Czar-Busting Amendment Passes The House UPDATE: Net Neutrality Blocking Amendment Passes, Too

Great news from The Hill!!!!!:

The House GOP approved an amendment to a government-spending bill that would block funding for the Obama administration’s so-called policy “czars,” appointed advisers to the president that have been much-criticized by Republicans.

The vote was 249-171.

***

“I think this sends a strong signal to the president that we are tired of him running this shadow government, where they have got these czars that are literally circumventing the accountability and scrutiny that goes with Senate confirmation,” Scalise said after the vote.

Carol Browner, who currently holds the position, announced last month that she will resign, leaving the future of the office in doubt.

Scalise said the measure blocking the czars also makes good fiscal sense.

“We are going to save millions of taxpayer dollars, but we are also going to send him a signal that he is going to have to hold his administration accountable to the same transparency that he promised, but has unfortunately failed to deliver,” he said.

Republicans railed against Browner and Obama’s other policy advisers, arguing they played too great a role in the president’s policy decisions for officials that were appointed rather than confirmed by Congress.

The amendment would also prohibit funding for the director of the White House Office of Health Reform; the State Department’s special envoy for climate change; the special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the Council on Environmental Quality; the senior adviser to the secretary of the treasury assigned to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and senior counselor for manufacturing policy; the White House director of urban affairs; the special envoy to oversee the closure of Guantanamo Bay; the special master for TARP executive compensation at the Department of the Treasury; and the associate general counsel and chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission.

What about the “Safe School Czar”?  Don’t forget him!

MORE:

Man, these guys on on a tear:

House Passes Amendment to Block Funds for Net Neutrality Order

The House passed an amendment Thursday that would bar the Federal Communications Commission from using any funding to implement the network-neutrality order it approved in December.

The amendment, approved on a 244-181 vote, was offered by Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to legislation that would fund government agencies for the rest of fiscal year 2011.

Walden and other critics of the FCC’s net-neutrality order argue it will stifle innovation and investment in broadband. The order aims to bar broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content, services, or applications.

“If left unchallenged, this claim of authority would allow the FCC to regulate any matter it discussed in the national broadband plan,” Walden said.

UPDATE:

Allahpundit says:

There’s no earthly way, I assume, that Senate Democrats (let alone Obama) will agree to this, so it’s destined to die in conference committee after the Senate passes its own spending bill.

But come on, keep hope alive, bro! A lot of these Dem Senators are up for reelection in two years, and the czars are hugely unpopular. Some even  question their constitutionality.

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers