Latest Answers
Answer from:
Okay I just happen to sit on the committee called the Legislative Branch and we have all the staff looking at all the buildings in terms of the lower hanging fruits that we can do right away, and that would be things like lighting, stuff like that. The other thing is looking at a long term building by building project, where they’ll come back and give us a plan. That’s going to take a little longer.
Answered on Jun 23rd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
I’m not going-I don’t have an answer for that.
Answered on Jun 23rd, 2009
Answer from:
Currently everybody has a choice how to die. We should be aware as a society that an inordinate amount of society's resources goes into keeping people alive in the last six months of life. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a choice. Most other countries don’t keep them alive if they have no quality of life, if they are simply on life support systems. Frankly, if we are going to reduce the cost of health care, so that we can provide it for everyone these may be some of the things we have to consider as a society.
Answered on Jun 23rd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
I would support such a measure. I think it is important that we understand that our nation has come a long way. There was a time when people discriminated, and they still do, based upon a person’s sexual orientation. But, if you look at our families, our communities, almost many many families have people in their families whose orientation may be gay or lesbian. The fact is that all of us have a right to make a living, to be treated fairly, and to be able to take care of ourselves. And I think when we get in to the business of discriminating against people we deny them some basic rights.
Answered on Jun 23rd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
I’m not going-I don’t have an answer for that.
Answered on Jun 17th, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA)
Okay I just happen to sit on the committee called the Legislative Branch and we have all the staff looking at all the buildings in terms of the lower hanging fruits that we can do right away, and that would be things like lighting, stuff like that. The other thing is looking at a long term building by building project, where they’ll come back and give us a plan. That’s going to take a little longer.
Answered on Jun 6th, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)
Ben Cardin: I’m for Congress taking this issue up sooner rather than later. Some of these provisions expire this year. Most don’t expire for sev yrs. But I hope congress will take this matter up quickly. The three provisions that expire this year need to be taken up first, to see whether they need to be continued or modified. So I’m for looking at it. I want to make sure we have institutional protections on the use of these powers, so that it cannot be abused as it was under the Bush Administration. And I want to see whether these tools are important.
Answered on May 22nd, 2009
Answer from:
I understand that if you actually have one conviction there is a process by which you can appeal and basically have a sponsor and get back in the military. So this person out to go to their Congressman and begin again and see if there is anyway that they can actually apply to get in the military. But two and you’re out and there are no exceptions, is what I’ve learned from another case of someone in my district. So it is possible.
Answered on May 22nd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)
I think this is a very legitimate question. They did have good years and bad years during that period of time. Overall they’ve had mediocre sales in the last ten years. But I do think it would be their responsibility to look down the road, keep a rainy day fund, but also look at some of the contracts and long term commitments they were making, both lease commitments and management commitments and union contracts. Because it would appear to me that they were heading towards a brick wall and needed to change some things in Detroit.
Answered on May 22nd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
I think it’s a couple years away and we are making progress. I don’t want to kid anybody. The votes aren’t there yet, but we are getting there. You’ve seen this in states. There are two ways. One is medical marijuana. I think there, that can be done by the administration. They should simply decline to prosecute, which is what the Clinton administration did, you know, declined to prosecute people. Then John Ashcroft started prosecuting people—I say persecuting people.
Answered on May 22nd, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI)
Well, they had been. They’d been part of a restructuring process. There had been plant closings throughout Michigan, throughout the Midwest, throughout America, such as my district. It was very painful. But what happened eventually was when the credit crisis hit you had an inability to move cars off the lot, which under girds any car company. For example, Toyota, because of the financial crisis, asked for a $2 billion loan from the Japanese government. So this was not simply limited to domestic automakers.
Answered on May 21st, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
I was not in the Congress when it authorized the use of military force. Had I been here I’m not sure how I would have voted. Notwithstanding that, we are now in Iraq. We are six years deep into Iraq. President Obama campaigned on the promise of ending this war, he has a very concrete and strategic plan for getting us out of Iraq, and he has started executing that plan. The commanders on the ground as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff have developed a strategic plan, We will be out Iraq in 2011, make no mistake about it.
Answered on May 21st, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
Well, Heather, it opens up a wider issue for when reimbursements should occur for a wider range of issues. Certainly I think there’s an argument that volunteerism is something we should incentivize. The difficulty has been… how do you validate some volunteers and allow reimbursement, while disallowing others? And that has generally been subsumed by the larger issues of charitable giving. And that’s how we’ve tried to address it, rather than to break it apart and say a certain activity will be reimbursed.
Answered on May 7th, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY)
Well you know, Tanya, a large portion of the money was directed specifically towards education. For instance in my district, which covers Staten Island and Brooklyn, we know that over $100 million came into the district for general education funds for children with special needs and for the Title I schools as well. That money was dedicated right in so there was no way that that could be manipulated, because it went right to the districts, and that’s how we know it can’t be fooled around or messed with, if you will. The constituent has a great concern.
Answered on May 6th, 2009
Answer from: U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Get active now. There's lots of things if they're young they can get active: they can get active in a campaign, they can get active in a policy issue, they can get active in something in their community. I got started working to help build a library in the community that I lived in, and then ran for the legislature.
Answered on May 5th, 2009
