Almanac: At the Capitol

Rep. Michele Bachmann will host a virtual townhall meeting on Tuesday evening through the Ensuring Liberty Caucus PAC. Bachmann will be joined by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and both with be speaking about opposition to a financial reform package currently being debated in the U.S. Senate.

The invite for the town hall says:

House Conservative Rock Star, Michele Bachmann, will hold a virtual Town Hall on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 Central, and 5:00 Pacific.

REGISTER NOW!

Representative Bachmann will discuss the Dodd Financial Reform Bill currently in debate in the U. S. Senate.

Today’s Wall Street rollercoaster ride should remind everyone of the disaster caused by government intervention in the housing market through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. *UPDATE* Rep. Steve King, another conservative rock star, will join Rep. Bachmann on the call. When you register on LibertyCaucus.net, you’ll receive an email with the details, including a calendar link to remind you of the call.

The Ensuring Liberty Caucus is a PAC that is attempting to use the Tea Party movement to elect conservative Republicans.

Sen. Al Franken is gearing up to take on the credit rating industry, which he says is too big and too closely tied to the financial industry. An amendment to the financial reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate, authored by Franken and co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Nebraska and Chuck Schumer of New York, would eliminate entities hiring raters and instead would have the Securities and Exchange Commission assign the raters. Franken says it would eliminate a conflict of interest that results in AAA ratings for entities that don’t qualify for such a rating.

Franken was interviewed by the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein on Friday about the amendment:

Why did you decide to focus on the rating agencies?

The agencies were an enormous part of the problem. They were giving AAA ratings to products that didn’t deserve them. There’s this inherent conflict of interest where the issuers of these financial products were shopping for raters. It’s become very clear that what’s going on was they had an incentive to inflate the ratings to get more business. In some cases the agencies were just stupid, but there was also a reason to be stupid. They had motive.

How does your amendment fix the problem?

Instead of the issuer shopping for ratings, we’d form a board under the SEC that would decide which rating agency rates each instrument. I don’t mandate how they do it. But it wouldn’t have to be totally random. The board would be comprised mainly of investors and people who manage pensions and university endowments. One of the advantages of this is that it’d inject more competitions into the business. Right now, we have Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s and Fitch doing 94 percent of the ratings. This board could give business to smaller agencies. You’d be rewarded on accuracy and so the incentive would be to be more accurate.

Franken also spoke on the Senate floor about the amendment:

President Obama is expected at 10 a.m. Eastern today to announce his nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School, has not previously served as a judge.

If selected, Kagan will succeed longtime liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, who is retiring this summer.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins took note of a sign at the Tax Cut Rally on Saturday at the Capitol that read, “Obama: Even a monkey can figure it out.” The rally was headlined by Rep. Michele Bachmann and Republican candidate for governor Rep. Tom Emmer.

The Star Tribune’s Jim Gehrz took this picture on Saturday. The arrow is courtesy of Bob Collins.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken praised President Obama's pick of Elena Kagan to be the next Supreme Court justice. Kagan, the current solicitor general, would replace Justice John Paul Stevens, the retiring leader of the Court's liberal bloc.

Sen. Al Franken is pushing an amendment to the financial reform bill that would create an office to investigate complaints by homeowners who believe their mortgage handlers are breaking the law. The amendment would create an Office of the Homeowner Advocate and has bipartisan support in the Senate.

“Too many Minnesotans have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and are now in danger of losing their homes,” Franken said in a statement on Friday. “When they feel they’re being treated unfairly, they need to know there’s someone who has their back. My proposal creates an office dedicated to these families. They’re doing their best with an incredibly stressful situation in a tough economy that they didn’t create, and we ought to do what we can to help them.”

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is a cosponsor with Franken.

“For far too many Mainers and Americans, these turbulent economic times, in which we have witnessed record high unemployment rates, are confounded by the housing market crisis and certain mortgage servicers who are, frankly, taking advantage of our nation’s families,” said Snowe. “By creating an Office of the Homeowner Advocate, these Americans will receive the vital assistance they require when they are faced with the daunting foreclosure system.”

Franken and Snowe say the office will be paid for with existing funds from the Home Affordable Modification Program. The office would have the authority to take action against mortgage servicers who don’t play by the rules.

In Minnesota, the amendment has picked up considerable support from religious and charitable organizations including Catholic Charities of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties, Family & Children’s Service, Family Housing Fund, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, Housing Preservation Project of St. Paul, Jewish Community Action, Legal Services Advocacy Project, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Minnesota Community Action Partnership, Minnesota Housing Partnership, Northside Resident Redevelopment Council, and Project for Pride in Living.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — During a United Nations meeting about nuclear arms proliferation last September, a 69-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate cleared his throat to deliver bold remarks to a room of world leaders with high-powered armies.