Daily Press Writer
MONTROSE — U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., discussed bills regarding Iraq, disaster assistance for farmers and safety in schools during a media teleconference from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
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“It will include a goal that says that by April 1 of 2008 our goal is that our troops that are not engaged in carrying out security or training or counter-terrorism operations are out of Iraq,” Salazar said.
He said the Senate will vote on the bill today and he expects it will pass and be on President Bush’s desk by Monday. The president has made it clear he will veto the bill if it contains any sort of deadline for the War in Iraq.
“It’s legislation that I think is good for America, and I hope that the president — instead of fighting with a partisan voice on this legislation — would take a good, hard look at it and sign the legislation.”” Salazar said.
He said the bill provides $4 billion more for military operations than the president requested.
Salazar also discussed provisions recently added to the School Safety Enhancements Act of 2007 he is sponsoring in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. The provisions include requiring each college and university receiving federal funding to conduct annual safety assessments in cooperation with local law enforcement officials. In addition, they would require those schools to implement emergency response plans for similar situations as well as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
He said the bill would also require the Department of Justice to post safety guidelines to be used nationwide.
“I think that the lessons that we’ve learned from Columbine are lessons that have helped us avoid tragedies that would otherwise have happened,” Salazar said.
“I think we need to learn lessons from the massacre at Virginia Tech as well. And I hope that our legislation helps our universities and colleges in Colorado make sure that they are in fact prepared to deal with these kinds of emergencies.”
Salazar is also sponsoring a bill to enhance technology to recover “produced water” brought to the surface from underground wells during oil and gas drilling and coal bed methane extraction.
“I hear complaints and concerns from county commissioners and others that water that is being produced from oil and gas production is simply being wasted and creating other problems,” Salazar said.
“Our bill hopefully will create an opportunity for us being able to beneficially use that water in the West.”
If passed, the law would require recovery system test projects to be built in at least five areas, including Colorado.
Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com
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