House Completes Busy and Productive First Session of 109th Congress

House Completes Busy and Productive First Session of 109th Congress
December 23, 2005

At 6 a.m., on Monday, December 19th, after a marathon weekend session, the U.S. House of Representatives adjourned the first session of the 109th Congress. This session of Congress has a record of accomplishment. I am proud to have had the opportunity to participate in it as your representative in Washington, D.C.

The House continued working to pass important legislation through the late night and into the early morning hours. Before the House finished we had passed a number of bills that are imperative to keep the government operating. Additional legislation was passed, that while not as urgent as budget-related bills, are still important.

Some of the essential legislation that the House successfully reached agreement on included: the Department of Defense Authorization and Department of Defense Appropriations bills. I was excited to vote with the majority of my House colleagues on the DoD Appropriations Conference report that irons out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills.

The Defense Appropriations Conference report contains $493 million in funding for Ohio defense projects and $66 million for research projects at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Miami Valley Research projects. This funding is critical because of the additional missions scheduled to come to Wright Patterson Air Force Base as a result of the recent BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process. The funding will continue the work at Wright-Patt that will give our Armed Forces a strategic advantage on the battlefields of tomorrow.

The Conference report included an additional $29 billion to help rebuild the Gulf States devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Recently, I traveled to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast areas affected by the hurricanes. Approximately five months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the level of destruction remains staggering. Prior to Katrina, New Orleans alone was the 100th largest economy in the world. It is important to get this once vibrant and historically rich region of our nation back and better as soon as possible.

The Conference report also included nearly $4 billion to prepare in case of the unlikely outbreak of the Avian Flu.

The House also agreed to the Senate version of the Budget Reconciliation Act. The version of this legislation we agreed to will reduce the deficit by approximately $40 billion over the next five years. Most of the cuts come from slowing the rate of growth of some programs. Some of the savings come from new revenue sources such as such as selling broadcast bandwidth spectrums when television converts to digital frequencies.

The Digital Television Conversion Act, which is included in the Budget Reconciliation Act, completes the conversion to digital television. It uses part of the old frequencies to perform a vital public service while fulfilling a critical recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. Part of the old analog spectrum will be used to create a dedicated new spectrum for public safety communications. Failure of interoperability of the various communications systems hampered first responders on 9/11 and more recently during Hurricane Katrina. Implementing the Digital Television Conversion Act cannot come a moment too soon.

However, since the House agreed to the Senate's version of the Budget Reconciliation Act, the Senate made additional changes to the bill. Therefore, the House will have to agree to these changes before the bill can become law.

Not every order of business was a major policy or spending initiative. For example, my vote supporting H. Con. Res. 284, which expressed the sense of Congress with respect to the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections in Egypt, was very personal. I visited Egypt and spoke with President Hosni Mubarak just days before that election. Many of President Mubarak's advisors recommended making the democratic reforms effective after he left office. President Mubarak was willing to risk his presidency by starting those reforms now. He told me that democracy would be more established and better able to be sustained if he instituted the first meaningful elections, rather than waiting until after he left office to begin the process. The resolution recognizes the importance of the first free Egypt elections in over 7,000 years, as a first step toward greater openness and political reforms in Egypt.

This is just some of the legislation that the House finished in the final days of the first session of the 109th Congress. In the New Year I look forward to continuing to be your advocate in Washington. I will continue to work for economic development and keeping our homeland secure. I wish you and your loved ones a happy and successful 2006!

http://www.house.gov/miketurner/news/columns/12.23.05.shtml