This has been a historic week in America, with the capture and demise of the mastermind behind the attacks of September Eleventh, Osama bin Laden. The news has spread across the globe, and we have all become even more keenly aware and grateful for the masterful work of our armed forces, which stand to serve and protect us. They’ve illustrated the American resolve to never give up, no matter how difficult the fight.

I think the same applies to the American will to improve our nation’s economy. As we celebrate a symbolic victory for national security, Congress is still working on behalf of the people in our districts to draft common sense policies to boost economic growth, create more jobs, and — with gas prices over $4 a gallon nationwide — we are also considering legislation to increase domestic energy production and lower the cost of gasoline.

Increasing gas prices can take a toll on the daily lives of our families, friends, and colleagues. When gas prices spike, it can severely shift and destroy pre-set and often well-planned household budgets. It can create choices none of us want or should have to make, like choosing between buying… Read More

Everyone knows that trying to pass any kind of meaningful public employee pension reform in the Democrat-dominated legislature would be an extremely difficult proposition. But surely Democrats would be eager to work across party lines and end the practice of politicians taking home generous pensions, right? Wrong.

In a display of how influential public employee unions truly are in Sacramento, their representatives came in droves to the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security committee to oppose the common sense.Opposition included even those groups not affected by the bill.

Just to give a sense of the opposition; CalSTRS, SEIU, Professional Engineers in California Government, California State Sheriffs’ Association, California District Attorneys Association, California School Boards Association, Small School Districts’ Association, California Fraternal Order of Police, Professional Peace Officers Association and Judicial Council of California who are constitutionally exempt from my legislation.

So far the only possible compromise offered from the various organizations has been, “We’ll remove our opposition if you exempt… Read More

Flying way under the news radar for most Republicans outside of the South Bay part of Los Angeles is a Congressional Special Election to fill the seat of Jane Harman, who up and left Congress to head up a think tank.

The map of CD-36 is one of those that fueled the cries for redistricting reform over the last several years, taking in obviously very specially selected parts of the South Bay – but not others. And by others, I mean the Republican parts. As of February, the voter registration stats in the District were 45.28% Democrat to 27.46% Republican.

But those numbers are deceiving, as the gap between Democrats and Republicans among voters who actually turn out to vote in this District is much smaller. For instance, the last time this District saw a Special Election was the May 2009 Statewide Special Election. In that Election, among the 77,775 voters who turned out – 43.15% were Democrats and 39.38% were Republican.

That to say, of course it is a long shot for a Republican to capture this seat, but it is within the realm of possibility enough for Republicans to be anxiously… Read More

Sunday night was one marked in history for our country. That night, I received a call from Secretary Gates alerting me that our special operations troops had launched a daring operation deep in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September Eleventh attacks and numerous other attacks on America. He also told me that DNA-evidence confirmed that bin Laden was dead. This was news that our countrymen had waited to hear for a long time. As Americans picked themselves up after the terrorist attacks of September Eleventh, President Bush told us that we would get Osama bin Laden and President Obama delivered on that promise. The events of 9-11 affected us all – in California, across America, and among our nation’s allies, and the memory of those killed that day are etched in my memory for life. We will never forget. And while it has taken longer than many expected, Osama bin Laden is no longer living, and his death serves as a type of proof to terrorists who wish to harm us, that no matter how long it takes, we will find justice.

Our brave military forces and their civilian counterparts who have been… Read More

California Congressman Buck McKeon, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, appeared on MSNBC this morning…

… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

California Dems Get Even Less Serious California Democratic leaders, frustrated by the refusal of Republican state legislators to go along with tax increases to close the state’s $15.4 billion deficit, are threatening to focus budget cuts on the districts that those Republicans represent.

“You don’t want to pay for government, well then, you get less of it,” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters last week. Mr. Steinberg echoed comments made by Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who said that budget cuts should be targeted at the districts of lawmakers who oppose putting $11 billion in tax increases before the state’s voters in a referendum.

“When it comes to kids or the vulnerable, I wouldn’t want to make distinctions between who lives in a Democratic district and… Read More

– Last night voters in the 4th Assembly District elected Beth Gaines — Congratulations! Despite her healthy margin of victory, Democrats will invariably try to spin that Gaines should have won by a bigger number of votes, making the case that voters in that conservative district suddenly are sour on conservatives. The unspin is that Gaines just went through a nasty, negative campaign against a well financed Republican opponent who opted not to endorse Gaines when he lost.

– It appears likely that California Democrats will work to mitigate the negative impacts of Proposition 14 by having in place a system where local Democrat Committee Members will be able to endorse a candidate for partisan office (Congress, State Senate, State Assembly) going into the June elections. This will put Democrats at a strategic advantage to Republicans who adopted a very restrictive system that will likely lead to the GOP sitting out most races until after June. Since the new rules no longer guarantee that each party will have a candidate on the November ballot, this could be a big boost for Democrats.

– Apparently “nice” and… Read More

It was not particularly surprising to see Democrats in the State Senate yesterday vote to ratify six more State of California public employee union contracts. After all, to say that these unions are the largest special interest funding Democrat campaigns for statewide and legislative office would actually be kind of an understatement. The financial donations made to Democrats by the state’s public employee unions are off-the-charts in terms of generosity. As the late Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh said, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

Jesse Unruh

Shocking and disappointing, however, were the votes of two Senate Republicans to ratify all of these union contracts —… Read More