News Home

By Scott Nicholson
Mountain Times

http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2006/0119/foxx_reflects.php3

Fifth District U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) recently looked back on her first year in Congress as a time of partisan issues and progress.

Foxx, in a Wednesday phone interview from her Clemmons office, said the Republican Party had set a goal of passing budgets before the beginning of the fiscal year and that the party had made a commitment to changing committee chairs every six years. She said most of the budget work was completed before the July 4 break, and that all budgets had been passed by December.

Foxx pointed out that the budgets contained some items she didn’t agree with, but overall she felt they were positive steps in reducing the deficit. “There’s never been a perfect piece of legislation,” she said. “Most of the time there’s something in there you wouldn’t have voted on if it wasn’t in there. There are always things buried in bills.”

Foxx said such maneuvers are especially common in election years, when supporters of a bill will put in minor amendments that make it politically harder to oppose them. “Sometimes you have to explain that the majority of the bill was good,” Foxx said. “If the good of the bill outweighs any bad in it, then I’ll support the good.”

Foxx was pleased that her HERO bill, which makes it easier for armed service members to invest in their individual retirement accounts without penalty, passed both branches of Congress, though it was revised in the Senate and must return to the House of Representatives for another vote.

Foxx also reflected on her vote against a Hurricane Katrina relief package, in which she joined a small handful of representatives in opposing a spending package of more than $50 billion. Foxx said the bill didn’t contain enough accountability in how the money would be spent.

“I received some media and partisan criticism, but the general public has been extremely supportive of me for my vote because I was asking for accountability,” she said.

Foxx also supported the broad-based Energy Bill, which she said was important in helping the country become energy-independent. “We’re working toward improved research and improving the use of ethanol,” she said. “High gas prices have forced us into that. In a way, the high prices were a blessing, because they got people’s attention that we can’t count on cheap gas prices forever.

“I’m disappointed the Senate didn’t pass drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), though it passed in the House. We need to use every possible source of energy we can.”

Foxx said opposition campaigns distorted the representation of the refuge area, and said she visited it during the summer. “It’s nothing but frozen wasteland,” she said. “Those pictures aren’t of ANWR at all. The way oil drilling is done now, you can’t even tell what they’re doing.”

Regarding the largest ongoing governmental spending issue, the war in Iraq, Foxx repeated her assertion that defense is the federal government’s primary responsibility. “Nobody should complain about funding in Iraq unless they can point to specific ways to save money,” she said. “They talk about the war in Iraq as being a waste. We were attacked on 9/11, and we were attacked many times before that. This is taking the war to them.”

Regarding some leaders’ demands for a timetable on getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, Foxx said, “Nobody asked for a timetable in World War II. Nobody asked for a timetable on taking out Hitler. If we’d have had a timetable, we’d all be speaking German now.

“I want a free country. I want all nations to be free. The war is helping bring democracy to the Middle East and that will ultimately make us safe in this country. I grieve for the loss in the military. There were more people murdered in Washington, D.C. than we lost in the military (in Iraq). Do people suggest we abandon Washington, D.C., because there were so many murders there? I want to live in a free country, not a Saddam Hussein world.”

Foxx said she was disturbed by what she viewed as partisan attacks on Pres. George Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

“It’s distressing to me to hear Democrats not just distort what the president and vice president said, but to out-and-out lie about it,” she said. “By criticizing the war, they think they can make political points. In the past, the policy was that you don’t criticize the war effort when we’re at war.”

She characterized her job as lots of routine and mundane tasks punctuated by the opportunity to guide the nation’s future. “Every day is not a red-letter day,” she said. “A large part is to take care of constituents. A lot gets done that never makes it into a piece of legislation, but you make suggestions and amendments.

“It’s a cooperative effort to make the world a better place a little at a time. It’s a great honor to be able to have an input on large issues, and I continue to be grateful.”

Regarding ethics controversies dogging Rep. Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to defrauding clients, Foxx said she expected Congress to look at proposals on lobbyist reform, but said it comes down to individual ethics. “Jack Abromoff is an aberration, in my opinion,” she said. “He is someone who has done bad things and he deserves to be punished for what he’s done. There’s not enough money in the world to buy my vote. I vote for what’s right and good. The folks who are the most indignant must be people who think they can be swayed by money.”

Foxx, who has a long record as a hard-line fiscal conservative, said the federal deficit has been creeping up in the last several years, but believes tax cuts have helped spur the economy. “The deficit came about because of the war,” she said. “One of the most important pieces of legislation last year was the elimination of the death tax passed by the House. The good economy has come about primarily because of the war but also because it’s very difficult to restrain spending. If you look at the world’s economies, the free countries are stagnant, and we’re the only one growing. Whatever we can do to put more money in the citizen’s hands will help, because capital creates jobs.”

Foxx said Fifth District constituents’ major concerns were illegal immigration, deficit spending, and health care costs. She hopes Congress will address rising health care and insurance costs this year, and expects election-year issues to become even more partisan.

###