Sadly, you have to actually live in Portland proper to participate, but I know there are a lot of us who do. So if you are not busy at 6:00 this evening, please join him and hopefully lots of other folks for the conference call. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and they will be taking a survey from participants.
As many Oregonians are preparing to celebrate the holidays, Congress is still in session and working to address many important issues that must be resolved before the beginning of the New Year. Among these issues is the continuation of the payroll tax holiday for middle class families, the extension of unemployment benefits, and legislation to keep the government running through the end of the year.
Even though I am back in Washington DC instead of at home in Oregon, I thought this would be an important time to reach out and connect with you on these and other important topics.
You heard the man; he wants to hear from his constituents! So if Blumenauer is your Rep, please participate and let him know how important it is to pass those extensions for those among us who are struggling.
On the other hand, it is important to let him -- and all of Congress, frankly -- know that it is absolutely NOT acceptable to trade permitting the Keystone XL to proceed in exchange for extending that help to working families. Luckily, Blumenauer is already on the right side of the Keystone XL debate.
Some members of Congress, unfortunately, aren't, or at least aren't enough. The State Department gave a fun little smackdown to some of the bluster yesterday.
It is the President’s prerogative to lead and manage the foreign policy of the United States, and in the case of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project, our relations with Canada. This historical prerogative encompasses the President’s long-established authority to supervise the permitting process for transboundary pipelines.
The President has delegated his authority to supervise this permitting process, by executive order, to the Department of the State. This process for determining whether to issue permits for transborder pipelines has been in place for more than 40 years.
...Should Congress impose an arbitrary deadline for the permit decision, its actions would not only compromise the process, it would prohibit the Department from acting consistently with National Environmental Policy Act requirements by not allowing sufficient time for the development of this information. In the absence of properly completing the process, the Department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit for this project.
Isn't that rich? Congress would be breaking its own laws! Wheeeee!
Anyhoo, please make sure everyone you know in Portland hears about this so as many people as possible can be on Rep. Blumenauer's call.
In the meantime, you can watch the House debate on all of this at C-SPAN. Feel free to use this as a liveblog, just please be sure you've called your Rep!