Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) is the 2006 Porker of the Year after placing first in an online poll sponsored by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).

Rep. Mollohan is Exhibit A in a budget process that is soaked with conflicts of interests and lends itself to abuse. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, he has helped to secure $480 million worth of pork projects for his district since 1995. West Virginia ranked fourth in pork per capita in CAGW’s 2006 Congressional Pig Book. More than half of his earmarks have gone to five nonprofits organizations that he set up, most of which depend almost entirely on government funding. To run the organizations, Rep. Mollohan recruited friends and former aides who then contributed to his political campaigns and family foundation. Businesses that are awarded contracts through these nonprofits also make campaign contributions. The New York Times (4/8/06) described the network of nonprofits as “plush,â€? with lavish facilities and high salaries. Read the rest of this entry »

With Democrats jockeying to introduce legislation to limit the President’s troop surge this week, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) said he has drafted legislation that does not allow the President to deploy troops without proper training and equipment and limits soldiers’ terms of duty to one year.

In brief video below, former Rep. Tom Andrews (D-Maine) last week asks Murtha how his plan will affect the President’s Iraq Policy. Murtha says his legislation would prevent the President’s planned troop surge. “They don’t have the equipment,” Murtha said, “They don’t have the training.”

“There is no question in my mind, we have analyzed this and we have come to the conclusion that it can’t be done,” he added.

Last week I joined John McCain’s 2008 campaign for President as his Mississippi chairman, co-chairman with Senator Lindsey Graham of the Southern region, and a member of McCain’s U.S. House Whip Team.

I chose Senator John McCain for three primary reasons.  1) He is the conservative candidate I believe to be best qualified to handle the preeminent issue of our day: national defense and homeland security.  2) I believe he has a passion and commitment to reform our failing government bureaucracies.  3) He will seek the politics of results.

First, we must have a commander in chief with the foreign policy credentials and steel resolve to win our Global War on Terror and finish well our war in Iraq.  I measured our candidates on their ability and experience to direct a global war on terror, manage and complete a war in Iraq, and command the respect of our troops and allies.  John McCain’s experience and national defense credentials make him the most qualified person to serve as our next commander in chief. Read the rest of this entry »

One part of the story of the Republican electoral implosion in 2006 was dissatisfaction with the party’s fiscal record.  Conservative voters were angered at big spending increases across-the-board during the era of Republican rule.  And citizens of all ideological stripes were disgusted with the explosion in the number of earmarks which had turned Congress into – as Jack Abramoff termed it – a “favor factory.�

The 2006 Rating of Congress just published by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) gives some idea about how bad things had gotten.  Rather than using 15 or 20 key votes, NTU’s Rating includes every vote that Representatives and Senators cast on tax and fiscal issues, so it provides a comprehensive picture of how individual Members are voting and how the institution of Congress is doing as a whole.

The average pro-taxpayer score in the House of Representatives dropped to 39 percent in 2006.  That figure, coupled with 2005’s mean score (40 percent), leaves the 109th Congress’s House average as the worst since the 102nd Congress (1991-1992).  In the Senate, the news wasn’t much better.  While the average score was a little higher (48 percent), still, that meant that 2006 was the ninth straight year when the average Senator’s score was below 50 percent.  The numbers for both chambers provide striking confirmation to those who argued that the majority Republicans had lost their way on tax and spending matters. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten years ago this week, scientists at Scotland’s Roslin Institute announced they had successfully cloned the first animal from an adult cell – a sheep named Dolly.  Animal clones are exact genetic copies of an existing animal – essentially an identical twin.  In the decade since Dolly’s introduction, animal cloning technology has advanced significantly.  Today, we are poised to utilize this technology to enhance food production, food security in developing countries, the health of farm animals and the safety of our food supply.  Cloning will also tackle the challenge of the extinction of wild animals like the giant panda.

