[StBernard] Weekly Update - September 29, 2006

[Westley Annis]

An Update from Bobby	 
September 29, 2006	 
Dear friends-

It has been a very busy week in Congress as the House of Representatives
scrambles to get as much done as possible before adjourning for a month.
This added time pressure has been challenging as we try to push through an
important energy bill this week.

I continued to meet late last night and early this morning with
Congressional leaders in hopes of reaching a compromise that gives Louisiana
a share of energy royalties off our coast. There seems to be consensus on
those main issues that I have been focusing on and we are close to reaching
a final agreement between the House and the U.S. Senate. I am very
encouraged that there seems to be a consensus on our main issue of giving
Louisiana a fair share of royalties from fixing the 1990s leases that would
provide Louisiana with billions of dollars over the next 10 years, and am
also happy with the consensus concerning the opt-in/opt-out provision for
states along the East Coast.

The primary issue that now remains concerns questions over boundary lines
from the original Senate bill and how those map lines will impact division
of revenues from the Senate bill among Gulf Coast states like Louisiana.
Even though time ran short this week, a lot of progress has been made. I
want the best deal for Louisiana, and I am confident that we can take this
issue up again when Congress returns in November and send a bill to the
President that will give Louisiana a share of energy royalties. I am
encouraged by the fact that Congressional leaders have committed to me that
they will pass legislation this year on this issue.

Protecting our Second Amendment rights

A very important bill that I introduced to protect the Second Amendment
rights of people in Louisiana passed the House this week as part of a larger
appropriations bill in Congress. Provisions from my bill, the Disaster
Recovery Personal Protection Act (H.R. 5013), were adopted as part of the
conference agreement on the Fiscal Year 2007 Homeland Security
Appropriations bill.

My legislation had already passed the House of Representatives in July, but
by including it in this appropriations bill, it ensures that it will be
signed into law. This will guarantee that in times of disaster you cannot
throw out the Second Amendment guaranteeing the right of American citizens
to keep and bear arms.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year, bureaucrats came in and
took away firearms from law-abiding citizens who were just trying to protect
themselves, their families, and their properties. This was an absurd
violation of the Constitution, and I have made it a priority to fix this
injustice. I am glad to see that my colleagues in Congress agreed that this
needed to be fixed, and I hope the President will sign this bill into law
soon so that no other law-abiding citizens are left to fend for themselves
in times of disaster.

Preserving our natural habitat

The House of Representatives passed a bill I introduced to expand a local
wildlife preserve. My bill, the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and
Preserve Boundary Adjustment Act of 2005 (H.R. 1515), will expand the
Barataria Preserve by more than 3,000 acres.

For more than a decade, community leaders have been working to expand Jean
Lafitte Barataria Preserve to ensure that this important part of our area
continues to be protected. The entire Louisiana House Congressional
delegation joined me in supporting this bill that will help preserve a
beautiful part of our state. Specifically, my bill allows for the transfer
to the National Park Service any federally-owned land in the expanded area
and gives the U.S. Department of Interior Secretary the authority to acquire
private land, but only with the consent of the land owner.

Earlier this year, local leaders from Louisiana came to D.C. and testified
before the House Resources Committee, on which I serve, about the importance
of this legislation, and I am honored that we were able to pass this
legislation to preserve more of our bayous, swamps, and marshes that serve
as a natural buffer of protection from hurricanes.

Giving schools districts more time to recover

I have been working in Congress to ensure that our schools have all of the
tools necessary to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita so that we can
get all of our students back in their classrooms. This week, my colleagues
in the House passed a bill I introduced to make that a little easier.

My bill will continue to ease financial commitments for state and local
school districts recovering from these hurricanes through fiscal year 2007.
This legislation will serve to help schools throughout our state that not
only have to rebuild their physical infrastructure that was devastated last
year, but the tax base that funds schools as well.

This extension will help cut through the bureaucratic red tape cut for
schools so they can focus their efforts on providing a quality education to
the children of our state.

As always, please feel free to contact my offices if we can be of assistance
to you.

Sincerely, 
Bobby Jindal