During the month of August, I spent some time traveling throughout California to discuss some of our nation's most important priorities, including:

• Global Warming: A Time to Act
  
• Iraq: Time for a New Direction
  
• Protecting California's Coast from Offshore Oil Drilling
  
• Ensuring Quality Health Care for America's Veterans
  

If you have any comments or questions on these or any other issues, please don't hesitate to let me know. Please send any comments you have through my website.

Best wishes,

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein

In fact, many of the world’s most preeminent scientists all predict serious, and even catastrophic, consequences for our planet unless we make major changes in our consumption of energy and strongly move away from energy sources that produce the gases that cause global warming.

Refuse to act, or act too slowly, and humans will have caused the most sudden temperature shift since the dawn of civilization. But, if we act soon and decisively, further global warming can be limited to 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit. This should be our goal.

That’s why I'm working on a bill that would create a national framework within which greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants, utilities, the transportation sector and other major carbon dioxide producers will be reduced. It is my intention to introduce this legislation on the first day of the next session of Congress in January 2007.

Details are still being worked out, but working together with business leaders, I believe we can reduce our emissions sufficiently to stabilize the Earth’s climate, to minimize warming, and slow global temperature increases to 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit by the middle of the century to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Read Senator Feinstein's speech to the Commonwealth Club: Global Warming: A Time to Act (8/24/06)

"Feinstein Unveils Dem Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gas" in the San Francisco Chronicle (8/25/06)

Senator Feinstein Praises California’s Landmark Program to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions (8/31/06)

Senator Feinstein Expresses Concern over Electric Cooperative Report Trivializing Effects of Global Warming (8/4/06)

The Bush administration's failed strategy and tactics in Iraq have significantly diminished the United States' standing in the world and made waging the global war on terror more difficult. I believe that it is clear we need a new direction, and that staying this deteriorating course is not the answer.

I also called on the President to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and urged a change in the Administration's leadership team. The time has come to shift the U.S. mission in Iraq to one of training and logistics and so I called for a phased redeployment of U.S. forces to begin by the end of this year.

President Bush may sometimes be ``frustrated' with the war. But this frustration pales in comparison with the anger that many Americans are feeling -- that this war was launched based on a faulty premise, executed poorly and carried out with no accountability. It's time to chart a new course.

Read Senator Feinstein's Washington Report speech to the San Diego Chamber of Commerce (8/21/06)

"Senator Wants Troops Out by End of 2007" in the San Diego Union-Tribune (8/22/06)

Read Senator Feinstein's op-ed on Iraq: "After Failed Strategy, Tactics, Slogans, the U.S. Needs New Direction on Iraq" in the San Jose Mercury News (8/27/06)

Citing Failed Strategy in Iraq, Senator Feinstein Cosponsors No-Confidence Resolution on Secretary Rumsfeld’s Leadership (9/6/06)

There is a growing possibility that there could be new oil drilling off the coast of California.

In 1981, Congress passed a measure to protect the Pacific and Atlantic coasts from offshore drilling. And each year, for the past 25 years, Congress has voted to renew that bill. But today, these federal protections are in jeopardy.

So, on August 29, I joined a group of leading environmentalists to alert Californians to this threat and called on Congress to provide lasting protections for California’s coast from offshore oil and gas drilling.

We need to create a permanent moratorium on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the coast of California. So, earlier this year, I joined Senator Barbara Boxer to introduce a bill that would permanently protect California from oil and gas drilling.

I believe that California’s majestic shoreline must be protected from offshore drilling, and we will do everything we can to ensure that there is no future drilling off the shoreline of California.

Senator Feinstein Joins Environmental Leaders to Warn of Growing Threat of New Offshore Oil Drilling (8/29/06)

"Feinstein Urges Defeat of Oil-Drilling Legislation" in the Los Angeles Times (8/30/06)

Senator Feinstein Calls on State Leaders to Continue Push for Protection of California’s Coast from Offshore Drilling (9/7/06)

I believe that we owe it to the brave men and women who have worn this nation’s uniform to ensure that the needs of the Veterans Affairs Department are met. As the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, I am committed to ensuring that the Senate continue to support America’s veterans to the fullest extent possible.

On August 23, I toured the San Francisco VA Medical Center. During my visit, I had the honor of bestowing Purple Hearts on two California U.S. Army National Guard soldiers recently returned from Iraq. I met with researchers and toured the facility’s new Center for the Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases. And I also met with veterans suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Gulf War illness.

And on August 30, I joined VA officials and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yarovslavksy on a tour of the West Los Angeles Medical Center. During our visit, we also met with a group of veterans to discuss important issues, such as quality health care. We also discussed the controversy over plans to develop the Westwood VA property for commercial use.

Read: "Senator Feinstein Awards Two Purple Hearts to Veterans," a news story by the Bay City News Wire (8/24/06)

To learn more, please read: Senate Appropriations Committee Approves $94.3 Billion for Veterans Affairs and Military Construction (7/20/06)