Rehberg critical of Republicans on Iraq: 'We didn't have the oversight'
Calls for rural coalitions on economy, schools, health care
by Mark Hebert and John Q. Murray
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) recommended Wednesday that Mineral County build coalitions with other rural communities nationwide to promote forest health, economic development, rural hospitals, and rural education.
Responding to questions from a crowd of about 20 in Superior, Rehberg also addressed a wide variety of issues in the nation's capital. He gave mixed reviews to President George W. Bush and offered a blunt assessment of his party's performance, acknowledging that the Republicans in Congress did not conduct the proper oversight on the war in Iraq. In some ways, Bush is a victim of his own success, Rehberg suggested. “We haven't had an attack since Sept. 11. Someday we'll look back and thank him,” he said.
But while applauding the results of the troop surge under Gen. David Petraeus, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “should have been replaced sooner,” and Rehberg said members of Congress from his own party share responsibility for the conduct of the war.
“I'm very critical of the Republican Party as well,” he said. “We earned the minority. And one of the reasons we earned the minority is we didn't have the oversight.”
Withholding funding for the war is self-defeating and not the right answer, he suggested. Though Congress has authority over appropriations, not even the most liberal members of Congress are willing to withhold funding, he said.
With the presidential campaign underway, most members of Congress have taken a wait-and-see attitude, and Congress is unlikely to take forceful action on Iraq and many other policy issues, he told Mineral County residents.
That inaction will likely extend to the Secure Rural Schools Act, he pointed out, offering a quick history of the issue.
Over the past few decades, the environmental movement successfully separated timber revenue from financial support for rural schools and communities, and in 2000 Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools Act to replace the lost timber revenue for rural communities.
Besides Reagan, who was from California, other recent presidents such as Carter, Clinton and both Bushes did not come into office with an understanding of the effects of large federal landholdings on rural economies.
The new presidents quickly recognize that the situation is not fair to the rural communities, which cannot develop the tax base to fully fund rural schools and roads. But in year two or three of their term, they recognize the high cost of providing that support, and say, “Woo, that costs real money, and it's money I could be spending on my own priorities,” Rehberg said.
Rural communities are constantly in a battle with the nation's large urban areas—New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami—which by promoting policies that severely limit logging and grazing, place an impediment on the communities' ability to make a living from that property.
“It's the luck of the draw,” he concluded. “You all picked to live here. You picked one of the counties that has the highest concentration of federal property. It's a Catch-22: It's a great place with a lot of property around you owned by the federal government. If you like recreation and fishing, you're lucky. The downside is, you pay the price because of the lack of tax base.”
“It is clearly not an east-versus-west issue, it is urban-versus-rural,” he concluded.
This year, making matters worse, the Secure Rural Schools reauthorization is competing against virtually everything else in the budget.
“Those of us who have counties that rely on that money are doing everything we possibly can,” he said. “What's eating us up is not the discretionary spending. It's the entitlements—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those three programs are growing exponentially.”
It makes sense for federal policy to return to grazing and logging, he suggested. Grazing and logging are tools to help managers accomplish a healthy environment, he said.
Underthinning is just as unhealthy as overlogging, while you can manage your grasses with domestic animals.
“I don't get it. Why don't we honor loggers?” Rehberg asked. Loggers working on federal property provide their own capital, their own equipment, and their own labor, and have to follow the direction set by the government. “They can't go out willy-nilly and do whatever they want. We tell them what we want them to do,” he pointed out. A particular prescription may call for a mosaic that clears out the dead and dying trees. “How can that be a bad thing?” he asked.
He said the House suffered a severe setback when outside groups helped defeat former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA). Pombo, effective in pushing natural resources initiatives through the House, was quickly targeted by urban groups. After initially being elected to office with 65 percent of the vote, outside groups helped to defeat Pombo during his first re-election attempt two years later, Rehberg said.
Though it is much harder after losing Rep. Pombo, rural legislators are continuing to build coalitions to promote rural policies. Rehberg's predecessor, Rep. Rick Hill, recommended that he join the rural health caucus. Rehberg joined with former Rep. Tom Osborne (the former Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach) to create the rural education caucus.
“If you think about it, there are people who have the same interests as we do,” he pointed out.
Rural counties and towns should do the same by forming coalitions within the League of Cities and Towns and the National Association of Counties.
“One of the things you do is, you're joiners,” he recommended. “By joining, you have an opportunity to have a voice through some of the organizations you belong to. That's what I do.”
The same approach could work for rural health issues, he pointed out.
Congress can't keep postponing decisions on rural health care, or we just won't have access in the rural areas, and we can't afford not to have access. “We have enough troubles getting doctors to move to Montana without pay being one of them,” he said.
