Congressional Digest: Highway bill clears House and Senate, Tuskegee Airman honored

The week after Thanksgiving was a busy week for the state’s congressional delegation as a long-term highway bill was on its way to becoming law. Also, a Little Rock man who died last month was honored for his trailblazing work in the aviation field.

Following is a review of the week that was in the nation’s capital.

HIGHWAY BILL CLEARS HOUSE, SENATE
A $305 billion highway bill cleared both houses of Congress Thursday, creating a long-term fix to the state and nation’s highway problems, supporters said. The five-year bill, which now heads to President Barack Obama for this signature, also included an amendment renaming U.S. 63 in Northeast Arkansas to I-555. 

Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

The House voted 359-65 Thursday morning (Dec. 3) to approve the bill.

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, who served on the conference committee, said the bill provided a huge economic impact for the region. The Arkansas Highway Commission voted Wednesday (Dec. 2) to designate 44 miles of U.S. 63 from Lake David in Crittenden County to U.S. 49 in Jonesboro, as I-555.

Crawford, along with Reps. French Hill, R-Little Rock, Steve Womack, R-Rogers and Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs voted yes on the House bill.

Late Thursday, the Senate voted 83-16 to approve the bill. U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., voted yes while Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., voted no. Cotton said his vote against the bill was due to the entire funding system for highways needing reform.

“The highway funding package approved by the Senate was a bad deal for Arkansas taxpayers and Arkansas infrastructure. It is five years of spending increases paid for by looting nearly $70 billion from the general fund — yet another Washington kick-the-can exercise — which avoids any attempt to find a sustainable solution for the long-term infrastructure funding issues we face,” Cotton said. “Additionally, while mass transit programs in cities like New York or Boston account for only two percent of all trips, they consume almost 20 percent of the spending in this bill. I don’t believe Arkansans’ tax dollars should be funding a downtown streetcar in Los Angeles. Worst of all, by failing to reform the highway trust fund and spending more over the next five years than originally planned, we are guaranteeing a bailout down the road which will be that much more painful and difficult.”

HOLD PLACED ON DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NOMINEE
The inaction of the Obama Administration to provide answers on the Clean Line Energy project led to the state’s two United States senators placing a hold on the nomination of a key official at the Department of Energy, both senators said Wednesday.

U.S. Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., placed the hold on Victoria Marie Baecher Wassmer, who has been nominated to serve as undersecretary for Management and Performance.

“The Department of Energy has provided insufficient and incomplete responses to a series of questions from members of the Senate and House related to the Department’s implementation of Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. A requested meeting with the Secretary of Energy to discuss these matters has not yet occurred. We are also deeply concerned by the financial arrangements between the Department and applicants like Clean Line. The Department has still not explained how it avoids conflicts of interest when applicants like Clean Line pay the salaries and expenses associated with pending applications,” both senators said in a letter.

Continuing, the letter noted: “Before the Federal Government exercises eminent domain over Arkansans’ private property, Arkansans at least deserve a fair process without conflicts of interest. We want to facilitate the consideration of this nomination by the full Senate as quickly as possible, but first we need adequate and complete responses to the questions we’ve asked. Responses received so far, while appreciated, have been partial and largely thematic, failing to address many of the specific questions raised in our September 14, 2015 bicameral letter. We hope to meet with the Secretary soon and we hope this matter can be resolved quickly.”

The copy of the letter can be found at this link.

COTTON INTRODUCES LIBERTY THROUGH STRENGTH ACT
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a bill that he says will stop the Obama administration from deleting all records of terrorist communications and make permanent congressional authorizations for counterterrorism tools.

The Liberty Through Strength Act II would also seek to deal with issues related to the USA Freedom Act. The act expired Sunday (Dec. 1).

“On Sunday our constitutional, legal, and proven NSA collection architecture shifted to an untested, less effective system in the dead of the night. This shift came at a time when our enemies are emboldened and we face an elevated national security threat. Worse, President Obama has decided that he will press delete on the metadata records we currently have, making it impossible to identify terrorist connections among these data that would reveal ISIS and Al Qaeda sleeper cells,” said Cotton, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The bill drew opposition from the group, Freedom Works.

“Senator Cotton’s bill is Big Brother on steroids,” Freedom Works CEO Adam Brandon said. “It seems like Senator Cotton and others who are willing to sacrifice our liberties on the altar of security are treating Orwell’s ‘1984’ as a how-to-guide instead of a warning.”

The group’s communications director, Jason Pye, said he believes the bill would violate the Fourth Amendment.

“We’re talking about the innocent Americans, people who have done nothing wrong, and just the government’s keeping their records just because Senator Cotton wants them to keep their records,” Pye said.

CRENSHAW HONORED IN U.S. SENATE
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., took to the Senate floor to talk about the life of Milton Pitts Crenchaw.

Crenchaw, a member of the original Tuskegee Airmen, died Nov. 17.

In his remarks, Boozman said Crenchaw blazed a trail during World War II and helped lead the way. After returning home from World War II, Crenchaw also paved the way for aviation in the state, Boozman said.

“Crenchaw helped break the barriers that existed in the military. His passion for aviation continued after his tenure at Tuskegee, serving as a flight instructor at several air bases, including Camp Rucker, Alabama, where he became the first black flight instructor,” Boozman said. “Crenchaw honorably served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Air Force for more than 40 years. He also shared his love of aviation with Arkansas, and he was instrumental in creating an aviation program at Philander Smith College in Little Rock. Crenchaw taught aviation at the school from 1947 to 1953, holding classes at Adams Field in the Central Flying Service building. Along with the accolades of inductions in the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, in 2007 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal along with other members we have come to admire as the Tuskegee Airmen.”