Congress is recessing and we are too (sort of)

Greetings Of Peace and Politics readers. Whew! It's been a busy month here at FCNL and on Capitol Hill, what with Congress working feverishly on health care, climate change, and a myriad other issues. While it looks like the House and Senate probably won't wrap up health care before they depart in August, both Congress and FCNL are going to slow down considerably over the next few weeks.

Today is the last day for this year's crop of first and second year interns, and until September only Maggie and Stephen will be in the office to contribute to the blog. That means we'll be on semi-hiatus. Please keep reading though, and come back to us in September! In the meantime you can listen to the latest podcast. If you want updates on what's happening at FCNL you can check our website.

On a more personal note, it is with a tear in my eye that I bid farewell to this blog. It's been my pet project for most of my time at FCNL, and I've loved seeing it grow. I'm just heading across town to George Washington U. to work on my master's in Media and Public Affairs though, so I will continue to read, listen, and write in the comments.

Cheers!

Caroline

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The Climate Bill Won't Work

Find out why (and Devin's more nuanced analysis of the bill) on this week's podcast:

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Green Schools and Fuel Efficiency...The Earth Wins this Week

In the last few weeks, climate change, energy and the environment have been front-and-center in the news. While the climate change bill that is moving through the House is not as good as it should be, there has been progress on a couple other key related issues.

A couple weeks ago, on May 14th, the House passed a "Green Schools" bill to provide $6.4 billion annually for the next five years to fund green school building and renovation projects. The bill passed 275-155; now it is up the Senate to pass a similar bill. To make this even better, the House bill has provisions to make sure that the money is focused especially on schools with low-income students.

I agree with Ben Chandler, a Democrat from Kentucky: "It will give much needed money to our schools struggling with huge budget deficits and deteriorating facilities while encouraging energy efficiency and creating jobs for Americans that cannot be shipped overseas."

Funding education, the environment and jobs with one program--how could anyone oppose it during this time of crisis? Some argue this spending just adds to the deficit. This reminds me of a study by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities which shows where the U.S.' budget deficit really came from: tax cuts (especially for the rich) and increases in military spending (especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Check this out in the most recent issue of FCNL's Washington Newsletter.

The good news is that this bill is likely to pass in the Senate, and Obama will most certainly sign it, especially considering that his childhood middle school was named one of the top ten greenest schools in the country in 2007.

To top off this good news, Obama announced tougher fuel efficiency standards on Tuesday, May 19th. The new energy standards will finally match the fuel efficiency standards that California fought with the Bush Administration about for several years. According to NPR: "The new standards would cut greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and light trucks 30 percent by 2016. Cars would have to get 39 mpg, light trucks 30 mpg." It's about time that the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House was more concerned about the environment than corporate interests!

I hope these new initiatives by the Federal Government start a trend of continuing environmental progress.

Lobby your Representative to make sure that this progress continues by improving the climate change bill that is in the House of Representatives.

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