U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton had a busy week.
Besides being entrenched with other House Republicans in a standoff over the federal budget, the Cortez native introduced a small business banking bill, opened an office in Cortez and wrote a letter to the secretary of agriculture regarding bark beetles.
Tipton voted Thursday for House Resolution 1363, which would fund most of the federal government for at least another week while cutting $12 billion in spending. The Republican-backed legislation passed 247 to 181 after a week-long standoff with House Democrats.
Congressional Democrats punted on passing a budget last year and are attempting to do it again this year, Tipton said in a statement released Thursday. Not only have Democrats failed to offer a plan to get our country off the path to financial ruin, they are obstructing the efforts of the House to cut spending, create jobs and get our economy back on track.
President Barack Obama threatened to veto the bill, calling it a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise. The New York Times reported Thursday.
A Wednesday statement from U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo, said the senator joined 16 other Democrats in sending a letter to House Speaker John Bohner, accusing House Republicans of being interested in shutting down the government as a misguided sign that they are serious about debt reduction.
A failure to reach an agreement could provoke a government shutdown, resulting in an interruption in payroll to the armed forces.
The thought that our men and women in uniform would be paid retroactively, when they are risking their lives now, is unacceptable to me, Tipton said. The troops are not a political chip to be played.
Tipton released a statement Tuesday regarding the federal budget proposal submitted by House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan. He said he feels the proposed budget would tackle the countrys $14.3 trillion debt, create one million new jobs and cut $6.2 trillion over the next decade.
As of Friday, after two negotiating sessions at the White House, no resolution had been reached on the budget standoff.
In an unrelated matter, Tipton joined Reps. Ed Perlutter and Mike Coffman in introducing the Capitol Access for Main Street Act of 2011 Tuesday, which is aimed at allowing small community banks to spread out commercial real estate loans over a seven-year period in an effort to set aside more capital for small business loans.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, Tipton said in a Tuesday statement. They account for most of our nations new jobs, employ half of the countrys private sector workforce, and provide for half of the nonfarm, private real GDP in the U.S. Our CAMS bill will free up much- needed capital so that community banks will be able to make responsible loans to small businesses so that they can expand, creating badly needed jobs.
According to information from Tiptons office, the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel estimated banks hold approximately $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt coming due over the next three years. The current rules require banks to write down all of this debt all at once, which reduces the banks available capital and impairs its ability to lend to small businesses.
CAMS would allow community banks under $10 billion in assets to temporarily amortize losses over seven years on commercial real estate and other qualified real estate related transactions.
The CAMS bill allows critical capital levels and careful regulation to be maintained and for credit to be granted to qualified borrowers. It provides some time for a bank to manage problem loans versus the current practice of harsh, immediate write-downs that will sink many banks and the businesses depending on them when both can be saved.
Amortization was used during the 1980s to deal with the significant strain banks experienced from the agriculture industry and helped the participating banks weather the storm.
Tipton also joined U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking him to redirect unused U.S. Forest Service funds toward mitigating the bark beetle epidemic.
Forty-one million acres of pine forests in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming have been destroyed by the epidemic in the last 14 years, the letter states.
The funds requested would go towards hazard mitigation activities in the region.
Healthy forests are important to the livelihood of millions of people in the West and critical to economic recovery, the letter states. The forests are a source of a reliable water supply, tourism, energy generation, and recreation for the region. Swift action is essential in the face of threats to public safety and critical infrastructure.
The letter was signed by ten members of Congress.
Tiptons Cortez office also opened this week at #2 West Main Street.
Reach Reid Wright at reidw@cortezjournal.com