Posted on 12/31/2006 12:26:55 PM PST by Wolfstar
PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: After ringing in 2007 at their Crawford Ranch, President and Mrs. Bush are scheduled to return to Washington tomorrow, New Year's Day, where they will take part in memorial rites for former President Gerald Ford. They will attend the viewing of Ford's casket at the U.S. Capitol, and President Bush will speak at the former president's memorial service on Jan. 2.
To close out 2006, on Dec. 28th President Bush signed two new pieces of legislation into law, a postal reform bill and an oil and gas pipeline safety bill.
President Bush Signs Senator Collins' Postal Reform Bill Into LawRecently President Bush signed into law landmark postal reform legislation that is the first modernization of the Postal Service in more than 30 years. Senator Collins said that the new law will ensure the continuation of universal postal service at an affordable rate. The bill was coauthored by Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.).
Senator Collins said, "The U.S. Postal Service is the linchpin of a $900 billion mailing industry, providing nine million jobs nationwide in fields as diverse as direct mailing, printing, catalog companies, paper manufacturing, and financial services. But under its current business model, which has not been updated in decades, the financial future of the Postal Service is not viable. The only way to avoid what the Government Accountability Office refers to as a 'death spiral' -- of excessive and unpredictable rate increases, which lead to further reductions in mail volume -- is through this comprehensive reform."
The bill represents three years of work by Senators Collins, Carper and others.
Highlights...are as follows:
--> Replaces the current lengthy and litigious rate-setting process with a rate cap-based structure for market-dominant products such as First-Class Mail, periodicals and library mail. Price changes for market-dominant products would be subject to a 45-day prior review period by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Under the compromise agreement, after 10 years from enactment, the PRC would have the authority to modify or adopt an alternate system if found to be necessary.
--> Grants the Postal Service Board of Governors the authority to set rates for competitive products like Express Mail and Priority Mail, as long as these prices do not result in cross subsidy from market-dominant products. Establishes a 30-day prior review period during which the proposed rate changes shall be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission.
--> Introduces new safeguards against unfair competition by the Postal Service in competitive markets. Subsidization of competitive products by market-dominant products would be expressly forbidden, and an appropriate allocation of institutional costs to competitive products would be required.
--> Transforms the existing Postal Rate Commission into the Postal Regulatory Commission with greatly enhanced authority to ensure that the Postal Service management has greater latitude and stronger oversight. Among other things, the Postal Regulatory Commission will have the authority to regulate rates for non-competitive products and services; ensure financial transparency; establish limits on the accumulation of retained earnings by the Postal Service; obtain information from the Postal Service, if need be, through the use of new subpoena power; and review and act on complaints filed by those who believe the Postal Service has exceeded its authority.
--> Requires the Postal Service to file with the Postal Regulatory Commission certain Securities and Exchange Commission financial disclosure forms, along with detailed annual reports on the status of the Postal Service's pension and post-retirement health obligations in order to ensure increased financial transparency.
President Bush Signs Oil, Gas Pipeline Safety Bill Into LawWASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- President George W. Bush Friday [Dec. 29] signed into law the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety Act of 2006.
The law, also known as the PIPES Act, reauthorizes and modifies the Department of Transportation's 2002 pipeline safety programs.
Under the programs, energy companies must follow certain guidelines aimed at ensuring that natural gas and oil pipelines are operated safely across the country.
The new law also gives the U.S. Department of Transportation authority to regulate low-pressure oil lines such as the one operated by BP PLC (BP) that leaked and led to the partial shutdown at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska.
By the way, he thinks we won't notice that he's (1) running for president again, and (2) scheduling his hearings earlier than all the other Democrat attack dogs -- er, chairmen -- lining up to do the same thing. Joe just HAD to beat his fellow Grinches to the feeding trough.
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KateofSpiceIsland asked me to include a link to her video tribute to President Ford in today's ping.
Boy Scouts salute former President Gerald Ford's hearse as it departs St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California, December 30, 2006.
After laying in repose overnight, a military honor guard carries the casket of former President Ford past his widow, Betty, and family, at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, CA, yesterday morning.
Honorary pallbearers, including Vice President Dick Cheney, watch the arrival of the casket of former President Ford at Andrews Air Force Base yesterday. From second left are Cheney, Ford's half brother Richard Ford, an unidentified military member, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Carla Hills.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Tom Ford and former Sen. Robert Dole watch as the casket carrying former President Gerald R. Ford is carried into the U.S. Capitol.
Happy New Year
Thank you,Wolfstar.
Vice President Dick Cheney pauses after placing a wreath by the casket of former President Gerald Ford.
President Bush holds former President Gerald Ford's hand as he prepares to depart the Fords' Rancho Mirage, CA, home, April 23, 2006. GWB had made an unannounced stop to visit the Fords during a campaign swing through Southern California.
Former President George H.W. Bush speaks about former President Ford during the news conference.
Republican National Chairman George Bush speaks with then Vice President Gerald Ford in Washington Dec. 18, 1973.
President George H.W. Bush, left, walks with former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon in the courtyard of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Nov. 4, 1991 in Simi Valley, Calif.
President Bush jokes with the First Lady.
President Bush blows out the candles as he celebrates his 60th birthday with Richard M. Daley, right, Mayor of Chicago, at the Chicago Firehouse restaurant, in this July 6, 2006, file photo. On the left is server at the Chicago Firehouse, Jim Bergstrom.
President Bush departs in the rain at Boeing Field in Seattle, Wash., in this June 16, 2006, file photo.
President Bush is greeted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during GWB's surprise visit to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, June 13, 2006.
President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai get ready to cut a ribbon to officially open the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 1, 2006.
Debutante Ashley Walker Bush, granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush and niece of President George W. Bush, represents the United States as she curtsies on stage in the Grand Ballroom of New York's famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel during the 52nd International Debutante Ball, December 29, 2006. Some 53 young women from nine countries made their formal debut at the annual ball where more than 2,000 women from 72 countries have been presented since 1954.
Ashley (R) rides an elevator with her mother Sharon (L), and others, as they arrive at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Nice placeholder, there, Buffalo. Way to go to be first! :)
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