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Murphy visiting today to rank residents' concern
Aug 9, 12:01 PM
By SCOTT WHIPPLE , Herald Press staff
NEW BRITAIN – U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, will meet with constituents today from 1 to 1:30 p.m. at the Stop & Shop on Corbin Avenue. Murphy and campaign volunteers will set up stations in 13 grocery stores in shopping plazas in the 5th District.
The congressman says he wants to find out which issues concern voters most and he’s prepared to rank them in Olympic terms: Gold for the most urgent, silver second-most urgent and bronze for least important.
Murphy will compile the concerns he hears and bring them back to Congress in the fall.
One issue Murphy may hear is concern on the part of some voters about his vacation. He and most Democrats voted themselves a five-week vacation. Republicans in Washington protested the summer hiatus and have called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to convene an emergency session to hold a vote on oil drilling. Murphy’s colleagues in Congress Tom Price of Georgia and Mike Pence of Indiana want Murphy to explain to his constituents why he voted to take a vacation instead of staying in Washington to work on proposed solutions to America’s energy crisis.
The congressman said Republicans missed their opportunity to vote for domestic drilling by defeating H.R. 6251, which would force oil companies to drill on the land they already have or forfeit it. But Murphy added he has supported other measures to ease gas prices.
Murphy supported and helped pass legislation to suspend contribution to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the remainder of 2008. He also supports efforts to crack down on excessive speculation in energy commodities markets; he argues that this speculation is driving up the cost of energy. In testimony before House and Senate Committees, Energy Information Administration officials and private sector experts have agreed that speculation has driven up the cost of a barrel of oil by suspending the normal pattern of supply and demand.
Murphy also supported a measure that would authorize the Justice Department to take legal action against Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries state-controlled entities. He and other Democrats believe OPEC conspires to fix the price of oil; they want to create a Department of Justice Petroleum Industry Antitrust Task force. For the long term, Murphy says he worked to secure passage of legislation to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars for the first time since 1975.
