Congressman Flake Votes to Terminate the FHA Refinance Program
Costly Initiative Has Done Little to Lessen Foreclosure Crisis
Washington, D.C. - Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today voted in favor of H.R. 830, which terminates the Federal Housing Administration Refinance Program.
The Obama Administration originally estimated that between 500,000 and 1,500,000 homeowners with “underwater” mortgages would qualify for assistance from the Federal Housing Administration Refinance Program, which was funded by taxpayers with $8 billion in TARP funds. However, only 245 applications were submitted and a mere 44 loans have been refinanced as of February.
“This program has been a failure,” said Flake. “It’s put taxpayers on the hook for more debt and done little to help homeowners facing foreclosure."
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Stats don't reveal true border crisis
by Ben Quayle - Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 AM
Special for the Republic
For the past several weeks, all eyes have focused on the turmoil in the Middle East and the daily atrocities being committed by Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. While the situation obviously deserves the American public's close attention, there's another crisis that's flying below the radar: the influx of cartel-related activity and violence along the U.S. side of the Mexican border.
But not everyone here in the United States agrees on the depth of the problem.
Based on some of her recent statements related to border security, sometimes I wonder whether Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is talking about the Utah-Arizona border or the U.S.-Mexico border.
Here's what our former governor said during a January speech in El Paso:
"It is inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control. . . . This statement - often made only to score political points - is just plain wrong."
Tell an Arizona cattle rancher the border is more secure than ever, and you're guaranteed to get a confused look.
I believe our borders are far from secure, and until they are, any discussion related to immigration reform is premature and inappropriate. Washington has become addicted to comprehensive legislation spanning thousands of pages: You can't have health-care reform without an individual mandate; you can't reform Wall Street without creating a brand-new government agency; you can't achieve border security without a pathway to citizenship.
I reject that flawed model. We must secure the border first. That's the bottom line.
To back up her dubious claims that the border is more secure than ever, Napolitano likes to highlight a decrease in the apprehension rate over the past two years. While I don't dispute the accuracy of these statistics, I do have a serious issue with how they are being used.
Without question, apprehension statistics are important, but the number of illegal immigrants we catch crossing the borders is meaningless if we don't know the total number of people crossing the border illegally. In other words, if we stopped apprehending people at the border altogether, the apprehension rate -if you follow Napolitano's logic - would be better than ever: zero percent.
Indeed, other recent statistics belie the secretary's assertions. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, the Border Patrol reported only 44 percent of the border was under operational control, which in my book is a failing.
But when it comes to violence along the border, the importance of statistics - provided by either party - doesn't speak to what's really happening. I've spoken to people along the border who live in fear of drug and human traffickers. These folks don't pay attention to pie charts and PowerPoint slides coming out of the spin factories of Washington. They just want their families safe and their land secure.
In a chilling article in the Daily last week called "The New Mafia," Josh Bernstein depicts the horrible rise of "drophouses" throughout the Southwest and the atrocities committed by paid human smugglers, or "coyotes."
The coyotes trick their victims - typically illegal immigrants - into paying them for safe passage into America. The coyotes then barbarically store their victims in drophouses featuring conditions that make many prisons look like Holiday Inns.
Victims are typically forced to call their relatives back home for ransom money to pay off their captures.
According to Bernstein, there are more than 800 drophouses in Phoenix alone.
Arizonans know our situation at the border is unacceptable. We can't afford to punt on this issue any longer. Over the coming months, I will work with members of both parties to formulate a plan featuring common-sense ideas for securing our borders. Gone are the days where we can just throw money at the border problem and hope the situation improves.
We need to start thinking with our brains about border security, not just our wallets.
Ben Quayle is a U.S. congressman representing Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from north-central Phoenix to New River.
Fights to Protect Native American Rights and Prevent Excessive Lawyer Fees
WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, March 9, 2011, U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar, DDS (AZ-01) signed on as a co-sponsor to H.R. 887. This bill has two purposes. One key aspect of this bill is to protect the Native American class members in the Cobell settlement from an excessive lawyer fee request. Another purpose is to direct the Secretary of the Interior to submit a report on Indian land fractionation, and for other purposes. Gosar submitted the following remarks to the Congressional Record:
Today I join Congressman Don Young and Congressman Doc Hastings in supporting HR 887. I explain separately my reasons for doing so, and specifically my concerns about a request for attorney’s fees of $227 million. The resolution of the litigation in Cobell v Salazar involved claims that ultimately amounted to a breach of trust by the government to Native Americans. The plaintiffs have been denied the use of money they were otherwise entitled to, according to the settlement. The petition for fees reports that “government officials have abused individual Indian trust beneficiaries” for decades.
“While the mismanagement of the Native trust monies is bad enough, a second injury cannot be inflicted on these same people by a fee request that is almost a quarter of a billion dollars. It shocks the conscience to see such a large request. Every dollar paid out in legal fees is a dollar the injured Native Americans will not have. That being said, I recognize, and appreciate, the work done by Plaintiffs’ counsel on behalf of the claimants, and I recognize the value of that work and the years it took. In this case, the magnitude of the recovery cannot be used as a benchmark to determine attorney’s fees. I would prefer to see an accounting of the actual attorney’s fees incurred, by the hour, to see how that compares as a bench mark. But a contingency fee based on a resolution that is itself measured in the billions, is simply avaricious.
