July '09 Nevada Government—Shelley Berkley Column

As Seen on CNN…Republican Recovery Act Claims Disputed

Politifact.org: “There Are Just a Lot of Claims That Are Being Made without A Lot of Attention to the Facts”

Last week, CNN ran a piece challenging John Boehner's comments that no federally funded economic recovery projects have started in his state of Ohio. The segment also included a Republican sheriff from Boehner's own district who two months ago received nearly $1 million in economic recovery funds and is using the money to keep correctional officers on staff. According to Sheriff Richard Jones, "The stimulus is working for me here in Butler County because I am keeping my deputies and I am not having to lay them off."

Watch CNN’s Fact Check:

This morning, CNN ran a piece fact checking the claim in an ad from John Boehner claiming he was still looking for jobs created by the Recovery Act.

Read the transcript of the piece below:

Kiran Chetry: Republicans and Democrats taking aim at each other in a new round of ads online and on TV. And under attack, the President's stimulus plan and also the record of Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell. So who is telling the truth here? Bill Adair is the founder and editor of the Pulitzer Prize winning website politifact.com. That's where we go to get the truth about a lot of this. And he's checking the facts, breaking out his truth-o-meter from our Washington Bureau. Good to see you this morning Bill.

Bill Adair: Good morning, Kiran.

Chetry: Let's start with this ad. It was sort of a tongue and cheek ad from top republican in the house John Boehner where he was releasing the proverbial blood hounds to search and sniff out the stimulus money. Let's take a look.

Voiceover Ad: In North Carolina, they used stimulus money to hire one new state worker. His job? Apply for more stimulus funds from the taxpayers by the way of the federal government.

Chetry: All right. There you have it. So they used the money to hire one new state worker. And his job was to apply for more stimulus money. you ran that through the truth-o-meter. What did you find out?

Adair: We did. we gave this one a false on the truth-o-meter. it's not true. it's a great catchy phrase but it's just not backed up by the facts. there is, indeed, a city worker who was funded by stimulus money, but that worker is not applying for more stimulus money. That worker is overseeing the grant applications for a new police station and doing some other tasks. But it's not the way it's portrayed in the ad. So that one gets a false on our truth-o-meter.

Chetry: And Boehner has really been hitting this, where's the stimulus money message pretty hard. He also said last Sunday there hadn't even been one contract that was signed on a stimulus project in his home state of Ohio. That turned out to not really be true either?

Adair: Apparently the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" looked into this and found that it's not true that there was some $50 million, $52 million in contracts under way. And this is why it's really important to check these things out. There are just a lot of claims that are being made without a lot of attention to the facts.

Berkley Delivers $26 Million For New North Las Vegas National Guard Readiness Center

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley secured House approval for $26 million in federal funding for construction of an Army National Guard readiness center in North Las Vegas. Also included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs package for 2010 is an additional $727,000 requested by Berkley and Rep. Dina Titus that will fund a separate Army National Guard facility in Las Vegas.

“Nevada’s National Guard plays a vital role in meeting our defense needs, but they are also there to help in times of emergency and to protect against threats to our communities,” said Berkley. “The funding included in this package will be used for the construction of an additional Readiness facility at the Floyd Edsall Training Center which will house both current and future Guard units. Also included in this package is an additional $727,000 for the design and construction of a new Army National Guard civil support team facility in Las Vegas. The unit that will be housed in the new facility will support our local first responders in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack on the Las Vegas Valley or other location. Now that the House has approved this package, the next step will be for the Senate to act.”

The legislation also increases funding to meet the healthcare needs of veterans in Nevada and nationwide. The resources will help the VA to deliver quality health care to more than six million patients – including more than 400,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation includes improvements in electronic health records and paperless benefits processing to make veterans health care more efficient, additional oversight and auditing of our veterans health care system, and new practices to improve access to care for veterans in rural areas. The bill also invests in mental health services and critical medical and prosthetic research to serve our wounded warriors returning from battle.

“America’s veterans deserve top notch medical care and our legislation invests in improvements and additional research that will enhance VA healthcare, including available mental health services at a time when we are seeing many of our returning troops experiencing the symptoms of PTSD,” said Berkley. “I am very proud that since 2007, we have increased funding for veterans’ healthcare and benefits by nearly 60%, including expansion of the GI bill to give even more of our troops the opportunity to attend a college, university or trade school.”

Overall, the bill provides $53 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), $24.6 billion for Military Construction, Family Housing and BRAC, and $266.8 million for related agencies. With passage of this bill, Congress has provided a 58 percent increase in funding for veterans health care and benefits since January 2007.

Berkley Statement on Yucca Mountain

And Nuclear Waste Liability Costs

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today released the following statement in response to a House Budget Committee hearing on the liability to taxpayers from America’s high-level nuclear waste program, including the failed Yucca Mountain dump.

“By refusing to end its quest for Yucca Mountain, the nuclear industry is forcing Americans to pay twice for managing its radioactive garbage. Ratepayers are funding work on this failed $100 billion dinosaur in the Nevada desert and taxpayers are footing the bill to keep current waste in on-site storage.

“Waste from reactors can be safely stored in dry-cask storage at current locations for the next 100 years. Meanwhile the nuclear industry continues to press lawsuits seeking to collect billions in damages from taxpayers via the U.S. Treasury.

“Ending Yucca Mountain now will allow us to begin addressing this liability merry-go-round, including the settlement of existing breach of contract suits.

“President Obama has pledged to form a blue ribbon panel that will examine real solutions to the issue of safely managing nuclear waste. The nuclear industry and its supporters should embrace this new path forward and stop blocking an end to more wasteful spending on efforts to turn Nevada into a radioactive garbage dump.”