Congress

A Library of Congress traveling exhibition - mounted in a customized 18-wheel truck - will visit Urbana this week. “Gateway to Knowledge” will be in Urbana Friday and Saturday, and will be parked at the Urbana Regional Library, 9020 Amelung St. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, go to www.loc.gov/gateway/ .

U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski D-Md. Phone: 202-224-4654 Web: http://mikulski.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin D-Md. Phone: 202-224-4524 Web: http://cardin.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett R-Md. Phone: 202-225-2721 or 301-797-6043 Web: http://bartlett.house.gov

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin lamented Friday night that “it's hard to get anything done in this Congress” during a friendly gab-fest with about a hundred of the party faithful at the Peking Restaurant.  The problem these days is Congress is divided, said Manchin, D-W.Va. The members don't know each other. “There's no collegiate atmosphere,” he said. “It's hard to say no to somebody that you know or care about. But it's easier to say no if you don't know somebody.”  Manchin hammered at the nation's fiscal problems, saying it won't be fixed if members of Congress keep blaming each other.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of lying to Congress about whether he used steroids or human growth hormone. When asked for a plea by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, the retired Major League Baseball pitcher said in a clear voice: "Not guilty, your honor. " Wearing a dark jacket, brown pants and tie, Clemens was appearing in federal court only a few blocks away from where he swore under oath to a House committee in 2008 that he had not used performance-enhancing drugs.

Members of The House of Representatives worked past 11 p.m. Tuesday night to pass legislation to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” but many area residents still remained unsatisfied with Congress on Wednesday. “I think what we did was just a Band-Aid,” Hagerstown resident Marty Tashgy, said. “It did little or nothing to create growth, address deficit spending, or address entitlements.” The bill maintains tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 a year as well as couples making less than $450,000 a year, with those above that threshold seeing their taxes rise from 35 percent to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6 percent.

A top official at the Sierra Nevada Corp. plant near Hagerstown said Wednesday that federal funding is being sought to enable the company to continue producing special surveillance planes for U.S. Customs and Border Protection through 2013. Jack Kimberly, vice president of business development for Sierra Nevada Integrated Missions System, said Congress is being asked to approve $43 million to buy two more multienforcement aircraft from the company. Sierra Nevada won a federal Department of Homeland Security  contract in 2009 to produce five of the surveillance aircraft for customs and border patrol use. Work on the initial five is to be completed this year by the end of December, Kimberly said.

U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., filed on Tuesday to run for a 10th two-year term in Congress. The filing period for the 2010 election opened Monday. Bartlett, 83, lives in Frederick County. He represents Maryland's 6th District, which includes Washington County. As of Wednesday, no other candidates had filed, according to the Maryland State Board of Election's Web site. Andrew Duck, a Democrat who twice ran unsuccessfully for Bartlett's seat, has said he's running again in 2010.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia's lone Republican in Congress says she wants to serve another two-year term. Second Congressional District Rep. Shelley Moore Capito filed her re-election papers Tuesday to officially kick off her campaign for a fifth consecutive term. The Republican from Kanawha County says she wants to continue working with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to create opportunities for West Virginia. According to the Secretary of State's Web site, Capito is the only candidate to seek the GOP's nomination for the 18-county district seat.

A C-SPAN broadcast made Gary W. Hoover Sr. of Clear Spring disgusted with his political party and Congress. He said he woke up in the middle of the night, when the TV was on, and saw a congressional committee voting only along party lines, refusing to bend, even for good ideas, which angered him. He vowed then to leave the Democratic Party, which he did. Now, he's running for Congress with the Libertarian Party. Hoover, a former police officer who now runs a car dealership, is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

A Democratic candidate for Congress turned himself in Friday on a warrant connected to child support he owes, according to a woman close to him and his campaign. Richard J. Lank was being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center without bail until Monday, when a hearing is scheduled, according to police and court officials. Lank, 55, of Middletown, Md., is one of five Democrats running for Maryland's 6th District seat in Congress. The incumbent, Roscoe Bartlett, is one of five candidates on the Republican side.

West Virginia Republican Party state Chairman Conrad Lucas said Tuesday he is “completely confident” the GOP will hold Shelley Moore Capito's seat in Congress when she runs for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Since Capito announced her campaign to replace Jay Rockefeller, only former state Del. Larry V. Faircloth, R-Berkeley, has publicly announced a campaign to run for the 2nd District House seat. But Lucas said Tuesday that he expects more candidates to enter the race after the regular session of the state Legislature ends in April.

