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While I support immigration through a legal framework, I could not support rewarding those who come here illegally. Unfortunately, this bill encourages more illegal immigration, overburdens our social services and is unfair to those who are patiently and respectfully trying to enter America legally.
We gave Mr. Kavanaugh an opportunity to prove that he was independent and impartial in spite of his partisan past. I personally noted that this was my chief concern with his nomination, and I know that my colleagues did the same. Mr. Kavanaugh refused to specify the issues and policies on which he would recuse himself—in spite of the fact that he was at the center of a number of executive policy directives in recent years.
As elected leaders, we have an obligation to do all we can to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which is why I’ve made energy one of my top priorities in Congress. But Washington recently passed an energy bill that gives the same oil companies that made $100 billion in profits another $2 billion in tax cuts. We need to repeal those lavish cuts and pass my legislation that gives grants to local governments that pass Clean Energy Bond Acts and municipalities that have clean action plans.
We must take every possible step in an attempt to meet our energy needs through all available sources within in our country. If we don’t go after our domestic sources of energy, we will continue to be at the mercy of world supply and demand and uncertain international political situations. We can sit back and watch gas prices rise and rise, or we can do something.
Every time the price of oil goes up, drilling proponents reflexively propose more drilling in wild places such as the Arctic Refuge.The unique wilderness values of the Arctic Refuge deserve to be protected, not plundered.Allowing drilling and development in the Arctic Refuge would destroy one of kind wilderness yet do virtually nothing to ease our energy problems.
At best oil from the Arctic Refuge would meet America’s energy needs for a few months. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will not help consumers at the pump. The Bush Administration’s Energy Department’s own figures show that drilling in the Arctic would not lower gas prices by more than about a penny a gallon, 20 years from now.
Instead of fighting over our national parks and wildlife refuges, let’s work together to craft the kind of energy policy the United States really needs - one that truly will enhance our security and independence from foreign oil by tapping into the virtually inexhaustible potential of non-polluting renewable fuels.
We need an energy policy that does more than run on empty; one that puts us on the road to real energy security and benefits all Americans, not just the special interests.
The Dubai ports deal demonstrated to the nation that the current system to vet foreign acquisitions of businesses in the U.S. does not do enough to automatically safeguard our national security. The fact that commercial operations at some of our busiest ports were acquired by a foreign government without Congress knowing and without the administration raising any red flags was astonishing.
This legislation, HR 5337 which was introduced by Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), would strengthen the security safeguards in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review process, including implementation of a mandatory 45-day review for all deals that include a foreign government. It is also important to note that this bipartisan bill balances the need to ensure that the CFIUS process properly considers national security concerns against the need to encourage beneficial foreign investment. It is based in large part on recommendations of the GAO issued before the Dubai Ports World debacle and has broad support.
The Australian Wheat Board’s kickbacks lined the pockets of Saddam Hussein and continued after the fall of his government. That money should have gone to feed hungry Iraqis through the U.N. Oil for Food Program. We need to find out who benefited from these kickbacks and whether there’s a way to recover the funds and return them to the Iraqi people.America’s wheat farmers deserve to know why their questions about AWB were not investigated by the Bush Administration. Our wheat farmers lost out to AWB on opportunities to compete for Iraqi wheat sales because their concerns were ignored. It’s the administration’s responsibility to ensure U.S. farmers can compete internationally. In this instance, the administration appears to have sided with AWB rather than American farmers.
Instead of misleading our children with the nuclear waste version of Joe Camel, the Department of Energy should tell the truth about the real dangers of dumping toxic nuclear waste in Nevada and the real risk to communities in 43 states that will result from thousands of shipments of radioactive garbage on America’s roads and railways. I am proud that more than 140 of my colleagues voted to dump Yucca Mountain Johnny and against the use of taxpayer funded propaganda to fool our children into believing that burying nuclear waste only a short drive from Las Vegas is good for Nevada families.
The domestic nuclear industry is one of wealthiest industries in the country and it has no business asking Congress for handouts paid out at the tax payers expense - that is exactly what this bill will do. Congress is essentially saying it doesn’t want to let more immigrants into the country but wants to open the door for foreigners to send us their dangerous nuclear waste.
Whether it’s stem cell research, contraception, or global warming, this Administration lets politics trump science at the drop of a hat, without regard for the integrity of the scientific process and without regard to the safety of our nation’s public health. This is unacceptable.
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