All Entries in the "Hal Rogers" Category

Census: A lot of Kentuckians will get a new congressman

By Bill Estep – bestep@herald-leader.com

A lot of Kentuckians are going to get new representatives in the U.S. House because of significant shifts in the state’s population.

The eastern and western ends of the state lost population between 2000 and 2010 while the middle third grew, according to U.S. Census figures released this week.

Three of the state’s six congressional districts fall short of the necessary population, while the other three are over it.

The national average for a U.S. House District will be 710,767.

However, the target number will vary by state; dividing Kentucky’s population of 4.3 million by six seats means a population target for each district of about 723,000.

Sponsor of derailed meth bill challenges opponents to find another solution

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A state senator expressed disappointment Monday over the demise of his bill to ban over-the-counter sales of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine and urged his colleagues to help him come up with a solution to stop deadly meth labs in the state.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, said current laws are not stopping meth labs, noting that 1,100 labs were found last year in the state.

“I will ask over the next few months you figure out a way to stop the labs,” Jensen said to his Senate colleagues. “If my solution is not the answer, figure out a way.”

A state data-collection system showed that 498,000 people in Kentucky bought pseudoephedrine last year, he said.

“How is law enforcement supposed to track them?” he asked.

Changing his ways, Rogers helps lead GOP effort to cut spending

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers is undergoing a makeover of sorts.

Widely known for steering federal dollars to projects in his district, the Somerset Republican and House Appropriations Committee chairman is now helping lead GOP efforts to trim fat from the federal budget.

He’s joined by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, himself no stranger to earmarks, and together the two Kentucky lawmakers are wielding enormous sway in the debate over cutting billions in federal spending.

“The American taxpayers have lost confidence in the way Washington is managing their money, and Chairman Rogers is working to repair this by cutting spending and stopping the overreach of government bureaucracy,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

As recently as this week, Rogers was pivotal in helping craft and get passed a two-week federal funding stopgap to stave off a looming government shutdown. The measure slashes $4 billion from the federal budget by nixing funding for several education, highway and agricultural programs, among others.

Supporters may compromise on prescriptions for cold medicines

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Supporters of a bill that will require prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine hope that excluding some of those medicines will be enough to get the measure through the full Senate.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky State Police are struggling to find money to pay for methamphetamine laboratory cleanups because two key federal grants are about to dry up.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Friday that supporters of the bill are considering excluding cold medicines in gel form from the prescription mandate. It is more difficult to extract pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in the manufacturing of methamphetamine, from the gel or liquid capsule forms of the cold drugs.

Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, and sponsor of the Senate Bill 45, said he was not sure whether the tweak to the bill would be enough to get the measure through the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month but has not passed the full Senate — in part because of strong and well-financed opposition from the over-the-counter drug companies. Many legislators have heard from constituents who say that they do not want to go to a doctor to get a prescription for about a dozen cold and allergy medications that contain pseudoephedrine

“If that would get it passed, we would certainly do it,” Jensen said of the changes. “I have not talked to enough people yet who have said that would change their minds.”

Hal Rogers urges state leaders to pass meth bill

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

By Beth Musgrave

FRANKFORT — In a rare Frankfort appearance, long-time U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers urged legislators to pass a controversial bill that would require a prescription to buy cold medicines that contain ingredients used in the manufacturing of meth.

The Republican Congressman, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, spoke before both the state House and Senate Judiciary committees and later at a packed rally in the state Capitol rotunda on behalf of House Bill 281 and Senate Bill 45.

The push from Rogers was enough to get Senate Bill 45 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a narrow 6-4 vote but the bill was not taken up by the full Senate later in the day, as had been expected.

The battle over whether to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine is shaping up as one of the biggest and costliest of the legislative session, which resumed on Tuesday. And unlike most Frankfort tussles, it’s a battle with no clear political or geographic lines.

Opponents sound off on meth bills while Rogers plans to testify for them

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – Proposals in this year’s legislative session to require a prescription for cold medicines containing an ingredient commonly used in meth lab would hurt consumers, businesses, law enforcement officials and the state’s treasury, opponents of the measures said Thursday.

But U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, said the legislation is needed to curb the increasing number of meth labs in Kentucky. The state recorded more than 1,000 meth lab incidents last year.

Rogers is to testify before the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 3 and hold a rally in the Capitol Rotunda in support of the legislation.

Rogers will need to slash earmarks to lead appropriations panel

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers — who has steered hundreds of millions of federal dollars to projects in his rural district over three decades — knows he must change his ways if he becomes the next chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

“We have no choice. We’re in a drastic, dire situation, federal funding-wise. The deficit is off the charts,” Rogers said. “The borrowing that we’re doing from China is threatening our sovereignty even. So we’re in a drastic situation. We have to cut back on spending. And earmarks, unfortunately, became the symbolism of overspending. And so we have no choice but to rein them in.”

The possible ascension of Rogers in the wake of the tea party-fueled Republican House takeover concerns federal budget watchdogs, who worry that the very type of government pork that tea party candidates decried in their campaigns could flourish under Rogers’ leadership.

“This is a situation where you have someone who is going to be one of the chief spokesmen on spending, the chairman, down on the floor talking about the issue that got a lot of the people there elected,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It’s a bit of a problem for the Republicans because of the fact that the head of the spending committee will be someone who was a prolific earmarker.”

Rogers poised to take control of House Appropriations Committee

By Bill Estep – bestep@herald-leader.com

The senior member of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation stands a good chance of gaining even more clout.

Republican U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers said Friday that he has a majority of votes on a key panel to become the next chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee if the GOP wins enough seats on Tuesday to take control of the chamber.

Analysts predict the GOP will do just that.

The Appropriations Committee has purview over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending.

In his 30 years representing the 5th District, Rogers has been adept at getting federal money for a range of programs and projects, including economic development, infrastructure, tourism and anti-drug efforts.

Heading the budget committee would give him more power, said Joe Gershtenson, director of the Institute of Public Governance and Civic Engagement at Eastern Kentucky University.

Election Preview: Eastern Ky.’s 5th Congressional District

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@herald-leader.com

WASHINGTON — The race to represent Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District is a repeat match between a politically powerful Republican incumbent with a substantial war chest and a Democratic political neophyte with meager coffers and virtually no financial support from his party.

Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Somerset, known for steering federal money toward projects in his district, may well be on his way to a 16th term.

Rogers, 72, had raised more than $500,000 as of the June campaign finance filing deadline — much of that donated by the defense industry, an effort aided by connections he made while once serving as the first chairman of the House subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, Democratic challenger James “Jim” Holbert, 58, an emergency medical services helicopter pilot from London who is serving as his own campaign treasurer, has struggled to scrape together $10,000 for his grass-roots bid.

Rand Paul declines to confirm support for drug-fighting task force

By Bill Estep and Jack Brammer – bestep@herald-leader.com

Despite confusion over his stance on federal funding for a well-known drug-fighting program in Eastern Kentucky, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul on Wednesday declined to confirm his support for the task force.

On Friday, Clay County Sheriff Kevin Johnson, a Republican, said Paul had assured him in a telephone call seeking his endorsement that he would not seek to cut funding for Operation UNITE, a task force involved in fighting drugs in the region, or other regional drug task forces.

That statement is at odds with a perception Paul created earlier in the campaign, and one local official said it appears Paul is using “political double talk.”

In July, when a county judge-executive asked him if he supported UNITE, Paul did not answer the question directly, but said he would “rather see drug abuse and dependency treated and paid for at the local level.”