Just two months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a draft risk assessment that concluded that meat and milk products from animal clones and their offspring are safe for human consumption, and are no different from foods produced through other breeding methods.  While currently there are no known products from animal clones and their offspring on the market, in the future, consumers will benefit from a healthier, consistent, and more abundant meat and milk supply produced from animal cloning.  This is because animal cloning, as an assisted reproductive technology, allows farmers and ranchers to accelerate the reproduction of their most productive livestock.  Ultimately, this technology will be another tool for farmer and ranchers to raise healthier farm animals, and health animals produce healthy foods.  Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is continuing his call to end government corruption, which was also a central theme in his previous bid for the presidency.

In this campaign ad, McCain says, “We need lobbying reform, we need ethics reform, and we need a legislative reform� that will keep Congress from wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.

Of corruption in Washington, McCain says, “It’s really bad, and Americans’ view of Congress is much lower than that of the president of the United States,� citing the scandals of former Congressmen Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Bob Ney (R-Ohio).

McCain asserts that the midterm election results, which many have seen as a statement on Iraq policy, were also a mandate to end government corruption. “Iraq obviously was the dominant issue, but also equally dominant was the perception on the part of the American people of corruption in Washington, and you know what they’re right,� McCain says.

I believe the Endangered Species Act’s intention of protecting species is good, but I believe those good intentions have gone off track. The law is failing to lead to the de-listing of species.

In the 30 years that ESA has been around, more than 1,300 species have been listed as threatened or endangered. Oddly enough though, only a handful of species have recovered to the point of being de-listed, because agencies do not have clear standards about when a species should be de-listed.

I believe that we must protect species that are truly threatened or endangered, but we cannot lose sight of the real goal: recovery and delisting. The law should be supported by sound science and need, and be accompanied by a recovery plan that will lead to de-listing.

I will look forward to talking more about this important issue when I take it to the Senate floor next week.

Late last week, I introduced H.R. 1117, The Repeal REAL ID and Identification Security Enhancement Act.  It is not enough merely to delay implementation of the deeply flawed law that created REAL ID.  Congress must replace it with legislation that does not infringe on the privacy rights of Americans, does not put their personal information at risk to possible fraudulent use, and does not impose the burden of an unfunded financial mandate on State taxpayers.

In 2004, I was one of 161 members of the House of Representatives to oppose the REAL ID Act when it came to the floor.  The Senate did not even take up this controversial legislation, and the former majority leadership in Congress ultimately slipped the bill into a must-pass spending bill in 2005 that provided funding for our troops and for tsunami relief.

REAL ID requires each state to create an electronic database of all information from every driver’s license it issues.  It further requires each state to link its electronic database to that of every other state in the nation, effectively creating a nationwide database containing the private information belonging to every individual with a driver’s license in the entire country.  I don’t trust the security of Mainers’ personal information to a system that makes it available at any DMV in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

With the Iraq War entrenched as a major issue for Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has said he wants Congress to repeal its 2002 authorization of the president’s use of force.

Biden is preparing a proposal with Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). Below, Biden explains his intentions in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

He says the original authorization to destroy weapons of mass destruction, bring Iraq into accordance with U.N. resolutions and, if necessary, depose Saddam Hussein “is no longer relevant to the situation in Iraq.�

Biden says Congress should repeal the prior authorization and delineate a “much narrower mission statement for our troops.�

“Leaving Iraq is a necessity, but it is not a plan,� Biden says. “We need a plan for what we are going to leave behind.�

Democrats have been clear about the strategy behind their Iraq resolution: they’ve described it as a “slow-bleed,” and a way of tying the hands of the Commander in Chief. They want to vote in favor of meaningless proposition but not for funding of our armed services.

How can they say that they are voting in favor of our troops, unless they pledge to support them with the funds and reinforcements they need? A vote in support of the troops that is silent on the question of funds is an attempt to have it both ways.

I want an open and honest debate, and not political posturing. I was sent here to take action, not waste time on non-binding and empty resolutions.