U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who helped craft the 2008 Farm Bill, will host a townhall-style meeting via telephone on Wednesday, Aug. 6, to discuss the new Farm Bill.
Crapo will utilize a telephone and Internet program known as the iTownhall to lead the discussion with up to several thousand Idahoans simultaneously.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
The iTownhall meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and run for about 90 minutes. Calls are placed to participants starting about 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of the meeting. To sign up or for more information, visit crapo.senate.gov.
Some follow-up meetings are planned around Idaho with members of Crapo’s staff for further discussions about Farm Bill programs. The meetings are planned for September 17th through the 24th, and details will be available at Crapo’s website.
U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, have introduced legislation to change the way federal excise taxes on firearms and ammunition are collected from businesses, including ATK.
Supporters of the legislation, including national sporting and firearms advocacy groups, say the legislation could provide more money for state wildlife preservation programs by easing restrictions surrounding the collection of the excise taxes.Crapo says federal law requires manufacturers of sporting arms and ammunition to pay excise taxes into the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Fund.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
The Crapo-Baucus legislation amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require quarterly, not bi-weekly, tax payments.
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Supporters of the legislation include Ducks Unlimited, the National Rifle Association, and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. Similar legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo is calling on his Senate colleagues to seek a balanced, bipartisan solution to the high energy prices facing the country.
The Idaho Republican says current legislation that focuses solely on energy speculators in financial markets needs to be augmented with aggressive plans for new energy production, conservation and alternative energy efforts.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Crapo noted that 86 billion barrels of oil may be untapped off the nation’s shores, or nearly eight times the amount of oil imported to the U.S. from the Persian Gulf over the last 15 years.
Oil shale deposits in Western states could total from 800 billion to 1.8 trillion barrels and could provide a hundred years of domestic energy. Crapo noted those reserves alone could do much to relieve recent supply and demand issues causing the increase in the price of gasoline and diesel fuel.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell has blocked three nominations to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saying that the federal agency has failed to regulate oil markets even as the price of gas hits new highs almost daily.
The Washington Democrat’s action came as the Senate began debate Thursday on a bill designed to rein in speculation on the markets in which crude oil futures are traded. Cantwell and others think that speculators have driven up the price of oil and could be responsible for more than one-dollar of the cost of a gallon of gasoline at the pump.
Though some Republicans are sympathetic to the need to provide tighter control over energy markets, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig says that any energy legislation should include lifting the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
US Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) comments
Cantwell and most Democrats oppose lifting the offshore-drilling ban, citing the Department of Energy as saying that offshore oil and gas wells wouldn’t come online for seven to 10 years.(McClatchy)
Despite objections from members of Idaho’s delegation, Congress on Tuesday rejected President Bush’s veto of legislation protecting doctors from a 10.6 percent cut in their reimbursement rates when treating Medicare patients.
The override vote in the House was 383-41, easily meeting the two-thirds threshold needed to nullify the president’s veto. Idaho Congressman Bill Sali voted to uphold the President’s veto, while fellow Idaho Republican Mike Simpson voted to override it.About an hour later, the Senate voted to override, 70-26.Idaho Sen. Larry Craig voted against overriding the president’s veto, as did Sen. Mike Crapo.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Lawmakers were under pressure from doctors and the elderly patients they serve to void the rate cut, which kicked in on July 1. The cut is based on a formula that establishes lower reimbursement rates when Medicare spending levels exceed established targets.
The president said he supported rescinding the pay cut, but he objected to the way lawmakers would finance the plan, largely by reducing spending on private health plans serving the elderly and disabled. (AP)
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) is co-sponsoring the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 because it seeks to both reduce prices at the pump and provide long-term energy policy specific to vehicle fuels that will benefit consumers and the environment. Crapo joined with more than 40 other Senators, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in introducing the legislation this week.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Crapo says the legislation frees America to aggressively move to become much less dependent on foreign sources of energy both short-term and long-term.
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Crapo noted studies showing that oil shale reserves centered in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming could hold up to three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and that deep-sea exploration could produce more oil than all the exports from the Persian Gulf over the past 15 years.
Idaho’s congressional delegation is hailing Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun control in U.S. history.
The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia. U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) says the Court made the right decision.
US Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) comments
Fellow U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and First District Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) also backed the decision.
The court also struck down Washington D.C.’s requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns.
The NRA says it will file lawsuits in San Francisco, Chicago and several of its suburbs challenging handgun restrictions there based on Thursday’s outcome. (AP)
U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) on Wednesday reintroduced an amendment to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill to extend the county timber payments program.
The one-year, $400 million extension would secure funding for over 775 counties and 4,400 school districts across 42 states while Congress works on a multi-year solution.
The original Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act established a six-year payment formula for counties that receive revenue sharing payments for U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. The formula, based on timber receipts, provides a dedicated funding stream for rural schools which cannot collect property taxes from national parks, U.S. forests and other public lands.
Craig’s amendment would restore the county payments legislation to the supplemental bill that was passed by the House last week.
US Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) comments
In addition to war funding, the House-approved bill includes veterans’ provisions as well as disaster relief for flooding in the Midwest. The full Senate is expected to consider the legislation this week.
