Dear Fellow Citizens,
While Americans gathered for Thanksgiving
and prepared for the upcoming holidays,
the news out of Washington for November
has been of a decidedly mixed bag.
On the bright side, in November
the Senate passed legislation reauthorizing
the nation's Amtrak passenger rail
system, reauthorized the preeminent
early childhood Head Start program,
and by a vote of 79-14 overrode
the presidential veto of the Water
Resources Development Act (WRDA),
which authorizes federal water development,
infrastructure, flood control and
other water projects around the
country, including over $120 million
for water-related projects in Colorado
contained in the bill at my request.
On the other hand, the President
continued to oppose our bipartisan
effort to provide health care to
the nation's children. While we
passed a second, more restrictive,
version of the Children's Health
Insurance Program (S-CHIP) reauthorization
in response to the President's veto
of the first bill to provide health
care for 10 million of our nation's
children, the President rejected
this second version as well and
has made no meaningful effort to
find a compromise. While the President
immediately signed when it got to
his desk the FY 08 Defense Appropriations
bill which provides significant
increases in military spending,
hours later he vetoed the FY 08
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
bill, which provides badly needed
funding increases for existing domestic
programs. In fact, the President
is opposing any funding increases
in all non-military spending bills
even as he proposes nearly $200
billion in emergency funding for
the war in Iraq.
The Senate minority leadership
blocked consideration of a Democratic
proposal to provide some of the
President's requested supplemental
funds for Iraq. The Democratic proposal
tied the funding to a change in
mission from Iraq from one of combat
to the limited missions supported
in the Iraq Study Group legislation
I offered earlier this year, redeploying
our troops out of a civil war, and
ensuring that the troops receive
the training, equipment and rest
they need.
The Senate minority leaders also
successfully blocked the Senate
from considering the Farm Bill (see
details of this bill below), the
FY 08 Transportation-HUD Appropriations
bill, legislation to help families
facing home foreclosure stay in
their homes, legislation to enhance
assistance to veteran small business
owners or prospective owners, and
continue to block consideration
of the Renewable Energy Bill both
chambers have previously passed.
Republicans even blocked Senate
consideration of proposals to fix
the Alternative Minimum Tax to prevent
19 million middle class Americans
from falling under this tax come
January.
Ominously, the Senate minority
is making good on its threat earlier
this year to procedurally block
the majority agenda. This year alone,
the Senate majority has been forced
to file 56 "cloture" motions
to avoid filibuster and proceed
to action on legislation-an unprecedented
pace for obstruction that threatens
to shatter the record of 61 cloture
motions in a full, two-year Congress.
What this means is that the minority
has forced a 60-vote requirement
in the Senate on virtually every
major piece of legislation that
departs from this Administration's
agenda. Notwithstanding the successes
of this Congress (see my earlier
newsletters), the public is frustrated
by what it sees as inaction in Congress
to make changes in government policy.
But it is important to understand
that this inaction is not through
lack of effort, it is through the
lack of 60 votes in the Senate.
The Senate is divided 49-49 between
Democrats and Republicans, plus
two Independents. On any major policy
change, we need 9-10 Republican
Senators at a minimum and those
votes just have not been there.
Nevertheless, we push on, knowing
that the keeping up the good fights
is important to achieve success.
The following is an update on some
of my activities in November.
Honoring our Wounded
Veterans. On Veterans'
Day, I visited Colorado soldiers
wounded in Iraq at Walter Reed Hospital,
where I once again saw firsthand
the horrific and painful costs of
war. With every death and every
injury suffered by American men
and women in uniform, that cost
increases, which is why we must
change direction in Iraq.
Attorney General Mukasey
Nomination. I voted
against confirmation of Judge Michael
Mukasey to be U.S. Attorney General
because I was deeply troubled that
he was unwilling to clearly and
unambiguously state that he will
uphold U.S. law barring the use
of the torture procedure commonly
known as "waterboarding".
When I personally met with him prior
to the confirmation vote, I was
disappointed with his response to
my question whether an interrogation
agent could use waterboarding in
an interrogation setting. He said
he did not know and that it depended
on whether or not there was an intent
to cause pain. For me, that response
is unacceptable. The U.S. has prosecuted
those who have engaged in this kind
of torture since the 1898 Spanish-American
War. The 2006 Military Commissions
Act prohibits the use of torture.
