Democratic and Republican Senate leaders are currently engaged in negotiations regarding proposed changes in Senate rules that would decrease the threat of filibusters and promote bipartisan cooperation. In the wake of the Tucson shootings and the President’s call for more civil discourse, will these negotiations result in changes that are acceptable to both sides and might help alleviate legislative gridlock? The upcoming issue of Congressional Digest will discuss the history and use of the filibuster, and whether or not it should be reformed.

In remarks delivered the December 22 signing ceremony repealing the Defense Department’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, President Obama said that the new law “will strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend.”  The event was the culmination of a 17-year campaign to eliminate the Pentagon’s policy banning homosexuals from serving openly in the military (see “Gays in the Military,” Congressional Digest, April 2010). But when will the policy actually be phased out?

By a vote of 71 to 26, the Senate has ratified the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty  (START) during its current lame-duck session. All 58 Democrats voted for the treaty, in addition to 13 Republicans (three Republicans were not present for the vote). While the outcome had been in doubt for weeks, if not months, in the end Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to get more than the 67 votes necessary to ensure passage.

Congressional Digest covered 10 important domestic issues in 2010, from consumer financial protection to child nutrition. Some of those topics – such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the DREAM Act immigration bill – are still being hotly debated during the final days of the session. Here’s an update on all these issues as the 111th Conngress winds down.

Last April, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1999 Federal law banning the creation, sale, or possession of depictions of animal cruelty as a violation of the constitutional right to free speech. Shortly after the decision, the original law’s main advocate, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), pledged to quickly introduce a new, more narrowly crafted measure. In July, the House passed his new bill by vote of 416 to 3. In November, the Senate unanimously approved it. Last Thursday, with Gallegly at his side, President Obama signed the Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010 into law.

One of the first bills to pass the lame-duck session of Congress was S. 3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, reauthorizing and expanding child nutrition programs. With the House agreeing to the Senate-passed bill, the measure now goes to the White House for the President’s signature. Although it passed the Senate unanimously in August and the House by a substantial margin (264-157) on December 2, the legislation was not without controversy, especially with regard to funding (see “Child Nutrition,” Congressional Digest, December 2010).

On November 30, the Defense Department released its long-awaited Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The report details the results of a survey of service members about their attitudes toward changing the current Pentagon policy on homosexuals serving in the armed forces (see “Gays in the Military,” Congressional Digest, April 2010).