The deadline was set by Republican members of Congress in a provision inserted into legislation on a payroll tax-cut extension late last year.
DESPITE news coverage of the lobbying reform law passed in September, one change to Senate rules has gone unnoticed, one that makes it easier for last-minute proposals to be inserted into legislation behind closed doors.
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who is to speak at the Journalists' Charity on Tuesday night to criticise the government's plans to introduce new internet spying powers, called for a public interest defence for the press to be inserted into legislation like Ripa and the Bribery Act last October.
For the past several years, Congress has been operating under a formal ban of earmarks -- tiny bits of spending that members previously enjoyed inserting into legislation to benefit projects and constituents in their home states.
And he liked the idea of a research policy board so much that he inserted it into legislation (S. 2742) that his committee approved by voice vote this spring.
Here is the difference: Most legislators took ownership over the policy riders they wanted inserted into the legislation.
Democrats said they would welcome Republican ideas that could be inserted into their legislation.
If no such roadblock is inserted into whatever legislation emerges from the House, Democrats and most of their allies will probably hold their noses and back it.
These measures, inserted into the legislation by a group of rebel lords, dealt a major blow to the secondary market websites, and to anyone who flogs tickets for ridiculous sums.
After the House was sidelined late in the fiscal negotiations, the Senate gained control of the final bill-writing process, and the provision requested by Amgen was inserted into the legislation by Senate staff members.