Rehberg said he is working closely with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health legislation.
He also indicated that rural communities are moving to the top of his priority list for economic development dollars. Areas like Kalispell, Missoula, Hamilton, and Bozeman don't need economic development help, he said. Recent development efforts appear to be paying off for Great Falls and Butte, allowing Montana's rural communities to move to the top of the priority list.
On other issues, Rehberg said oral arguments suggest a big win in the Supreme Court's Second Amendment case, noted that Congress may take action against the U.S. Department of Transportation on the Mexican superhighway, and addressed Montana's refusal to adopt the Real ID system.
The D.C. v. Heller case appears headed for a landmark ruling on the Second Amendment. “We could just sense from the questions...that we're going to win that one. That is a huge victory for us,” he said.
NAFTA allowed Mexican trucks anywhere in the country, but Congress postponed the implementation as long as possible by insisting on safety measures: ensuring that Mexican drivers understood the traffic laws, the English language, and that criminal background checks were conducted. This year Congress refused to appropriate any money to allow Mexican trucks into the country, but the president went ahead with the program anyway, he said. In fact, the Secretary of Transportation appeared recently before the the Senate to explain why the administration was moving ahead. “We're looking at sanctions against the Department of Transportation,” Rehberg said.
Clerk of District Court Kathleen Brown asked whether Montanans will need passports to board domestic air flights. Montana's legislature rejected rejected the federal Real ID system, as it had done on such previous federal laws involving seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
The system was recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and Congress passed the bill with a near-unanimous vote in the Senate, he pointed out. It became contentious only later, and Rehberg cited “emotionalism” in its rejection by the Montana legislature.
Rehberg said it appears that Montana has been granted a “psuedo-extension” in implementing the system.
The trick is to have an identity system that catches illegal aliens and intruders at the borders without forcing citizens within the country to use a passport for domestic travel.
“So we've got some thinking to do to make this work,” he said.
Montanans without the federal ID will likely not be turned away but may have to go through additional screenings, Rehberg said.
Just as with other policy decisions, this will likely be left to the next president, he said.
Rehberg noted his long connection to Superior, pointing out that his father and Bob Davis were best friends, and the families visited each other's ranches. He traveled to Superior every year while he was growing up, from grade school through junior high, until the Davis family moved. “It's a great community,” he said.
Montana's lone representative in the U.S. House made the visit as part of his swing through all of the state's 56 counties. He is seeking re-election this November.
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by Mark Hebert and John Q. Murray
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) recommended Wednesday that Mineral County build coalitions with other rural communities nationwide to promote forest health, economic development, rural hospitals, and rural education.
Responding to questions from a crowd of about 20 in Superior, Rehberg also addressed a wide variety of issues in the nation's capital. He gave mixed reviews to President George W. Bush and offered a blunt assessment of his party's performance, acknowledging that the Republicans in Congress did not conduct the proper oversight on the war in Iraq. In some ways, Bush is a victim of his own success, Rehberg suggested. “We haven't had an attack since Sept. 11. Someday we'll look back and thank him,” he said.
But while applauding the results of the troop surge under Gen. David Petraeus, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “should have been replaced sooner,” and Rehberg said members of Congress from his own party share responsibility for the conduct of the war.
“I'm very critical of the Republican Party as well,” he said. “We earned the minority. And one of the reasons we earned the minority is we didn't have the oversight.”
Withholding funding for the war is self-defeating and not the right answer, he suggested. Though Congress has authority over appropriations, not even the most liberal members of Congress are willing to withhold funding, he said.
With the presidential campaign underway, most members of Congress have taken a wait-and-see attitude, and Congress is unlikely to take forceful action on Iraq and many other policy issues, he told Mineral County residents.
That inaction will likely extend to the Secure Rural Schools Act, he pointed out, offering a quick history of the issue.
Over the past few decades, the environmental movement successfully separated timber revenue from financial support for rural schools and communities, and in 2000 Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools Act to replace the lost timber revenue for rural communities.
Besides Reagan, who was from California, other recent presidents such as Carter, Clinton and both Bushes did not come into office with an understanding of the effects of large federal landholdings on rural economies.
The new presidents quickly recognize that the situation is not fair to the rural communities, which cannot develop the tax base to fully fund rural schools and roads. But in year two or three of their term, they recognize the high cost of providing that support, and say, “Woo, that costs real money, and it's money I could be spending on my own priorities,” Rehberg said.
Rural communities are constantly in a battle with the nation's large urban areas—New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami—which by promoting policies that severely limit logging and grazing, place an impediment on the communities' ability to make a living from that property.
