Bills, bills, bills:
There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. In the 109th Congress, these members introduced 6,438 bills. Only 294 of them passed in the House, the Senate, and were signed into law by the president. That is less the one bill per member of Congress. So, suffice it to say, we do not measure ourselves by how many bills pass with one’s name on them. That would be a small number unless you are a committee chairman
But, we still need to try. Over the next two weeks, I will give you a list of the things I am working on. In some cases, I am the "lead" sponsor of the bill. In other cases, I am a "co-sponsor" of the bill. In all cases, these are issues in which I am engaged.
Some of these bills do not have a snowball’s chance in Hades of becoming law in this Congress for various factors. These range from the fact that Democrats are in control to that the particular measure is a big idea which will take years to cultivate. I often point out the efforts of my predecessor, Christopher Cox, to end the death tax. He began this quest in 1988. Now, 20 years later we have gotten close, but the job still isn’t done.
So, don’t look at these as things I expect to get done in 2007. Instead, they are areas in which I am working; they are listed in no particular order:
Illegal Immigration – Thus far, I have cosponsored six pieces of legislation, which aim to improve and bolster our ability to end illegal immigration. Among the bills I have cosponsored is the Social Security Protection Act. It would expressly prohibit the Social Security Administration from providing benefits to any person for work performed while not authorized to work in the US. If you would like to see what else I am doing on this issue, click here.
Internet Tax Freedom – Federal law currently prohibits federal state or local taxes on internet access or use, but this law is scheduled to sunset at the end of this year. This bipartisan effort would make the ban on taxes permanent. By the way, this does not prohibit sales taxes on internet purchases now or in the future. It merely stops you from being taxed for your time on line or access to the internet.
HSA’s for Veterans – Health Savings Accounts are currently unavailable to any veteran who is also covered by the VA. This is silly since that veteran should be able to save like the rest of us for non-VA covered health costs. This bill would change that. Democrats hate health savings accounts, however, so this bill is unlikely to move.
Charity Certification – For decades, the federal government has used a standard to "certifying" certain charities as legitimate. Some recent regulation changes weakened this standard. This bill would clarify that in order to receive the certification charities should spend less then 25% of its revenue on administration. People want to know when they give that their money is going to the cause and not just to bureaucracy.
Car Title Branding – The ownership title (pink slip) on cars are issued by each of the 50 states individually with no record sharing. And the states do not compare records. So, after Katrina, thousands of cars that were "totaled" in the flood were cleaned up and re-titled in another state with no record that they were declared total losses. Unsuspecting buyers will likely have problems with that car: one they may not have purchased had they known its history. This bipartisan bill would require insurance companies to make their total loss records publicly available in the internet. This way organizations like Carfax could track the damaged cars by vehicle identification number regardless of where they are titled. Hey, once a car guy, always a car guy.
Laguna Beach Rocks: There are three rocks off the coast of Laguna Beach. These are not little rocks. They are big, cool looking rocks. In the 1930’s, they were conveyed to the Coast Guard under the understanding that they would then be used for small lighthouse operations. However, nothing was ever placed on them and today they remain unused by the Coast Guard. This bill would transfer control of them from the Coast Guard to the Department of the Interior in order to make them part of the California Coastal National Monument. Okay, so it’s not going to bring world peace. But somebody’s got to do this stuff.
National Postal Opt-out list – I was the joint author of a bill in the California Legislature which created California’s "Do Not Call" list and led to the enactment of the federal "Do not Call" list. This list allows you to say you do not want unsolicited phone calls. This idea would create the same thing for unsolicited junk mail.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – I am also carrying a bill for my predecessor, Christopher Cox, who is now Chairman of the SEC, that will aid some of their investigations. This thing is mind-numbingly technical. So, we’ll just leave it at that.
More next week.
Congressman John Campbell