Weekly Updates
Since World War Two, leaders and celebrities have traveled to support American men and women who are in harm's way around the world. These efforts are especially important for morale around the holidays, when distance from loved ones can make a difficult job in a hostile land feel even more difficult. During the week before Christmas, I had the distinct honor of spending time with our troops in Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and Germany.
The events that began last week on Wall Street are reshaping the American marketplace and the global economy. On Friday, I participated in a conference call with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. During the call, I had the opportunity to ask some tough questions and express my concerns about the Administration's proposed bailout.
The Pentagon memorial is a beautiful park, featuring 184 light benches that commemorate the 184 individuals who lost their lives in the attack. Even more impressive has been the tenacity of the families involved in spearheading the project. Against unlikely odds, they sought funding and drove the multimillion dollar project on their own.
In Virginia's First District, transportation is an issue that touches each of us on a daily basis. Anyone who has sat in traffic around Quantico or fought congestion in the Hampton Roads area understands why we must continually invest and expand our highway system. Making sure that the federal government is an active partner in building and maintaining Virginia's roads is one of my top priorities in Congress.
Virginia is the number two importer of trash in the nation, taking some seven million tons into our landfills in 2007 alone. Earlier this summer, I introduced the Solid Waste Interstate Transportation Act of 2008, H.R. 6166. This legislation would give states and localities greater control to regulate waste levels by giving them the ability to limit imports to their landfill facilities.
Recently, I introduced legislation to modernize the Chesapeake Bay recovery effort. The Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act, H.R.