NEWS IN BRIEF Washington : Berry, Ross secure extra committee assignments
Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007
WASHINGTON — Members of Arkansas’ House delegation continued this week to sort out committee assignments, with Democratic Reps. Marion Berry and Mike Ross receiving waivers from leadership to serve on an additional panel.
Berry was tapped to serve on the Budget Committee. Already a member of the Appropriations Committee, a so-called “A” committee, Berry wasn’t allowed to serve on another panel without getting a waiver.
Ross serves on another A committee, Energy and Commerce. He was given a waiver so he could also sit on Science and Technology, which develops policy on space, research and energy.
Last year, Berry had asked for a waiver so he could serve on the Agriculture Committee as it tries to write new farm policy this spring.
Berry said most of the “real battles” facing Congress will be dealt with in Budget and Appropriations. “The farm bill is going to depend on what the Budget Committee does and what the Appropriations Committee does,” he said.
Berry said he was asked by Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, the Budget chairman, to join the committee late last year. Like Berry, Spratt is a member of the Blue Dog coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats.
Berry and Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida will fill the two spots that the Blue Dogs lost on the committee after the elections.
Rep. John Boozman, the Arkansas congressional delegation’s only Republican member, was named to three subcommittees on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He will serve on the aviation, highway and water-resources subcommittees, all of which he served on during the previous Congress.
Boozman is a member of the I-49 Caucus, a group of legislators pushing for the construction of an interstate from New Orleans to Canada, and has advocated for the construction of a light-rail system in Northwest Arkansas.
The Department of Labor has set aside up to $ 5 million for community colleges to come up with ideas to create jobs in the Delta region.
The money will be given to the Arkansas Delta Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development project, which is supported by Mid-South Community College, Arkansas Northeastern College, East Arkansas Community College, Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University-Newport.
In 2006, the program received a $ 100, 000 planning grant. This week, the Labor Department kicked in $ 500, 000 more for further development. Once a plan is completed, the project will receive $ 4. 5 million, according to a statement released by the Democratic members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation.
Among other projects, the money will be used to create a biofuel research and development center and an engine-testing facility in the region.
Boozman will host Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, for lunch at the Arkansas World Trade Center on Saturday in Rogers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the retail giant headquartered in Boozman’s district, employs 27, 000 people in China and has plans to hire 150, 000 more workers there over the next five years.
Reps. Vic Snyder, Ross and Boozman are all co-sponsors of a bill that would allow adoptive parents to receive up to $ 10, 000 in tax credits for expenses incurred during the adoption. The tax credit is in place now but expires in 2010.
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