“I therefore support this legislation, HR 887, that limits the fee award to $50 million. Congress has the ultimate power over Indian affairs. It also has the duty to protect Native American rights. The Constitution grants to Congress the express power to make regulations governing the territory belonging to the United States (Art. IV, Sec. 3, Cl. 2). In addition, the Indian Commerce Clause conveys the express power to Congress over Native American affairs. This clause provides that "Congress shall have the Power … to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 3). As a result of these powers, it is well established that Congress has plenary power over Indian affairs. It is up to us, members of Congress, to make sure we exercise these supervisory obligations.
“Finally, there is what is referred to as the federal government’s "trust relationship" between the federal government and the Native American tribes. This trust relationship obligates Congress and the federal government to protect the well-being of Native Americans, peoples who rendered their lands in return for this trust. As elaborated by Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, the tribes of our country are considered "domestic dependant nations" whose relationship to the United States was like "that of a ward to his guardian." We, the guardians in Congress, must now intervene to protect those under our care, especially where a fee dispute now creates a conflict of interest between the class members and their legal counsel.
“That brings us to the Cobell settlement. In rectifying the breach of fiduciary duty documented in Cobell, we cannot allow another breach to proceed under our noses. Just as the government has a fiduciary duty to the Native Americans in the first instance in ensuring trust monies are not misappropriated, so too Congress has plenary power to ensure that the Native American class members are not gouged in a fee award. I have long advocated for sensible legal reform. Excessive attorney’s fees in cases like this support this advocacy. Though the Cobell litigation was contentious and time consuming, no one can tell me, with a straight face, that a $50 million dollar fee award is not excellent compensation for one case. On behalf of the 21 federally recognized tribes in Arizona, over 250,000 strong, from the Diné in the north, to the Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, down to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in the south, and on behalf of those tribes in between and throughout the United States, I rise in support of HR 887.”
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Franks, Lofgren, Wyden, Snow Introduce Wireless Tax Fairness Act
March 10, 2011 - Today, Representatives Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) joined Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in jointly introducing the bi-partisan, pro-consumer "Wireless Tax Fairness Act," which provides for a 5-year moratorium on any new discriminatory wireless tax or fee. On average, wireless customers now pay 16.3% in taxes and fees, more than twice the average rate of 7.4% on other goods and services. In many localities, this cumulative tax burden is even worse: 26.8% in Baltimore, 19.9% in Omaha, 18.2% in Tallahassee, and 20.4% in New York City. The Wireless Tax Fairness Act would halt this trend by imposing a temporary, five-year freeze on new taxes that are imposed only on wireless services. Wireless broadband access is rapidly becoming a key platform for innovation, and this legislation will help foster further investment and access in this key market. Importantly, it does not take away any existing revenue from state or local governments, it simply caps the current taxes and fees.
"Access to wireless networks represents a key component of millions of Americans' livelihoods, providing the efficient communications capabilities -- whether phone, broadband internet, or otherwise -- necessary to run a successful business,” said Rep. Trent Franks. “The exorbitant taxes on wireless customers are not only unfair, they are counter-intuitive, adding yet another costly impediment to the success of so many American businesses, which are struggling in the midst of a prolonged recession and already hefty tax burden, as well as singling out low-income and senior Americans, who frequently rely on wireless service as their sole means of telephone and internet access, to bear the brunt of the tax's impact," said Congressman Franks
According to Rep. Lofgren, “Wireless Tax Fairness Act, is about expanding access and innovation in our nation’s wireless broadband market. By freezing wireless taxes and fees, we hope to spur additional consumer driven development in wireless broadband and to increase access to advanced wireless networks. This legislation is about stabilizing the wireless and giving consumers the opportunity to choose services based on the merits and not on the changing rate of taxation.”
Congressman Franks is serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and a member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law. He is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, where he serves on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
I wasn't sent to Washington to lie. And I will always look you in the eye and tell you the truth.
For too long, Washington has lied to you.
They dug us into a hole that, until very recently, we had no chance of escaping.
Trillions in new spending, out of control regulatory agencies that harm American job creation, and reckless debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren.I am listening to you.
And I am asking for your support today in an important fight.Can I count on you to make a $100 gift today - - right now?
Joyce and I need to know that you will stand with us in 2011. For so many of you, your investment in the 2010 success was more than we could have ever asked. Together, we achieved a victory.
Now will we be able to keep it?
Investing in our success towards a reelection in 2012 is a major show of support. I don't ask for it lightly. But, if you want us to keep fighting, and I certainly do, the resources it will take to keep our seat safe are absolutely critical.
In the past few weeks, far left operatives have traveled to Arizona to recruit Democrats to run for Congress.
We cannot let them take an inch. And, with Senate Democrats poised to shut down the government because of their unconscionable resistance to longterm and honest budgeting, we can't afford to have the Democrats win a single seat - and continue a dishonest Washington agenda.
The truth is that we need leaders in Washington to fight for you.
To be honest.
And a Member of Congress that will listen and never lie to you. We can dig ourselves out of the hole, but it is going to take the responsibility to taking on great challenges.
Please, if you can, I'm asking you to invest in our important race today. $50, $250, $500. Together, and only together, are we going to be able to keep the Fifth District seat.
I am hopeful that I can count on your support today!
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