I believe military service is one of the highest callings an American can answer. Our servicemen and women are some of the bravest, most honorable folks in the history of our country or any other. But there is another calling many of our soldiers feel, and that is the call to motherhood. These two callings are not mutually exclusive; many of our finest soldiers are mothers. In times of war, these women are asked to leave their children behind and put their lives on the line. Not only to protect their children’s future, but ours as well. We owe them our deepest gratitude.

That’s why, along with Senators Jon Tester, Blanche Lincoln, Olympia Snowe, and Ben Nelson, I’ve asked the Department of Defense to review a military policy that can result in new mothers being sent back into combat zones just four months after giving birth. This is an issue that deserves our attention. It’s vital that we address the issue to ensure we are doing right by our soldiers and their children. Study after study has shown that the time following birth is critical an infant’s development and to laying the positive foundations for a family. Read the rest of this entry »

Barack Obama has a third new ad out in Texas. Watch the first two here. The ad flaunts endorsements from the El Paso Times and San Antonio Express News and focuses on his work on ethics reform and promise to not have any lobbyists in an Obama White House.

What has five years of war brought to America, the Middle East and the world? Thousands of deaths. A trillion in debt. A catastrophic failure of diplomacy. It has destroyed our nation’s fiscal soundness. And we will soon have borrowed $1 trillion, with the likely Republican nominee for President saying we may need to be in Iraq for another 100 years. We are nearing the tragic milestone of 4,000 American troop deaths. Thirty-thousand wounded, many gravely – amputations, blindness, hearing loss and untold thousands with head trauma, making life after war most difficult.

Responsibly redeploying our troops will enable us to refocus on other threats and challenges – counterterrorism, force training and protecting our assets. As the war in Iraq rages, bin Laden remains free and his terrorist network is gaining power worldwide. This legislation will shine the spotlight on this unmet challenge of fighting terrorism and keeping our country safe. Today, tomorrow, and beyond, we must seek common ground toward a new American foreign policy that strengthens our security, supports our troops and begins to restore our nation’s ability to lead once again.

Iraq – with untold wealth because of its oil supply – must take care of its own citizens. Americans need to take care of Americans.

While waiting on his party to choose their nominee, DNC Chairman Howard Dean has taken the lead in launching attacks against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. The Hill’s Andy Barr reports on Dean from Georgetown University where the former Vermont Governor spoke.

APPA Senior Vice President-Government Relations Joe Nipper submitted this post as a guest blogger for The Hill.

There’s no doubt about it: The U.S. MUST increase energy production from renewable and clean energy sources.

Congress has consistently provided privately-owned energy companies with tax-code based incentives for related investments.  Not-for-profit public power systems and rural electric cooperatives, which together serve 25 percent of America’s electric customers, have sought and will continue to seek, comparable incentives for this type of development.

One vehicle for achieving this parity was the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI) program, created in 1992 to provide incentives for not-for-profit electric utilities.  Unfortunately, after its creation, the demand for the program far outpaced its funding, and not-for-profit utilities cried out for more funding to help them work toward state renewable portfolio standard requirements and climate change mitigation programs.  In the Administration’s recently released Fiscal Year 2009 Budget, REPI funding was completely and inexplicably eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bush Administration’s failed policy in Iraq has stretched our military to the breaking point, diluted and diverted our efforts to counter al Qaeda and its affiliates in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and roiled the Middle East with instability. The sooner we change course the sooner we can implement a sound, sensible and sustainable policy that truly advances our security interests.

Today the Supreme Court will hear the case of Exxon Shipping vs. Baker, the case of the Exxon Valdez oil spill that has lasted nearly twenty painful years for the victims of this environmental disaster.

Jeopardy! recently featured the victims’ plight as an answer on the popular show. Yet, these victims still don’t have their answer.

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound.  Five years later a federal jury in Anchorage awarded punitive damages to the fishermen, businesses, and affected communities.  However, to date, Exxon has paid none of the $4.5 billion punitive damages award. While ExxonMobil earned $36 billion in 2006, a record for a single company, it STILL has not paid any of the punitive damages to people harmed by this disaster. Read the rest of this entry »

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received a lot of attention in the recent weeks and months.  The “little agency that couldn’t and wouldn’t� has inspired the Senate’s Commerce Committee to include “best practices whistleblower protections� in a bill written to strengthen the CPSC.  The whistleblower provision in S. 2663 provides equivalent witness protection fights for citizens defending America against unsafe products as those given to individuals who challenge security threats in the ground transportation industries approved almost unanimously last year in the 9/11 law.

Congressman Dingell’s Energy and Commerce committee inexplicably left this provision out of the House bill. The CPSC has a proven track record of always favoring industry concerns over public safety. Given the public’s outrage with the CPSC, it will be hard for the Chairman to justify this action.

A diverse group of good government and consumer protection organizations sent a letter of support to the Senate for S. 2663.  As the groups note, whistleblower protection is a necessary enforcement cornerstone for the promise of reform to be realized most effectively.

Conservative icon William F. Buckley died Tuesday at the age of 82. David Keene and John Feehery wrote posts earlier today on Buckley at The Hill’s Pundits Blog. Here is a video of his famous 1969 debate with Noam Chomsky.

We must ensure that our Intelligence Community can collect information with the speed and agility necessary to protect our nation’s security, while at the same time respecting Americans’ civil liberties. The Protect America Act put us on the right track by modernizing and updating FISA for tracking the communication of foreign terrorists. But with its expiration Congress must make these improvements permanent to allow our intelligence community to protect Americans.

It is utterly reckless for the House to ignore the Senate’s bipartisan intelligence legislation, when the Protect America Act has been expired for more than 10 days. As Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said two weeks ago, ‘People have to understand around here that the quality of the intelligence that we’re going to be receiving is going to be degraded.’ The House must take up this legislation immediately and give Congress a chance to have an up or down vote on this critical bill. The necessary votes are there.

Foreign terrorists that threaten our nation are not taking a break. Neither should America. By allowing a vote on the Senate FISA bill—a bill that more than 20 Democrat Senators voted for—we can give our intelligence committee the tools they need to monitor foreign terrorists effectively.

Editor’s Note: Watch video of Hill pundits Peter Fenn & Frank Donatelli on FISA at The Hill’s Pundits Blog.