I am pleased that the State Department has secured the release of four Americans–including one of my constituents–who were detained by the Chinese this past week on Mt. Everest for protesting the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  While this situation had a positive outcome, I firmly believe that the Chinese should not run the Olympic torch up Mt. Everest.  It looks like they are using the Olympics to politicize the games and promote their occupation of Tibet.

I voted for the final version of the House-Senate bill Wednesday night because I believe that it is very important to support the brave men and women who are serving our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We must do everything in our power to ensure that our soldiers have everything they need when standing on the front lines and fighting for our country.

However, it is time for our country to move in a new direction.  The policies pursued by this Administration have not worked, and we cannot continue to stay the course of a failed policy. I am urging President Bush to sign this legislation and support our soldiers.  This bill will provide critical funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In addition to fully funding our troops, the bill requires Iraqis to begin taking responsibility for their own security and the future of their country. We cannot do for them what they ultimately must do for themselves. As a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, I believe it is important to honor our veterans by covering their health care and other vital services they deserve. We must take care of those who have taken care of us.

The news from the Treasury Department and Wall Street this week is two more clear indications that the tax cuts we passed in 2001 and 2003 are benefiting the American people.

Yesterday, the Treasury announced a one-day record amount of tax receipts — more than $48.7 billion — was collected on April 24.  And this week the Dow finished about 13,000 for the first time in its history.

These aren’t apparitions.  We’ve seen 43 straight months of job growth with 7.8 million new jobs created over that period.  There have been 18 straight months of unemployment at or below 5%. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week my office was leaked an alarming email from chlorine industry insiders revealing that there have been both successful and attempted thefts of 150-pound toxic chlorine cylinders from several California water treatment facilities.  These revelations make clear that there are massive security gaps at chemical facilities around the country.  In fact, it appears that there are nightclubs in New York City that are harder to get into than some of our nation’s chemical plants.

Most of us think of chlorine as nothing more than a strong-smelling chemical that helps keep swimming pools clean.  But in the hands of the wrong people, chlorine can pose a serious danger to Americans. According to media reports at least five chlorine truck bombs have exploded in Iraq in recent months, killing dozens of people and injuring many more after they breathed the toxic fumes. And experts have estimated that a rail tanker car full of chlorine could kill or injure 100,000 people just in the first half hour! Read the rest of this entry »

The Iraq bill has the weight of a feather but I supported it because sometimes the weight of a feather can support the resolve of a nation.  The legislation is very weak on a date to get our soldiers out of Iraq, but it provoked so many attacks from the White House that its real value may be in proving to the American people that the President is out of touch and out of control.

The President’s military escalation has only escalated the body count, but he claims we’re making progress. Mr. President, we’re not making progress; we’re making widows and widowers.

The President will emerge from his reality-proof bunker just long enough to veto this bill.  He’ll make a speech and what it will say is: My way or no way.   The stroke of the President’s veto pen will be like a knife cutting away any hope of reason or sanity for ending this bloody, god-awful war. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought about this exercise for several days before the week began. I spent about an hour creating dinner menus and ended up changing my menus, based on the prices of some things.

I feel like I am obsessed with food, which is not the usual me.

We had a number of items at home already, which I calculated into our budget at about $17.00 and Ted went to the store to supplement, spending right under $21.00. With a little to spare, I picked up a carrot, a head of cabbage, some orange juice and splurged on half & half for coffee –- I am afraid that the ship of state would run aground if the captain’s morning coffee didn’t include a bit of half & half. Read the rest of this entry »

Since January, I have been on a crash course in dairy policy. Not having an extensive background in the dairy industry I wanted to ensure I fully understood the issues surrounding dairy. What I quickly learned was that it was very challenging. The running joke I hear over and over is, if there are three people in DC who fully understand dairy policy, then two are lying. In any event, there is consensus throughout the dairy industry that the rulemaking procedures take too long. We must ensure that the process is quick and efficient, and represents what the dairy market in 2007 looks like.

Congress has been back a week, the Democrats “first 100 days� are over, and the House and Senate are still dragging their feet on immigration reform. Americans are desperate for our political leaders to work together and deliver a realistic solution to a failing immigration system.

A comprehensive solution would couple enforcement at the border and in the workplace with a path to earned legalization for all hard working immigrants. It will also replace guest worker programs with a system that guarantees immigrant workers full labor and civil rights protections, and a road to U.S. citizenship. Done together, these reforms will finally restore the rule of law and eliminate an informal labor market that drives down wages and labor protections for all U.S. workers. Read the rest of this entry »

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) continued her “Four Corners of Iowa” tour over the weekend, appearing at a coffee shop in Newton, Luther College in Decorah, and staging a press conference with nurses in Dubuque. In Clinton’s latest campaign video, released Wednesday, the senator speaks to small groups of Iowans about popular skepticism of government, and about making everyone a part of bettering America.

Clinton talks about certain Americans who are “invisible” to the federal government under the current administration. Those Americans include single mothers working through school, small business owners fighting rising energy costs, and nurses speaking out for better patient care and working conditions. Find the campaign video below.