“It's the luck of the draw,” he concluded. “You all picked to live here. You picked one of the counties that has the highest concentration of federal property. It's a Catch-22: It's a great place with a lot of property around you owned by the federal government. If you like recreation and fishing, you're lucky. The downside is, you pay the price because of the lack of tax base.”
“It is clearly not an east-versus-west issue, it is urban-versus-rural,” he concluded.
This year, making matters worse, the Secure Rural Schools reauthorization is competing against virtually everything else in the budget.
“Those of us who have counties that rely on that money are doing everything we possibly can,” he said. “What's eating us up is not the discretionary spending. It's the entitlements—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those three programs are growing exponentially.”
It makes sense for federal policy to return to grazing and logging, he suggested. Grazing and logging are tools to help managers accomplish a healthy environment, he said.
Underthinning is just as unhealthy as overlogging, while you can manage your grasses with domestic animals.
“I don't get it. Why don't we honor loggers?” Rehberg asked. Loggers working on federal property provide their own capital, their own equipment, and their own labor, and have to follow the direction set by the government. “They can't go out willy-nilly and do whatever they want. We tell them what we want them to do,” he pointed out. A particular prescription may call for a mosaic that clears out the dead and dying trees. “How can that be a bad thing?” he asked.
He said the House suffered a severe setback when outside groups helped defeat former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA). Pombo, effective in pushing natural resources initiatives through the House, was quickly targeted by urban groups. After initially being elected to office with 65 percent of the vote, outside groups helped to defeat Pombo during his first re-election attempt two years later, Rehberg said.
Though it is much harder after losing Rep. Pombo, rural legislators are continuing to build coalitions to promote rural policies. Rehberg's predecessor, Rep. Rick Hill, recommended that he join the rural health caucus. Rehberg joined with former Rep. Tom Osborne (the former Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach) to create the rural education caucus.
“If you think about it, there are people who have the same interests as we do,” he pointed out.
Rural counties and towns should do the same by forming coalitions within the League of Cities and Towns and the National Association of Counties.
“One of the things you do is, you're joiners,” he recommended. “By joining, you have an opportunity to have a voice through some of the organizations you belong to. That's what I do.”
The same approach could work for rural health issues, he pointed out.
Congress can't keep postponing decisions on rural health care, or we just won't have access in the rural areas, and we can't afford not to have access. “We have enough troubles getting doctors to move to Montana without pay being one of them,” he said.
Rehberg said he is working closely with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health legislation.
He also indicated that rural communities are moving to the top of his priority list for economic development dollars. Areas like Kalispell, Missoula, Hamilton, and Bozeman don't need economic development help, he said. Recent development efforts appear to be paying off for Great Falls and Butte, allowing Montana's rural communities to move to the top of the priority list.
On other issues, Rehberg said oral arguments suggest a big win in the Supreme Court's Second Amendment case, noted that Congress may take action against the U.S. Department of Transportation on the Mexican superhighway, and addressed Montana's refusal to adopt the Real ID system.
The D.C. v. Heller case appears headed for a landmark ruling on the Second Amendment. “We could just sense from the questions...that we're going to win that one. That is a huge victory for us,” he said.
NAFTA allowed Mexican trucks anywhere in the country, but Congress postponed the implementation as long as possible by insisting on safety measures: ensuring that Mexican drivers understood the traffic laws, the English language, and that criminal background checks were conducted. This year Congress refused to appropriate any money to allow Mexican trucks into the country, but the president went ahead with the program anyway, he said. In fact, the Secretary of Transportation appeared recently before the the Senate to explain why the administration was moving ahead. “We're looking at sanctions against the Department of Transportation,” Rehberg said.
Clerk of District Court Kathleen Brown asked whether Montanans will need passports to board domestic air flights. Montana's legislature rejected rejected the federal Real ID system, as it had done on such previous federal laws involving seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
The system was recommended by the 9/11 Commission, and Congress passed the bill with a near-unanimous vote in the Senate, he pointed out. It became contentious only later, and Rehberg cited “emotionalism” in its rejection by the Montana legislature.
Rehberg said it appears that Montana has been granted a “psuedo-extension” in implementing the system.
The trick is to have an identity system that catches illegal aliens and intruders at the borders without forcing citizens within the country to use a passport for domestic travel.
“So we've got some thinking to do to make this work,” he said.
Montanans without the federal ID will likely not be turned away but may have to go through additional screenings, Rehberg said.
Just as with other policy decisions, this will likely be left to the next president, he said.
Rehberg noted his long connection to Superior, pointing out that his father and Bob Davis were best friends, and the families visited each other's ranches. He traveled to Superior every year while he was growing up, from grade school through junior high, until the Davis family moved. “It's a great community,” he said.
Montana's lone representative in the U.S. House made the visit as part of his swing through all of the state's 56 counties. He is seeking re-election this November.
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