Lawmaker News

In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), several members of the House and Senate demanded last week, on July 15, that the agency stop doing some of the very work it is empowered to do on behalf of Americans: regulate food safety.

The letter follows up on legislation passed by the House last month -- an amendment to an FDA (and other agency) appropriations bill introduced by Representatives Don Young (R-Alaska) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) -- which bars the FDA from expending funds to approve a genetically engineered salmon (which grows faster than its wild cohorts), regardless of the agency’s unprecedented and unequivocal scientific and environmental review. Senators are threatening similar legislation.

There is good news and bad news today in the House's vote to defeat the amendment offered by Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) to gut the funding of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). The good news is that it went down to defeat with 302 Members voting against it. The bad news is that there are at least 102 Members who are totally clueless about public perception and apparently about the facts of what has been occurring in the House ethics process.

Just this week, an outside counsel was appointed to take over the investigation of alleged violations of House ethics rules by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as well as investigate the allegations of leaks, professional misconduct and partisan meltdown in the House Ethics Committee itself. None of these alleged malfunctions have anything to do with the OCE, which, in contrast, has been conducting itself to date with a rare degree of professionalism and bipartisan agreement. Indeed, it appears that it is the OCE's professionalism that has so irritated some members, particularly those who have been the subject of an OCE investigation.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) recently asked "Why are taxpayers paying for wine tasting?" taking aim at the Economic Development Administration (EDA), a Department of Commerce agency that stands to gain funding from pending legislation that even the White House calls too expensive. We agree with Senator DeMint's criticisms of the panoply of federal economic development programs, but we find his call to shut down EDA akin to treating a severed arm with gauze pads - a small step when more significant action is needed to stop the bleeding. A far more meaningful solution would be for the federal government to fundamentally restructure and consolidate the various economic and community development programs, which is exactly what President George W. Bush tried to do six years ago before being blocked by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

In truth, EDA is merely one of many redundant federal agencies that could actually accomplish something meaningful if lawmakers had the courage to merge them under a single authority, cut overhead, and put accountability measures in place.

Earlier today, Representative John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced his intended approach for the transportation reauthorization bill that puts him firmly at odds with his own constituents. 

County commissions, city councils and transportation planning organizations throughout Mica's 7th Congressional District have passed blunt resolutions opposing Mica's plan to give block grants to state DOT -- instead of a proven system of dedicating federal funds to Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program. The resolutions emphatically support these core programs that fund trails and other bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Yet these popular and hugely effective programs - which cost less than two percent of the surface transportation budget but provide for more than 12 percent of trips in America -- would be severely undermined by Mica's radical new approach.

Secretary Clinton delivered the following remarks at the memorial service for former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger June 21, 2011 at Fort Myers Chapel, Arlington, Virginia.

I want to thank the Eagleburger family, Scott, Andrew, Jason, for the invitation to share some observations about an extraordinary diplomat, not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of the men and women of the State Department. 

When I first was asked to be Secretary of State by President Obama, I figured I should call all of my esteemed predecessors to ask for any words of advice. And I had met Secretary Eagleburger, but I cannot claim to have been a friend or a colleague. So when I called and I said I would very much appreciate any advice, he kept saying, “Keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole.” And I said, “Excuse me?” He said, “Well, exactly.” And then I look at the back of this program with this wonderful picture of Larry and Marlene, and there is the favorite saying about keeping your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole. Every time I saw him since, he said, “Are you keeping your eye on the doughnut?” And I said, “Well, Larry, if I could find the doughnut, I’d keep my eye on it for sure.” 

As two former Chairs of the House Judiciary Committee, we understand that reforming the patent system is long overdue. Indeed, the most important reform Congress could enact would be to prohibit patent "fee diversion" to help eliminate the Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) 700,000 plus application backlog. Unfortunately, as matters presently stand, this provision is likely to be stripped from the pending patent legislation, H.R. 1249, before it reaches the House floor. 

A new national opinion poll conducted by Pulse Opinion Research finds that 87 percent of American voters consider illegal immigration to be a problem for the United States. Estimates vary, but clearly there are upwards of 10 million people living illegally in the United States for the simple reason that breaking our immigration laws nearly always goes unpunished.

Many of our national leaders want to go one step farther. They would like to reward people who came here illegally with an amnesty which ultimately leads to U.S. citizenship. Having been repeatedly rebuffed by the American people for an all encompassing amnesty, advocates for illegal aliens have turned their focus to the DREAM Act. On the surface, the DREAM Act seems like a more palatable proposal than blanket amnesty. But, upon closer scrutiny, it is an unwarranted and costly idea and would spur even more illegal immigration in the future.

College strategic communication classes are filled with real-life examples designed to teach students the right and wrong way to handle a crisis. It’s hard to imagine a better textbook example of how not to respond to a crisis than Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-N.Y.) botched handling of the media in the aftermath of leaked inappropriate photos that he sent to women he met in cyberspace.

The first rule of crisis communication, of course, is: Don’t do things that create one. It defies logic that someone reportedly as bright as Rep. Weiner could so stupidly think that he could send scantily clothed (and unclothed) photos of himself to women with whom he had no personal relationship and get away with it in today’s politically-charged, 24-hour, scandal-driven, media market.

Sen. David Vitter’s brazen, and now successful, bid to block a scheduled pay increase for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is a petty gesture that Vitter’s fellow senators should apologize for having permitted.

By manipulating the Senate’s rules and customs, Vitter singlehandedly denied Sec. Salazar compensation provided to other cabinet officers, from both political parties, for decades. His shameless offer to accede to the raise in exchange for the secretary’s approval of new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico borders on extortion.

Former Illinois congressman and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel delivered the following remarks at his mayoral inauguration in Chicago, Ill. Below are excerpts of Emanuel's address.

Today, more than any other time in our history, more than any other place in our country, the city of Chicago is ready for change.

For all the parents who deserve a school system that expects every student to earn a diploma; for all the neighbors who deserve to walk home on safer streets; for all the taxpayers who deserve a city government that is more effective and costs less; and for all the people in the hardest-working city in America who deserve a strong economy so they can find jobs or create jobs -- this is your day.

As your new mayor, it is an honor to fight for the change we need and a privilege to lead the city we love.