No honeymoon for Landry

Tuesday, Feb. 8
February 7, 2011
U.S. ocean usage policies headline next session
February 9, 2011
Tuesday, Feb. 8
February 7, 2011
U.S. ocean usage policies headline next session
February 9, 2011

For months, Republican congressional candidates campaigned on cutting the federal budget, and their message was well received, with the right-wingers taking the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.


Fifteen days after the 112th U.S. Congress convened, the House passed the Stop the OverPrinting Act, sponsored by Rep. Christopher Lee, R-NY, and co-sponsored by 15 Republicans, which eliminates the automatic printing of paper copies of each introduced bill for its sponsors and co-sponsors. According to gop.gov, 2.8 million paper copies of 14,042 bills and resolutions were printed in the 110th Congress.

While the $35 million in anticipated savings over the next 10 years will not put a dent in federal deficit, the bill serves as an indicator that the new regime is committed to discovering and slashing any extraneous spending.


Congressman Jeff Landry, one month into his two-year term as Louisiana’s 3rd District representative in the U.S. House, echoed that sentiment and said the Republicans have made and will continue to make incremental progress in trimming the budget.


“It’s been long hours, but I think we’re chipping away at the problem,” Landry said of his first month in Washington, D.C. “Certainly, I think we are making some progress each day. Each week, it seems like we are voting on legislation that helps trim the budget.”

Landry said every facet of federal government, including the Defense department, is subject to oversight and action, and he commended Defense Secretary Robert Gates for auditing his department without congressional pressure and soliciting advice from his generals on what redundancies or nonessentials can be done without.


Gates said he plans to cut more than $78 million from the defense budget over a five-year span beginning in 2012, including the termination of the Marine’s amphibious landing craft program.


Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who feel the slim down could leave the U.S. military vulnerable have criticized the projected defense cuts, but Landry said he would heed the generals’ advice.

“My compliments to him for looking within the department of Defense budget and determining those things that are not warranted that can save money,” Landry said. “I think there are a number of programs that, if the generals come into my office and say, ‘Look, we don’t need this,’ then I think it’s my responsibility as a congressman to lean heavily in the direction that they’re recommending.”

Landry put his promised principles in play, both figuratively and literally, when he declined the federally offered health care and retirement benefits for congressmen upon entering office after making the promise on the campaign trail.

“I’m subject to the same type of policy increases and rejections that they are,” Landry said. “I think when Congress starts participating the same way that the everyday, average American has to participate will probably fix some of these problems.”

The New Iberia resident, advocating for an immediate return to offshore drilling amid the vehement protests in Egypt and subsequent speculation of the Suez Canal shutdown, had an abbreviated tour on the national media circuit last weekend, including a four-minute appearance on Fox News’ “FOX and Friends” and a mention in the National Journal’s Need-To-Know Memo.

“I think we’re back to where we were in the 1970s. The Department of Energy was created to shield the U.S. and its economy from exactly what we’re seeing today; an unrest in the Middle East that can drive the price of energy through the roof,” Landry told FOX and Friends. “It is the kind of danger that will take the steam clean out of any recovery we have in our economy right now.”

Last week, Landry told the Tri-Parish Times it would take “constant hammering” of the offshore-drilling regulator Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to provoke a return to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I think that if Congress continues to provide the proper oversight and additional pressure in cadence with the rest of American mandates that we get our domestic energy programs back up and running as the price of gas rises, I’m optimistic [drilling will resume],” Landry said. “It’s not going to be easy. We can’t for a minute just sit back and think they’re going to do it on their own, but constant hammering eventually will bring the walls down.”

Jeff Landry Dist. 3 rep a voice for budget cuts