Dear Fellow Citizens,
I
hope you all have a joyous holiday
with friends and family. My best
wishes to you for the New Year.
In
the waning days of 2007, there was
a sudden flurry of legislative action
to report to you. Just as many of
us feared that the successful filibustering
and other tactics of the Republican
minority and the President would
completely shut down the Senate,
as I reported in my November newsletter,
we were able this month to pass
a number of pressing legislative
matters before the end of the 1st
Session of the 110th Congress.
- Energy
Independence. The Senate
passed by a vote of 89-8 the 2007
Energy bill (see more below).
The Energy Bill increases the
fuel efficiency of U.S. cars for
the first time in over 30 years,
makes major investments in renewable
energy to protect the U.S. from
overdependence on foreign oil,
grows our economy, promotes new
energy efficiency and conservation
measures, and targets ways to
begin reducing emissions that
contribute to global warming.
As The New York Times reports,
the potential benefits resulting
form the bill include “reducing
the nation’s dependence
on oil and the emissions of gases
that contribute to global warming...The
end result, if it worked, would
be the sort of energy transformation
that was promised in the 1970s
and 1980s, until government and
industry lost their motivation
when oil prices plummeted.”
A broad tax incentives package
to spur the development of alternative
forms of energy, paid for by repeal
of certain tax breaks enjoyed
by the country’s five largest
oil companies, and a national
15% renewable electricity standard
were not included in the final
version of the Energy Bill in
the wake of the President’s
veto threat and failure to garner
the necessary Senate Republican
support to retain these measures.
- Farm
Bill. The Senate passed
by a vote of 79-14 its version
of the 2007 Farm Bill. 67% of
the Farm Bill’s funding
goes toward domestic food security,
hunger, nutrition and school lunch
programs that serve predominantly
urban areas. The remainder of
this year’s Farm Bill contains
a robust renewable energy title
I fought hard to help craft, as
well as rural development programs,
the strongest land, water, air,
wildlife habitat and open space
conservation program reauthorization
in the bill’s history, a
crackdown on illegal logging,
and the agricultural assistance
programs for our farmers and ranchers,
which have been reformed in this
Farm Bill to address waste, fraud
and abuses in eligibility in farm
assistance payments.
- Defense.
The Senate passed by a vote of
90-3 the final 2008 Defense Authorization
House-Senate conference report
(more details below). Among other
things, this bill speeds the growth
of the Army and Marine Corps beyond
the goals of the President, adds
$1 billion more than requested
to replace equipment for our National
Guard and Reserve that has been
sent to Iraq; bans permanent bases
in Iraq; establishes a commission
on wartime contracting to address
potential waste, fraud and abuse;
beefs up counterterrorist operations
along the Afghan-Pakistani border,
provides for an across-the-board
3.5% pay raise for our uniformed
troops (opposed by the President),
and significantly expands health
care for our returning soldiers.
- AMT
Relief. The Senate voted
to protect approximately 26 million
middle class American taxpayers
from becoming subject to the alternative
minimum tax, although we could
not overcome the President and
his congressional allies’
opposition to paying for this
protection.
- Soldier/Veteran
Tax Relief. The Senate
passed H.R. 3997, legislation
providing over $1 billion in tax
relief for our troops, veterans
and their employers. I helped
introduce the Senate version of
this bill, which was incorporated
into the final bill passed by
the Senate. The bill provides
$1.2 billion (paid for) in tax
relief over ten years for service
members and veterans, as well
as tax assistance for employers
who must provide differential
payments to any employee who is
called up for active duty.
- Mortgage
Crisis. In an effort
to address the growing housing/mortgage
crisis the Senate passed legislation
that expands the FHA’s loan
guarantee authority to provide
better rates and terms as an alternative
to the riskier subprime loan industry,
and authorizes the offer of refinancing
to homeowners struggling to meet
their mortgage payment in the
wake of the home mortgage meltdown.
At the same time, the Senate Finance
Committee, on which I serve, approved
a targeted tax relief package
eliminating the tax on mortgage
debt forgiveness. Currently, debt
forgiveness constitutes income
for tax purposes, resulting in
a high tax bill for those homeowners
who have had their mortgage debts
forgiven. Our tax package creates
an exception from paying this
tax on mortgage debt forgiveness
for primary residences from 2007
thru 2009.
