KBMT's Very Own Kevin and Tracy with Weekly DC Updates from Congressman Poe Congressman Poe meets bi-weekly with TV Personalities Sibila Vargas and Jose Grinan

January 15, 2009
Rep. Poe Votes Against Flawed SCHIP Bill
Washington - Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) voted against the SCHIP Reauthorization Act citing unacceptable provisions that would force families off private insurance, increase spending and extend coverage to adults and to people living in our country illegally. “I fully support caring for our nation’s children in need,” said Poe. “SCHIP was created by the Republican Congress in 1997 and its original purpose was to care for our country’s poorest children, but this bill takes a health care plan for poor children and turns it into a path to socialized health care for America. This so-called new and improved bill is still the same unacceptable plan to raise taxes, crowd-out private insurance, and extend benefits to adults and to illegals that is was last time. We have a responsibility to care for our greatest resources, our children, but using them as a front to increase spending and lay the ground work for a government-run health care system is a shame.”
- Full Release -

January 15, 2009
BANK ROBBERS?
Mr. Speaker, oh, how things have changed. Time was, when you borrowed money from a bank, the bank wanted to know what the money was going to be used for, and you were required to fill out a bunch of forms to receive the money. Now the big banks have shown up, wanting $350 billion from the taxpayer. They won’t tell us what they will use the money for, and they haven’t filled out any paperwork to justify receiving more taxpayer money. You see, they don’t want the same standards they require on borrowers to be applied to them when they want money. It use to be the bad guys robbed the banks. Now it appears that the banks are the bad guys by putting a financial gun to the people, saying “Give us the loot or you’re all going to die economically.” It’s like bank robbery in reverse. It seems like the big banking boys’ gang is robbing the people. We call all of this nonsense a bailout, but bailouts have not helped stimulate the economy. Why don’t we just say, “No”? No more money to special interest groups. No more taxpayer money will be spent without accountability. No more spending money we don’t have. We cannot spend, borrow and tax our way out of this economic calamity. - Full Release -

January 15, 2009
LAST STAND FOR RAMOS AND COMPEAN
Madam Speaker, in the dusty, arid plains of West Texas, where the tumbleweeds blow across the prairies, there's a small town called Fabens. Fabens, Texas, a population of about 8,000, mostly lower-income individuals, but they're doing what they can to eke out an income out of the land that they work. On February 17, 2005, almost 4 years ago, these events took place. A drug dealer by the name of Aldrete Davila came across from Mexico, which is six miles from Fabens, Texas, right here on the map. He's driving a van. He has about $750,000 worth of narcotics in that van. And of course, he's smuggling drugs into America; something that occurs along the entire Texas/Mexico border. He's confronted by one of our first responders, Border Security Agent Jose Compean. Border Agent Jose Compean does his job, and he gives chase to this drug smuggler in the van. Aldrete, the smuggler, turns his van around, tries to head back to Mexico with his cancer that he's going to try to sell in the United States. He abandons his vehicle. He gets down in the river bed between Mexico and Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, and he has a fight with Jose Compean. Another border agent by the name of Ignacio Ramos shows up and meets the call for help to stop this drug trafficker into the United States. Meanwhile, a fight ensues between the drug dealer and Border Agent Compean, and Compean is left in the river bed, bleeding, while the drug dealer runs back to Mexico. Ignacio Ramos, border agent, sees what's taking place. He sees the drug dealer, in his opinion, with a weapon, keeps turning back like this, and he fires his weapon. And the drug dealer disappears. Unbeknownst to all of us, there was another vehicle on the other side of the border, waiting to pick him up and take him back to wherever he came from. Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, border agents, at the time they pick up the shells that are fired, they don't immediately report the events, and nothing occurs until the following takes place: The drug dealer goes back to Mexico. It turns out that he was wounded. He was shot in the buttocks. Without being too graphic, the bullet went in one cheek and came out the other cheek as if he were pointing his weapon when he got shot. But be that as it may, in some way, the U.S. Government gets involved. It goes to Mexico. It finds the drug dealer and says, ``Looky here. Have we got a deal for you. All you've got to do is come back to America and testify against those two border agents for a civil rights violation,'' or whatever we charged them with, ``and we will treat you for your wounds, and we will give you a pass to go back and forth across the border, and we will not prosecute you for bringing drugs into the United States.'' - Full Release -

January 14, 2009
It's a Southern Thing
Madam Speaker, as we kick off 2009, people across the country are making their new year’s resolutions and families are carrying on with their special traditions to start the year out on a good note. Of course by mid February you should be able to get a close parking spot at the gym since that’s about the time motivation for the fitness resolution begins to wane. However, there are some traditions that endure year after year, particularly in the South where we seem to value our heritage and culture a little more than our friends to the north. Since I grew up in Texas, black eyed peas and football were to norm for my family, and everyone I knew, on New Year’s Day. Everyone had to have at least one bite for good luck, like it or not, it was the rule. It wasn’t until I met my first northerner that I realized this was a southern thing unique only unto us. There are stories that date the “good luck” tradition all the way back the pharaohs of Egypt, but for us it goes back to the War Between the States. During General Sherman’s March to the Sea in late December 1864, he ordered the Union troops to “burn and destroy” everything they saw, and “leave a trail that will be recognized fifty years hence.” - Full Release -

January 12, 2009
Congressman Ted Poe Appointed the House Judiciary Committee
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) was sworn in for a 3rd term as the United States Representative for the Second Congressional District of Texas earlier this week. In the 111th Congress, Congressman Poe will serve on the House Judiciary Committee. As a former judge and prosecutor in Houston, Texas, for 30 years, Congressman Poe brings his professional experience and insight to the committee’s membership. “I am honored to serve on the Judiciary Committee,” said Poe. “I welcome this new responsibility and look forward to bringing my experience and knowledge of the law and the court system to the committee. My advocacy efforts on behalf of victims and children will also be strengthened by this appointment and I am encouraged by the bipartisan support of these issues. “The Judiciary has oversight responsibility for the Department of Justice and Homeland Security and I am especially excited to have the opportunity to work directly on much of the border security legislation that comes before Congress,” added Poe. “This remains one of my top priorities.” The Committee on the Judiciary has been called the lawyer for the House of Representatives because of its jurisdiction over matters relating to the administration of justice in Federal courts, administrative bodies, and law enforcement agencies. In addition to oversight for the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, the scope of the Committee’s concern includes issues relating to bankruptcy, espionage, terrorism, the protection of civil liberties, and constitutional amendments. The committee also covers issues concerning claims against the United States, national penitentiaries, Presidential succession, antitrust law, revision and codification of the statutes of the United States. In addition to serving on the Judiciary committee, Congressman Poe continues to serve on the Committee on Foreign Affairs – Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade and International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Subcommittees; an Executive Member of the Immigration Reform Caucus; and founder and chair of the Congressional Victim’s Rights Caucus. - Full Release -

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