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As the nation and Congress face an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit or face national default, Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he is not willing to balance the budget “on the backs of seniors, the poor or the middle class.”
The White House threatened Tuesday to veto emergency legislation pending in the House to avert a threatened national default.
The debt crisis must be resolved without gutting Medicare or Social Security, North Coast Reps. Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey said Tuesday.
Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he is “not afraid to cut spending where it's deserved” and noted that he has voted to cut spending by more than $100 billion this year. But he said in a written statement that he is “not willing to vote to balance the budget on the backs of seniors, the poor or the middle class.”
North Coast Reps. Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey joined 26 other House members and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in supporting California's appeal of a decision that denied federal disaster aid to counties hit hard by an extended March storm.
The bipartisan letter, signed by six Republican and 22 Democratic House members, supported Gov. Jerry Brown's appeal. It seeks to overturn a Federal Emergency Management Agency decision that denied federal assistance to 17 counties, including Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties on the North Coast.
Rep. Mike Thompson joined with two House Republicans Wednesday in introducing legislation to protect the government-financed home and business energy retrofit programs that have run afoul of federal housing regulators.
Sonoma County has been a pioneer among the dozens of local and state governments offering Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE programs. Since its inception more than two year ago, the county program has handed out about $48 million in retrofit financing, which property owners repay through their property tax bills.
A government program that helped homeowners finance and install green upgrades before a technical roadblock stalled it last year may be resuscitated by Congress.
Three members of Congress -- two Republicans and one Democrat -- joined for a press conference on Wednesday to promote The Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program and urge the rest of Congress to join them.
The bipartisan group of members included Reps. Mike Thompson (D-St.Helena), Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), and Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) who introduced the PACE Protection Act of 2011. The PACE program is currently available in 28 states.
Rep. Mike Thompson and a pair of Republicans are trying revive a way for property owners to pay for projects like installing solar panels and energy-saving windows as a surcharge on their property tax.
Such property-assessed clean energy, or PACE, programs looked to be moving forward in Davis and across the country. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac derailed them last year by saying they would not accept loans that included PACE liens.
It doesn't exactly mark the Age of Aquarius, but amid the partisan rancor paralyzing Washington, two Republicans and a Democrat have joined forces to introduce legislation to revive a popular residential solar financing program scuttled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year.
Benjamin Franklin established the nation's first special assessment district when he created the Union Fire Company of Philadelphia, a volunteer fire department. Today there are more than 37,000 special districts in the United States. Local governments use them to pay for everything from sewer systems to sidewalks to mosquito abatement â€" all in response to important community concerns.
The July 14 letter, which includes Sens.