100-Hour Plan Totally Explained

Everything about The 100-hour Plan totally explained

The 100-Hour Plan is a United States Democratic Party political strategy detailing the actions the party pursued upon assuming leadership of the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007. The strategy was announced before the 2006 midterm elections. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged that her party will continue to pursue these goals upon her assumption of leadership. The 100-hour time period refers to business hours and not actual time, and has alternately been termed "100 legislative hours"; Pelosi's spokesman Brendan Daly defined the starting point this way: "It’s when the House convenes, after the one-minutes and before the special orders." This period began on the Tuesday (January 9, 2007) after the swearing-in ceremony on January 4. After it passes the House, most legislation still has to pass the Senate and receive the President's signature (or override his veto) to become law. The elements of the first day's proposals are House rules and therefore don't require any action from the Senate or President.
By January 18, 2007, 87 business hours after the swearing-in, the House of Representatives had passed every one of the plan's measures in the form that they'd been submitted to Congress. These measures included all of those promised, with the exception of part of one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission..

Origin of the plan

The origin for the name of the plan is a play-on-words from former Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt who promised quick action on the part of government (to combat the Great Depression) during his "first hundred days" in office. One hundred hours is also the amount of legislative time available to congress prior to the President's 2007 State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 23.
The plan was promised by Democrats in the days leading up to the 2006 midterm elections in the United States, in which the Democratic Party won control of both houses of Congress (in the House by a margin of 233-202 and in the Senate by a margin of 51-49--both independent Senators caucus with the 49 Democrats) after twelve years of Republican control (January 1995 to January 2007). Twelve years earlier, in January 1995, the Republicans had articulated their own legislative plan which they called The Contract with America.

Plan components

The Plan as outlined by Speaker Pelosi is as follows:

Day One:

"Break the link between lobbyists and legislation" with new House rules ť :Further enumerated to: "Curb lobbyists' influence by banning meals and gifts to lawmakers and requiring more disclosure and oversight."
Institute a "pay-as-you-go" policy to reduce the deficit ť :Passed 430-1 as Title II of House Resolution 6 on January 4, 2007

:Signed into law on December 19, 2007 by President Bush.

Day Two:

Enact all recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission ť :Further enumerated to: "Implement unfulfilled recommendations of the September 11th Commission and beef up port security." ť :Senate passed 60-38 as S. 4 on March 13, 2007. Differences are being resolved by a joint conference.

:Signed into law on August 3, 2007 by President Bush.

Day Three:

Raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. ť :Passed 315-116 as H.R. 2 on January 10, 2007

:Senate passed 94-3 on February 1, 2007.

Day Four:

Grant federal funding to a wide variety of stem cell research projects ť :Further enumerated to: "Pass another bill that allows expanded federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, betting on better prospects for an override if the president vetoes it again."

Allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies, securing lower drug prices for Medicare patients. ť :Further enumerated to: "Reduce prescription-drug prices for seniors by requiring Medicare to negotiate rates with pharmaceutical companies."

Day Five:

Cut interest rates on student loans in half ť :Passed 356-71 as H.R. 5 on January 17, 2007

Day Six:

End large tax subsidies for large oil companies, for the reasons outlined above and also to help foster energy independence ť :Passed 264-163 as H.R. 6 on January 18, 2007

:Senate passed 65-27 on June 21, 2007.

Divergence from 9/11 Commission's recommendations

House Democratic leaders didn't include all of the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission in H.R. 1. In particular, the reorganization of Congressional committees with responsibility for funding and oversight of the nation's intelligence agencies was rejected by Democratic leaders as early as November 2006, immediately after the election. The Commission also suggested removing term limits in favor of expertise and continuity, but Pelosi explicitly rejected this proposal, invoking terms limits when blocking Jane Harman from serving as chair of the Intelligence Committee.
This plan has also been criticized as being unrealistic; "because the Senate's rules give the minority party more power than the House does to slow down legislation, it could be weeks or months before final action on some of the House's proposed measures takes place."Further Information

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