Federal officials today announced a series of short- and long-term steps to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes -- including a plan to redirect nearly $80 million to the effort.

The announcements followed a White House summit on the invasive fish.

Following the meeting with Gov. Jim Doyle and other Great Lakes governors, a 46-page Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework was released by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, said the draft plan represents "an unparalleled effort on the part of the federal government to control invasive species."

"We can and will stop the Asian carp from establishing themselves in the Great Lakes," Sutley said.

The plan presents 25 proposals to combat the invasive fish, from reducing the openings of the Chicago navigational locks to increasing the educational and enforcement tools regarding the transfer of carp. The framework features an initial allocation of $78.5 million, most of which is being redirected from the $475 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in the 2010 budget.

Doyle said he was most encouraged by the plan's major new efforts to net and shock fish in the Chicago channel, as well as the government's decision to expedite construction of a third river barrier to be completed by September.

Doyle lamented that federal officials declined to immediately close the Chicago locks -- the subject of a lawsuit backed by Wisconsin and Michigan -- but he said the locks weren't a cure-all for blocking the invasive fish.

"The locks were not built as fish barriers," Doyle said. "Closing them does not ensure that fish do not get through."

A report on the options regarding the locks will be presented to the Army Corps on Engineers in March. Doyle otherwise praised the Obama administration's response to the problem.

"This is the most attention we've ever had to (invasive species)," Doyle said.

See the plan at http://www.asiancarp.org/

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's hold on presidential nominees appears to have snagged three Wisconsin appointments.

The move holds up the nominations of Louis Butler and William Conley to the federal bench in Madison, as well as the appointment of Winslow Sargeant to be chief counsel for advocacy in the Small Business Administration.

Shelby, R-Ala., put the hold on the nominations Friday to pressure the administration on military projects that impact his home state.

The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today that hold applies to all appointments pending on the executive calendar, which includes the appointments of Butler, Conley and Sargeant.

The Senate could overturn the hold by cobbling together 60 votes, but that would require at least one GOP member breaking ranks to join Dems in removing the hold. The president could also pursue recess appointments with the Senate going on break next week.

See the executive calendar with the various appointments pending:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/executive_calendar/xcalv.pdf

The nation is headed for a fiscal crisis, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan warned on Sunday's "Upfront with Mike Gousha," while the Janesville Republican decried an atmosphere in Washington he says discourages proposals to address the problem.

Ryan, who is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, recently released his "Roadmap For America's Future 2.0" budget plan that would simplify the tax code and revamp Medicare and Social Security for those under 55.

Ryan said his plan has been met with "political demagoguery" and "mischaracterization."

"You know what message that sends to people in Congress?" Ryan said. "Don't propose anything."

See more coverage here.

One week ago, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan was one of the most visible Republicans in Congress, engaging in a series of back-and-forths with President Barack Obama and drawing compliments from the commander-in-chief during his visit to a GOP caucus meeting in Baltimore.

But this week, the Janesville Republican's allies see the Baltimore episodes as a set-up. House Democrats and the White House have slammed Ryan's proposed "Roadmap for America's Future 2.0" all week, and U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Politico the plan was obvious. He says the president highlighted Ryan's ideas last week so that his allies could tee off on them this week.

Ryan -- who engaged in heated exchanges with White House Budget Director Peter Orszag and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in House Budget Committee hearings this week -- drew Orszag's attention at a briefing Monday, in which the budget director said the Roadmap plan "provides a contrast."

"There are many aspects of that that are worthy of further discussion and debate, but it is a dramatically different approach in which much more risk is loaded onto individuals and in which the Medicare program in particular is dramatically changed from its current structure," Orszag said.

Politico reports House Dems hammered the plan in a Thursday conference call, with U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., calling it an "excise tax on steroids." And the article notes even Republican leadership treaded cautiously on the Roadmap plan. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio reiterated the plan was Ryan's, and said many of his caucus members are "creatively looking at how (we) solve the nation's problems."

Former state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler has been confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee for a second time as President Obama's nominee to the federal bench in Madison.

Butler's nomination was approved on a 12-7 party line vote, the same margin as his confirmation vote in December. The nomination process had to restart because the nomination was sent back to the White House after the Senate failed to confirm him by the end of last year.

In an opening statement at the hearing, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl described Butler's qualities of "intelligence, diligence, humility and integrity."

"We are confident that the people of Madison and all of Wisconsin will be enormously proud of him and that he will serve them well. I urge my colleagues to support his swift confirmation," Kohl, D-Milwaukee, said.

The state Democratic Party is asking the GOP's two prospective U.S. Senate candidates -- Madison developer Terrence Wall and Watertown businessman David Westlake -- to indicate whether they agree with Rush Limbaugh after the conservative talk show host referenced U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold during his Friday broadcast.

Limbaugh, while going through the transcript of a recently-released tape from Osama bin Laden, paused during his reading of bin Laden's remarks about climate change to ask, "Does this not sound like an average Democrat? It sounds like this could easily be Russ Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin."

"This isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last time Limbaugh has crossed the line," said DPW Executive Director Mike Tate in a statement. "Are Wall and Westlake going to follow him?"

Feingold's campaign sent out an email to supporters responding to Limbaugh's comparison, saying "(T)his is the sort of slash and burn politics that we are up against."

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law issued its "Poverty Scorecard 2009" today, grading every member of Congress based on their votes on 14 bills the center argues would help fight poverty in the country.

All Democrats in the Wisconsin delegation ended up with A's. Four of the state's Dem members of Congress -- U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, Steve Kagen, Ron Kind and Dave Obey -- garnered A-pluses from the group.

Of the Republicans in the Wisconsin delegation, U.S. Reps. Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner received F's, and U.S. Rep. Tom Petri received a C.

See the Wisconsin grades here.