- Peru
Trade Agreement. The
Senate approved the U.S.-Peru
Trade Promotion Agreement by a
vote of 77-18. I voted for the
agreement because I believe that
we cannot ignore the need to expand
into foreign markets. It is also
in our best interests to establish
greater trading ties with the
nations of the Western Hemisphere
without sacrificing important
U.S. principles. Importantly,
for my support, the Peru trade
deal incorporates a bipartisan
May agreement to ensure that the
playing field is fair by doing
our best to hold our trading partners
to the same environmental and
labor standards that American
businesses must meet, and to strictly
enforce those standards.
- Open
Government. In response
to the abysmal secretive operations
that have become the hallmark
of this Administration, we passed
legislation to toughen the Freedom
of Information Act and penalize
government agencies that fail
to surrender public documents
on time. The bill speeds the process
of releasing government documents
pursuant to FOIA requests, and
broadens the information available
to the public, including additional
government contracting information.
We were able to overcome a Senate
Republican hold on the bill.
- Children’s
Health Care. Congress
passed legislation extending the
federal children’s health
care program (S-CHIP) at current
levels through March 2009 after
the President twice vetoed bills
to provide health care to more
of our nation’s children.
Congress
also passed an FY 2008 Omnibus
Appropriations bill, combining
11 of the 12 annual spending measures
required each year (the 12th, Defense
Appropriations, was signed earlier
this year by the President) after
minority Senators successfully blocked
Senate consideration of several
of the individual appropriations
bills. We did not prevail on some
of our spending priorities, because
of the inability to win over the
required 20% of Senate Republicans
and the President’s threats
to veto the separate appropriations
bills. But we were able to change
some of the budget priorities over
the President’s objections,
for example: $3.7 billion more for
veterans health care; $613 million
more for medical research; $3 billion
more for student financial aid,
K-12 education, and vocational education;
$486 million more for developing
energy independence; $788 million
more for heating energy assistance;
$1.6 billion more for highway and
bridge repairs; $1.2 billion more
for law enforcement assistance;
$1.8 billion more for local government
homeland security assistance.
In
the first six years, the President
did not veto a single appropriations
bill, accepting domestic discretionary
spending increases from Republican-controlled
Congresses that averaged 7% a year.
This year the President insisted
on spending growth of 4% at most.
This Omnibus bill includes an approximately
1% increase in domestic spending.
The
Omnibus bill also contains $31
billion for military operations
in Afghanistan and $40 billion in
interim spending in Iraq,
less than the $300 billion the President
requested. The President vowed to
veto this omnibus bill absent some
additional Iraq funds, and had enough
congressional Republican votes to
make the veto stick, resulting in
a likely shutdown of the federal
government. In fact, Senate Republicans
blocked a move (cloture) to consider
the omnibus bill without Iraq funds,
thus breaking the Senate’s
two-year record for cloture
votes in just one year.
The previous record of 61 in a two-year
term was set in 2001-02, the last
time Republicans were in the minority
in the Senate. An effort to tie
the Iraq funds to a mandatory redeployment
of most troops in nine months was
rejected, 71-24. I voted against
this, consistent with my past votes.
A second proposal calling for the
transition of combat troops to more
limited missions by the end of next
year was defeated 50-45 (it required
60 votes). I voted for this proposal,
again consistent with my past votes
on this issue.
The
following is an update on some of
my activities in December.
Colorado
Appropriations. The
Omnibus Appropriations bill includes
several Colorado projects and programs
I was able to successfully preserve
from the various individual appropriations
bills that had been stalled by the
minority. The following is but a
sample of the CO projects and programs
I obtained funding for in the omnibus
bill: construction at the Fitzsimons
VA Hospital; bus and bus facilities
around the state; regional Drug
Task Forces, tribal law enforcement
and judicial assistance, the Denver
Gang Bureau; school safety programs;
hospital construction, health care
research, and expansion of health
care services; Mesa Verde National
Park boundary expansion; historic
preservation sites; highway projects
near Lamar, Denver metro region
and elsewhere; local airport upgrades;
homeless veteran housing; wastewater
treatment improvements; Fountain
Creek watershed study; Arkansas
Valley Conduit; Animas La Plata
water project; recreation development
projects at Chatfield, Cherry Creek
and Trinidad State Parks; and chemical
weapon destruction at Pueblo Chemical
Depot.
Military
Installation Encroachment. I
previously reported to you my efforts
to ensure that the missions of Colorado’s
military installations are not impeded
by encroaching development. Air
Force Secretary Wynne responded
to a letter I sent to him regarding
this issue, replying that “we
[the Air Force] have embraced your
suggestion to test our strategy
in Colorado and have taken several
positive steps to make this a reality.”
