of the Social Security Act to provide authority for increased fiscal year 2010 payments for temporary assistance to United States citizens returned from foreign countries, to provide necessary funding to avoid shortfalls in the Medicare cost-sharing program for low-income qualifying individuals, and for other purposes.
Reiterating once again his commitment to small business as the engine of our economy, the President urges Congress to move forward immediately on steps to help them expand and create jobs. These proposals include using $30 billion in TARP funds to create a new Small Business Lending Fund to provide capital to community banks to increase lending to small businesses, offering a new tax credit for over one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, and providing targeted support for the most innovative small businesses with the potential to export new goods and products.
I’m addicted to factcheck.org and I usually run to it after major speeches and political events to see how much of the wool was pulled over my eyes. I have yet to hear from one politician that hasn’t told a skewed version of their truth and it causes me to wonder why. Are they so concerned with getting elected that they tell the American people what we want to hear?
The speech in my opinion was the most inspiring State of the Union I’ve ever heard and the President made some very good points regarding our current situation. A lot of the problems we face today are due to things that happened in the past and I admire the effort he’s making to fix some of those things. While still important, I’m glad the Administration is regrouping and not putting so much their energy into health care. There’s so much to fix and the Democrats and Republicans need to buddy up and work together. It’s a big hope, but I do hope they can come together with some solutions to fix the economy and health care. All of this bickering and fighting is childish and the world is watching.
According to fact check they found “the president strained the facts at times. The Republican response had its problems, too”. To read what they found in the speech check out Obama’s State of the Union Address.
As the President continues to work on immediate job creation, he discusses his proposal for a new fee on the largest financial institutions to ensure that every cent of taxpayer assistance gets paid back. Saying that, “we’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run,” he then discusses the ongoing push to make sure banks can never put our economy at risk again.
Everyone is making a big deal about Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment and I can understand why. If it had been a Republican, a committee would have been formed to investigate and Senate member would have been embarrassed out of their position. The committee would have given the report and findings to President Obama and he would have thrown them in the trash. I’m sure this isn’t the first (or last) time he’s a heard a comment like this.
What Harry said was wrong and insensitive, but how many people have thought the same thing? When Obama announced his decision to run for president, I remember thinking to myself, “now this brotha has a shot”. Let’s be honest, if he were dark-skinned and well spoken, he would have been “one of those uppity negros” and probably wouldn’t have been accepted by such a large, diverse demographic as Obama was (it was either him or Harold Ford Jr.)
While sad, the discussion over dark vs. light skin is nothing new in the black community. Growing up, light-skinned was in and the Al B. Sure brotha’s were on top of the world and I remember at times being envious of them with their “light skin” and “good hair”. It’s an issue that has plagued many dark-skinned people of color (whether they want to admit it or not) and I really believe that’s why I’m not surprised by Harry’s comment. You have to ask yourself, if everything except skin color were equal, would a darker-skinned person have a had a chance running against Obama?
President Obama knows the game. This isn’t the first time he’s been talked about and he knows he needs Reid to get his agenda through Congress. But the difference now, is that Reid is Obama’s personal bia bia and will get do what he needs to do to get back in the good graces of the black Democrats. These people are politicians and they will do what they need to do to get their personal agendas passed. I’m no fan of fake public apologies and Reid meant exactly what he said. What bothers me are all the complaints from people who have probably said the same thing and didn’t get caught.
It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.
The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.
Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.
This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.
Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:
For the first time in a weekly address, the President is joined by the First Lady as they celebrate Christmas. They both honor those serving overseas, those who have sacrificed for their country, and the families that stand by them. Find ways to lend our troops and their families a hand through DOD’s Military Homefront, OurMilitary.mil, and of course the USO.
The purpose for this post is to inform you of the new laws and acts enacted by Congress and President Obama. With the advent of the Internet it’s gotten easier to watch every step our government takes. And President Obama is making some nice moves to make what they do more transparent to the American people. We elect them, so we need to make sure they are doing their job. The laws I list are posted at govtrack.us, which is a nice site for checking laws in any stage their in. As always feel free to leave any additional comments.
