Congress must pass this year a broad Higher Education Act reauthorization bill to expand access to higher education, give American students the tools they need to complete college, and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the 21st century global economy.

We must use this reauthorization process to promote innovation and new technologies that will keep costs down, encourage competitive financial aid, open doors to more information helpful to students and parents planning for college, and improve financial literacy across the board.

We need to promote better financial literacy among students and their parents, so that they will know what their financial obligations are, and can manage debt more effectively.  Students should graduate with a degree in hand, not a ball and chain of debt holding them back. Read more...

The resolution is very straightforward, very clear, and very brief.  It first says that we emphatically support our troops and their mission-nowhere does it mention retreat.  Second, it says that we think that the addition of 20,000 troops to be asked to pursue the same policies that haven't worked is inadvisable.

Our service members deserve a government that confronts reality rather than simply hoping for the best.  And the reality is that somewhere between those who believe that we can stay the course in Iraq indefinitely and those who believe that we should leave Iraq tomorrow is the painful truth. The truth is that neither of these options will work.

Now, if you agree with me that this is the painful reality, then you are left with a hard choice: add 20,000 troops to continue the administration's ineffective plan, or try something different. Should we send 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, or should we rebuild our readiness here at home to deal with the growing challenges of Iran or naval expansion in China or genocide in Darfur or the other dangers in the world?  Should we hold the Iraqi Government accountable for accelerating the training of their troops or should we continue hoping for the best while putting the burden on the backs of 20,000 more U.S. troops? Read more...

On Thursday, I joined representatives from the government and other advocacy groups at a congressional hearing to discuss the state of the Freedom of Information Act.  Simply put, FOIA is democracy’s X-ray.

I appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives for its first hearing in the 110th Congress to discuss the importance of FOIA.

Since its enactment in 1966, FOIA has been used by the ACLU, other organizations, and private citizens to shed light on the government’s actions and abuses.  Recent ACLU FOIAs have revealed Pentagon and FBI spying programs targeting peaceful protest groups in the United States.  Such programs demonstrate the misuse of precious government resources: every hour spent spying on a Quaker peace group is an hour not spent investigating true terrorist threats. Read more...

The House Education and Labor Committee earned a “thumbs up Read more...

Because my Congressional district spans the destructive path of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I have seen first-hand the need for an immediate response from the federal government during a catastrophic disaster.  I am frustrated with many aspects of the federal government's failures, both before and after these devastating storms.  One source of frustration is the Small Business Administration's poor response to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Small business owners in my district have virtually given up on the SBA due to the delay in receiving small business grant and loan assistance following the hurricanes.  The lack of communication from SBA employees has kept many of my constituents from even completing applications.  South Louisiana's economy continues to suffer as a result.

There are some commonsense solutions to these problems: Congress needs to make the laws and regulations that currently govern the SBA's disaster loan programs more flexible and adjust them to the current circumstances.  For example, in the resourceful, self-sufficient economy in South Louisiana, oftentimes the best and only mechanic or tow-boat operator for these shrimping vessels are the owners themselves or their family members and fellow shrimpers. However, following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the SBA did not allow payments to family members or fellow shrimpers for the expense of removing the vessels from dry land. The money the SBA loaned shrimpers for mechanical repair, hull repair, net repair, and acquiring the needed fuel and supplies for shrimping was all important, but it didn't do owners much good if they didn't have the money to also get their vessels back into the water. Read more...

Yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee advanced the most substantial changes to U.S. labor law in at least a generation.  Prior to the vote yesterday, we held all of one subcommittee hearing on the legislation and bypassed a subcommittee markup altogether.  That’s unfair, unhealthy, and unprecedented.  But given the utterly flawed nature of the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act, Read more...

I think that this resolution is purely to try and divide members of the House, unfortunately. Iraq is a very complex problem and when they cut off all the troops they’re not accounting for the reinforcements that are going to fight the Al Qaeda troops. Now, why would you do that?

I was a little bothered by the Speaker’s comments. She laced a lot of finance talk in her statement about what’s coming. That would be a disaster. You can never turn your back on the soldiers in the field like that. They are doing everything and more than we’ve asked them to do. You can’t turn your back on them. I hope it doesn’t get to that. I hope they come to their senses. I’ve got a resolution I’m offering that does provide some alternatives to the President. Because again, I am not sold on sending 16,000 combat troops. We absolutely have to have an Iraqi face on those units. There are other ways we can help them be successful.

Well, I was one of the six Republicans that voted against the war initially so I’ve been opposed to this right from the start and I still am. That’s where I’m coming from. The President has already said that he’s not going to pay any attention to it and it’s a non-binding resolution. I think the American people want the Congress to debate and discuss this issue so that’s what we’ll do.

I hope that the President will reach a point where he decides to start bringing these troops home. He originally said that we weren’t going to stay there forever. So, what I think he should do is announce to the world that no country has ever done as much for any other nation as the U.S. has for Iraq. We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars over there and the time has come that the Iraqis are going to have to settle these things themselves. I don’t see and never have seen how we can achieve victory in a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. So where we go from here is going to depend very little on what I say. It’s going to depend almost entirely on the President. I think foreign policy has to be left primarily to the President but, by the same token, it doesn’t mean that the Congress has to remain silent. So we’re going express our opinions.

On the heels of former Congressman Joe Kennedy's (D-Mass.) refusal to stop airing television ads and participating in other activities that praise Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, I challenged Congressman Kennedy to a debate about his unfettered support of this communist dictator so that the American people can hear just how wrong he is on this issue.

Following is the text of my letter to Congressman Kennedy challenging him to a debate:

Dear Congressman Kennedy:

Why do you continue to be an apologist for Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez? Once again, in your disgraceful interview yesterday with Neil Cavuto, you made excuse after excuse for defending your shameless self-promotion of the most dangerous man in the Western Hemisphere. Read more...