Category: Legislative Updates

September Legislative Update

October 4, 2011

Well it’s ‘Ground Hog Day” all over again. A government shutdown at the end of this week, (Sept. 30) is likely averted with Senate passage of a Continuing Resolution (CR) that the House is expected to pass soon. The deal will do little to end the partisan fighting over fiscal 2012 spending, however. The Senate bill is considered a “clean” CR that will fund the government through Oct. 4

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Legislative Update

September 1, 2011

I hate to sound like a broken record having to again report to you that federal government is stuck in place until final decisions are made on raising the debt limit. The rhetoric on all sides of the issue has been thick, harsh and disconcerting. At times it has been confusing trying to distinguish what the key points of contention are and where the battle lines are being drawn. President Obama

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Only When it is Dark Enough Can You See the Stars

September 1, 2011

“Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”  Martin Luther King once spoke these words and his statement speaks to my sentiment at this moment. The Tonko/Bass Amendment to the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill has just failed in the House of Representatives.  This legislation would have transferred $227 million back to state and federal weatherization and local energy

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Legislative Update

August 26, 2011

Congress is going through the motions of governing. Meetings and hearings and many floor speeches filled with political rhetoric are taking place. Still everybody knows nothing really is going to happen until the impasse surrounding when and how to raise the debt limit has been settled. President Obama is still hopeful an agreement can be reached. The White House said a “significant deal

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We Live in a Free Country—We Are Also Free to be Ignorant

August 26, 2011

Independence Day is upon us. This is our time to reflect upon this remarkable experience called the United States of America. There is no place like it in the world. Through the years, despite our shortcomings, the spirit of this nation  strives to better the human condition. Each generation has struggled to cast off some vestige of unjust power, hate or inequality. After tumultuous and

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