Obama Signs Improper Payments Legislation

President Barack Obama today signed into law the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, proving that he is determined to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk when it comes to reigning in excessive government spending.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), will force the federal government to look for ways to eliminate overpayments involving benefit checks, as well as Medicare and Medicaid outlays. According to the White House, it will help achieve the President’s new goal of lowering wasteful, improper payments by $50 billion between now and 2012.

“This goal is fully achieveable,” said the President.

Today’s event could demonstrate to Americans that less than 24 hours after Obama signed a bill aimed at holding Wall Street more accountable, he is committed to doing the same within his own government. In fiscal year 2009, the federal government misspent almost $110 billion. In addition to wasting tons of money on entitlement programs, the government sent millions of dollars worth of checks to dead people, and frequently overpaid contractors.

With the nation’s debt level slowly approaching $14 trillion, the President pledged earlier this year to take serious steps to crack down. Obama issued executive orders and memos establishing “do not pay” lists for fraudulent contractors, forcing departments to spend less on construction costs and reforming the federal hiring process. Signing Carper-Murphy marks yet another effort by the administration to combat waste and abuse.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” said Obama.

Senate, Experts Discuss Ways To Regulate Toxic Emissions

By Annie Berman - Talk Radio News Service

At a hearing Thursday, the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety discussed the most cost-effective way for Congress to regulate toxic emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and mercury.

“We need Congress to develop a comprehensive three-pollutant bill that provides protective and reasonably attainable reductions of SO2 and NOx emissions, incorporates the regulation of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants,” said Randall R. LaBauve, Vice President of Environmental Services for the Florida Power & Light Company, who testified at the hearing.

A “cap and trade” policy continues to be a controversial issue regarding the regulation of toxic emissions. Though almost all of the witnesses at the hearing were in favor of a cap and trade policy, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was clearly against it.

“We’ve had testimony before this committee by Oak Ridge scientists, that cap and trade was a very inefficient way to deal with fuel because it raises the price, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t reduce the carbon. It only raises the price by 10 or 20 cents, but that’s not enough to change behavior,” said Alexander.

John B. Stephenson, Director of Natural Resources and Environment at the United States Government Accountability Office was one of several at the hearing who recommended using sorbent injections to reduce mercury emissions. Sorbent injections function essentially like a filtering system to remove mercury from releasing into the air.

“When the results of 50 tests of sorbent injection systems at power plants [were conducted]…mercury reductions of at least 90 percent [had] been achieved,” said Stephenson.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) also shared some alarming statistics regarding toxic pollutants in an attempt to demonstrate the urgency of this issue.

“More than 24,000 Americans die a year from sulfur dioxide emissions alone. Unfortunately, many of our fellow Americans are exposed to these pollutants every day. Six out of 10 Americans – more than 186 million people – live in areas where air pollution levels endanger lives.”

U.S. Military Presence to Increase in Pakistan

By Courtney Costello-Talk Radio News Service

In an effort to stem the Taliban’s recent armed attacks on the Pakistani state, a coalition of Democratic Senators outlined a plan to increase military presence in Pakistan.

Following the Obama Administration aim to strengthen the region, the senators’ plan would increase U.S. military forces with 17,000 American troops primarily made up of Marines and 4,000 American military trainers. Their job would consist of training the Pakistan Armed Forces to fight the influx of insurgents in the South.

Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) had only praise for the new strategy of military leadership in Pakistan and also highlighted other initiatives of the plan.

“There is a great emphasis on not just the military work and taking down the Taliban, but also making sure the economy of the country and the people who live there have a opportunity to better security but also a better life.”

The senators found that Pakistan is united to remove the Taliban from their country.

“The Pakistan government have a brand new tone, they’re serious and they recognize that the enemy that presents a true threat to the future of their country is the insurgency”, said Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.)

Along with the increase of military force in Pakistan the senators also described bringing in 700 U.S. military helicopters to help Pakistan fight the insurgents but to also help Pakistan with maintenance of their current helicopters.

The senators who attended the Congressional Delegation (CODEL) trip included, Tom Carper (D-Del.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.).

Senate seeks legislation to reduce unsafe mercury pollution

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing to discuss various pieces of legislation pertaining to the proliferation of mercury in the environment and in exports. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) could not be present, so Sen. Tom Carper conducted the hearing in her place. Carper said that “one in 17 women of childbearing age have mercury in their blood at levels that could pose a risk to their unborn children,” emphasizing that these groups are most at risk for health threats.

The senators discussed the merits of various mercury legislation including the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR), which Carper said was “flawed” and “did not go far enough to protect the health of America’s vulnerable populations.” He advocated instead the Mercury Emissions Control Act, which “would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue a new, stronger rule to control mercury emissions from power plants, as required by the Clean Air Act.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said that no matter what the costs of implementing measures to decrease mercury pollution, the government should have laws “as strong as we can take” to do so because of the potential threat to human health in both adults and infants.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said that “as long as there have been Americans, there have been dads who took their sons fishing” and that “we are in a situation now where that’s not really feasible any longer” because of mercury pollution in fish that makes it unsafe to eat. He called this a “thievery” of the American experience, and said that he was frustrated to see an EPA that “doesn’t take its duties seriously.”