Tackling Crime, Drugs and Money Laundering on the Border

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

At the Senate Judiciary Committee on “Southern Border Violence: Homeland Security Threats, Vulnerabilities and Responsibilities,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that “incidents of transnational violence are, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon,” when looking at issues relating to the southwest border. She warned, “What is occurring in Mexico now is violence of a level that we have not seen before.”

Asked by Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) whether, as Secretary of Homeland Security, she considered Mexican drug cartel violence a real threat to the homeland security of the United States. Secretary Napolitano agreed with this statement.

In a prepared statement Mr. Ogden said, “The explosion of violence along the Southwest border is being caused by a limited number of large, sophisticated and vicious criminal organizations, not by individual drug traffickers acting in isolation.”

Mr. Ogden added that the Department for Justice aimed to “identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels,” including “extensive and coordinated intelligence capabilities...prosecuting criminals responsible for the smuggling, kidnapping and violence in federal court.”

In a prepared statement Mr. Steinberg said, “drug related assassinations and kidnapping have reached unprecedented levels.”

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) called the current situation of growing violence on the border “a sad state of affairs.”

Udall: Green is the new red, white, and blue

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

At the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the future directions of energy research and development, Ranking Member Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) said that, “If we are going to be the leader in energy technology, investment in Research and Development (R&D) is a must, and the two are certainly not mutually exclusive.”

The legislative proposal considered today will not only reauthorizes the research and development components of the energy policy act of 2005 but it doubles the authorization funding from 2009 to 2013.

Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu emphasized the importance of the U.S. becoming less carbon intensive and less dependent on foreign oil. “In the near term, President Obama and this Congress have already taken key steps to passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” which Chu says will help put people to work at making homes more energy efficient. “Getting this money into the economy quickly, carefully, and transparently is the top priority for me.” said Chu.

Chu also stated that funding needs to be increased in the sciences because, “we need to do more transformational research at the DOE to bring a range of clean energy technologies to the point where the private sector can pick them up.” He stated that this will help to make abundant, affordable, low-carbon bio-fuels a reality.

Senator Mark Udall (D- Colo.) remarked that there is a need for a long term R&D investment, and it is clear that National Labs will start playing an important role in regard regard to energy efficiency. He went on to state that, “There is a saying that has been making the rounds for the last years, which is green is the new red, white and blue, in other words, one of the most patriotic things we can do is to develop this new energy economy, and maybe we will see you sitting on a poster; “Sam needs you”.”

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that clean coal and nuclear power are far more important than maybe some people appreciate. He stated that, “Now we are going to have spent nuclear fuel sitting around in pools all over America and also tell the nuclear power industry, we have no way of either reprocessing or storing spent nuclear fuel around America, and we expect nuclear power to be an integral part of this nations energy future.” McCain went on to question the need for funding research when the Europeans and Japanese are already doing it in a safe and efficient fashion.

McCain and Feingold tackle pork reform

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Today Senator John McCain (R-Ariz), Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis) spoke of their plans to reintroduce their version of the line item veto bill. Feingold said that the bill would allow the President to mark certain earmarks for reconsideration, have it sent back to Congress, and have each marked spending allocation voted on individually. If either chamber votes against rescinding the money by a simple majority vote, then the project would be funded.

The Supreme Court had previously struck down as unconstitutional McCain’s previous attempt to introduce a line item veto. McCain said that he wants to “get around” that decision by the Court through a new legislative effort, which McCain said would be fully constitutional.

All three members of Congress felt that this would be an important step towards reforming wasteful pork. Ryan said that this would bring accountability and common sense to the earmark process. McCain said that he anticipates it being difficult to pass, but Feingold said that this bill is important, because earmark money is “real money” that comes out of taxpayers pockets. Ryan went on to say that this is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but a “good government issue”.

McCain and Dorgan: What Just Happened?

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico,Talk Radio News

Faced with more than nine billion dollars in bailout commitments, eight billion in stock losses, six trillion in lost home values, five million jobs lost, and three million foreclosed mortgages in 2008, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) want to know what happened?
The McCain Dorgan bill calls for a two-year bipartisan select Senate committee to examine the causes for the current economic crisis. The committee would function independently and would have subpoena power, but would not be conducting a criminal investigation.
“We must understand the causes of the crisis and implement systematic and institutional reforms, quickly and comprehensively,” said McCain.
Select committees are not standing entities, but exist for a specific purpose and duration. This could sometimes be construed to signal that an investigation is being undertaken for suspected wrongdoing. It was made clear by both Dorgan and McCain that this committee’s purpose would be to understand, rather than prosecute, the actions of the financial system leading to and surrounding the meltdown.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee focus on what Works, the way forward to fix our economy

The Republican Policy Committee discussed the outlook of America’s economy and examined testimonies from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of DHE Consulting LLC, Alan Viard, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Kevin Hasset, director of economic policy studies.

“The difficulties facing the U.S economy stem from three different forces: 1, dramatic and financial crises 2, a severe recession 3, a dramatic need to build household wealth.” Holtz-Eakin stated.

Senator John McCain stated that the main cause for the financial crisis is the situation due to the housing market. America needs to stabilize home values to be able to get the economy back on the right track.

Fiscal stimulus was a term that Viard used when describing a future economic outlook. Fiscal stimulus refers to tax and spending policies that increase public and private spending at a given level of the interest rate. Viard emphasized the importance of timing, when using fiscal stimulus.

“Timing incentives can be adopted to reward spending during the duration of the recession. A prime example is a tax incentive that applies only to investment during a specified time period.” Viard said.

Another resolution that was brought up by Hasset was a permanent tax cut for low income employees. He explained that this could be one of many long term solutions that will help America’s economy.