In This Week's Edition of E-News…

Commissary Project Clears Final Hurdle

Murphy In the News: AG Holder Says Guns From ‘Fast and Furious’ Will Be Used in Crimes ‘For Years to Come’

Murphy In the News: Some Lawmakers Still Pushing for Stimulus Green Jobs

Murphy in the News: Is the Administration Sanitizing The Threat of Radical Islam?

Commissary Project Clears Final Hurdle
 

From 2007 delegation meeting hosted by Rep. Murphy reviewing commissary plans

On Tuesday, Congressman Tim Murphy announced that the Department of Defense (DOD) formally announced, through a decision memo, that construction of a new commissary in Moon Township (adjacent to the 99th Regional Support Command) could move forward without any further legislative action.

Rep. Murphy, who has worked for over six years to get this project off the ground, lauded the decision by DOD that will free up $17.2 million in funding that had been held up by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Upon receiving the news, Congressman Murphy sent the following letter to constituents who have been working alongside the Congressman and the delegation to ensure completion of the commissary project:

“I wanted to share with you an important announcement made on December 1, 2011 by the Department of Defense. After six years of perseverance and determined efforts, the Pentagon confirmed final advancement on the building of a new commissary in our region.

It wasn’t an easy process.

In 2005, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) shut down the Charles E. Kelly Support Facility in Collier. As is typical when military installations are shuttered, other facilities connected to the installation are also closed. For our region, this meant the connected commissary would be closing, which would have been a huge blow to our over 168,000 military families and veterans.

As you know, commissaries provide access to discounted groceries to military personnel, retirees, and their families. Authorized patrons can purchase items at cost plus a five percent surcharge (to cover the expenses of operating, modernizing, and building commissaries). Families save an average of more than thirty percent on purchases compared to commercial prices, which can amount to thousands of dollars saved annually for our service members.

When threatened with permanent closure, I began the process to ensure we not only kept a commissary, but also get a new one built as soon as possible because I know how difficult it can be to stretch the grocery budget for active duty and deployed reservists and guardsmen.

First, we had to demonstrate the need. I secured language in the BRAC report that prevented the military from closing the commissary and postponing a decision on its fate until after the Pentagon completed a thorough market study on the commissary’s use. To ensure the project was cost-effective, the Defense Commissary Agency ran financial models on the project cost, projected annual sales, effect on military recruitment, and even considered whether there were alternatives. After conducting this thorough review and evaluating the community’s interest and support for a commissary, the Commissary Operating Board and the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness within the Department of Defense, deemed a new facility in Moon Township to be a financially responsible way to serve the interests and needs of the region’s military community.

But every successive session of Congress brought new challenges. As I continued to pressure the Pentagon to stay on task and complete their analysis, each newly elected group of legislators from Western PA in the House and the Senate had to be educated on this issue, learn of its merits, and ultimately persuaded that this was a project worthy of the Western Pennsylvania delegation’s support. Bringing these fellow legislators on board was critically important towards building a broad coalition of supporters to keep the Pentagon on task to complete the internal review while I was working to secure federal funds through the legislative process.

We held dozens upon dozens of meetings with congressional stakeholders and the Pentagon. I convened DOD meetings back home in Pittsburgh with our local base commanders. Even after lining up the funding and the internal reviews were complete, every ‘t’ had been crossed, and every ‘i’ had been dotted, hurdles still remained. So it is with great relief and excitement that we received the announcement from the Pentagon that no further congressional review is needed for the commissary project and that the Pentagon intends to move forward with construction.

Congress operates at its best when legislators work together on behalf of their shared constituents. Indeed, this positive announcement is a testament to what can happen we refuse to give up on a project and work together in a nonpartisan effort for Southwestern Pennsylvanian families. I hope that we can celebrate soon with shovels in the ground sometime next fall. As always, if you have additional concerns or need with military-related casework, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Murphy In the News: AG Holder Admits ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Will Be Used in Crimes ‘For Years to Come’
 

Behind the Scenes with WPXI

Federal law enforcement officials saw the failure over “Fast and Furious” as an opportunity to institute new gun control regulations, according to internal documents obtained by CBS News. The new information came to light this week as Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about what he knew of the botched “Fast and Furious” program, which was supposed to stamp out weapons-trafficking to deadly Mexican drug cartels but ended up leading to the disappearance of 2,000 firearms.

As the head of the Department of Justice, Mr. Holder is responsible for overseeing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE), which used the “Fast and Furious” operation to pressure American firearms dealers to sell firearms to straw purchasers. The BATFE was supposed to tightly trace the guns but deliberately chose to allow the weapons to end up in the hands of Mexican drug gangs. More than 2,000 guns have disappeared.

CBS News reported Thursday morning that ATF officials discussed using the Fast and Furious scheme as the pretext for new gun control regulation.  

Holder testified that the guns will show up at crime scenes “for years to come.” Already, more than 100 of those weapons have shown up at nearly 50 crime scenes in the United States and Mexico. He also argued that the BATFE wasn’t lying in a February 2011 letter to Congress, which stated the BATFE didn’t knowingly approve the sale of assault weapons. The letter has since been withdrawn by the DOJ because of “inaccuracies.”

Holder also said he didn’t mislead Congress this past May when he testified that he only heard about Fast and Furious in the “last few weeks.” In October, an investigative reporter revealed a series of internal memorandums addressed to Attorney General Holder with information about Fast and Furious in July 2010.

Rep. Murphy appeared on WPXI Channel 11 News on Thursday to reiterate calls for Holder to resign.

