The Burgess Bulletin - January 2006
WASHINGTON, DC,
January 1, 2006
Click here for the full version.
NEWS
Burgess’ Iraqi Special Tribunal Resolution Passed in the House December 16 – Today, the House of Representatives passed H.Res.534 which recognizes the importance and credibility of an independent Iraqi judiciary in the formation of a new and democratic Iraq with a vote of 408-1. The path to a free and democratic Iraq has not been easy. Yet, after years of oppression and torture, the Iraqi people are growing closer to having a nation ruled by the people instead of by terror and fear. Earlier this year, the passage of the Iraqi Constitution marked a significant milestone in the recovery of the sovereign nation of Iraq. In excess of 60 percent of the people of Iraq braved the terrorists, braved the threats of violence, to be able to cast their vote. This week, the Iraqi people have reached another historic milestone. Iraqi men and women, worldwide, are going to the polls in droves to be able to democratically elect the nation’s first permanent constitutional parliament in decades. While there will still be hurdles for the Iraqi people to overcome, today we celebrate with our friends as they continue to take courageous steps in becoming their own sovereign nation. “A crucial component to a free and democratic nation is a judicial system in which alleged criminals can be indicted, prosecuted, and punished in a fair and impartial manner,” stated Congressman Michael Burgess. “We are all aware of the current trial of Saddam Hussein; while his trial is very important, a strong, independent Iraqi judicial system is of even greater importance,” The Iraqi Special Tribunal has been empanelled to bring swift and impartial justice to both the victims and the nation of Iraq. H.Res.534 will show our support of this icon of democracy – a true, legal judicial system. “The people of Iraq, the people of a sovereign nation, deserve the true justice which can only be obtained through a recognized and credible judicial system,” said Congressman Burgess. In the past two years, Congressman Michael Burgess has traveled to Iraq four times. During every mission, he has been able to witness first hand the progress that is being made by the Iraqi government.
December 1 – Yesterday, Congressman Michael C. Burgess (TX-26), in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation, hosted the 3rd Annual 26th Congressional District Transportation Summit. The event highlighted local, state and federal transportation experts and was devoted to discussing and improving transportation throughout North Texas. “Improving transportation requires a fundamentally change in the philosophy of how we fund projects, stated Congressman Michael Burgess. “ It is clear that there is a need for flexibility in funding transportation projects,” continued Rep. Burgess. “Together, we can use our limited transportation dollars in a more sensible, smarter fashion, and complete projects in a faster, more efficient manner.” The event’s opening remarks were given by Congressman Michael Burgess and Ric Williamson, Chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission. Praise was given to the success of Congressman Burgess and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AL) for enacting, in August of this year, the Highway Reauthorization bill, commonly referred to as TEA-LU. This legislation reauthorized appropriations from the Highway Trust Fund for highway programs, research and technology, motor carrier transportation and safety, and transportation research and education. It designated $286.4 billion to be distributed over the six-year life of the legislation among highway, transit and safety projects throughout the country.
TEA-LU had several key policy revisions for Texas: Toll-Credits During the initial House passage of this legislation in March, Congressman Michael Burgess offered an amendment that would allow states to receive transportation development credits, better known as “toll credits.” This provision was included in the final version of TEA-LU. Now, states will receive transportation development credits in a timely manner. States will be able to reinvest in their transportation systems without continually requesting additional federal monies to meet their needs.
Design-Build In March, Congressman Burgess reintroduced language on the concept of “Design-Build” for the 109th Congress. “Design-Build” is a term to describe an innovative project delivery method that combines the design and construction of a road project into one contract rather than the traditional “Design-Bid-Build” method of having individual contracts for separate, sequential phases of a project. By modifying the existing law, “Design-Build” gives Texas and other states additional flexibility to design and build roads concurrently, not sequentially. By integrating the design-build portion of a project, states can complete projects in a more efficient and inexpensive manner. Congressman Burgess’ work on design-build earned him the Design-Build Institute of America’s Distinguished Legislator Leadership Award. Dan Stoppenhagen, Director of Transportation and Infrastructure for Fluor Enterprise, Inc. presented the award during the summit. Rate-of-Return The last key provision from the transportation reauthorization bill concerns rate-of-return for federal transportation dollars. Currently, for every $1 Texans send to Federal Highway Administration, they receive only 88 cents back. This bill will allow for a gradual increase in the national rate of return from 90.5 percent in 2005 to 92.0 percent in 2009. “This is an important victory for the State of Texas as we continue to work on ways to pay for our growing transportation needs for the 21st century,” remarked Congressman Burgess. “The next highway reauthorization bill will begin taking shape soon in Washington, and I encourage all local transportation leaders to discuss their thoughts and ideas with me.” For more detailed information on this meeting, please click on the headline to go to this press release on our website.
