Op-Ed

Number of overstays has actually dropped since Sept. 11 attacks

Last year, in the middle of a hard-fought election, the Senate Agriculture Committee came together in a bipartisan way to craft a new kind of farm bill — one with major reforms and tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts, a bill that media outlets called a “landmark shift” and “one of the biggest policy changes in generations.” Even more important, our work reflected our commitment to the 16 million Americans whose livelihoods depend on agriculture.

“If you already have health insurance through your job — and because many of you are members of unions, you do — nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change your coverage or your doctor. Let me repeat: Nothing in this plan will require you to change your coverage or your doctor.” Those were the words spoken by President Obama at the AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, 2009. 

Just three years ago, Republican members of the Senate split with President Obama and his party over federal energy policy.

The biggest stumbling block to immigration reform is no longer politics. It is how to market the deal to conservatives.

Most people in America don’t know what the National Labor Relations Board is. Well, why should they? Here’s why.

The Internal Revenue Service dropped a bombshell last Friday, admitting that some of its employees had singled out Tea Party groups’ 501(c)(4) applications for extra scrutiny. In responding to the scandal, the first step, of course, will be to identify and discipline those who engaged in wrongdoing. 

The export of American natural-gas reserves to allies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere is under consideration by Congress again this week. Approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities are on hold indefinitely, but the economic and political benefits for the United States should it become a top exporter of LNG are too great to ignore. 

Speaking recently, President Obama reaffirmed his intent to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. I served as White House counsel during the initial recommendation to former President George W. Bush to establish the Guantánamo facility. It represented the best among a number of bad options, chosen in the months after the 9/11 attacks because of the necessity to detain enemy combatants in a secure, remote facility. President Bush had no interest in using Guantánamo during his presidency a day longer than necessary. Then-Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld also had no desire for the U.S. military to be the world’s jailers. However, the Bush administration established and continued to use Guantánamo because it was necessary. 

At last there is a sense of direction on Syria policy following Secretary of State John Kerry’s talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, which resulted in their announced intention to convene an international conference in the coming weeks.