This week, Chairman McCotter joined fellow GOP leaders in sending a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding the high price of gasoline. Click here for an article in The Hill about the letter.

 

Here's the text of the letter:

 

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
H-232, U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

 

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

 

After World War II, our country offered education assistance to returning veterans. In the 1940s, the GI Bill was created to pay for veterans' tuition, books, fees, a monthly stipend and other training costs.

 

More than half of the 15 million WWII veteran population used some form of these benefits. Unfortunately, the GI benefit has not kept pace with the rising cost of higher education.

I continue to call for the Democrat majority to stand by their promises and fight our nation’s rising gas prices.

 

The Democrats have failed as the majority in Congress. They made promise after promise to help the American people and, to no surprise; all of those promises have been broken. On April 24, 2006, Pelosi and the Democrats vowed to address our nation’s high gas costs. When they took control of Congress last year, the national average cost for regular unleaded gas was $2.33 a gallon. Now, 15 months later, the cost has risen to $3.53. That’s a $1.20 per gallon increase. Where will it stop?

 

House GOP Policy Committe Chairman McCotter Tapped to Head Task Force; Members to be Appointed in Coming Days 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today announced plans to form a special GOP task force to identify and fight for spending reforms “that will get government off Americans’ backs and out of their wallets.”  The Leader’s Fiscal Integrity Task Force (“FIT Force”) will be headed by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

I am proud to have introduced H.R. 1395, the Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2007 last month. This legislation would help put an end to the fraudulent use of government credit cards. A Senate companion bill, S. 789, introduced by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), has recently been cleared by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

 

I was pleased to be an original cosponsor of legislation introduced last week by Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) that would "prohibit the sending of a text message containing an unsolicited advertisement to a cellular telephone.”

 

As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, I called for answers from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson regarding the recent bailout of Bear Stearns.

 

With the support of 23 Members, I sent a letter to Bernanke and Paulson asking for answers to a series of specific questions involving the Fed’s actions. I have already asked Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank to hold a Congressional hearing about this issue but Chairman Frank has yet to respond.

 

Recently, I introduced legislation to push America forward toward a new solar energy future for America. The “Zeroing In America Energy Act”, or ZIA Energy Act, authorizes the Secretary of Interior to begin leasing designated public lands to develop solar energy.

 

At a time when we are struggling to meet our energy needs, we need a commitment to develop our own domestic energy resources. We need a multi-pronged approach to investing in our domestic energy sources such as solar, oil & gas, hydropower and wind. We have at our fingertips the solution to our energy crises, we only need the courage to reach out and grab those solutions and produce the energy we need.

 

Our nation must secure our borders now. It's not only an issue of national security but also an issue of hurting our local communities who are forced to pay for free-loaders who are not contributing to the tax base. It's a problem and one that must be addressed. I am hopeful Rep. McCotter continues to fight for a secure border.

Social Security is expected to be paying out more than it receives in taxes by 2018 and to have exhausted its trust fund by 2042, at which point revenues will be able to cover approximately 75 percent of promised benefits. It is commonly accepted that the benefit shortfall needs to be corrected and that this should be accomplished long before the problem is at hand.

U.S. consumers benefit from a strong dollar, but U.S. exporters are hurt. A strong dollar means that it takes more of a foreign currency to buy U.S. dollars. U.S. goods and services become more expensive for foreign consumers who, as a result, tend to buy fewer U.S. products. Because it takes more of a foreign currency to purchase strong dollars, products priced in dollars are more expensive when sold overseas. Strengthening Dollar Advantages * Consumer sees lower prices on foreign products/services. * Lower prices on foreign products/services help keep inflation low.

There are 440 land-based nuclear power reactors today in the world (table of world's reactors). They produce 16% of the world's electricity, or put another way, at capacity world nuclear power generates an impressive 370 gigawatts of electric output. In the world today there are another 232 nuclear power stations either under construction or proposed, which in sum would add another 186 gigawatts to world output.

Today, nearly 70 percent of inner city fourth graders are unable to read at a basic level on national reading tests. Our high school seniors trail students in Cyprus and South Africa on international math tests. And nearly a third of our college freshmen find they must take a remedial course before they are able to even begin regular college level courses.

America's *broken* immigration system is a major problem that the American people expect their elected leaders to solve. Although *Congress has not passed legislation* to address the immigration challenges our Nation faces, the Administration continues to take some steps to strengthen border security, enforce our worksite laws, and keep the economy well-supplied with vital workers. *But should Congress pass legislation?*

Cross posted at Conaway Blog

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement with a vast majority of Republicans supporting the agreement and a minority of the Democratic Party supporting the measure.

 

This well-negotiated trade agreement between the United States and Peru is a solid win for a vast array of sectors and workers in the U.S., and I am proud to have voted for it.