Friday, January 27, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – The House Energy and Commerce Committee today announced its hearing schedule for the week of January 30. The committee will continue its efforts to protect American families, innovation, and jobs with hearings on the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, new recommendations on the safety of our nation’s nuclear future, and administrative issues with DHS' Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.   Read More >

Friday, January 27, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) are pressing the Department of Defense for Solyndra related documents. Documents gathered during the investigation reveal that Solyndra officials and investors were seeking DOD contracts as a lifeline for the company. The request comes on the heels of a similar document request to the General Services Administration.   Read More >

Friday, January 27, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Committee on Finance today sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requesting an update on plans to change the calculation used to determine reimbursement rates for prescription drugs in Medicaid. The president’s health care law requires CMS to revise the formula for reimbursing pharmacies for generic and multiple source drugs in Medicaid programs by using the Average Manufacturer Price, or AMP, to set Federal Upper Limits. Despite the president’s repeated promises of transparency, CMS has yet to even issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on the AMP changes in the president’s health care law.   Read More >

Thursday, January 26, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – The latest casualties of President Obama’s costly power sector rules were revealed today with the announcement that another six power plants are shutting down. The plants—located in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland—are closing down because of the high cost, uncertainty, and unachievable timelines of several new rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on the power sector. The jobs of more than 500 workers, and the electricity supply relied upon by consumers throughout the region, are directly affected by these plant shutdowns.   Read More >

Thursday, January 26, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, is sounding alarm bells in response to today’s news that battery maker Ener1 has filed for bankruptcy.  Ener1 was previously awarded a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the Department of Energy. Ener1 joins other DOE endorsed companies Solyndra and Beacon Power in bankruptcy. Vice President Biden visited Ener1 one year ago, January 26, 2011, the day after the President pledged in his State of the Union address to put one million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 with the help of taxpayer funding. On several occasions, Biden called the company “Enron one” during his visit, invoking a seemingly unintentional but ultimately prescient reference to the collapse of the energy giant Enron. The company was also ranked number 67 in the White House Report: 100 Recovery Projects that are Changing America.   Read More >

Thursday, January 26, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) today welcomed the final report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. While disappointed that President Obama prohibited the commission from reviewing the merits of Yucca Mountain, Upton and Shimkus agree with several of the commission’s recommendations and believe the report’s findings only underscore the urgent need to move forward with development of the Yucca program.   Read More >

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – Responding to President Obama’s State of the Union address, members of the Energy and Commerce committee last night underscored the harmful consequences of the president’s decision to reject the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would bring 20,000 direct jobs and significant new energy security to America with no cost to taxpayers. Although President Obama stayed conspicuously silent about this shovel-ready project during his remarks to the nation, committee members have no intention of standing down on a project that offers such great promise to strengthen the state of our union through job creation and energy security.   Read More >

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC – Leading members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee are formally requesting that the White House turn over internal memoranda previously kept shrouded from Congress and the public's view after the information was disclosed to The New Yorker for a January 30, 2012, article entitled, "The Obama Memos." For more than two years, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have sought access to this information, which details previously undisclosed tactics the Obama administration employed in conjunction with special interest groups as it was working to pass the controversial health care law. The members wrote yesterday to outgoing White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Chief of Staff Designee Jacob Lew reiterating previous requests for information and expressing concern that this information would be shared extensively with a single member of the news media, but that Congress and the American public had been denied the same ability to understand how critical – and controversial – decisions were made in crafting the law.   Read More >