[StBernard] E-Update From Senator David Vitter

[Westley Annis]

IN THIS ISSUE

KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE
PROTECTING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS
REBUILDING OUR EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
CALLING FOR ACTION ON ENERGY PRICES


In July, I offered a bill to ensure the safety of our schoolchildren by
requiring FBI background checks for all employees associated with our public
school systems.  I also introduced a bill that would prohibit illegal aliens
from drawing social security benefits to help reduce the enormous costs that
illegal immigration has on our nation.  And I worked to include the
Education Disaster Loan Assistance Program in the Higher Education Act,
which the Senate passed in August.  This important program will help
Louisiana's colleges and universities fully recover from the damaging
effects of the 2005 hurricanes.

Below you can read more about these and other issues that I am working on
the U.S. Senate, including calling for Congress to act on our nation's
energy crisis.

 David Vitter Signature

P.S. - Please feel free to forward the newsletter to your friends, neighbors
and business associates, and encourage them to sign up for their own copy by
visiting my Web site at http://vitter.senate.gov/.  




WORKING TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE 

I introduced the Safety for our Schoolchildren Act
<http://vitter.senate.gov/?module=pressroom/pressitem&ID=51c14339-d565-4b3b-
b5f3-3553a0a2cc68>  to require all public school employees and those
employed in any connection to a public school to go through an FBI
background check prior to being hired.  The safety of our children should be
the number one priority of all Americans and this bill will help school
officials effectively identify sexual predators or dangerous felons during
the application process.


We cannot allow potentially dangerous individuals to be employed in a
capacity that offers them daily contact with children.  My bill will provide
our schools with a firewall that will give parents and children with an
enhanced level of security.


PROTECTING AMERICAN BENEFITS 

Each year hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens cross our borders and
settle in the United States.  They work illegal jobs for low pay, and a
loophole exists that allows them to draw social security benefits based on
this work.  This is simply unacceptable.  We should not be rewarding illegal
aliens for breaking our laws, and this bill will help remedy this situation.

This month, I introduced a bill that would prohibit aliens and their spouses
and dependents from claiming social security credit
<http://vitter.senate.gov/?module=pressroom/pressitem&ID=25c4d6fe-be96-4bae-
890e-e1260034599b>  for work performed while in the United States illegally.





REBUILDING OUR EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE 

Many of our state's colleges and universities were adversely affected by the
storms of 2005, and thousands of students were forced to attend schools in
other states.  As they return to Louisiana, it is important to ensure that
our higher learning institutions are adequately equipped and well-prepared
to provide them students with all that they need.

I worked to include the Education Disaster Loan Assistance Program
<http://vitter.senate.gov/?module=pressroom/pressitem&ID=42083884-4867-4e29-
b790-720743fee718>  provision in the Higher Education Act, to help provide
these schools with low-interest, guaranteed loans through the Education
Disaster Loan Assistance Program.  The Senate recently passed the bill with
this loan program and it now goes to the president for his signature.


CALLING FOR ACTION ON ENERGY PRICES

As Congress prepared to wrap up business before the annual August recess, I
called on my colleagues to reject plans for adjourning
<http://vitter.senate.gov/?module=pressroom/pressitem&ID=989f329c-00b1-4c7e-
bb4a-e468a4712e76>  until action was taken on energy legislation.  We need
to act in a full, bipartisan way to do whatever we can to alleviate the
enormous burden that these sky-high prices have placed on families across
Louisiana, and throughout the rest of the country.  Yet instead of acting,
Congress left early for recess. 

I've offered numerous proposals to help bring down the cost of gasoline and
energy prices by starting new drilling at home and encouraging the
development of alternative energy.  But even faced with this true crisis and
this vocal call for action from Americans across the country, Congress is
blocking consideration of these and other proposals and refusing to act on
this issue.  I will continue to fight for relief from the national energy
crisis when Congress returns to Washington in September.