“Unfortunately,” Congressman Simpson said, “the Budget Committee today started the health care reconciliation process with a partisan and largely ceremonial markup vote. This procedural maneuver will allow Democrats, now without enough votes to pass the bill in regular order, to pass it with only 50 votes in the Senate, rather than the 60 normally required for controversial pieces of legislation.” Read more »

During the hearing, Simpson asked Director Abbey what the BLM is doing to address the significant backlog in grazing permits. Last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that sage-grouse is “warranted but precluded” from listing under the Endangered Species Act. Simpson expressed his concern that this decision would put an additional burden on the BLM, which is responsible for managing most of the current sage-grouse habitat, without providing additional resources for the agency to address its current backlog. Read more »

“We’re not talking here about trying to reduce arsenic from 100 parts per billion to ten, we’re talking about communities having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce it by two parts per billion. It should be up to rural communities to determine if twelve parts per billion is acceptable for their drinking water, or if they should tax people out of their homes in order to try to obtain EPA’s arsenic standard of ten parts per billion,” said Simpson. “Nobody cares more about the safety of a community’s drinking water, or is more eager to do the right thing to protect it, than the people who live, work and raise families there.” Read more »

“As the recession continues and unemployment stubbornly holds near the double digits, we must not forget about the vital contribution school teachers make to our nation. There are two pieces of legislation that I hope will come before the House of Representatives this session that will make targeted and effective changes to current law in support of teachers. I am urging my colleagues to… Read more »

“Unfortunately, my fears about this summit were realized: rather than a substantive discussion about health care reform, the President’s summit was just for show,” said Congressman Mike Simpson. “It seems the Democrats were more interested in selling the American people the bills they have supported in the House and Senate rather than working together to accomplish health care reform that we can all agree on.” Read more »

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today shared an Idaho perspective when Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell testified at the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee regarding the FY2011 Forest Service Budget request. Simpson is Ranking Member of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the Forest Service. Read more »

“One thing I heard time and time again when I was home was the dramatic impact EPA is having on Idaho communities,” said Simpson.  “Mayors throughout our state are at their wit’s end trying to meet EPA’s standards under the Clean Water Act and are forced to make difficult and even impossible budget decisions to do so.  Some cities are so frustrated that they are prepared to hand EPA the keys to the city.  No agency should have this kind of control over local governments.” Read more »

"EPA’s public response to the so-called ‘Climate-gate’ issue is unsatisfactory at best," said Simpson. "Idahoans are frustrated that we are basing major, far-reaching policy changes and significant funding increases on scientific data that has been called into question, but their concerns are being summarily dismissed by the EPA, which simply claims that ‘the science is sound.’" Read more »

I strongly believe that there are a number of measures that all of us, regardless of party affiliation, support that will bring down costs and improve access to care for all Americans. These are not new ideas—they are, however, ideas that are critical to implementing real, affordable and effective health reform. Read more »

“The EPA’s recent decision was a shot across Congress’s bow, telling us that if we don’t act quickly to pass sweeping, controversial climate change legislation, the EPA is going to do it for us,” Simpson said. “Unelected bureaucrats at EPA should not be allowed to circumvent the legislative process or override the will of the American people. It’s clear that we need to take action through H.R. 4572 to prevent them from doing so.” Read more »