“The Fast and Furious gun walking scheme carried out by the Department of Justice at the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder has resulted in not only numerous violent crimes against American citizens but even the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry,” said Rep. Murphy. Two AK-47 assault rifles purchased during Fast and Furious were found at the scene of Mr. Terry’s December 2010 murder.

Murphy continued, “Beyond the inconsistencies of Mr. Holder’s testimony before Congress about what he knew and when he knew it, this investigation raises troubling questions about his judgment and his leadership of our nation’s top law enforcement agency. Deflecting and denying accountability and responsibility for his actions during and since Fast and Furious are not in any way shape or form acceptable qualities in the office of America’s top cop.”

Rep. Murphy will appear on Fox News this Sunday at 11:30AM to explain why more than 50 legislators, including himself, have called for Holder to resign his post as Attorney General. For more information on the ongoing congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program, visit the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee site.

Murphy In the News: Some Lawmakers Still Pushing for Stimulus Green Jobs

Since 2009, over $9.6 billion in taxpayer dollars has gone out to entities as different as Coca-Cola, Google, IKEA, the Grumpy Troll Restaurant and Brewpub, and Warren Buffet for wind and solar projects. Now, as the expiration date approaches, some lawmakers are pushing for a second extension to this “green jobs” program created in the economic stimulus bill.  

But Congressman Tim Murphy, who has been helping to lead a House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation of a Department of Energy green energy loan program, which was enacted under the Economic Stimulus legislation and was responsible for the Solyndra debacle, told Fox News on Friday that the program is more evidence of spend now, ask questions later.

The stimulus bill, which Murphy voted against, created a cash grant program to allow major corporations to reduce their tax liability by investing in green energy projects (the “1603 payment in lieu of tax credits” program). Supporters argued the 1603 program was necessary to finance green energy projects that wouldn’t otherwise attract private investment. However, more than $700 million was spent on projects that had already been started. Those tax dollars have been used by investors like Citigroup, Warren Buffet, and a restaurant, which received $16,000 to put solar panels on its roof.

Supporters are saying an extension of the taxpayer grant program is needed to support jobs.

“If the issue is making jobs, why say ‘no’ to the Keystone Pipeline, which would create 100,000 jobs without spending a dime of taxpayer money?” asked Rep. Murphy. The Administration has blocked construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would shuttle 700,000 to 800,000 barrels of North American crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast. If the White House doesn’t reverse its stance, the Canadian government has said it will export the oil to China instead.

Congressman Murphy on Americas Newsroom

Rep. Murphy is an original cosponsor of HR 3548, the North American Energy Access Act, which would create a structured process for federal energy regulators to approve the pipeline, including a modification to a route through Nebraska where local environmental concerns have been raised. Under the legislation, the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline would remain in harmony with the National Environmental Policy Act and enable construction to begin on the non-Nebraskan portion of the pipeline. Details and approval of the Nebraska route modification would be worked out.

In the next few weeks, Congress is likely to debate whether to extend a number of expiring legislative provisions. To watch Mr. Murphy’s Friday appearance on Fox News, click here.


Murphy in the News: Is the Administration Sanitizing The Threat of Radical Islam?

Congressman Tim Murphy will appear this evening on Fox Business News’ “Follow the Money” at 10PM to discuss the threat of radical Islam to the nation’s Armed Forces.

The interview centers on a recent letter by the Pentagon that placed the November 2009 Fort Hood massacre by Major Nidal Hasan in the context of “workplace violence.” The letter comes in response to a February 2011 Senate investigative report about the Fort Hood Shooting. That report also made recommendations for the Department of Defense to address potential insider threats to the military by Muslim extremism.

Murphy, who serves as a Lt. Commander in the Naval Medical Service Corps mental health unit, was asked his perspective on the Pentagon’s attempt to describe the Hasan shooting as a workplace violence situation, rather than a terrorist act from radical Islam indoctrination of the perpetrator.  

Murphy referred to the Senate report, “A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterrorism Lessons From The US Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack,” which revealed the military failed to act upon warning signs that Maj. Hasan was prone to terrorist action against his fellow soldiers (Read the report here).

The report states: “Although neither DoD nor the FBI had specific information concerning the time, place or nature of the attack, they collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan’s radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.”

Evaluations by superior officers downplayed if not fully sanitized Hasan’s fascination with radical Islam, and failed to address troubling incidents in Hasan’s past. Hasan’s classmates at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center said Hasan expressed support for principles of “violent Islamist extremism.”

Murphy indicated that failure to report noticeable warning signs call into question the accountability structure that was in place at the time. For example, in June 2007, before a roomful of senior Army physicians, Maj. Hasan said that to avoid “adverse events,” the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims: “It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims,” he said in the class presentation.

Under the “Conclusions” page of his report, Hasan wrote that “fighting to establish an Islamic State to please God, even by force, is condoned by the Islam,” and that “Muslim Soldiers should not serve in any capacity that renders them at risk to hurting/killing believers unjustly — will vary!”

Hasan’s activities triggered an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he began communicating via email with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Al-Qaeda cleric who has recently killed in Yemen by a CIA drone attack.

The FBI’s findings should have been acted upon, according to the Senate Homeland Security Committee report. Moreover, the Department of Defense “possessed compelling evidence that Hasan embraced views so extreme that it should have disciplined him or discharged him from the military.”
 

Mr. Murphy’s appearance on Fox Business News’ Follow the Money will be posted here.