Free Republic

Just in time for the Fourth of July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has added a new regulatory weapon to its arsenal. In a Federal Register notice on July 2 titled “Administrative Wage Garnishment,” the EPA stated that by the authority of the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA ) of 1996 it issued a proposed rule that “will allow the EPA to garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order.” According to the Treasury Department, under DCIA, such debts include “unpaid loans, overpayments or duplicate payments made...

The green community is readying to add to these Endangered Species Act injustices, fashioning a new weapon—the American burying beetle. As one liberal blogger puts it, the beetles “have earned the attention both of TransCanada and of environmental groups dedicated to protecting endangered species and interested as well in stopping the [Keystone XL] pipeline’s construction.” [emphasis added].

Ministries in Appalachia are bracing for a tough winter as hundreds of residents have been furloughed or lost their jobs because of cutbacks in coal production amid the nation's changing energy industry. A single employer, Arch Coal, laid off 750 workers across Appalachia in August. Other companies have been forced to idle employees or close operations.

Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and the Commerce Secretary have extensive ties to fast-tracked green energy programs under investigation by the Senate Budget Committee. Seven solar power companies have received quick approval and little scrutiny from the Department of Interior to lease federal lands in California and Nevada in no-bid processes. Critics have raised questions about the environmental impact of these companies on endangered species.

Seven solar companies received fast-tracked approval by DOI to lease federal lands in a no-bid process: Abengoa Solar, BrightSource Energy, First Solar, Nevada Geothermal Power, NextEra Energy Resources, Ormat Nevada, and SolarReserve. Those seven companies all received loan guarantees worth billions from the Department of Energy under its renewable energy loan program, as well as renewable energy grants from the Treasury Department.

The recent increase in domestic oil production touted by President Obama took place almost entirely on non-federal lands beyond his administration’s control, a new study has found. The study, prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), examined oil production on federal and non-federal land between 2007-2011. Approximately 96 percent of the total increase in domestic oil production occurred on non-federal land, CRS found.

Ah yes, the National Weather Service, an agency that consumes roughly $1 billion in taxpayers funds every year. Obviously, every penny of that goes toward essential programs, right? Here’s a look at some of the things you have been paying for at the NWS: •A $220,000 grant to the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Development to “educate the Arab region on climate change.”

By the EPA’s own grant database, over the last ten years, the agency has bellied up to the bar and bought drinks for many of its friends at the taxpayers’ expense. Within the past decade, the EPA awarded or continues to have open more than 7,500 grants, totaling $3,847,160,250 to non-profit groups alone.

But why does the chairman of Energy and Natural Resources own substantial stock in General Electric, Arch Coal, and oil companies like Occidental, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Concho Resources, among others? And mining giants Freeport McMoran, and Barrick Gold? And why does a Finance Committee member own stock in Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and many more? And why does a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee own stock in pharmaceuticals like Merck, Abbott Laboratories, startup research labs and many more?

America's taxpayers need to know about a thorny federal program lurking in the Obama budget: the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It began decades ago as a millionaire's hobby horse and grew into a Frankenstein monster that today feeds millions of taxpayer dollars to green groups that sue the federal government -- and thus sue the taxpayer.

The tennis court at former President Jimmy Carter‘s private home is swept twice a day, his pool is cleaned daily and his grass cut, his flower beds weeded and his windows washed on a regular basis — all at taxpayers’ expense.

Joe Manchin, the newly elected Democratic senator from West Virginia, is taking heat from Republicans for skipping several crucial votes on Saturday to spend time with his family. Manchin missed votes to advance the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants under a certain age who meet certain requirements, and repeal the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

CRS is so secretive that one member of Congress can't find out what it told another. Conversely, if it suits a member's political agenda, he'll get the New York Times to plaster a "confidential" CRS report all over the front page, as Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden did in 2000 with a four-page memo by CRS analyst Ross W. Gorte to bolster his position in a logging controversy. Gorte, a respected CRS analyst since 1983, has become known in Congress as the "go-to guy" for Big Green's no-development brand of "objective, balanced, nonpartisan" reports. Critics even call Gorte "the Wilderness...

Sen. Jeff Bingaman is being called our worst border security threat. Angry Dona Ana County residents have branded the New Mexico Democrat's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act as "Bingaman's Bandit Boulevard" for proposing a 50-mile-long safe haven for Mexican drug runners -- and worse. John Hummer, former chairman of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, reminded his community of the no-motorized-vehicle clause in wilderness laws. The Border Patrol can't patrol.... A U.S. Border Patrol document obtained by The Examiner shows the nationality and number of OTMs arrested last year. A few samples: Afghanistan (12); Indonesia (95); Iran (42); Iraq...

DeFazio knew about Brown’s litigating timber sales when he hired her in Washington. He also hired extremist David Dreher as legislative aide in 2000, now with the Pew-funded Campaign for America’s Wilderness. DeFazio’s office is practically an incubator for radicals. On Election Day, DeFazio beat Robinson by 9 points. That took the monkey was off his back because it was not he but Salazar who had made those logging promises that won’t be kept. Because of lawyers like Brown. Some might say DeFazio is a walking Potemkin village. And Big Green’s most important product is still unemployment.

Seeking any advantage in their effort to retain control of Congress, Democrats are working behind the scenes in a number of tight races to bolster long-shot third-party candidates who have platforms at odds with the Democratic agenda but hold the promise of siphoning Republican votes.

But now the Washington Examiner reports that Rick spent $40,000 on a super-posh event in Colorado ski country, around the same time Boucher became the floor manager for an important telecommunications bill. Of course, it's a complete coincidence that Boucher's PAC raised 5 times more money than it ever had from companies like Dish Network, DirecTV, Comcast, GoDaddy, T-Mobile and AT&T - all firms that have a vested interest in legislation before Boucher's subcommittee.

"I won't vote for him," said Veronica Silvas, 44, a respiratory therapist in Tucson and a Democrat who had long supported him. "Why would you want to boycott your own state?" Dave Paden, a contractor in Tucson, sees the congressman as part of the problem in Washington, though he couldn't identify precisely what Grijalva had done to frustrate him. "It seemed like in the beginning he was doing the right things, but like a lot of politicians eventually he got kind of stagnant."

Boucher's leadership PAC, the Committee for Southwest Virginia, has spent something north of $40,000 this cycle for lodging, catering, airfare and car rental for what appear to be late-winter jaunts to the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa in Avon, Colo. There appear to have been two trips, apparently fundraisers, taken in early 2009 and 2010. (Boucher's campaign spokeswoman did not respond to my inquiries in time for publication.) The combined hotel bill at the Westin is $36,000. Catering from Chef De Cuisine Epicurean Services, the Juniper Restaurant in nearby Edwards, and Vail Catering Concepts, cost $4,100. Politicians use leadership PACs...

Sources also say that Tanya Rahall had an inbox for mail at her brother’s congressional office.