Lawmaker News

My office has received hundreds of inquiries from constituents and organizations regarding the recently-enacted Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). A bipartisan Congress passed the CPSIA last year to protect children from the dangers associated with products containing unreasonable levels of lead, by imposing lead standards and testing requirements. However, a subsequent interpretation of the law by the Consumer Product Safety Commission has stretched beyond Congress’ original intent, applying the lead regulation to all children’s books. Under the CPSIA, libraries and other organizations have been forced to restrict access to children’s books and as a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, I have introduced legislation to clarify the CPSIA to allow children’s books to remain on library shelves for the benefit of millions of our youth. Read more...

Will 2009 be the year our nation finally gets the health reforms we need and deserve? The odds are looking better.

In a strong sign of his commitment to reform, President Obama has set aside $634 billion in his budget to overhaul our health care system. On the heels of the budget announcement, a diverse coalition of health care and consumer groups, including the AFL-CIO, came together to endorse a set of recommendations to help our nation achieve quality and affordable health care. Read more...

Beginning with his tax difficulties, and continuing through the puzzling narrative of when and what he knew about the AIG bonuses, Treasury Secretary Geithner has done little to inspire the confidence of the American people. Oddly, Secretary Geithner continued his bizarre and puzzling conduct this week, making flatly contradictory statements about the dollar in a span of only 24 hours. This weakens confidence not only in him, but in the currency he is entrusted to protect.

On Tuesday, Secretary Geithner testified before the House Financial Services Committee that he ‘categorically renounces,’ recent proposals from China and others to shift away from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency [see hearing transcript below]. The next morning in New York, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, he was asked about the same proposals and said he is ‘quite open,’ to them [see press report below]. Read more...

Earlier this year, I asked House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) to lead the House Republicans’ “Economic Recovery Solutions Group” – and yesterday Rep. Cantor unveiled a byproduct of that group, the “Responsible Homeowners Act,” which is the House Republicans’ “better solution” to revitalize the struggling housing market.

There are three simple points to the Republican solution Rep. Cantor’s group has developed. Read more...

In an effort to provide direct financial relief to tens of millions of American families, I have introduced legislation today that would cap interest rates on credit cards and all other loans at 15 percent. The Interest Rate Reduction Act would rein in the skyrocketing rates that banks and financial institutions are charging customers with little or no warning and without any justification.  Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) authored the bill and are sponsoring it in the Senate.

For years, the credit card industry has taken advantage of hardworking Americans by finding any little excuse or reason to dramatically increase their rates, which only serves to drive those people further into debt and make them more dependent on the credit card industry. The abuse exhibited by credit card and other lenders is a major reason for the economic hardships being felt in households all across America.  A fair and healthy lending system is critical to the success of hardworking Americans and the recovery of the economy.  This bill helps limit credit card and general lending abuse by placing a reasonable cap on the rates that can be charged to Americans. An interest rate cap gives the American people a legitimate chance to climb out of debt, enables lenders to still make a comfortable profit, and promotes long-term sustainable lending and borrowing practices. Read more...

During the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, the I-35 highway bridge that spanned the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota experienced a catastrophic failure and crumpled into the river beneath it, killing 13 people and injuring 100 more. Our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling due to improper planning, negligence, and inadequate management at all levels of governments.

A significant portion of our nation’s bridges, which were built in the 1960s, are reaching a point where structural soundness is an issue. 25% of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the latest FHWA National Bridge Inventory survey.  That number is expected to increase, the FHWA reports, because of increased traffic demands, continued bridge aging and deterioration, and limited funds for rehabilitation and maintenance. Read more...

It is clear to anyone who is watching that oversight of taxpayer dollars being spent through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has been grossly inadequate. Thus far, both the Bush and Obama Administrations, along with Congress, have not met the critical need to be transparent and accountable to taxpayers when it comes to this spending.

The lack of oversight and transparency is the reason one of my first votes in Congress was against the release of the $350 billion in additional TARP bailout spending. When the federal government is spending billions of taxpayer dollars, it is critical that we have the most stringent oversight and transparency possible. Read more...

Over the past two years, drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed thousands of lives. And this number is unfortunately only on the rise. Texans know firsthand about the dangerous reality of this escalating level of drug-related violence and it’s a top priority of mine to ensure it doesn’t spill over and threaten communities and residents in Texas. I have recently reached out to both President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano in this vein and urged them to give high priority to the situation. We need to do everything in our power to assist President Calderon and the federal government in Mexico to quell the violence and defeat the cartels.

President Obama’s announcement that he will be directing additional federal agents and devoting greater resources toward securing our border with Mexico is an important first step.  President Obama’s announcement shows they not only heard my concerns but also understood the urgency needed to address this critical national security issue. Read more...

Well, if you, like me, thought that things couldn’t get much worse than the trillion dollar bailout messes we’ve gotten into over the past few months, you were probably outraged upon learning the news about the taxpayer funded bonuses being given to AIG execs. The House passed a bill that would tax those bonuses at 90% to get the money back. The Senate may consider something similar this week, and I think it’s the Senate’s job to proceed carefully as we do so. Though I think all of us would support taking back the bonus payments, we need to give due consideration to the means by which we do this.  The Constitutionality of the House’s version of the bill is questionable and the precedent it sets is potentially very dangerous. I don’t think anyone is well served by Congress passing something of dubious Constitutional merit. We shouldn’t seek to hastily pass something that will sound good at home, but will inevitably be tied up on protracted legal battles--just for the sake of saying we did something. What good is done if we basically legislate a guaranteed legal dispute? Read more...

In my opinion, no one member of Congress is going to produce the singular idea that solves the crisis we face as a country and world from climate change, but one Congress united behind a commitment to save the planet can meet the threat to our very survival.

It is going to take a lot of ideas and yesterday I introduced The Clean Environment and Stable Energy Market Act of 2009, HR 1683, that would reduce emissions 80 percent by the year 2050. As a Member of the Ways and Means Committee, I propose a solution that addresses the issue from the prism of financial impacts -- providing a price signal for producers of greenhouse gas emissions to change to newer, clean technologies, and at the same time, provide a stable market that encourages the significant investments that will be required to transform America. Read more...