Below is an update from the State Department: The State Department is cooperating with the Philippines Typhoon Disaster Relief Fund established by The mGive Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit organization, to coordinate donations via mobile phones to benefit victims of the typhoon. A U.S. disaster assistance response team was among the first international groups to reach Leyte province, one of the hardest-hit regions. Experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development are working closely with ...
Read more
CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – FOREIGN POLICY Sept. 20, 2012; Updated 6:06 p.m. By John M. Donnelly and Emily Cadei, CQ Staff House appropriators raged Thursday about the continuing flow from Pakistan into Afghanistan of fertilizer that forms the main ingredient in the roadside bombs that are killing about half the troops who die in the war zone. The outcry in the House alleging Pakistan’s failure to help protect U.S. troops came as, on the other side of Capitol Hill, the chairman of the Senate Foreign ...
Read more
Rep. Calvert (R-CA) issued the following statement in response to the murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, three other Americans, the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, and President Obama’s statement: "The Administration should have stopped with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement which at least defended U.S. constitutional freedoms and reinforced that those freedoms are never an excuse for violence. “On the 11th anniversary of 9/11, innocent Americans were once again kil...
Read more
Rep. Calvert (R-CA) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement that the Department of Homeland Security would no longer deport young illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria. “Through this Administrative action, President Obama is once again bypassing Congress. President Obama had previously stated that he could not unilaterally enact the DREAM Act through Administrative action and yet just eight months after making those statements, Obama has done exactly t...
Read more
Rep. Calvert (R-CA) issued the following statement in advance of tonight’s State of the Union Address by President Obama: “Tonight our President has an opportunity to truly end brinkmanship in Washington, D.C. If he wants to talk about jobs, he should call on the Senate to have a vote on the 28 jobs-related bills that the House has passed. If he wants to talk about a level playing field, he should call for tax reform that eliminates tax loopholes but also demands that all Americans are paying in...
Read more
Today Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) introduced the Reducing Environmental Barriers to Unified Infrastructure and Land Development (REBUILD) Act of 2011. The legislation builds upon the success of the NEPA Pilot Program, enacted as part of SAFETEA-LU bill, which was signed into law in August 2005. SAFETEA-LU created a pilot program (Section 327 -Title 23 USC) that allowed a limited number of states to take on the task of ensuring National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance for highway projects ...
Read more
Rep. Calvert (R-CA), a member of the Appropriations Committee, lauded the House passage of the FY2012 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bill. “The passage of the military construction and veterans funding bill marks a return to regular order and an open process in which every Member can represent their constituents’ interests,” said Rep. Calvert. “Most importantly, the bill provides the necessary resources for our military and veterans communities.” The total discretionary fisca...
Read more
After the current continuing budget resolution expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday, all "nonessential" government employees will be sent home until Congress passes and the president signs a budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. The problem is, no one knows exactly who is considered "essential." A senior administration official said about 800,000 federal employees would be prevented from working in the event of a shutdown. These furloughed workers would not be paid during the shutdown, zapping $...
Read more
Congressional Quarterly, Budget Tracker The head of the Interior Department defended Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request for the agency during a hearing before the House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, warned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that Congress would have “no patience” for delays in issuing drilling permits when some regions are already seeing gas prices at $4 per gallon. “We need to pursue domestic energy production on the g...
Read more
