News Releases
CRAPO: BUDGET AGREEMENT CUTS DEFICIT
Washington, DC â?? A $2.6 trillion budget outline approved last night by both the House and Senate is a good starting point towards moving the federal government back into the black, according to Idaho Senator Mike Crapo. Crapo, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, says the most important element of the budget outline is a renewed effort to slow the growth of government which will be paid by future generations.â??I support this effort because it reflects a move to cut spending and curbs the … Continue Reading
May 27, 2005
CRAPO BILL CUTS TAXES ON GOLD, SILVER INVESTMENTS
Listen to the Audio File Here [.mp3 format] Washington, DC â?? Citing inequities that now exist in federal tax code, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo has introduced legislation to lower the tax liabilities for people who invest in precious metals such as gold and silver. The â??Fair Treatment for Precious Metals Actâ?? would treat the investment of investments made of gold, silver, and platinum, such as bullion coins and bars more like equities or mutual funds.â??Precious metals bullion investments sho… Continue Reading
May 27, 2005
CRAPO TO REVIEW SECURITY AND FOREIGN AID ASSISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE BALTIC REGION
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will join Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) on a Congressional Delegation trip to the Baltics and the Middle East during the next week. The agenda includes stops in Jordan, Russia, Latvia, and the Ukraine to review security assistance and foreign aid programs in the regions. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) will complete the delegation. McConnell chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related… Continue Reading
May 26, 2005
DELEGATION: BOISE TOWER DECISION CREATES SAFETY ISSUES
Washington, DC â?? Idahoâ??s Congressional Delegation has written the head of the Federal Aviation Administration asking her not to close the control tower at the Boise Airport from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, and Congressmen Mike Simpson and C.L. â??Butchâ?? Otter, wrote FAA Administrator Marion Blakely, warning the proposed move, for apparent cost-cutting reasons, puts pilots and passengers in danger and could cause economic losses related to commercial traffic f… Continue Reading
May 25, 2005
CRAPO WANTS ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX ENDED NOW
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will co-sponsor legislation offered by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to abolish the individual Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM) this year. The tax was started as a way to catch upper-income Americans who paid zero in taxes, but unintended consequences and inflation have slipped consequences of the tax into middle-class taxpayers.â??If we donâ??t take action now to repeal the tax, it will affect more and more middle-class taxpay… Continue Reading
May 24, 2005
CRAPO, CRAIG SUPPORT NEW FUNDING FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY ISSUES
Washington, DC â?? State, county, and local leaders could see new funding to deal with issues related to the illegal entry of criminal aliens into the U.S, under legislation supported by Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig. The U.S. Senate today approved, by unanimous consent, a measure that would reauthorize and more than double funding authority for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). Crapo led an effort last year to alert county sheriffs throughout Idaho about the progr… Continue Reading
May 19, 2005
CRAPO: ESA IMPROVEMENTS PROTECT PROPERTY RIGHTS
Washington, DC â?? Efforts to improve the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are moving forward, with hearings by both Senate and House members underway, and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo sees progress in building both political and species recovery partnerships. Crapo testified on ESA improvements before the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water today.Crapo pointed out that Governor Dirk Kempthorne, while in the U.S. Senate, started improvement efforts that are… Continue Reading
May 17, 2005
CRAPO ADDS FARM BENEFIT TO TRANSPORTATION BILL
Washington, DC â?? Farmers and agricultural interests will benefit by a tax exemption in hauling farm goods after harvest under language Idaho Senator Mike Crapo got included in the transportation spending bill approved today by the U.S. Senate. The exemption would lift a 12% excise tax on certain truck-mounted bulk beds, many of which are manufactured in Idaho. The bulk beds are used for hauling crops such as potatoes, sugar beets, onions, and grain.â??A 2003 study indicates this egregious exci… Continue Reading
May 17, 2005
USDA TO PURCHASE POTATOES
WASHINGTON, D.C. â?? Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns announced today that the Department plans to purchase up to 80 million pounds of frozen and dehydrated potatoes. On March 15, 2005, the Idaho Congressional Delegation wrote the Secretary requesting this action.The Delegation wrote in its letter, â??When growers have periods of unusually high yields and resulting low prices, the Section 32 program serves to stabilize their market and allow them to continue to survive in an already rigid m… Continue Reading
May 13, 2005
CRAPO PUSHES FOR SCHOOL FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROGRAM EXPANSION
Washington, DC â?? Efforts to get more fresh fruits and vegetables into public schools gained attention on Capitol Hill this week as a group of Senators, including Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, continued their push to expand the Fruit and Vegetable school program nationwide. Crapo, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and twenty other Senators, in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, Rural Development and Related Agencies, asked appropriators to provide funding in the fiscal year 2006 Agriculture … Continue Reading
