1.
Travel
In
his most recent travel news, Senator Pryor traveled to El Dorado, Arkansas on
January 15th of this year to meet with local business and community
leaders to discuss job creation. Pryor’s
travel record indicates that this is a frequent occurrence for him, and he
makes a point to visit towns, businesses, schools, etc. throughout his state
and stay in touch and connected with his constituents. I think it’s a very positive thing the
senator does, as it gets him both out of DC as well as out of his hometown of
Little Rock and meets with constituents from all across his state, even in what
I’m sure is the magical land of El Dorado.
2. Press
Releases Issued
On pryor.senate.gov, it says Senator Pryor’s most recent press
release was on February 28th, 2013, and there were actually a total
of 3 press releases from his office that day: “Pryor
Hosts Virtual Story Time at Rockefeller Elementary School In Honor of Read
Across Day America Day” (I think having the word “day” in their twice was
an accident, but I’m not sure), “Statement
by Senator Mark Pryor on Sequestration,” and “Statement
by Senator Mark Pryor on Club for Growth Ad.”
I found the last title of these three to be
the most interesting, simply because it seems vague and perhaps misleading, so
I looked into it further, and I found that this press release contained a great
deal of drama currently happening in Arkansas.
It would appear that the Club for Growth ran an ad in Arkansas that says
Senator Pryor puts the interests of President Obama, the Democratic Party, and
special interests above the needs of Arkansas citizens. Senator Pryor uses this press release as a
rebuttal, saying that his voting record clearly shows this is not the case, and
that the National Journal frequently ranks him as “one of the most independent
voices in the Senate.” Here is the link
to the ad directly – “Only
One” Club for Growth Ad.
This
is a bit unrelated, but in my searching for press releases, I found a video
clip in which Bill Maher, for his 2008 documentary Religulous
interviewed Senator Mark Pryor about his beliefs about evolution. It’s wonderful and sad all at once … Mark
Pryor, “IQ Test.”
3.
Franking, mailers
As a member of the senate committee on ethics, Mark Pryor is very
involved with franking and mailers and the appropriate use of them in
Congress. He, along with the 3 other
senators who make up the ethics committee, wrote out the regulations governing
the use of the mailing frank.
While on the topic of mailers
and the post office, Senator Pryor also wrote a letter in 2011 to the United
States Postal Service after giving them a failing grade for their lack of
communication regarding post office’s consolidation and closures – see letter here.
4. Bills
sponsored/cosponsored
According
to gov.track.us, the most recent bill Senator Pryor introduced into Congress was
on February 25th, 2013 and it is currently in the first state of the
legislative process – being referred to a committee, which also occurred on
February 25th, 2013. Bill S.
376 is a bill to reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information
System, and for other purposes. It does
not allude to what these “other purposes” might be. The committees that this bill will go through
are the senate commerce, science, and transportation committees.
The prognosis for the bill
put forth by gov.track.us says it has a 13% chance of getting past the
committee, and a 2% chance of being enacted.
It does make the note, however, that only 12% of bills make it past the
committee, and that 2% of proposed bills were enacted between 2011 and 2013, so
Pryor’s bill S. 376 has about as good of a chance as becoming enacted as any
other proposed bill would.
This bill has 4 cosponsors, 2
of Pryor’s fellow Democrats: Mark Udall from Colorado, and Tom Udall from New
Mexico, and 2 Republicans: Jerry Morgan from Kansas, and our very own John
Thune from South Dakota.
As of February 27th,
a summary of what the bill actually entails has yet to be released.
Another recent bill of
Senator Pryor’s was S. 3674: Farmers Protection of 2012. He introduced it on December 12th,
2012 and 3 Republicans co-sponsored the bill, John Boozman from Arkansas, Thad
Cochran from Mississippi, and Roger Wicker, also from Mississippi.
The title of this bill is a
bit misleading, as it is related to farmers but not chiefly about them. In essence, this bill would amend the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (yep, apparently that was a thing) so that no
migratory bird game can be taken over land that is not a baited area or an area
that contains standing crop. The bill
did not pass after it was referred to the state environment and public works
committees, and after reading the summary of the bill I can understand why. It doesn’t do much in the way of protecting
farmers, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act really did not need to be amended in
this capacity.
The last bill I would like to
discuss that Senator Pryor proposed passed, and has not been amended since it
was enacted in 2012. S. Res. 483 has
perhaps one of the longest bill tiles ever: “A resolution commending efforts to
promote and enhance public safety on the need for yellow corrugated stainless
steel tubing.” The bill was proposed to
do exactly what the title says it would, commend the efforts to promote and
enhance public safety through the use of the properly bonded stainless steel
tubing as defined in the National Fire Protection Association code. It went over well in congress, once again
according to gov.track.us, and was agreed to in a simple resolution.