113th Congress
By Donna Beth Weilenman
An auditorium packed Monday morning with Vallejo students of Jesse Bethel High School’s law academy, Advanced Placement government class and senior humanities class heard national and local officials say, “We need you.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, the Democrat who represents Benicia and Vallejo in California’s 5th U.S. House of Representatives district, introduced them to U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who has written the Youth Prison Reduction Through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education (Youth PROMISE) Act.
Rather than throwing the book at them if they commit crimes in their formative years, youth need to be steered into learning, instead, and into a path leading to college rather than prison.
Two congressmen voiced that sentiment Monday during a Town Hall forum held at Jesse Bethel High School. Attended by about 100 teens and other community members, the forum also touched on local violence and crime.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) announced today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers delivered to Congress its Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 work plan for the Army Civil Works program which includes $300,000 for a new start feasibility study for Dry Creek (Warm Springs Dam) and Coyote Valley Dam restoration. This provides much needed funding to begin a feasibility study on work which was included in the Russian River Biological Opinion, but for which the Corps believes it currently lacks authority.
By Peter Jensen
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, has introduced legislation that would wrest control of managing recreation at Lake Berryessa from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and give it to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Thompson introduced the bill Thursday, and in a news release blamed Reclamation’s management for the steep drops in tourism at the lake in recent years.
A stretch of shoreline near Point Arena marked by bluffs, forests and a salmon-filled river will become part of national monument come Tuesday, when President Obama is expected to sign an order protecting the site for generations to come.
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today introduced the Lake Berryessa Recreation Enhancement Act (H.R. 4166), legislation that would transfer the management of Lake Berryessa from the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) reminds constituents today that there is still time to sign up for a new health insurance plan, or shop around for a different plan if your current one does not meet your health care needs. Open enrollment goes through March 31st 2014.
More than 2.1 million illegal firearms sales -- including 1 million attempted purchases by convicted felons -- have been stopped in the 20 years since the enactment of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, according to a new report.
But the report released Friday by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence also stresses that millions of weapons are still being sold to buyers who are prohibited from owning them. Roughly 40 percent of gun purchases, including guns sold online and at gun shows by unlicensed sellers, are not subject to the background checks.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Thompson is privy to all kinds of sensitive material on matters of national importance. But he can't find out what's happening with the Rancho Feeding Corp. in Petaluma.
None of us can. And we agree with the North Bay congressman that with each passing day it gets more troubling.
More than five weeks have passed since initial actions were taken at the Rancho's Petaluma plant, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has yet to release information about what is happening.
2014 omnibus appropriations bill provision calls for the nation's military to purchase flags made in the country.