Published in the Fort Worth Business Press – 12/12/05 By Congressman Michael Burgess
We cannot continue to depend on leaders such as Hugo Chavez for our energy needs. I believe that Congress should dedicate itself to achieving energy independence by 2015. This is an ambitious goal; one which will require industry, policy makers, and Americans to think of innovative approaches to meet our energy needs. Our traditional energy sources will only get us so far; we can't drill our way to energy independence; we need a balanced approach. But then the temperature drops and heaters go on in homes across the country. Americans’ energy demands become greater and greater. With the change of the season, this annual rite is becoming more and more precarious because of our dependence on foreign energy. Every day, America consumes more energy than we produce. This leaves a gap that we must fill by turning to other countries with an abundant supply of energy, but are often in areas of the world where friends of America are in short supply. Each day, large tankers enter our ports with cargos of crude oil, gasoline and liquefied natural gas (LNG). In exchange, we send billions of dollars and thousands of jobs abroad. This trend has led our country to place our energy assurance in the hands of leaders such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and inflexible or unstable dictators of the Middle East. So our future is now, and this Congress, indeed this generation is obligated to usher in that age of American energy independence. Subsequent years may hold a fleet of duel-fueled vehicles powered by efficient engines such as electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles. The recently enacted Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58) reflects this balance between encouraging advanced technology such as clean coal and hydrogen fuel cells, encouraging conservation and efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear energy, clean coal, and conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas. The Barnett Shale, a natural gas shale formation located in the Metroplex, is currently a major source of natural gas. A provision included in the Energy Policy Act will ensure that this resource will continue to provide natural gas to North Texas and the U.S. for years to come. Growing up in the hills of West Denton, I never dreamed that someday there would be natural gas rigs popping up in the farmland around us. On road trips with my family in Oklahoma, I would ask my dad why we didn't have rigs in the fields at home, and my father would reply that we didn't have anything to drill. My dad turned out to only be partly right -- we do have natural gas in North Texas, but forty years ago we didn't have the technology to recover it. Luckily, great strides have been made since that time. The dedicated and innovative people in the energy industry have developed technology, such as hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, that allows us not only to extract the natural gas in an environmentally sensitive way, but also to minimize the impact of this production on every day quality of life. Directional drilling allows producers to be miles away from the place where the oil and gas is actually located. In addition, because directional drilling allows them to use a hub and spoke system to access multiple reservoirs from a single place, fewer drilling rigs are needed to produce the same amount of gas. This is especially important in the Barnett Shale because homes and businesses now sit on top of this valuable resource. It is precisely for this reason that this is not something that should be controlled by Washington, but should be controlled by Mayors and City Councils who are closest to the people. The Barnett Shale contributes to the local economy by providing jobs -- one estimate puts this at more than 5,000 jobs -- and pumping dollars into the Dallas-Fort Worth economic engine. Bernard Weinstein of the University of North Texas, located in my district, has said that the local economic impact could approach $3 billion a year. We are lucky in North Texas to be geologically blessed with the Barnet Shale to provide America with natural gas. Locating non-traditional energy sources such as the Barnett Shale and developing new technologies to access these types of sources will be essential to energy dependence by 2015. In Congress I can be proud that North Texas is doing its part to help those in the Northeast who are worried about hearing their homes this winter.
CONSTITUENT SERVICES The internship program was established to provide students an in-depth look at the American political process by learning how various Washington DC entities formulate public policy and how other governmental agencies interact with that process. The program’s objective is to provide students with insights into the policy-making process and public life by working in governmental, nonprofit and private sector placement in our nation’s capital. Furthermore, the internship offers students real world experiences where they can apply their classroom learning. During the internship, students will refine their career interests, develop leadership skills and gain a deeper understanding of American politics. CONTACT THE CONGRESSMAN To email Congressman Burgess, please click on the above link and follow the simple directions outlined on the website. This process ensures that we receive emails from 26th Congressional District of Texas residents only.
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