The House This Week
This week, the House passed H.R. 6, a comprehensive energy bill aimed at increasing the amount of alternative energy our country uses. Unfortunately, the bill repeals a tax incentive for domestic energy production, making our country more dependant on foreign sources of oil. This, along with other provisions in the bill which may actually increase the cost of energy for American consumers, has caused President Bush to issue a veto threat should the legislation be presented for his signature.
Bad for Small Business
Since the opening minutes of the 110th Congress, small business interests have been under attack. Hardly a week has gone by that a bill which would increase costs for, or regulations on, small businesses has not passed the House. The attack on small business began with just the second bill the House considered this year, H.R. 2, which would mandate that employers increase certain employees’ wages by 41 percent over two-plus years, yielding $18 billion in additional intergovernmental and private-sector costs over five years. Most recently, Congress passed energy legislation increasing taxes on domestic energy producers by over $10 billion. And in the time in between, we have seen bills to prevent employers from making hiring decisions based on sexual behavior and appearance (H.R. 3685), increase taxes by $7.5 billion over ten years on the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies (H.R. 2419), and limiting the rights of both employers and employees by curtailing employers’ flexibility in their dealings with workers and removing worker choice in two instances: whether they and their colleagues are represented by a union (and which one) and whether to accept a first collective bargaining agreement (H.R. 800).
These are but a few examples of the assault on small businesses and jobs in America which has taken place since Democrats took control of Congress nearly a year ago. Fortunately, opposition from both the Senate and the White House has prevented many of these harmful provisions from being signed into law. Nevertheless, the parade of bad-for-business bills shows no sign of slowing down in the House.
Set them Free
On October 19, 2006, United States Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in federal prison, respectively, for wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who brought 743 pounds of marijuana across the U.S. border. The two agents were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office, and the smuggler was granted immunity to testify against the agents – even after he was caught again trying to smuggle 1,000 more pounds of marijuana into the U.S. Both agents surrendered to federal authorities in January. I am appalled by the way the Justice Department has handled this case. In addition to threats against the agents’ safety, I have many concerns about the lack of fairness in the legal proceedings against the two men, including the prosecution’s efforts to offer immunity to a repeat Mexican drug smuggler, a sealed indictment of the smuggler’s drug offenses, and insufficient proof of whether or not the smuggler was armed.
Nearly a year later, these two men remain in prison. In an effort to correct this injustice, I have joined many of my colleagues throughout the last year in several efforts to free Ramos and Compean. Most recently, I co-sponsored a resolution that will ask the President to commute their sentences. Once these men are free, I will support a full investigation of how this matter was handled, and seek to hold responsible those who perpetrated this injustice.
Quote of the Week
“But I felt kinda embarrassed telling the Iraqis they had to get their act together and pass legislation when we can’t do it back here,” Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) after returning from Iraq. Dicks also noted that conditions have improved as a result of the surge. September 29, 2007.
|
