U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL-13th) Weekly E-Newsletter
April 22, 2008
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For more information, please visit http://judybiggert.house.gov/.
In this Week's E-Newsletter:
- This Week in Congress
- Week in Review
- Featured Story
- From the Press Desk
- In Her Own Words
- In the News
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This Week in Congress:
Congress meets this week for legislative business, including possible consideration of:
H.R. 5819 -- The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Reauthorization Act
H.R. 2830 -- Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2007
H.R. 5712 -- Close the Contractor Fraud Loophole Act
H.Con.Res. 322 -- Recognizing the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel
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Week in Review:
Monday, April 14, 2008 through Friday, April 18, 2008
Congress met last week for legislative business, including consideration of:
H.R. 2634 -- The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007. This bill would provide debt relief to 24 of the world’s poorest countries. Rep. Biggert is a cosponsor of this bill. Passed the House by a vote of 285 to 132. Rep. Biggert voted yes.
H.R. 5715 -- The Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008. This bill aims to ensure that students can continue to access credit for student loans by allowing the Department of Education to purchase some loans and by raising federal student loan limits. Passed the House by a vote of 383 to 27. Rep. Biggert voted yes.
H.R. 2537 -- To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act relating to Beach Monitoring. This bill gives state and local governments additional resources to protect coastal waters and beaches from pollution. Passed the House by voice vote.
H.R. 5719 -- Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008. This bill amends several provisions of the tax code related to identity theft, cell phones, the earned income tax credit, debt collection, penalties on tax preparers, and more. It also imposes burdensome new paperwork requirements on individuals that use health savings accounts. Passed the House by a vote of 238 to 179. Rep. Biggert voted no.
H.R. 3548 -- Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2007. This bill requires federal agencies to communicate with the public using simple, straightforward language. Passed the House by a vote of 376 to 1. Rep. Biggert voted yes.
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Featured Story – A Supercomputing Success:
Judy powers up Argonne’s new supercomputer with Ray Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's Under Secretary for Science
Argonne, IL – On April 21, Biggert attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). The new supercomputer facility was made possible thanks to legislation Biggert authored and that was signed into law by the President in 2004 - H.R. 4516, the Department of Energy (DOE) High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004. This bill authorized the DOE to develop new, record-breaking computing capabilities and establish supercomputer user facilities, including the ALCF.
“This is a major victory for us,” said Biggert, co-chair of the Research and Development Caucus and a senior member of the House Science and Technology Committee. “Having this equipment here in Illinois will open up countless opportunities for research critical to our economy, health, safety, and security. I’d like to congratulate the whole supercomputing team at Argonne for their hard work in getting this facility up and running.”
The new facility will strengthen U.S. competitiveness by giving users from academia, industry, and government access to a 100-teraflop IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer, enabling advances in all areas of science and engineering.
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From the Press Desk:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Biggert Unveils GOP Housing Stimulus Package to Break Log-Jam
Proposes Common-Sense Reforms to Aid Homeowners Today
Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL-13) today announced the introduction of a broad plan to help struggling homeowners and shore up weaknesses in the nation’s housing market. Biggert, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, authored and introduced the Preserving Homeownership Act jointly with Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV-02) and Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL-06).
“Congress has yet to send a single bill to the President that might begin to address turbulence in the housing market.” said Biggert, a former real estate attorney. “Our bill contains cost-effective reforms that can start helping homeowners – and the economy – now. Instead of outbidding each other on how much taxpayer funding to spend on bail-outs, House and Senate leaders should move the good, bipartisan ideas that are right in front of them in this bill.”
To read more, click here.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Biggert Makes the Pitch for Science, National Labs Funding
Calls on House Leaders to Support U.S. Competitiveness through Scientific Research
Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL-13) today urged House leaders to include funding for key science programs in the upcoming supplemental appropriations package. In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-08), GOP Leader Boehner (R-OH-08), Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI-07), and Ranking Member, Jerry Lewis (R-CA-41), Biggert, along with House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN-06) and 29 other members of the House, requested additional resources for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, which funds national laboratories like Argonne and Fermi in Illinois.
