Too late, apparently, to follow Jeff's suggestion to write your senators
to urge them to reject the energy bill-- it just passed.
Only eight congressmen saw fit to vote against the new transportation
bill-- I suppose those were the eight that didn't get their share of the
pork. There were reportedly a record-setting 4000 "earmarks" in the
~$300billion bill-- almost ten per district on average-- so you'd think
everybody would experience a sated if not fully bloated sensation.
My favourite quote from the article, but Arizona Repugnican Flake: "I
hope President Bush sticks to his guns and vetoes this bill; Congress
could use the adult supervision." (Bush had earlier asked Congress to
"limit" spending to $260billion.)
Now go drink a six-pack.
--
After Stall, House Passes Huge Bill on Transportation
By CARL HULSE
After extinguishing a last-minute flare-up, the House today approved a
$286.4 billion transportation bill as the Senate sent President Bush a
sweeping new energy policy, fulfilling one of the administration's
earliest policy goals.
Senators voted 74 to 26 to enact a measure that touches on virtually
every aspect of American energy production and consumption, from new
nuclear power plants to energy efficient appliances. The bill provides
$14.5 billion in tax breaks, encourages much greater use of renewable
fuels and takes steps to make the power grid more reliable.
Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico and a chief author of
the bill as chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee,
dismissed complaints that the bill did too little to lower gas prices or
reduce consumption and said it would set the nation on a new energy course.
"The problem is far bigger than gasoline prices tomorrow morning," said
Mr. Domenici. "It is what will be the state of energy in 5 and 10 years
from now in the United States. I can tell you, we will be safer. We will
have more jobs, we will have an electricity system that is safe and
sound. We will have diversity of energy sources and supplies built in
our country for us."
In the House, members voted 412 to 8 in favor of a highway measure
packed with public works projects for every Congressional district in
the nation. Its approval after years of impasse was delayed for a few
extra hours today after House members rebelled against a provision they
said was intended to help a Montana Air Force base stay open,
circumventing a base closing process that is threatening other facilities.
Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who championed the provision on
behalf of Great Falls, said he would abandon it rather than derail the
energy bill at the last minute.
"I cannot allow the highway bill to be a victim of the House's actions
after the countless hours I've spent making sure it's right for Montana
and America," Mr. Baucus said.
The votes came as Congress scurried to complete its business prior to
leaving for a five-week recess.
"The legislative logjam we have experienced over a number of years has
been broken," Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said
Thursday.
Though negotiators reached a tentative agreement on the highway spending
plan on Wednesday, the text of the bill was kept under wraps Thursday
even as the House headed toward a vote.
When the measure reached the floor late Thursday night, a handful of
House members immediately objected to a Senate provision they said was
an attempt to keep the Montana base open when House members were
grappling with base closures called for by a presidential commission.
"What we are seeing here is absolutely outrageous," said Representative
Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut. The angry objections
slowed consideration of the highway bill.
As Congress dealt with that measure and a flurry of other legislation in
the days before it recessed, Republican leaders in the House and Senate
seized on the imminent enactment of the initiatives as an opportunity to
crow about their ability to get things done - even if it sometimes took
a while.
"Have we done everything we wanted to do?" Representative J. Dennis
Hastert of Illinois, the House speaker, asked Thursday. "Not exactly.
But we have done an awful lot."
While Republican leaders celebrated, opponents of the measures
criticized their costs, their taxpayer-financed benefits for the energy
industry and, in the case of the highway measure, the thousands of
home-state projects sought by lawmakers eager for public works projects
to take home to voters.
"The transportation bill contains a record 4,000 earmarks, which is an
ignominious achievement for Republicans," said Representative Jeff
Flake, Republican of Arizona, referring to the pet projects. "I hope
President Bush sticks to his guns and vetoes this bill; Congress could
use the adult supervision."
But Republicans heralded the two initiatives as a boon to the nation's
employment picture. "This is about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs,"
Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri said Thursday.
A significant number of Democrats supported both measures, but the
Democratic leadership was not ready to rate the work of the Republican
majority a success.
"In the past 100 days, Republicans found time to confirm right-wing
judges, to protect Karl Rove and to take up the business of their
special-interest friends," Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Democratic
leader, said in a statement on Thursday.
Trying to complete its work, the House also gave final approval Thursday
to a spending bill for the Interior Department that included $1.5
billion to cover a shortfall in money for veterans' health care.
In a move the White House welcomed, the House passed legislation
limiting punitive damages in some medical malpractice cases and imposing
other restrictions. But similar bills have not progressed in the Senate
in the past.
The energy bill spreads an estimated $14.5 billion in tax breaks over 10
years among the oil, nuclear and coal industries, renewable fuels like
wind and solar energy and energy efficiency and conservation. Another
$1.6 billion will be spent directly on energy programs and research.
The bill contains a total of more than $80 billion in potential
spending, though most of those projects will be at the future discretion
of Congress.
Supporters said that by encouraging growth in the renewable-fuels
industry and raising domestic production of traditional sources like
oil, gas and coal, the bill should lead to less reliance on oil imports.
"It is not a perfect bill," said Representative John D. Dingell of
Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee and
an influential party voice on the issue. "But it is a good beginning to
develop an energy strategy for the 21st century. It is the best that can
be constructed at this time."
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, acknowledged Thursday that
the measure would have little immediate impact on high energy costs,
saying "we didn't get into this overnight, and we're not going to get
out of overnight."
But Mr. McClellan joined Congressional leaders in describing the bill as
a step toward reducing American dependence on foreign oil.
"This legislation helped address the root causes of high energy prices,"
he said. "It will expand domestic production, it will increase
conservation, and it will improve reliability of our electricity system."
Businesses interests also welcomed the passage of the energy bill. "It
seems to balance pretty well the research and development and energy
efficiency along with additional means of production," said William L.
Kovacs, a vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Though the bill dodged the issue of fuel economy, Dan Brouillette, a
Washington representative of the Ford Motor Company, said that new tax
breaks for owners of hybrid cars should "accelerate the expansion of
advanced-technology vehicles and to achieve the volumes needed to make
them more affordable."
Critics said that the bill fell far short, citing its subsidies for
profitable industries, exemptions from environmental laws and failure to
address automotive fuel consumption or global warming.
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
