LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY

Fixing FEMA’s Mistakes

FEMA erroneously distributed disaster payments following the severe storms of 2008, and is now demanding immediate repayment of over $200,000 from Arkansans to cover up its mistakes.  This situation includes a 73-year-old woman from Mountain View, Arkansas.  In 2008, after completing an extensive application process and home inspection, FEMA approved $27,000 for home repairs.  FEMA now says she was never eligible for assistance and that she must repay the funds within 30 days or face high interest charges or other collection actions. I am working with FEMA to prevent these problems from happening in the first place, and I have introduced legislation to allow FEMA to waive the recoupment payments from individuals who played by the rules three years ago and are now receiving “Notice of Debt” letters in their mailboxes. [Read More]

Preventing Drug Users from Driving Big Rigs

I have teamed up with Senator John Boozman to improve highway safety and keep truck drivers who have failed drug or alcohol tests off the road. Our Safe Roads Act will establish a national database of drug testing information, which closes current loopholes that some truckers use to game the system and it helps the commercial driving industry select the safest drivers possible.  [Read More]

Honoring Men and Women in Uniform

I joined with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and a number of my colleagues to introduce the Sanctity of Eternal Rest for Veterans Act, or SERVE ACT which would prevent disruptions at military funerals.  When one of our nation’s heroes dies, respect and honor should be at the forefront. [Read More]

Investigating a Data Breach that Exposes Millions of Consumers

Epsilon, an online marketing firm that handles email lists for companies such as Target, Best Buy, Walgreens, and Citi Group, recently experienced a major security breach.  Although the information that was stolen is likely limited to e-mail addresses, I am concerned that this information will lead to a surge of phishing attacks- emails disguised to be from a legitimate business but intended to steal personal information.  Last year, I introduced legislation to improve the way companies safeguard our personal information.  This week, I sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging the Chairman to investigate the recent data breach and take action.

Avoiding a Government Shutdown

This week, the Senate and House voted to keep our government running for the next six months.  Now that the 6-month budget is resolved, it is time for us to get serious about a long-term budget solution.  This will require compromise and a shared sacrifice from all Americans.  I look forward to working with my colleagues to further reduce spending, reform the tax code, and address entitlement programs.  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Safer roads and Balanced Budgets

By Steve Brawner

Arkansas News Bureau

April 13, 2011

You might not have noticed it last week amongst all the yelling in Washington, but a Republican and a Democrat, both from Arkansas, actually agreed on something.

Sen. John Boozman, the Republican, and Sen. Mark Pryor, the Democrat, introduced the Safe Roads Act, which would create a national database to keep track of commercial drivers who fail drug or alcohol tests while requiring employers to check that database prior to hiring.

At first glance, the bill would seem to have a good chance of passage. The problem it seeks to address is obvious and the solution relatively painless. Still, nothing in Washington is guaranteed. Pryor also introduced the bill in 2009, and also with Republican co-sponsors, and it didn’t pass then. If the measure fails again, it will be because the issue will be deemed better addressed through regulations or because Pryor and Boozman become distracted by other matters, not because anybody rallies against it on the Capitol steps. Democracy will survive.

So what about issues where the stakes are higher? If Arkansas’ senators can address irresponsible truck drivers, can they work together on the nation’s fiscal irresponsibility?

In that case, as with the Safe Roads Act, Boozman and Pryor, along with their colleagues on both sides of the aisle, agree on the problem: The government is going broke, creating an unhealthy dependence on unsavory entities such as the Chinese government and burdening future generations with this unconscionable debt. They also more or less agree on what kind of tone the debate should have. Boozman is a little more doctrinaire, but neither is a bomb-thrower.

The disagreement is over the solutions — on what spending to cut; what taxes to raise (basically none ever, according to Boozman); whether or not to enact a balanced budget amendment (Boozman says yes; Pryor no); and on what policies would promote the kind of economic growth that would make this a little easier.

It’s rare in a democracy for anybody to get everything he or she wants, so only two paths remain: status quo, which is a slow march to the abyss; or compromise, which would save the country.

Last week, Republicans and Democrats chose compromise after making the country endure a lot of drama that was unnecessary and frankly not very interesting. Hours before shutting down the government, the two sides agreed to a budget deal involving relatively minor spending cuts and then went their separate ways, each blaming the other for the brouhaha. I don’t want to say the whole thing was orchestrated, but they have had a lot of practice at this.

Had the government actually shut down, the country would have felt the results. The last time that happened, 1995-96, was a prosperous and peaceful time that could absorb Washington shenanigans. Today the country is still in the midst of a weak economic recovery and involved in three major combat operations. Investors, no matter what language they speak, do not like uncertainty, and for the United States, these are uncertain times.

Temperatures are about to run even hotter. President Obama is scheduled to at last unveil some of his deficit reduction ideas this week, while some Republicans are threatening to oppose raising the country’s debt ceiling above its current $14.3 trillion limit absent meaningful spending cuts. Democrats say failing to raise the ceiling would undermine the government’s full faith and credit and would choke the economy’s recovery, and they probably are right. Some Republicans counter that, absent that threat, the government is never going to change, and they probably are right as well.

If Pryor and Boozman can jointly propose the Safe Roads Act, can Republicans and Democrats work together long enough to meaningfully address the deficit?

They must. Because what happens in the next few weeks is going to say a lot about whether the government the Founding Fathers gave us is still capable of solving the country’s biggest problems, much less keep truck drivers with drug and alcohol records off the road.