By U.S. law, the 1949 Geneva Conventions,
and our most basic human sensibilities,
waterboarding is torture and it
is illegal. The has been further
affirmed by the top lawyers in the
Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines-and
just before the confirmation vote,
by Secretary of Defense Gates. Three
of the most respected Republicans
in the Senate, Senators Warner,
McCain and Graham wrote to Judge
Mukasey, saying "Waterboarding,
under any circumstances, represents
a clear violation of U.S. law."
This is not a complex issue. It
is not open to interpretation or
equivocation, and so I could not
support this nomination.
Curbing Encroachment
Around Military Facilities.
Encroaching development and population
growth in surrounding communities
has had a growing effect on training
and readiness at military installations
around the country. It has been
a problem successfully addressed
by planning at Fort Carson and is
of growing concern to the continued
viability of Buckley Air Force Base.
I spearheaded a bipartisan Senate
letter to Defense Secretary Gates
urging the Administration to adequately
fund the Range and Environmental
Protection Initiative (REPI), which
allows the military services to
create buffers around bases through
cooperative partnerships with local
communities and through the purchase
of conservation easements. Our letter
asks the Administration to submit
a request for at least $75 million
for REPI for FY 2009, with additional
increases up to $100 million by
2015. A recent RAND Corporation
report found that the REPI program
is seriously under-funded and that
the cost of effective action will
only increase over time as developmental
pressures intensify. The FY 08 Defense
Appropriations bill also includes
through my efforts $46 million to
curb development encroachment around
military bases around the country.
Addressing Denver International
Airport Safety and Staffing Concerns.
Just before Thanksgiving I met with
DIA officials and local federal
officials regarding security line
delays, runway incursions and snow
removal issues. Following that briefing,
I wrote to Homeland Security Secretary
Chertoff requesting that his department
assign additional TSA screening
officers to DIA. I also requested
and obtained from Secretary Chertoff
his commitment to swiftly investigate
recent revelations that de-icing
contractors at DIA were given instructions
by their instructors on how to cheat
on their qualification tests. Additionally,
the Colorado congressional delegation
joined together in a letter to the
FAA urging accelerated deployment
of a new ground radar system for
DIA that gives air traffic controllers
real-time information about all
aircraft and vehicles on the airport
grounds. The new radar system is
not scheduled to be implemented
until 2010. Our request was triggered
by a federal report revealing that
two of the most serious runway incursions
in the nation in the last year occurred
at DIA, the fourth busiest airport
in the country.
Fighting for the Farm
Bill. I continued to
fight for passage of the 2007 Farm
Bill reauthorization crafted by
the Senate Agriculture and Finance
Committees, both of which I am a
member. It is important to note
that the Farm Bill is not primarily
about continuing crop assistance
programs to farmers and ranchers,
although these programs gain the
most media attention. It may surprise
many non-agriculturalists, but 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, 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.
Saving Farm Agency Offices.
In response to a U.S. Department
of Agriculture plan to close Farm
Services Agency (FSA) offices in
five eastern and southern Colorado
counties, I successfully added a
provision to the pending Farm Bill
to keep the FSA offices open for
at least five additional years.
Helping South Platte
Water Well Users. I
successfully added to the Farm Bill
two provisions to aid farmers along
the S. Platte River in Northeast
Colorado who have suffered losses
and uncertainty over the past 1
½ years since they were ordered
to shut down the wells they rely
upon to irrigate their crops.
Reevaluating Energy
Demands and Impact on Water Resources.
In a letter to Energy Secretary
Bodman, I requested that the Department
of Energy update its 2006 report
to Congress which evaluated the
expected water needs for certain
energy sources. I have made this
request because I believe the current
report does not adequately present
a comprehensive and comparative
picture of the water needs for all
of the traditional and alternative
energy sources that have been included
in recently passed energy legislation.
As our Nation moves toward the greater
use of renewable energy, I want
to ensure that we do not do so at
the expense of other critical resources,
namely water.
Cleaning Up Roan Plateau.
