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.
Despite concerns from U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), a bill aimed at helping hundreds of thousands of homeowners in danger of foreclosure cleared an important test vote in the Senate on Tuesday, raising the prospects for final passage of an aid bill by mid-summer.
By 83 to 9, the Senate agreed to end debate on the assistance package and move to a final vote, which could come very soon. The centerpiece of the package is a foreclosure rescue program in which the Federal Housing Administration would provide $300 billion in new, cheaper mortgages for distressed homeowners who otherwise would be considered too financially risky to qualify for government-insured, fixed-rate loans.
All nine votes against closing debate on the bill were cast by Republicans, including Sen. Crapo.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
The measure faces a veto threat from President Bush and disputes among Democrats about key details. Those challenges will probably delay any final deal until mid-July. (NY Times)
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) has announced a new effort to give Idahoans a direct voice in how to resolve problems related to high gasoline, diesel and energy prices.
The Idaho Republican says Congress needs the input of Idahoans, and Americans in general, to help draft legislation that may solve issues related to high energy costs, and he is using his official website to let Idahoans share their stories.
As a member of the Senate Renewable and Energy Efficiency Caucus, Crapo is already committed to conservation measures along with the increased utilization of domestic energy sources, nuclear power, renewables and alternatives. But he says Congress must come together on a legislative fix, and that’s where public input comes in.
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Crapo is asking Idahoans to take a few minutes to send him an e-mail at energy_prices@crapo.senate.gov with a paragraph or two about how they and family members are affected by high energy prices. Those writing are also invited to share the priorities that they think Congress should set in resolving the crisis, and/or any additional information.
U.S. Senator Larry Craig was on the Senate floor Wednesday, addressing rising gas prices and pushing for drilling for more crude oil in untapped areas, particularly in Cuban waters. The Idaho Republican says inaction in Congress, in large part, is to blame for high prices in the marketplace.
US Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) comments
Craig pointed to 20 year-old surveys that show there are an estimated 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources in the Outer Continental Shelf. The U.S. Geological Survey suspects 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of gas are in Cuban waters. Countries such as Canada, India, Norway, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Spain are already exploring for oil and purchasing leases in Cuban waters, while Craig says Congress continues to prohibit U.S. involvement in those activities.
Craig continues
Last month, Craig introduced the Domestic Offshore Energy Security Act, which opens the Eastern Gulf for production in federal waters from 125 miles off shore to 45 miles, the same distance from the United States that Cuba is currently leasing for production to countries other than the U.S.
Men in the United States live an average of five fewer years than women. Middle-aged men are three times more likely than women to die of a heart attack, and women are far more likely than men to see a doctor regularly.
Those statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are why Idaho Senator and cancer survivor Mike Crapo has joined four of his Senate colleagues in introducing a Senate resolution naming this week as National Men’s Health Week. The resolution encourages increased education on men’s health issues and the early detection and treatment of health issues involving men and boys.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
According to the Centers for Disease Control, men die from cancer and heart attacks at a rate one and one-half times that of women. One in six men will develop prostate cancer and an estimated 28,660 men will die of that cancer this year.
Crapo was joined in introducing the legislation by Sens. Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Richard Shelby (R-Alabama).
Environmental groups and off-road vehicle advocates plan to square off Thursday in the U.S. Senate on the three-year-old U.S. Forest Service effort to restrict where motorcycles, four-wheelers and other backcountry vehicles can drive on public land.
The Wilderness Society says the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., will help underscore how an increasing number of powerful machines encroach ever farther into unsuitable territory.
The Blue Ribbon Coalition, an Idaho Falls-based group for motorized public land access, fears the committee chairman, New Mexico Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman, will use the occasion as a springboard for more restrictions following the 2008 congressional elections.
Scott Miller, the committee staffer who organized the oversight hearing, says the event will help inform senators about the debate and will be similar to a March 13 House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on the subject, adding that there’s no pending new legislation.
National forests across America have been updating travel plans on 193 million acres of public lands since 2005, when the Forest Service changed its policy requiring all forests be closed unless posted open to off-road vehicles. That’s after ORVs rose to an estimated 43 million, according to the Blue Ribbon Coalition, from only about five million in the 1970s.
All six senators from Idaho, Washington and Oregon on Thursday voted with the majority in favor of the five-year, $290 billion Farm Bill that boosts farm subsidies and money for food stamps to help the poor deal with rising grocery prices.
The bill also includes $170 million for the disaster-plagued Pacific Coast salmon fishing industry.Idaho Senator Mike Crapo spoke on the Senate floor in favor of the bill, as it would provide security for farm families, enhance food security, enable environmental improvements, and expand energy opportunities.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
The tax title of the legislation includes language from Crapo’s Endangered Species Recovery Act that establishes a tax deduction for the cost of actions to implement site-specific management measures included in recovery plans under the ESA.
The Senate’s 81-15 vote comes a day after the House approved the measure 318-106.The bill now heads to President Bush.Bush has threatened to veto the bill, calling it overly expensive and tilted to wealthy farmers, but both chambers have more than the two-thirds majority to override his veto.
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, a member of the Senate Agriculture and Finance Committees, is encouraged that Farm Bill negotiators have presented a Farm Bill conference agreement that includes a permanent tax deduction for Endangered Species Act expenditures.
Crapo has introduced legislation seeking tax credits for landowners who volunteer to protect endangered species on their private property and said he will continue to seek credits for participation in ESA programs.
US Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) comments
Initial reports on provisions in the agreement include an increase of more than $4 billion for Farm Bill conservation programs; continued support for farm families and more than $1 billion through a new Specialty Crops Title for programs important to specialty crop producers; a more than $10 billion increase in funding for nutrition programs, including a broad expansion of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program that Crapo worked to extend to Idaho students; and the establishment of a cellulosic biofuels credit, and other programs to increase biofuels production.
