Friday, January 11, 2008
Email from Jerry Costello
Got this email from Rep. Costello, touting his accomplishments in the past year:
I wanted to drop you a note to update you on legislative issues that may be of interest.
I recently contacted you about legislation that was being considered by Congress before the end of this year’s legislative session but had not yet been finalized. We did finish all three of those bills dealing with energy efficiency, the Alternative Minimum Tax and health insurance for children.
The energy efficiency bill takes important steps to conserve energy, including having auto manufacturers raise gasoline miles-per-gallon standards for the first time since 1975, increasing the use of biofuels such as ethanol to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and setting new energy-efficiency standards for appliances and buildings.
In addition, legislation was also passed to prevent 25 million taxpayers from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. I voted against the final version of this legislation because its cost - $50.6 billion – was not paid for and will further add to our national debt and the burden we are passing on to our children and grandchildren. I voted for two earlier versions of this legislation that were paid for, but those bills were defeated in the Senate.
Congress also passed an extension of the current State Children’s Health Insurance Program through March 2009, ensuring six million children will maintain their health insurance. This bill also cancelled a scheduled 10% cut to doctors’ payments in the Medicare program, which will allow our seniors access to quality medical care.
I look forward to the second session of the 110th Congress and will continue to work hard on behalf of our region.
You are invited to sign up for future electronic newsletters. Please feel free to forward this message to friends and neighbors you think might be interested in these issues.
Sincerely,
Jerry F. Costello
12th District of Illinois
Labels: Jerry Costello
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