Heard on the Hill: Pressing Monkey Business

• By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
• Roll Call Staff
• Feb. 24, 2009, Midnight

It would be easy to poke fun at the House for taking up legislation on the hot topic of ... uh, biting monkeys, amid headlines about war and gloomy economic news. But monkeys truly are a hot topic du jour: The story of the Connecticut pet chimp who last week mauled a woman has been on constant rotation on cable news, and then there’s the matter of that controversial simian-themed New York Post cartoon.