Goode News

Op-Ed

Goode News for June 15, 2006

To help America wean itself from foreign oil, it is important to refine more gasoline in this country, and that is what the passage of HR 5254 will help to accomplish. I joined the majority in the House in supporting this bill.

A new refinery has not been built in the U. S. since 1976, and that fact alone has made it nearly impossible for American energy supplies to keep pace with demand. Even as research on alternative energy sources continues at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, at Virginia Tech and elsewhere in the United States, it is important that America have the ability to refine oil in this country and not have to rely on foreign sources as much.

In making the refining process more conducive for domestic refining, the bill instructs the President to designate at least three closed military installations as potentially suitable for the construction of a refinery. Also, it requires that at least one such site be designated as potentially suitable for construction of a refinery to refine biomass in order to produce biofuel.

In the wake of the recent revelation that a computer was stolen containing the vital information of millions of veterans, I have joined in sponsoring legislation to require that the Secretary of Defense shall provide every person whose information was compromised, at no charge, (1) credit monitoring services for one year after this bill is enacted, and (2) a copy of the credit report of the affected individual periodically during the two-year period after the date of enactment.

Meanwhile, a website has been developed to provide information about the theft of the computer containing the personnel information of many of America's veterans. You may get information on what to do and how to monitor your accounts safely by going to First Gov.

Border security remains a top priority in the House of Representatives, and I have introduced a resolution supporting the work that the group of private citizens, known as the Minutemen, are doing in giving of their time to position themselves on the border with Mexico to report sightings of illegals attempting to sneak into the United States. My resolution says that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should not act in any way to undermine the work of the Minutemen as they seek to preserve the integrity of the borders and further that DHS should not tattle on the Minutemen by contacting Mexican officials about the location of those who participate in these surveillance work on the southern border.

My resolution has not come up for a vote yet, but it appears that there is growing support for this position, based upon the recent vote to authorize spending by DHS in Fiscal Year 2007. The House voted 293-to-107 in favor of an amendment proposed by Congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia. This amendment says that none of the funds appropriated for DHS shall be used to provide a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group in California, Texas, New Mexico or Arizona unless required by international treaty.

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