This week, the House passed H.R. 5351, a bill which would raise taxes on domestic energy producers in order to pay for alternative energy initiatives. This is the third time the House has voted on this legislation in the 110th Congress, and it faces both strong opposition in the Senate and a veto threat from the President. Despite having other bills originally scheduled for the floor, H.R. 5351 was the only significant piece of legislation the House voted on this week, as other bills were removed from consideration after facing bipartisan opposition. Therefore, the remainder of the week was spent voting on bills naming post offices and passing non-binding resolutions.

A Win for Hugo

As gas prices approach four dollars per gallon in parts of the country, it is difficult to understand why the House is voting on a bill that would decrease domestic oil production. I believe we need to become less – not more – dependant on foreign sources of oil. However, H.R. 5351 not only makes it more difficult for American companies to produce gas at lower prices, but it also provides a loophole for CITGO, owned by the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. How is this possible? Under the bill the House considered this week, CITGO would continue to receive the domestic manufacturing deduction that was created in 2005, to provide an incentive for domestic energy production, while other large U.S.-based companies would lose the deduction. Republicans offered a motion to correct this injustice when the bill was on the floor by forcing a vote on a proposal that would have removed the loophole for CITGO and instead made permanent the expanded child tax credit and marriage penalty relief – two key tax benefits for middle-class families that are set to expire after 2010. Unfortunately, the majority used its numbers to defeat this motion, leaving Hugo Chavez the winner over American families.

Unsafe Delay

This week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to open a grand jury investigation to pursue charges for contempt of Congress against Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, two of President Bush’s senior advisors. Both Miers and Bolten agreed to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation, but they refused to testify before Congress, citing executive privilege. In her letter, the Speaker says she will sue the government if the Department of Justice does not respond to her request within a week. Unfortunately, while the Speaker is busy pandering to the far left, and wasting tax payer dollars seeking to sue the government for supporting the constitutional rights of the President, another week passed without Congress reauthorizing the FISA foreign intelligence bill. It is contemptible that our nation’s security has taken a backseat to the Speaker’s political crusade against the President. Every week that passes without passage of the FISA bill, our intelligence community is missing crucial data. In a letter to the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell reported, “We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act.” Twenty-one House Democrats have joined with Republicans and the President to ask the Speaker to bring forward the FISA bill that passed with a bi-partisan majority in the Senate. Unfortunately, the Speaker has again proved she is more concerned about appeasing her far left San Francisco base than preventing another terrorist attack against our nation.

Quote of the Week

“The media loves to throw around the term ‘mathematical impossibility,’ but no one can ever explain exactly what that means to me.” – Former Governor Mike Huckabee on Saturday Night Live on February 23, 2008. After the delegate count was explained to Governor Huckabee, he responded with “Wow.”