Senator Allard and I joined together
in a letter to Interior Secretary
Kempthorne requesting an update
on the progress of the cleanup of
the Anvil Points CERCLA site near
Rifle. Under current law, Colorado
cannot receive any oil and gas leasing
revenues from new or existing leases
on Navy Oil Shale Reserve lands
on the Roan Plateau until the Anvil
Points cleanup is completed. If
there are sufficient funds to pay
for the necessary cleanup, excess
NOSR revenues should go where they're
needed most, such as efforts to
mitigate the impacts of gas development
on western slope communities. While
Senator Allard and I have differing
views on the extent of development
on top of the Roan Plateau, we both
agree that the revenues Colorado
is entitled to from whatever is
developed should be made available
to our state. The Anvil Points cleanup
timetable is critical to that revenue
stream.
Expanding Geothermal
Energy Use. I introduced
S. 2314, the Geothermal Heat Pump
Development Act, which would provide
American homes and businesses with
tax credits to promote greater use
of geothermal heat pumps (GHPs)-electrically
powered devices that use the earth's
natural heat storage ability to
heat and cool homes and meet energy
needs.. According to the EPA, GHPs
are the most energy-efficient and
environmentally clean space-conditioning
systems currently in use. However,
the comparatively high installation
costs associated with GHP systems
limits the number of American homes
and businesses who can tap into
this proven technology. My bill
makes GHP systems eligible for the
energy tax credit and the residential
energy efficiency property tax credit,
for businesses and consumers respectively.
Protecting Dominguez-Escalante.
I continue to push for local input
on the creation of a National Conservation
Area (NCA) for the Dominguez and
Escalante Canyons area in Western
Colorado. In 2006 I urged local
leaders to establish a formal, public
process to solicit public opinion
on establishing the NCA. It is my
hope that early next year we can
introduce consensus legislation
to better protect and manage this
amazing area in western Colorado.
Transforming Fountain
Creek. I introduced
S. 2384, the Fountain Creek Feasibility
Study Act, directing the Army Corps
of Engineers to conduct a feasibility
study on the construction of a multipurpose
project consisting of one or more
dams, reservoirs or other structures
to provide more reliable flood and
sediment control, to conserve fish
and wildlife and preserve their
ecosystem, and to improve the water
quality throughout the Fountain
Creek watershed and the Lower Arkansas
Valley. This bill is a first step
in implementing a vision to restore
Fountain Creek and transform this
corridor between Colorado Springs
and Pueblo into an environmental,
agricultural, and recreational crown
jewel for Southern Colorado.
Monitoring Northern
Colorado Uranium Mining Proposal.
In response to continued concerns
about the possible environmental
and economic impacts the proposed
Centennial uranium mining project
would have on Northern Colorado,
I sent a letter to the EPA urging
that agency to address these concerns
in any review of the project's permitting
application. I want to ensure that
the possible impacts, such as groundwater
contamination within the Denver
Basin aquifer system, not just the
smaller Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer,
are analyzed as thoroughly as possible,
given the fact that the proposed
mine operation is located within
30 miles of a population of about
300,000 people.
Fighting for Rocky Flats
Workers Health Care Needs.
In response to the U.S. Department
of Labor's belated, but welcome,
decision to include 775 Rocky Flats
workers under health care protection,
Representatives John Salazar, Ed
Perlmutter and Mark Udall joined
me in sending a letter to Labor
Secretary Chao emphasizing that
much more remains to be done to
address the needs of the thousands
more Rocky Flats workers that deserve
compensation for their health care
needs resulting from the service
they provided to their nation. The
latest Labor Department ruling is
just another example of how what
should be a relatively straightforward
process for designating these workers
as eligible for health care compensation
has become convoluted and twisted
beyond recognition-a monstrous injustice
to the Rocky Flats workers.
Ensuring Medicare Hospital
Coverage for the Underserved.
I introduced S. 2381, the Medicare
Sole Community Hospital Preservation
Act, to ensure that hospitals that
provide critical care in isolated
rural or underserved urban areas
are properly reimbursed by Medicare.
There are currently 15 sole community
hospitals in Colorado and over 480
throughout the nation.
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,
