09.24.08

Maria's Monday Memo

Drilling Down on Volatile Oil Markets at Senate Oversight Hearing
 
During an Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee hearing last week, I called on Congress to pass legislation this month that improves the way markets function and ensures markets work on behalf of consumers, not against them. During the hearing, I pointed to various independent reports that found that recent oil price swings in the oil markets are directly related to lax federal oversight.  We have seen time and time again that the federal government and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are not doing everything they can to police the financial and oil markets to prevent speculators from driving up oil commodity prices.  The bottom line is that we have an Administration and a CFTC that is protecting families on Main Street, not rogue traders on Wall Street. It is up to Congress to make sure we are going to pass legislation that puts transparency and tough rules in place to make sure the markets work for consumers.  We must make sure that market fundamentals, and not greed, are truly at work.
 
At a time when the American people are hurting, and the middle class is suffering from rising prices and declining incomes, I am extremely concerned about the volatility of the financial markets and its impact on hardworking Washington state and American families. We must push for economic policies that protect families on Main Street while really addressing the problems on Wall Street. It is time we reverse the calamitous economic policy that has put taxpayers’ life savings at risk because federal regulators were sitting on the sidelines while the financial markets ran amuck. It is critical that any action we take now be carefully crafted to avoid mistakes that threaten to make the situation worse.
 
                      
An Agreement Reached in a 2-Year Extension of the State Sales Tax Deduction
 
Last week I helped secure an extension of the state sales tax deduction as part of a broader package of tax relief that will give Washington state taxpayers this needed tax relief for two additional years. The measure that Sen. Patty Murray and I fought for will extend the sales tax deduction through 2009 and is expected to pass the Senate early this week. This is about tax fairness for Washington state’s working families and building a stronger economy. I have been working hard with my Senate colleagues and as a member of the Senate Finance Committee to move the tax package through Congress, and I am thrilled we have extended these tax breaks for two more years. I will continue to fight to make this deduction permanent. Congress needs to make it a priority to provide some relief to families that are feeling squeezed every day by prices that go up and wages that are not rising.
 
Applauding Hope VI Funding for Bremerton, King County, and Seattle
 
Last Friday, I welcomed the news that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $50 million in funding from the Hope VI grant program to revitalize the Westpark public housing development in Bremerton, the Park Lake Homes II development in King County, and Lake City Village and House in Seattle. The Hope VI program replaces some of the country’s most dilapidated public housing developments with modern, mixed-home facilities.  The award of these three grants is recognition of Washington state’s commitment to, and success in, updating and revitalizing public housing that is old, rundown and unsafe. Bremerton, King County, and Seattle will put these critical funds to good use and provide our vulnerable neighbors with a modern, affordable and safe place to call home. Most recently, I worked to modernize the low income housing tax credit program. These improvements were enacted into law in July 2008 as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. These improvements in the tax law were broadly supported by state and local housing authorities; housing developers, lenders, and low-income housing advocates and are seen as instrumental in keeping scarce capital flowing to the development of low-income housing projects.  
 
 
 
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