News Releases
Mountain Home AFB Honored In U.S. Senate
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo is honoring the men and women of Idaho's Mountain Home Air Force Base for earning a top award from the U.S. Air Force related to combat support in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 366th Fighter Wing's Commander, Colonel James S. Browne, announced the Gunfighters have earned the Air Force Meritorious Unit Award for the 17-month period from July 1, 2007 through May 31st of this year. Crapo noted the Gunfighter's accomplishments in a Congressional Record Statem… Continue Reading
July 31, 2008
Idahoans' Stories On Gas Prices Come To The Floor Of U.S. Senate
Washington, DC - In extended remarks on the Senate floor, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo pressed Congress to respond boldly to the gas price crisis facing Americans. To highlight the personal suffering of Idahoans caused by high gasoline prices, Crapo made emails he has received from Idahoans about the price of gasoline a part of his remarks. Crapo says many Idahoans have made difficult choices to forgo food for their families, medicines, and other important purchases in order to pay for the fuel to d… Continue Reading
July 29, 2008
Crapo Will Host iTownhall Meeting On Farm Bill
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who helped craft the 2008 Farm Bill, will host a townhall-style meeting via telephone on August 6th to discuss the new Farm Bill. Crapo will utilize a telephone and Internet program known as the iTownhall to lead the discussion with up to several thousand Idahoans simultaneously. "The iTownhall is simply a conference call with Idahoans, and all that is needed to participate is a telephone," Crapo said. "Al… Continue Reading
July 28, 2008
Crapo, Colleagues Seek Presidential Input On Health Care Reform
Washington, DC - A bipartisan group of Senators seeking to improve health care programs, including Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, has written to its colleagues and Presidential hopefuls, asking both to begin working with the group on comprehensive improvements to the health care system. In a letter to Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, Crapo and the other 15 co-sponsors of the Healthy Americans Act said the sooner they can begin working with the candidates and their advisors, the sooner health ca… Continue Reading
July 26, 2008
Crapo Presses For Comprehensive Plan To Lower Gas Prices
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo voted today to keep the Senate on a path to negotiate a comprehensive plan to reduce gasoline prices. Crapo joined with a number of his colleagues to block an effort to turn floor attention away from resolving gasoline price issues and onto a different bill focusing on energy assistance. The effort failed, meaning a comprehensive bill is still possible. "Idahoans and others have been sending us the message that Congress should not adjourn for the Augu… Continue Reading
July 24, 2008
Crapo, Baucus Seek Reform Of Sporting Taxes
Washington, DC - Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Max Baucus (D-Montana), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, have introduced legislation to change the way federal excise taxes on firearms and ammunition are collected from businesses. Supporters of the legislation, including national sporting and firearms advocacy groups, say the legislation could provide more money for state wildlife preservation programs by easing restrictions surrounding the collection of the excise taxes. … Continue Reading
July 22, 2008
Crapo: Energy Needs Deserve Multiple Answers
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo called on his Senate colleagues to seek a balanced, bipartisan solution to the high energy prices facing the country. During a speech on the Senate floor, he said legislation that focuses solely on energy speculators in financial markets needs to be augmented with aggressive plans for new energy production, conservation and alternative energy efforts. "We ought to take this opportunity with the bill we have on the floor of the Senate to look at other … Continue Reading
July 15, 2008
Crapo Defends Market-Based Healthcare Approach
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo this evening voted to sustain the President's veto of healthcare legislation that took steps backward regarding market-oriented healthcare reform. H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, was vetoed by the President earlier on Tuesday. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the President's veto; Crapo voted to sustain it, saying that the legislation "compromised the positive gains we've made in inst… Continue Reading
July 10, 2008
Crapo, Sali To Hold Remote Office Hours
Lewiston - Representatives from the Congressional offices of Idaho Senator Mike Crapo and Idaho Representative Bill Sali will travel to three North-Central Idaho cities to meet with constituents on July 23rd. This latest remote office tour means that the Lewiston-based Congressional offices will have visited more than 20 North Idaho communities this year as part of the remote office program. Tony Snodderly of Representative Sali's office and Peter Stegner of Senator Crapo's office encourage c… Continue Reading
July 09, 2008
Crapo Honored For Work On Sugar Issues
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo was honored today by Idaho sugar growers and the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association for his work on sugar programs in the 2008 Farm Bill. Crapo, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, met with member-growers of the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association just off the Senate floor and accepted a plaque, detailing the growers' appreciation for Crapo's leadership on agricultural issues and contributions to the Farm Bill. "The contribution of Idaho's … Continue Reading
July 01, 2008