Daryl Simmons of Hagerstown said that although he planned to flip back and forth between watching sports and President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, the address is important for the country. “It's important for us to see him communicate to Congress in front of the public,” Simmons, 35, said. Ralph Summers, of Altoona, Pa., said that he does not think the address is important, though, because of who is delivering it. “It is good under the right circumstances, but it only matters if the president has been honest with the American people,” Summers, 72, said.

The Rockefeller name has opened doors and carried considerable influence in West Virginia politics for years, Eastern Panhandle leaders said Friday. With Sen. Jay Rockefeller's announcement Friday that he will leave the U.S. Senate in 2014, that door is about to close. “It is dark day,” said State Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson/Berkeley. “I'm disappointed in that once again West Virginia is losing seniority in Congress.” “Seniority is what the whole federal government in Washington, D.C., floats on.” Snyder noted the loss in 2010 of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who served for more than 50 years in the Senate and the loss of longtime Rep. Alan Mollohan in the 2010.

Members of The House of Representatives worked past 11 p.m. Tuesday night to pass legislation to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” but many area residents still remained unsatisfied with Congress on Wednesday. “I think what we did was just a Band-Aid,” Hagerstown resident Marty Tashgy, said. “It did little or nothing to create growth, address deficit spending, or address entitlements.” The bill maintains tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 a year as well as couples making less than $450,000 a year, with those above that threshold seeing their taxes rise from 35 percent to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6 percent.

Legislation to prevent the government from going over the so-called fiscal cliff will also block a $900 automatic pay hike for members of Congress. It's one more reason for lawmakers to vote for the measure extending Bush-era tax cuts on individual income up to $450,000 while increasing rates for earnings above that threshold. Under a 1989 law, lawmakers are supposed to receive automatic cost-of-living pay hikes, but as Congress' approval ratings have fallen, lawmakers have routinely voted to reject the raise.

The sign on the door at the Frederick office still says "Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. " But inside, it is an office in transition. Late last month, boxes were waiting to be packed. Some computers and televisions had been dismantled and were on a center table. Staffers scurried around talking on their cellphones. On this morning of Nov. 26, some of the women on Bartlett's staff said they were not wearing any makeup. “Moving day,” they said by way of explanation. In just a matter of a few weeks, Bartlett, 86, will become a former congressman, having lost the Nov. 6 election for Maryland's 6th District to John Delaney, his Democratic challenger.

A representative of the Maryland governor said Wednesday that a middle-class family of four could expect to see its annual taxes increase by $2,200 if Congress doesn't act by the end of the year to avoid the fiscal cliff. Dana J. Thompson, director of federal relations for the Office of Gov. Martin O'Malley, told about 60 people who attended a breakfast at the Ramada Plaza hotel in Halfway that it was critically important for Congress to extend middle-class tax cuts. “If Congress doesn't act before the holidays, every family in Hagerstown's taxes will automatically go up, including 98 percent of all of those who make less than $250,000 a year, and 97 percent of small businesses that earn less than $250,000 a year,” Thompson said.

You wonder how Ken Starr and the House managers felt this week. Seeing the man they so desperately tried to drive from office swagger onstage at the Democratic National Convention sporting a 70 percent approval rating, grinning like the cat that ate the canary and giving a speech that some feared “set the bar too high” for President Obama the following night. The Republican convention had no such superstar it could trot out on stage as the country swooned - although it would have had Reagan still been around.

One of the first things some of the high school students learned after launching their canoes on the Potomac River Monday morning was that if they both paddled on the same side they just went around in circles. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) officials rented more than 100 canoes and kayaks to carry more than 140 high school students and their adult leaders on a 10-mile float down the Potomac River from below Dam No. 4 to Shepherdstown.

A top official at the Sierra Nevada Corp. plant near Hagerstown said Wednesday that federal funding is being sought to enable the company to continue producing special surveillance planes for U.S. Customs and Border Protection through 2013. Jack Kimberly, vice president of business development for Sierra Nevada Integrated Missions System, said Congress is being asked to approve $43 million to buy two more multienforcement aircraft from the company. Sierra Nevada won a federal Department of Homeland Security  contract in 2009 to produce five of the surveillance aircraft for customs and border patrol use. Work on the initial five is to be completed this year by the end of December, Kimberly said.