News Articles
Though the House Majority’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget was passed by the House today, Sonoma Valley’s U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who voted against it, said the Senate will not pass the budget, and if it did, the President would veto it.
“This reckless spending plan will kill jobs, end the guarantee of Medicare for America’s seniors, raises taxes on middle-class families while rewarding the wealthy and corporations that ship jobs overseas, gut our education system and make college more expensive for hard working families,” said Thompson.
By Peter Jensen
A bill from U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson that would make sweeping changes to recreation at Lake Berryessa has built support in Congress and Napa County.
The legislation proposes to take management of recreation at the lake from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), which has had that responsibility since Napa County relinquished it in the 1970s, and give it to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Reclamation would continue to operate and maintain Monticello Dam.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress often urge federal agencies and the private sector to hire military veterans, but a survey suggests they rarely follow that advice with their personal staff.
The survey says veterans made up less than 3 percent of the staff in the congressional offices that responded. The survey was conducted by HillVets, an organization of veterans serving in government.
U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson of California and Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut have asked for an end to legislative language in appropriation bills they said blocks efforts “to reduce and prevent gun violence.”
Thompson, D-Napa, is Benicia’s representative in the House, and is chairperson of the House Gun Vilence Prevention Task Force.
Esty, also a Democrat, is vice chairperson of the task force.
The two have written the leaders of the House of Representatives, requesting a halt to legislative language called “riders.”
Under bright sunshine Saturday, Napa Mayor Jill Techel celebrated the start of the construction of the flood bypass near the Oxbow, a key piece of Napa’s flood protection project. The bypass channel will carry floodwaters from the Napa River near the Oxbow to the stretch of the river near Napa Creek at the First Street Bridge.
On Friday U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and Elizabeth Esty (CT-5), vice chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, led the call against legislative language known as “riders,” in appropriations bills that would block efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence.
President Barack Obama signed a bill Tuesday fixing an outdated Medicare payment formula that made it difficult to recruit doctors to Sonoma County and caused many local physicians to shut their doors to new Medicare patients.
The legislation could increase Medicare reimbursements to Sonoma County doctors by up to 9 percent. That, in turn, is expected to boost payments to doctors across the county because private insurance often is tied to Medicare rates.
The last time we checked, generating jobs remained high on the nation's priority list. So is weaning ourselves from traditional greenhouse-gas-producing energy systems.
The latest dire report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows, if anything, greater urgency is needed.
Until earlier this month, Congress hadn’t acted to protect a single new acre of public land as a national park, national conservation area or wilderness area since 2009.
This congressional failure is not for lack of opportunity. A report by the advocacy groups Center for American Progress and Center for Western Priorities highlights 10 high-profile conservation bills, including two on federal public lands in California, that have languished despite strong backing at the local level and from members of Congress.
Gov. Jerry Brown and Rep. Mike Thompson are involved in separate efforts to boost Sonoma County's groundbreaking program to help residents pay for energy-saving improvements to their homes.
The highly touted program, which has funded more than $50 million worth of residential projects since it started in 2009, sustained a major setback in 2010 when federal housing officials said it jeopardized the nation's major source of home mortgages.