He’s still in the news quite a bit, so it didn’t take long for Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) to fill the empty communications director position in his office. [IMGCAP(1)]

Kevin Madden, a veteran of Capitol Hill, the Bush administration and the campaign trail, will take over the top press post in the Texan’s office on July 11. He succeeds Dan Allen, who recently left the Hill for a private-sector job.

Madden is moving over from the Justice Department, where he began serving as press secretary in early 2005. Last year, he toiled as a national spokesman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Before that, Madden spent three years as spokesman for Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.).

Joint Session Planned. In response to a request by Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) have agreed to convene a joint session of Congress on July 19 for an address by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Singh, who became prime minister of India a year ago, will make his first official visit to the United States July 18-20. It will be the first visit by an Indian prime minister in nearly five years.

“Our democracies are strong and vibrant examples for peoples in all corners of the globe that suffer under dictatorships,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement Wednesday. “The Prime Minister’s address to the joint session of Congress tells the world once again that the U.S. is a great friend of India and that our ties will only strengthen with time.”

— Ben Pershing and John McArdle