Idaho Delegation: Cleanup Agreement Reflects "Best Science"
Idaho Falls - Idaho's Congressional Delegation says today's announcement by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter and the U.S. Department of Energy to revise a cleanup agreement at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) reflects the "best science possible". The agreement formalizes a 2006 federal court order requiring DOE to remove buried transuranic waste from the site and to coordinate those activities with existing Superfund cleanup of the area to protect water supplies in the Snake River Aquifer. … Continue Reading
June 26, 2008
Crapo: Gas Bill Takes Action For Price Relief
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo announced today that he is co-sponsoring the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 because it seeks to both reduce prices at the pump and provide long-term energy policy specific to vehicle fuels that will benefit consumers and the environment. Crapo joined with more than 40 other Senators, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in introducing the legislation today. "The key to our energy future is to take a balanced approach to domestic produc… Continue Reading
June 26, 2008
Crapo And Bennett To Visit Idaho National Lab
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo and Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will visit projects and employees at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) next week during a visit to Idaho Falls. Crapo invited Bennett to tour the site and speak at the Idaho Falls City Club. Bennett accepted the invitation and will visit Idaho Falls on Wednesday, July 2. "With Senator Craig's retirement, Idaho will lose a senior member of the Senate Appropriations … Continue Reading
June 26, 2008
Crapo Applauds "Historic" Gun Rights Ruling
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo today noted the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision to uphold both the individual and Second Amendment rights of all Americans by upholding the Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. The high court today struck down local laws that banned handgun ownership in Washington, DC. Crapo is one of 55 U.S. Senators who signed a "Friend of the Court" brief supporting today's ruling and noting the rights of individuals in the case. "The U.S. Suprem… Continue Reading
June 25, 2008
Crapo To Host Talk Show On Energy
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will host a three-hour live talk radio program devoted to energy issues in Boise Tuesday as he sits in for regular host Nate Shelman on KBOI-AM 670. Crapo, who has collected more than a thousand e-mails from Idahoans concerned about gas prices and energy shortages, has been entering those concerns into the Senate Record. "Hosting the radio program is the latest step in gathering input from Idahoans regarding what Congress should do regarding energy is… Continue Reading
June 25, 2008
Crapo Makes Strong Case For County Payments
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo highlighted the potential impact on Idaho communities of a failure to extend county payments on the floor of the U.S. Senate today when he spoke of the need to continue the County Payments program. Crapo joined colleague Senator Larry Craig and other Senators in filing an amendment to a supplemental spending bill that if enacted would continue payments to counties for another year, while the effort continues to extend the program on a more long-term basi… Continue Reading
June 25, 2008
Idahoans On Energy: Running On Empty
"Please listen to the less vocal majority who are pleading for drastically decreasing the restrictions and regulations on drilling and refining our domestic oil." "Who is going to pay back the tax payers when this [global warming] is proven to be a political sham?" "Instead of the U.S. depending on foreign oil, why not make the rest of the world dependent on U.S. company patents for whatever ultimately replaces petroleum as the leading energy technology?" "Our problems as usual are the … Continue Reading
June 24, 2008
Crapo Works To Improve Merchant Card Reporting
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo says small business owners will face unnecessary and unneeded burdens under tax reporting provisions inserted in a housing reform bill before the Senate. Crapo attempted to correct this problem with two amendments earlier today, but his effort was shot down by the Senate Majority. The amendments would have delayed, or stopped, new and costly tax reporting requirements that were inserted as a way to offset costs in the measure, the Foreclosure Preventi… Continue Reading
June 20, 2008
Crapo: Next iTownhall To Focus On Energy
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will focus his next quarterly iTownHall meeting on energy issues and the effects that the escalating energy costs are having on Idahoans. The quarterly meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 9, 2008, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mountain/5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Pacific. The technology behind the iTownhall meeting allows Idahoans to join in via telephone from any location in the state. Participation is voluntary, and listeners are invited to ask the Senator question… Continue Reading
June 19, 2008
Crapo: McCain's Nuclear Plans Help Energy Crunch
Washington, DC - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo said the Idaho National Laboratory may play an expanded role in national energy development under plans announced today by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona). McCain says he endorses the building of an additional 45 new nuclear reactors by the year 2030, and that he would be interested in possibly increasing that up to 55 within the next 20 years. His efforts are focused on reducing dependency on foreign energy. The INL is acknowledged by the U.S. Departmen… Continue Reading
