Congressman John Campbell

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Other Things: In this periodic missive, I tend to tell you about big things that are going on which I have an opinion or am engaged in some way. But there are lots of little things that go on too. Here are some of the "other things" that I am working on that may not always make the headlines.....even the headlines in this report. These are not all the things I am working on by any means, but it is a selection of which you probably had not heard before now. They are in no particular order:

On Wednesday, February 6th, the California Coastal Commission will determine the fate of the Transportation Corridor Agencies’ application to complete the SR-241 extension. We need as many supporters as possible to attend the hearing to tell the Coastal Commissioners why the 241 completion is important. I hope you can make it – here are the details:
I am cosponsor of and heavily engaged in a legislative proposal (HR 1029) to require that insurance companies report to a national and searchable database, when a vehicle is declared a total loss. After Katrina, literally thousands of total loss flood damaged cars had the damage "washed" from the title by moving the car from state to state. When this happens a buyer can unknowingly buy a car that has been declared a total loss and will likely never perform well. This bill would enable buyers and dealers to determine if the car had ever been "totaled" in any state.

Celebrities from Bill Gates to Warren Buffett to assorted actors have all said that they do not pay enough taxes. Fine. The "Tax Me More" bill that I will introduce would put a simple line on every tax form allowing a taxpayer to easily pay more tax than they owe at their own discretion. That way, Bill Gates can pay whatever he wants without also requiring that you and I pay more just because he wants to. If this were to pass, would they put their money where their mouth is?

HR 3029, of which I am the lead sponsor along with Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), would prohibit the interstate transportation of bear parts. In China and other places around the world, certain bear entrails are used for ritual worship. People are killing bears in Alaska and elsewhere solely for the purpose of obtaining these entrails and are leaving the rest of the bear there. By stopping the ability to transport these entrails, hopefully we will stop the needless killing of these bears.

If you are displeased with the management of a public company in which you hold shares, one way to show your displeasure is to sell the stock. But short of doing that, you can vote for different members on the Board of Directors. The problem is that the only people who can nominate new directors are the existing board of directors. I think that shareholders owning a high enough percentage of the company's voting stock ought to be able to nominate directors in a public company. I think that threshold should be about 3-5% for a Fortune 500 company and about 15-20% for smaller firms. I am working with Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox to try and achieve this sometime before the 2009 proxy season.

When the mudslide occurred in Bluebird Canyon in Laguna Beach a few years ago, I was surprised to find out that insurance for such an event is not available. Insurance companies told me that this was due to a fear of "adverse selection," meaning that only those with great risk would buy this insurance and therefore it would not be economic to offer. Every property in the country is arguably subject to some kind of disaster; be it earthquake, flood, tornado, hurricane, tsunami, land subsidence etc. etc. HR 3355, with which I am engaged, would set up a federal reinsurance program in which states may opt-in to participate in order to pool risks of different disasters across state lines.

Under current federal law, residential property owners can pool their interests and self-insure their properties. But commercial property owners cannot do the same thing. They should be able to, and I will be working on legislation to allow that to occur.

H.RES. 695, which I authored to create a national day to honor firefighters, passed the House on December 11, 2007. Note that this did not create a new holiday, it just is a day of recognition for people who deserve that recognition and our thanks.

Everyone is rightfully worried about the long term viability of Social Security. Retirement security in general is a significant issue as baby boomers age. So, why does the government put barriers in the way of you saving as much of your money as you want for your own retirement? Why shouldn't you be able to put whatever you want in your IRA or 401(k) without ridiculously complicated limits and restrictions, as long as you do not pull the money our before a certain age? I am developing a bill do allow you to do just that.

Until next week, I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell