Congressional Update

Bennie Thompson warns of Chinese hackers: "Sophisticated hackers could really wreak havoc on our financial systems if they were successful," House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said. The threat is "primarily from China."

NRCC targets Travis Childers: The ads target a number of junior Democrats — such as Reps. Travis Childers of Mississippi, Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio and Suzanne Kosmas of Florida — and will run for about a week, according to the NRCC spokesman.

Gene Taylor says don't panic: U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor said Wednesday that South Mississippians shouldn’t panic over a proposed federal private property buyout plan that’s moving toward Congress for funding. Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, said that the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Plan has some excellent aspects, such as restoration of the barrier islands. And even though the plan has shrunk somewhat in scope since its origin, it is “still a very, very ambitious project,” he added. Taylor said he has told officials in the corps’ top echelon that any property buyouts must be voluntary on the part of the sellers, and any mandatory buyout by the government will not fly. “Given the sensitivities, there was a very high level of concern. They got the message,” he said. When the corps brought its buyout proposal to public meetings in the past, some property owners and public officials feared from comments they heard that citizens may be forced to sell their land to the government. “At least one person at the corps misspoke,” Taylor said. “I want to make it abundantly clear. This is strictly voluntary.”

Bennie Thompson critical of Boeing: "Boeing missed a number of deadlines," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said in an interview. "They have to prove to me they've gotten better along the way."

Gregg Harper joins Republican Census taskforce: U.S. Representative Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) joined Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other ranking Republicans in highlighting the creation of a Census Task Force created by Boehner and the Republican Conference.

Gregg Haprer criticizes White House over Census: "How would you feel if this was [President Bush's senior political adviser] Karl Rove and the Bush White House that was handling this census? It's the same thing," an indignant Rep. Gregg Harper, Mississippi Republican, said just hours before Mr. Gregg withdrew.

Gene Taylor joins six other Democrats to vote "no" on the the Stimulus Conference Package: The spending cuts and the scaling back of tax provisions weren't enough to persuade Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., to reverse his opposition to the package. Taylor, a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, told RTTNews that his opposition came from the prospect of adding so dramatically to the national debt. "It's still borrowed money," he said. "It's an enormous amount of borrowed money, with no plan whatsoever to pay it back." He added, "I would hope that there would be more Democrats who are against it." He voted no.

Letter to the Editor: Harper ignores Reagan spending - U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, in his guest column on Feb. 7 ("Republicans voting against 'wasteful' bill a source of pride"), spoke of the turn-around of the nation's economy during the Reagan administration. Rep. Harper said: "You can not turn the economy around by spending money you do not have." However, that is exactly what the Reagan administration did, as it spent $2 trillion it did not have, doubling the national debt, and leaving the mess for our children and grandchildren to worry about. It wasn't so much the tax cuts that turned the economy around during the Reagan years as it was the brilliant idea of putting a big bunch of spending on somebody else's credit card. - James Lynch, Brandon