May 11, 2005
SENATORS INTRODUCE DOWNWINDER LEGISLATION
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig today introduced legislation that would include all of Idaho under the existing federal government program to compensate those who can show medical evidence they were harmed by nuclear testing fallout in the 1950s and 1960s. The so-called downwinders are now compensated only in parts of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, although studies show some Idaho counties received some of the highest doses of radioactive fallout from the Nevada tests.Th… Continue Reading
May 04, 2005
CRAPO TO DISCUSS SOCIAL SECURITY, DOWNWINDERS
Washington, DC â?? As the Senate Finance Committee gets underway on Social Security hearings, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, who is a member of that committee, will host a live edition of his monthly statewide cable program. Crapo will take calls from Idahoans on â??Capitol Watchâ?? on Tuesday, May 10th from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Mountain/6 to 6:30 p.m. Pacific. During the half-hour program, viewers are invited to call 1-800-SEN-TALK (1-800-736-8255) to speak with Crapo.â??Congress is facing some very chall… Continue Reading
May 04, 2005
CRAPO ACTS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FUNDING
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo wants to keep a billion-dollar fund for Crime Victims untouched by other federal government programs. The estimated $1.2 billion in the Crime Victims Fund is used in part in a federal program to assist victims of domestic violence.Crapo has alerted his Senate colleagues to a proposal to remove the money from its designated purpose and has co-authored a letter seeking Senate support to keep the money where it is. Crapo will discuss the fund on Thursday … Continue Reading
April 29, 2005
CRAPO TO ATTEND FIRST ESA FIELD HEARING
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will be a part of the first Congressional field hearing this year on renewed efforts to improve the Endangered Species Act. The hearing, tomorrow, Saturday, April 30th, will be held in Jackson, Mississippi. It is an outgrowth of the effort announced last February in Washington, DC to find consensus for ESA improvements. Crapo, Senator Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island and Chairman of the Senateâ??s ESA subcommittee), Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California and … Continue Reading
April 28, 2005
CRAPO: BIRD REDISCOVERY FITTINGPRELUDE TO ESA HEARING
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo says the rediscovery of a once-thought extinct species of woodpecker in the Southeast United States is a boost of encouragement for the Congressional field hearing on improving the Endangered Species Act planned for this weekend in Jackson, Mississippi. Crapo, former chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the ESA, will attend the hearing Saturday with House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-California).â??The rediscovery of the ivor… Continue Reading
April 28, 2005
DELEGATION: CURRENT RECA PROGRAM NOT EQUITABLE
Washington, DC â?? The Idaho congressional delegation reacted today to the long-awaited release of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) report on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). The report, released late this afternoon, makes a series of recommendations for Congress that could lead to a nationwide, science-based expansion of the RECA. The delegation concurs with the reportâ??s conclusion that the present RECA program is not equitable and that any future program should be base… Continue Reading
April 27, 2005
TAX REFORM PART TWO: HOW IT AFFECTS YOU
Many Idahoans can relax now that April 15 has come and gone. Another season of complicated forms and confusing instructions is behind us (for another nine months, at least). Taxes arenâ??t the most exciting topic of conversation, but they affect us in a fundamental way. The Presidentâ??s newly-formed Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has finished its first phase of examination of the existing tax system. The panel held public meetings in seven major cities across the United States over the pa… Continue Reading
April 27, 2005
CRAPO CELEBRATES DIA DE LOS NINOS
Washington, DC â??Nearly 2,000 books will be donated to Idahoâ??s children in events taking place in libraries and learning centers across the state this week commemorating Dia de los Ninos (Day of the Children) through the efforts of Idaho Senator Mike Crapo. Dia de los Ninos is a holiday celebrated by many countries to recognize and celebrate the importance of children and Idaho was the first state in the nation to officially recognize it. Crapo co-sponsored the holiday in an official resoluti… Continue Reading
April 21, 2005
CRAPO APPLAUDS PORTMANâ??S STANCE ON TRADE
Washington, DC â?? Idaho Senator Mike Crapo said today he will support Representative Robert Portman to become the next U.S. Trade Representative. Portman, President Bushâ??s nominee to replace Robert Zoellick, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee today. â??Representative Portman indicated he would approach trade issues by seeking to level the playing field. That is music to my ears and those of others in Congress who have long felt past trade agreements benefit our trading partners more… Continue Reading
April 20, 2005
CRAPO: DROUGHT, POLITICS NECESSITATE LOCAL WATER SOLUTIONS
Washington, DC â?? Idaho residents must continue to work together to find solutions to ongoing water issues or risk the threat that the federal government or interests from out of state will step in to override local interests, warned Idaho Senator Mike Crapo. Crapo spoke by satellite this morning to attendees at the Idaho Statesman and Andrus Centerâ??s â??Troubled Waterâ?? conference at Boise State University. â??The federal government now offers the â??carrot and stickâ?? of landowner incenti… Continue Reading