At my recommendation, the Air Force
will now initiate a pilot encroachment
program and establish a “Front
Range Combined Military Comprehensive
Planning Group” to address
this issue affecting our military
installations. I also successfully
added an amendment to the 2008 Defense
Authorization bill to strengthen
the Pentagon’s encroachment
protection efforts.
Pinon
Canyon. The Omnibus
Appropriations bill includes an
amendment pushed by Reps. John Salazar,
Marilyn Musgrave and myself setting
a one-year moratorium on the Army’s
Pinon Canyon expansion plans. The
Defense Authorization Act includes
an amendment I offered requiring
the Army to justify why it needs
to expand Pinon Canyon at all.
Other
Colorado Defense Authorization Items.
In addition to the Pinon Canyon
and military encroachment provisions,
the Defense Authorization bill includes
other Colorado provisions I successfully
added: Expanding access to Paralympics
programs for wounded veterans, setting
a hard deadline for chemical weapons
destruction at Pueblo Chemical Depot,
providing better training for helicopter
pilots at the High Altitude Training
Aviation Site in Gypsum; and language
requiring the Defense Department
to create a plan for the uncertain
future of Cheyenne Mountain/NORAD.
Fort
Carson as Army’s Crown Jewel.
In a letter to the Secretary of
the Army, I urged the selection
of Fort Carson as a home for an
additional brigade (the Army has
been considering where to locate
five additional combat brigades).
On December 19, the Army notified
me that it will be sending an additional
brigade to the post by 2011. I believe
Fort Carson, with existing resources,
is better able than other Army installations
to support the training needs of
another brigade.
Homeland
Security. In response
to the Bush Administration’s
leaked budget plans to eliminate
millions of dollars in homeland
security grant programs to state
and local first responders, I wrote
to President Bush expressing my
opposition to these proposed cuts.
The homeland security grant program
is the largest source of homeland
security resources for training,
planning and equipping state and
local first responders. It makes
no sense to slash these funds when
we require our first responders
to be ready to defend our homeland
and respond to a crisis.
Energy
Bill. Among the provisions
contained in the Energy Bill that
I authored or promoted are: provisions
to increase biofuels production
and make cellulosic biofuels a reality;
a national assessment of the capacity
to store carbon dioxide; accelerate
advances in carbon sequestration
technology; development of plug-in
hybrid vehicles; major energy efficiency
improvements to lighting, appliances,
buildings and industrial equipment;
and the 25 x 25 resolution, a goal
that 25% of the nation’s energy
should come from renewable resources
by 2025.
Wind
Energy. During floor
debate on the Farm Bill, I successfully
helped lead the effort to defeat
(79-14) an amendment by Sen. Alexander
(R-TN) that would have undermined
the small wind energy tax credit
I fought to include in the bill.
My wind tax credit provision makes
small wind technologies more accessible
to homeowners, ranchers, farmers
and small business owners by creating
a 30% investment tax credit (up
to $4,000) for the installation
of small wind systems, the first
wind energy federal tax credit in
more than 20 years.
Conservation
Easements. There has
been much recent public discussion
regarding federal and Colorado state
investigations into allegations
of fraud and misconduct in connection
with the conservation easement transactions.
Senator Allard joined me in a letter
to the IRS in an effort to ensure
the federal investigations are both
timely and fair. Colorado is the
singular national leader in conservation
easements. We want to ensure that
the bad apples abusing the conservation
easement program are swiftly dealt
with and the legal cloud surrounding
valid easements is addressed.
Oil
Shale Development.
I joined forces with Representatives
John Salazar and Mark Udall to ensure
that language was included in the
omnibus appropriations bill prohibiting
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
from issuing any final regulations
for commercial-scale leasing of
oil shale and from offering any
commercial oil shale leases during
fiscal year 2008, and directing
the Interior Department and BLM
to cooperate more fully with the
State of Colorado and address the
concerns and input from state and
local governments before finalizing
proposed commercial oil shale leasing
regulations. These actions are a
judicious approach to oil shale
development and will help Western
Slope communities better avoid the
unfortunate bust that comes from
an unchecked boom on commercial
leasing. This moratorium is intended
to ensure a more rational approach
to oil shale development.
As
always, for more information on
my Senate activities in Colorado
and in Washington, I urge you to
visit my website at salazar.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
