Lawmaker News

While there has been a decrease in the number of refineries, this is due to increasing market concentration resulting from refinery mergers. Thus, big oil, and not environmental or public health laws are to blame for fewer, but bigger refineries. If the Republicans want someone to blame for the shortage of refinery capacity and high gas prices they should try looking at themselves and taking responsibility their failed energy policy.

When you start talking about compensation making up 12% of corporate profits, you're talking about real money, amounts of money so large that they are drains on the economy, so of course there would be less money to deal with pensions, healthcare, or other factors.

What we are doing, we are not telling the stockholder what they can and cannot do, but we think they should be able to vote on it, on such compensation.   

The so-called 'Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act' is neither accountable nor transparent.  It does nothing to address the problems in the current lobbying system.  Dressing up a series of meaningless cosmetic changes and simply calling them 'reform' does not make them reform.  Make no mistake, Members who support true lobbying and ethics reform must vote against this sham bill

This legislation hardly does anything to stop unethical behavior by members of Congress and lobbyists. We need bold reform to rebuild Americans' trust in their government, but this bill doesn't provide anything close. Even worse, we weren't allowed to offer amendments to significantly strengthen it. We need to reject this bill and bring up a bill with meaningful reform which includes increased disclosure, improved ethics process, gift ban and an end to phony accounting of the cost of corporate flights. I urge the Minority Leader to exercise her right to offer a credible Motion to Recommit that provides meaningful reform. If it does, I intend to support it and will encourage colleagues on my side of the aisle to do the same.

If we want to make further progress on increasing domestic oil supplies, we need look no further than some of the promising areas in the Gulf of Mexico that were put off limits by the Administration when it first came into office back in 2001. The Administration took a large tract of potential production, called the Lease Sale 181 Area, and cut it down dramatically from the proportions that had been agreed to by President Clinton and then-governor Lawton Chiles of Florida. With the stroke of a pen, over a billion barrels of oil resources and over 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were taken off the table. That was a mistake that I and others decried at the time and tried to reverse.

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This past Sunday, April 30, 2006, I took part in a momentous event in the name of ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The crowd of nearly 75,000 men, women, and children from all over the U.S. and even parts of Africa, assembled on the National Mall that beautiful spring day to chant and cheer with resounding enthusiasm as Members of Congress, celebrities, religious leaders, student and community activists spoke of the critical needs in Darfur and gave suggestions for ending the genocide. It was an overwhelming sight to look out from the stage at the faces of people united to bring more attention to the ongoing atrocities going on half a world away. I was reminded of previous marches on Washington when people stood for peace and justice for all. Read more...

I find it hard to believe that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations does not know about ongoing military activity in one of the world's most volatile regions, and in a country at the heart of current debate before the UN.

Congress has a Constitutional role to play in providing checks and balances of this Administration. Ambassador's Bolton testimony today, and his refusal to answer even the most basic questions about Iran, is just another example of this Administration's contempt of Congress.

This Administration has set our nation on the path to war against Iran.

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The Bush-Cheney Administration has cultivated an insidious brand of unilateralism that regularly crosses into an arrogance of power. The scope of the Administration’s assertions of power is stunning, and it is chilling. Just as disturbing as the President’s use of press releases to announce which laws he will follow is the abject failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to act as a check against this executive power grab. I will continue to blow the whistle on the President’s use of these bill signing statements to pick and choose which laws he deems appropriate to follow, and so will others. But until Republican leaders let Congress fulfill its oversight role, this White House will have no incentive to stop this abuse of power.

As the world's largest and oldest democracies, India and the United States have forged a long-lasting friendship. Our common goal of safeguarding liberty and combating oppression has united India and the United States resulting in an expanding relationship. It is my hope that the Global Partnership will help to further foment and expand these mutually beneficial ties. Read more...

Medicare is one of the pillars of health care in this nation, but the Republicans seek to weaken it. The dire situation that the Medicare Trustees warn will be reached in 2012 is an ill-disguised scare tactic to force cuts in a program that millions of Americans depend on. Five years of tax cuts that have enriched millionaires do not justify healthcare cuts that hurt ordinary citizens. And professed concern for the sustainability of the program is not particularly credible when wasteful spending to the tune of $63 billion over ten years for Republican cronies in the health insurance industry remains untouched. We need to protect, not pillage, the Medicare program.