Capito Meets With West Virginia Purple Heart Veterans

Op-Ed

Capito Meets With West Virginia Purple Heart Veterans

Letter from Shelley

Friends and Colleagues,
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Congress played host to a spirited debate this week about much-needed legislation to modernize our foreign intelligence laws, and struggling homeowners received good news as the Treasury Department announced a new initiative to combat the subprime mortgage crunch.

Intelligence Laws Must Be Updated

For months, Congress has debated important legislation to permanently update our nation's foreign intelligence laws, which enable our intelligence community to observe and track known terrorists. Because of the growth of modern communications technology many of our laws were significantly outdated, and the existing laws created troubling obstacles for our intelligence gathering efforts.

It was clear that Congress needed to address these challenges, so we passed the bipartisan Protect America Act in August as a short-term agreement. Yet, it is set to expire this weekend unless Congress acts.

Thanks to hard-work in the United States Senate, a bipartisan cross section of Senators approved a compromise measure earlier this week that would supercede the Protect America Act and prevent our intelligence laws from lapsing. In fact, Senator Rockefeller - one of my colleagues in West Virginia's Congressional delegation - was a strong advocate for the Senate bill.

House Leadership, however, refused to allow the Senate bill to come before the House for a vote, despite strong opposition from a bipartisan coalition of both Republicans and Democrats. Instead, Speaker Pelosi chose to let the Protect America Act expire.

Her action is not only unwise, but betrays a broad bipartisan coalition of the American people.

Project Lifeline

The Treasury Department this week announced a new initiative designed to support borrowers struggling with foreclosure.

Expanding on the efforts of the Hope Now Alliance, Project Lifeline presents an opportunity to help struggling homeowners negotiate with their lender to find a way to avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure is not in the interest of either the bank or the homeowner, and I'm glad to see the continued emphasis on initiatives like this one. If you're a homeowner struggling with the subprime mortgage crunch, visit HopeNow.com for more information.

Sincerely,

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Member of Congress

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