fresno elections 2008

My biggest priority in the next Congress, and one that I hope to work on in a bipartisan manner, is addressing the foreclosure crisis that is devastating our economy. Sadly, as you know, our area has been particularly hard hit. San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced Counties in California have all borne the brunt of the housing crisis.
This year I have worked to help address this crisis and pull our economy back from recession. I have sponsored amendments and voted for bills that would put the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) back in business in California and allow homeowners to refinance into lower cost government insured mortgages they can afford to repay. While we must do everything possible to help those truly in need through no fault of their own, at the same time we must be careful not to enact policies that encourage risky behavior, reward speculators, or exacerbate the current situation. These measures have not yet become law. I will continue to push my colleagues and President Bush to enact them until we bring the housing crisis under control and pull our economy out of recession.

The biggest mistake of the Bush administration has been its failed management of the war in Iraq. It has been clear for some time now that our brave men and women serving in Iraq are sacrificing in a war their commander-in-chief has no clear, realistic plan to win with no end in sight.
Not long after the invasion of Iraq I wrote to President Bush asking him to clearly define our military's mission in Iraq and to explain his eventual exit strategy. To this day I have still not received a response from the President. The US invasion of Iraq has been extremely costly to our country in blood, treasure, and international standing.
The Bush administration’s greatest accomplishment was attempting to implement the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission to create the cabinet level position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It is vital that our intelligence gathering activities are centralized under one director and pertinent information is shared with the relevant agencies. Unfortunately President Bush declined to give the DNI budgetary authority over all intelligence activities and our intelligence gathering agencies are not as centralized as they need to be to ensure our security.

From my point of view one of the best accomplishments of the Democratic controlled congress is the passage of the Farm Bill. This is a very contentious bill that is only reauthorized every five years. This year’s bill took over a year to complete but the final product includes much needed reforms, recognizes the importance of specialty crops, funds nutrition programs at history levels, and provides a safety net for our nation’s hardworking farmers.
Additionally, this Congress has passed legislation that increased the minimum wage for the fist time in a decade, provided the largest expansion in college aid since the GI Bill in 1944, implemented all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations to protect the country from terrorism, and funded the mental and physical care of our veterans at historic levels. I am especially proud that Congress has accomplished all of this in compliance with pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules which ensure that we do not add one cent to the national debt.
My biggest disappointment in the Democratic-controlled Congress has been our inability to reauthorize and expand the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) due to President Bush’s repeated vetoes and Republicans’ unwillingness to override his vetoes. The SCHIP program provides health insurance to children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid. In these tough economic times with the cost of heath care skyrocketing, and the number of uninsured children increasing, I am frustrated that we cannot enact this commonsense legislation.

Yes. I will continue to advocate for federal funding for local government priorities. I believe it is better to have local representatives decide how taxpayers’ money will be spent on local projects, rather then having a bureaucrat in Washington, DC with no knowledge of the community’s needs choose which projects to fund.

At the beginning of the 110th Congress, we passed rules making the earmark process much more transparent by holding members of Congress publicly accountable for the projects they choose to sponsor. I fully support making the earmark process as transparent as possible because I only submit projects that I feel are fully justified and will benefit the community. Recent examples of projects I obtained federal funding for include: the Westside Regional Drainage Project, Orestimba Creek flood control, and the Los Banos Highway Bypass.