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Election reform stalls
in McConnell’s Senate
I agree with Ann Ravel’s sentiment that Congress should act to combat foreign interference in American elections and improve campaign finance disclosure laws (“Why America needs a strong Honest Ads Act,” Aug. 21).
But the House has acted. The House of Representatives has twice passed the Honest Ads Act as part of two comprehensive bills – H.R. 1 (the For the People Act) and H.R. 4617 (the SHIELD Act). Both bills would protect democratic institutions, shine a light on secret spending in politics, and take major steps toward curbing foreign interference in our elections. The Committee on House Administration held hearings on these bills and strengthened them before the House voted to advance them to the Senate.
Rather than languish in the House, the Honest Ads Act has languished in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s legislative graveyard for more than 500 days after the House first acted to pass it as part of H.R. 1. Just last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its bipartisan report that recommended identifying and addressing campaign finance loopholes that can be abused by malign foreign influence operations. Still, Leader McConnell does not appear to want to act and uphold his responsibility as the House has done since the very first bill this Congress.
We will achieve comprehensive democracy reform legislation after the American people break Leader McConnell’s stranglehold on the legislative process.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren
Chairwoman, Committee on House Administration
San Jose
Expanded grid essential
to US national security
The commentary by Rep. Ro Khanna and former Secretary of Defense William Perry (“Rethinking U.S. national security: masks not missiles,” Aug. 23) provides a coherent and unambiguous assessment that our current national security priorities are outdated and are leaving us unprotected against many dangers.
Climate change and its accompanying extreme weather events represent an existing and future danger. We are suffering from unprecedented forest fires poisoning our air, destroying property, and taking lives and livelihoods. Decades of warnings by climate scientists that climate change would produce more frequent and powerful forest fires were ignored.
An effective expenditure of resources would be to expand and strengthen our national electric grid. A foreign military, terrorist, extreme weather or forest fires can cripple our grid. Also, an expanded and strengthened grid will gather more renewable energy from distributed sources. Thus, we would mitigate against greenhouse gases from electricity generation while adapting to the new realities of frequent and intense forest fires.
Gary Latshaw
Cupertino
In time of power outages,
our food safety is critical
Between the summer heat and now the blazing fires, power outages seem almost inevitable. Returning to a safe home brings such relief, though the food you left behind may not be so safe.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services created an online chart that may help clear up confusion on food safety after a power outage. There is a detailed list of food items and their expiration on the chart, available at FoodSafety.gov. The website explains that the main thing to remember if you suspect a power outage occurred and lasted 4 hours or more is to throw out all perishable foods kept in the refrigerator (all meat, fish, eggs and leftovers) as well as all thawed perishables in the freezer.
Your health is vital in today’s world and food safety is no joke, so remember – when in doubt, throw it out.
Grace Elliott
Livermore
Skinner’s bill best way
to stem foreclosures
In the article “Single-family housing linked to segregation,” (Aug. 24) it refers to a report that states single-family homes exclude lower-income people of color. San Jose is 84% single-family homes, while only 26 percent of the population is non-Hispanic white. This implies that at least 60% of the single-family homes are occupied by other ethnicities.
In reality, suburbs have become much more ethnically diverse, according to these articles, and African Americans have been moving to the suburbs.
With a looming pandemic foreclosure crisis, the best solution to the affordability problem is state Sen. Nancy Skinner’s Senate Bill 1079, not a measure that would incentivize the production of more market-rate rental housing.
Donald Thomas
Saratoga
Trump’s efforts construct
‘a house divided’ in US
I understand President Trump likes to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln, and my question is how does he reconcile, “A house divided against itself, cannot stand,” when it seems to me he does nothing but try and divide us?
Craig Anderson
Menlo Park
Pelosi’s demand holding
up COVID-19 relief bill
The latest impasse in Congress to pass COVID-19 relief is due to Nancy Pelosi’s trillion-dollar state bailout demand. Part of that bill repeals the $10,000 deduction limitation for state and local taxes (SALT).
By repealing SALT the wealthy end of society will receive a huge federal tax cut. Whatever happened to Democrats fighting for the unfortunate by demanding the wealthy pay their fair share?
Joel Greenia
Santa Clara
