New Feature: U.S. Senate Week in Review

I follow the United States Senate very closely, including an almost obsessive need to make sure I am informed on all roll call votes, important committee activities and the latest on the 33 seats up for grabs in 2006. I’ve found it to be a feast-or-famine proposition much of the time, where you either have very quiet periods or, like last week, eleven floor votes including a Supreme Court nomination, the attempted blocking of that nomination, debate on tax-cut policy and an extension of the USA Patriot Act.

It’s going to be one hell of a year in the Senate and, to help you take it all in, I’m starting a Monday feature in which I will update you on what has happened in the previous week and what’s on the Senate plate for the week to follow. I’ll try to make complicated issues brief, will provide links to roll call votes and other relevant information and, more than anything, show you how many things are decided in an almost covert manner intended to fly under the news-cycle radar.

For example, did you know that Senate Republicans shot down two Democratic-sponsored measures last week that would have truly “supported the troops” in their time of need? Most people don’t – but you will. I’ll give you the basics today and will go into those two votes in more detail tomorrow.

Informed citizens are any country’s most valuable resource and I hope I can help toward that end.

The first Senate Week in Review comes out shortly.