Free Republic

As Congress barrels towards passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the nation’s top legislative body is inevitably trying to find ways to cover the costs of this massive new government program. Against all logic -- and the law -- some legislators have proposed rescinding emergency funds earmarked to help hospitals combat COVID and to instead repurpose them as a “pay for” as part of this legislation. Not only is this violating the spirit of the law, but it is dangerous. Among the many provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), a stimulus bill designed...

If you're a politician peddling big new government programs for which there is little need but hefty price tags, you need a clever marketing strategy. At the least, your sales pitch could use a decent soundbite. Such marketing is what the Biden administration with its friends in Congress and the media are doing when insisting that the drop in women's labor force participation during the pandemic requires implementing a policy of federal paid family leave. Don't buy it. First, temporary problems should never be addressed with permanent government expansions. Women have dramatically fallen out of the labor force, and unemployment...

This is the moment workers connected the two sides of the world's longest sea bridge - seven years after building first began. The last steel box girder was installed for the crossing on Wednesday, which spans the estuary of the Pearl River connecting Hong Kong and China. The project, called Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is 14 miles long and also includes an underwater tunnel. Construction of the Y-shaped bridge began in 2009 at a cost of 100 billion yuan ($15billion). And when the bridge opens to traffic, it will shorten the distance between Hong Kong, Zhuhau and Macao. It will officially...

The California Legislature is looking at a voluntary program that would tax motorists for every mile they drive. KCAL9’s Bobby Kaple reports that Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, introduced a bill to test out the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax because the state’s gas tax was no longer bringing in the revenue it used to due to people driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

It's a formula many officials at all levels of government hope to see repeated across the country. On Monday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Peter Rogoff, lead administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, joined Gov. Mark Dayton at the Union Depot to tout President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs bill, which is moving through a divided Congress. The bill, they said, would invest heavily in infrastructure projects such as roads, rail and bridges, putting more unemployed Americans back to work, if only for a few months to a few years at a time. At its heart, a key question:...

An unprecedented cutback in driving is slashing the funds available to rebuild the nation's aging highway system and expand mass-transit options, underscoring the economic impact of high gasoline prices. The resulting financial strain is touching off a political battle over government priorities in a new era of expensive oil. A report to be released Monday by the Transportation Department shows that over the past seven months, Americans have reduced their driving by more than 40 billion miles. Because of high gasoline prices, they drove 3.7% fewer miles in May than they did a year earlier, the report says, more than...

Official Documents    - Regulations    - Orders    - Memoranda    - Public Notices    - Org Chart Budget Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III     - Bio    - Speeches    - Press Conferences CPA Regions CPA North CPA SouthCPA South-Central Baghdad Central Press Information Press ReleasesPSAs Transcripts Multimedia Media Queries Requests forProposals   and Quotations/ Solicitations Requests for Information RFI for Rasheed and Rafidain Banks      Any other information that would lead to the arrest of bad guys? Click here. The Mission of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is a free and Democratic Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors.   Beyond the...