“The NSF and the Office of Science support vital research at places like the University of Chicago, Fermi, and Argonne National Labs – research that is crucial to America’s long-term competitiveness,” said Biggert, a senior member of the House Science and Technology Committee. “And unfortunately, both agencies faced drastic cuts in their fiscal year 2008 appropriations. If we don’t restore this funding, we will continue to lose our nation’s top researchers to our competitors in Europe and Asia. And we will continue to send the wrong message to students who would otherwise become the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
To read more, click here.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Biggert’s Energy Tech Transfer Bill Passes Senate
Washington, DC – The Senate late yesterday passed U.S. Representative Judy Biggert’s (R-IL-13th) legislation to help move energy and efficiency technologies out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.
“The Department of Energy (DOE) and national labs such as Argonne have developed energy technologies that hold great promise for reducing our reliance on foreign sources of energy," said Biggert, who serves on the House Science and Technology Committee. "The federal government spends billions of dollars on energy-related research and development (R&D;). This bill represents just a small investment in the tech transfer capabilities we need to ensure that Americans enjoy the tangible benefits of our federal investment in R&D.;”
To read more, click here.
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In Her Own Words:
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Reaction of U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL-13th) to FHASecure Announcement
Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL-13) today issued the following statement in response to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Brian Montgomery’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee:
“I’m very pleased that the FHA is acting to expand the FHASecure program. By granting more troubled homeowners access to FHA-insured refinancing options, we can help reach as many as half a million homeowners by the end of the year. That’s good news for our economy, for home values, for investors, and for families.
“Already, the program has helped as many as 150,000 homeowners to get out of bad, subprime loans and into more secure, lower-cost FHA-insured loans. But we can do more to help those borrowers who can afford their homes and had solid payment histories before their rates reset. Given the right options, many of these borrowers can be helped -- without resorting to an inappropriate taxpayer-funded bailout.”
To read more, click here.
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In the News:
Monday, April 14, 2008
Oak Brook Business Ledger
Jeremy Stoltz, Staff Writer
Biggert: Earmark moratorium key to federal spending reform
The state’s most significant congressional issues are federal spending, taxes and mortgage reform, stated an Illinois congresswoman.
“We all know what is best for our district and we don’t want bureaucrats in Washington to decide that,” said U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL-13) during an economic roundtable held in Downers Grove.
Biggert met with local business leaders from the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce and Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation to discuss local and national economic concerns, one of which is federal spending and, in particular, earmarks.
The congresswoman announced that she will not participate in Washington’s broken earmark system and that she will back up her demand for reform with a moratorium on earmarks from her office. The moratorium will include all district-specific appropriations requests not included in an agency’s budget.
Last year congress passed 11,737 earmarks at a cost of $16.9 billion in taxpayer money, said Biggert.
“These committee members have found a way to get around the scrutiny and transparency, so we found that there was a lot of wasteful spending,” she said. “My constituents don’t want to pay for bridges to nowhere and indoor rainforests in Iowa anymore.
“Things like that really brought attention to this problem and frankly just showed a lot of greed in some of the astronomical amounts of money that people were receiving.”
Biggert noted that a recent omnibus bill cut funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science by $125 million because of members who acquired money for MRI machines through earmarks.
“MRIs are important,” Biggert said, “but not out of the Office of Science’s basic research and science appropriation.”
As a result of this budget cut, Batavia-based Fermilab has been forced to layoff or furlough their workforce, which is comprised mainly of scientists.
“We’ve already had several of these very prominent scientists go back to France and Switzerland, and we won’t get them back,” said Biggert. “Our lifeblood is our economy. We’re in a global economy and we’ve got to be able to compete. We can only do that through basic research. This is really a challenge.”
This type of erroneous government spending will soon affect taxpayers as well, said Biggert.
“This month, the House Democrat majority passed a budget that sets the stage for more spending and the largest tax increase in history—$683 billion over five years,” the congresswoman said. “They want to raise taxes but they don’t want a transparent process that allows wasteful spending to be challenged on the House floor.”
According to Biggert, a hike in taxes will make it harder for the housing market to recover from its current predicament.
She calls for three necessary housing reforms: a restructuring by congress of Government Sponsored Enterprises, the passing of a Federal Housing Administration reform bill and more funding for the housing counsel.
“Over 2,000 certified housing counselors are armed and ready on the front line to counsel people,” said Biggert. “Unfortunately there are too many people that have gotten into this situation who have not had any real education from their loan originators about what they were really getting into, particularly in the sub-prime loan area.”
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For more information, please visit http://judybiggert.house.gov/. |