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“Most Americans agree that we must address our nation's debt crisis and put our fiscal house in order - and soon. As a matter of fact, just today, former Reagan Treasury deputy assistant secretary Bruce Bartlett testified at a Ways and Means Committee hearing that failing to raise the debt ceiling would cause a chain of events ‘much worse' than the 2008 financial crisis.
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.
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.”
The previous speaker was eloquent in his discussion about the bald eagle. Let's think about what would have happened had this measure been law 44 years ago. The American bald eagle, our national bird and symbol, would be gone.
A government program that helped homeowners finance and install green upgrades before a technical roadblock stalled it last year may be resuscitated by Congress.
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.
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.
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.