Economy & Budget

Unfortunately, I think in September not a whole lot of substance will be done.  I would like to see movement on the minimum wage.  But I think not much will be done on a whole lot of issues like healthcare reform and education.

For the next Congress, once we get back here in January, we need an energy bill that moves us rapidly toward energy independence.  The tax incentives in the energy bill from last summer are for only two years.

Job 1 in the next Congress is Phase 2 of the energy bill that includes new fuels and flexible fuel vehicles.  We need competitive forces to drive down the cost of gasoline.

I think it's very important that we pass the video franchising bill.  That is necessary to facilitate the entry of telephone companies to cable television businesses in a way that would benefit consumers with lower prices and more varied television offerings.  The bill will enable local governments to offer telecomm services, particularly broadband.

Today's shutdown of BP's North Slope operations appears to be the result of the chronic mismanagement of its drilling operations in the U.S.  I questioned Department of Transportation officials in April about an earlier BP spill of 267,000 gallons of oil from Prudhoe Bay and learned that after the largest oil spill in the history of the North Slope (in March), that BP had not cleaned many of its pipelines for years - some for as many as 15 years.  Other pipelines up in Alaska are cleaned every few weeks.

BP's negligence is deplorable. And the DOT, which has oversight of these pipelines, must also be given the full powers needed to implement minimum maintenance standards so that these shutdowns are avoided. Right now, the Department has the power to step in after a spill, but lacks the full authority to regulate safety at this type of pipeline.

With oil above $70 per barrel and BP raking in record profits, surely it can afford to properly clean and maintain its pipelines. This shutdown will dramatically increase oil prices and the American people will be footing the bill for this massive failure of DOT's regulatory oversight and BP's corporate responsibility.

From a personal standpoint, I hope we look at drought relief.  I'm from a state that was affected by eight years of drought.  Also the inheritance tax reform - we badly need it because the inheritance tax reform expires in 2010 - it's very difficult for people to do estate tax planning because the change so distorts their decisions.  We need something people can hang their hat on.

I hope that we raise the minimum wage. There are majorities for raising the minimum wage in both the House and the Senate. The question is whether the majority leadership will let it up.

Let's get a comprehensive immigration reform this September. We will have severe repercussions if we don't act. Also, we need to have earmark reform. We're going to consider a reform this September that's now separate from lobbying reform.

Once again, the rules of the U.S. Senate have hurt the American people.  With 56 percent of the Senate voting in favor of increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and extending reductions of the death tax, a majority prevailed- but not a supermajority.  I was one of the 48 House Republicans who encouraged our leadership to raise the minimum wage and was very pleased when 56 percent of the House voted to pass the measure.  But 56 percent in the House is different than 56 percent in the Senate.



Some of the 44 percent of members who disagreed with combining a raise in the minimum wage with the extension of the death tax reduction want people to believe that the death tax reduction benefits only the super.  Well, there are no Paris Hilton's in the Fifth District of Ohio but what we do have a lot of are small business owners and farmers.  In my district, there are more than 12,000 farms and with more than two-thirds of the new jobs in the U.S. being created by small businesses, Paris Hilton had nothing to do with this vote.  I only hope we the American public can persuade the minority of the Senate who chose not to increase the minimum wage in order to satisfy their political base.

Start with an overwhelming majority of Senators in favor of extending the R&D tax credit. Add a healthy majority who support a permanent solution to the death tax. And then add another majority of those who favor increasing the minimum wage.

And the sum is… well, not 60 votes, unfortunately.

Election-year politics was apparently the variable yesterday that led to the Senate’s regrettable inability to invoke cloture on H.R. 5970, the Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act. Read more...

The American people see the minimum wage bill for what it is - a blatant political trick to make voters think Republicans like Chris Shays actually care about them and their ability to make a living. If Chris and the rest of the Republican leadership really cared about enacting a fair and equitable minimum wage, they would have had an up or down vote on just that measure - but Congressman Shays refused to allow even that. Instead he joined the rest of his party to pass a minimum wage bill he knew would never pass the Senate and therefore not be enacted.

I support an up or down vote on a minimum wage increase, which is long overdue for hard-working Americans.