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Congress in Your Inbox - Energy: The Great debate

A Note From Nancy 

Dear Friend,

The much needed debate about our nation’s energy future has finally begun. From the rising cost of fuel to increased fertilizer prices – everyone is hurting. We all know that our country needs a comprehensive plan to address our energy future. The plan developed by Big Oil and the White House eight years ago has brought us nothing but higher fuel prices and has sent trillions of your dollars to unfriendly governments across the world.

If you've heard me talk about energy, you've heard me talk about the "three legged stool." First is conservation – the cheapest and fastest piece of this puzzle. Second is an absolute determination to break our addiction to oil through new technologies like plug-in hybrid vehicles that rely on wind, solar, nuclear, and other alternative sources. Energy prices are driven by supply and demand. We must increase energy supply and reduce oil demand with these new technologies. Third, even with alternatives and conservation, oil and gas will continue to play a significant role in our energy policy. We must use the lands currently open to drilling, like the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), and we need to invest in technologies that make it easier and more environmentally friendly to access.

As I write this, there are 68 million acres of publicly leased lands available for drilling that are not being drilled. 80 percent of the oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf is already open for drilling. Today, these leases are in place; the environmental hurdles have been cleared, but no drilling is happening. The American people want to know why. So do I.

It is Big Oil’s dirty little secret – they don’t have the equipment necessary to do more drilling. If we opened up the remaining 20 percent of offshore areas for drilling, there won't be new rigs available to drill in those areas for years! According to the American Petroleum Institute, in a time of increasing demand and high profits, the oil companies have not been growing their stock of drilling equipment even for the lands they currently have leases for! Unbelievable.

My mom always taught me to clean my plate before asking for more. The oil companies aren’t following mom’s advice. They have been collecting lease after lease but not drilling on those lands. It is time that drilling started. The high price of oil helps the oil companies and maybe this is a good business decision for them, but its killing American families, businesses and farmers.

Congress can't force the oil companies to drill, but we can pass legislation that stops hoarding of oil leases on federal lands. I voted to do just that three weeks ago, but like other important energy bills, it is opposed by the President.

As important as it is to get this right, we cannot drill our way out of this mess. America uses 24 percent of the world's oil yet we have only two percent of the world's oil reserves. We must be aggressive about conservation and alternatives to oil. We must break our addiction to foreign oil and stop importing more than 70 percent of our oil. We must harness the ingenuity of our scientists and entrepreneurs to discover and make new technologies work. After all, if we can put a man on the moon, we can break our dependence on foreign oil. Only by breaking this dependence will we be able to restore our economy and hope in the future.

With warm regards, 

Nancy Boyda
Member of Congress


Casework Corner – Being Prepared in the Face of Disaster

Being prepared is the name of the game when it comes to natural disasters. It is important to have a plan of action, as well as an emergency supply kit. If a disaster should hit your area, many will be affected, from your elderly neighbor right down to your pet. When preparing your plan, be sure to remember others around you.

The first step should be to devise an emergency evacuation plan. Contact a family member or close friend who lives several miles away from you and ask them to be your emergency contact. This will be the place you and your family will meet in case of a disaster. You should also have a back up emergency contact who lives a substantial distance away in case the disaster has affected your entire area. Be sure everyone knows the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the emergency contacts. Keep in mind it may be easier to get a hold of someone out of town rather than locally, due to damage caused by the disaster. It would also be a good idea to supply your family with phone cards to use in case cell phone service is impacted.

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Letter of the Week - Reducing Classroom Sizes

Dear Nancy,

I urge you to cosponsor legislation (H.R. 2668/S. 2122) that would provide grants to states to help schools reduce class sizes.

Studies show that smaller class size provides lasting benefits for students, especially for minority and low-income students and students with exceptional needs.

Amanda from Manhattan, KS.


Dear Amanda,

Thank you for contacting my office about H.R. 2668, the Class Size Reduction Act. As your representative, I appreciate hearing from you.

I am sure you will be pleased to know that I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 2688. Last year I held a “virtual” town hall about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Almost 300 constituents called in for a discussion about some of the problems that they saw with NCLB and their hopes for changes that will occur when it is reauthorized. Reducing class sizes was the number one request during the virtual town hall.

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This Week in Congress - July 7 to July 11

Monday morning I drove to Burlington to talk with the US Army Corps of Engineers about the John Redmond Logjam. There were many members of the Corps of Engineers in attendance including Col. Anthony Funkhouser, John Roberts, Mike Abate, Ed Rossman, Mike Lowry, and Eugene Goff. Tracy Streeter, Earl Lewis, and Kim Christiansen from the Kansas Water Office were also there as well as Brock Emmert and Chris Mammoliti from the Watershed Institute. Following the logjam meeting, I met with the Editorial Board from the Coffey County Republican.

I visited MGP Ingredients, Inc. in Atchison on Tuesday morning before heading to the airport. Upon arriving back in Washington, D.C., I attended an Armed Services Hearing on the efforts to develop and support Iraqi Security Forces.

On Wednesday, I met with Paige Trimble, a senior at Free State High School and a participant in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law. I also attended a reception celebrating the passage of the GI Bill for the 21st Century that was hosted by the Veterans of Foreign wars and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

On Thursday, I attended an additional Armed Services Committee hearing, specifically the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, to hear from witnesses on the source selection and path forward regarding the Air Force KC-(X) Program.

I attended Agriculture Committee hearings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to review the Commodity Exchange Act.