Printed letters, June 15, 2012

By Staff
Thursday, June 14, 2012

In Josh Penry’s June 1 column, he accused Sen. Michael Bennet of blind partisanship. That claim does not stand up to the facts and, unfortunately, shows the blind partisanship of Penry by his choice to ignore the facts.

Sen. Bennet has worked across the aisle on issues large and small. The facts are that he has proved himself to be a senator who puts solutions ahead of politics. Some recent highlights:

Last month, he guided a bipartisan bill to modernize the FDA, working closely with Republicans such as Sen.Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen.Orin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming to pass the bill. It is aimed at improving the safety of pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices and the speed in which they are available for patients and families in Colorado and across the country.

The FDA Safety and Innovation Act passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support by a vote of 96-1. Congress showed rare unity in passing the FDA overhaul.

In April he brought Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon together to craft a bipartisan bill that would allow the general public to invest in startup companies over the Internet, a practice known as “crowd funding.” The Bennet-Brown-Merkley bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support as part of the JOBS Act the president signed into law.

He is leading efforts to reduce the debt. He teamed with Republican Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska to write a letter to President Obama urging a comprehensive plan to reduce the deficit.

Later, they joined a bipartisan group of senators to create a comprehensive plan and to push deficit-cutting compromises.

This week the Senate started debate on the farm bill. Sen. Bennet worked across the aisle on the bill that passed in committee with broad bipartisan support.

Colorado is well served by Sen. Mic- hael Bennet.

J. MARTELLE DANIELS

Grand Junction

Demand that ICE enforce federal immigration laws

Are you kidding me on the Strawberry Days versus illegal aliens thing? Who is protecting the U.S. citizens from illegal immigrant gangs?

We should be applauding the limited ICE efforts and demanding that the agency do more. I’m so tired of illegal immigrants complaining about the limited law enforcement we actually perform against those who have violated our federal immigration laws.

I support legal immigration 100 percent, but we have illegal immigration all wrong in this country and the media are afraid to cover it properly. Liberals label everyone against illegal immigration as racists, so we are afraid to discuss the impacts that illegal aliens have on American citizens.

An example is the tremendous financial burden put on our school districts. Did you know that School District 51 spends $1.81 million per year teaching Spanish-speaking students how to speak English? The English language learner population in District 51 is up 53 percent over the last 10 years, and the general student body population is up only 5 percent.

BRANDON SIEGFRIED

Grand Junction