Benishek expresses frustration with Obama

ESCANABA – U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek visited Escanaba and the Daily Press Monday to discuss his accomplishments in Congress over the past year, as well as his frustration with both the Obama administration and Senate.

Benishek expressed his disdain for Obama’s recent recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and National Labor Relations Board, without the consent of the Senate and without Congress being adjourned.

“We’re not in recess,” he said. “They’ve been in session right through the holiday and the Congress has been making an effort to stay in session to avoid this kind of stuff, and he’s taken it upon himself to try to skirt that.”

Benishek said this is inconsistent with checks and balances between the three equal branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial.

He said when Congress reconvenes, they hope to have a conference to discuss Obama’s action.

“We’ll see what happens, but it’s not making me happy, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s just another thing that bothers me about this administration and another frustrating part of my job dealing with it.”

Looking into the new year, he expressed some of his goals for Congress.

“It’s just a matter of keeping Mr. Obama’s progressive policies in check until we can get, hopefully, a change in the Senate and the administration,” he said. “A lot of the reason I ran is because I just can’t believe the amount of spending they’re doing. We’ve just got to get that under control, and it’s been a frustrating process.”

Benishek said representatives in the House have worked hard to come up with a budget this past year, but the Senate has not been complying or as active.

“Mr. Boehner has really tried to bring the Congress back to regular order where we pass a bill in the House, they pass a bill in the Senate, we come to a conference, we work out the details,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Senate hasn’t been keeping up with their end.”

Benishek said this is “frustrating,” as the Senate does not act or revise any bills sent to them, but tables them instead.

“There’s like 28 bills that are sitting over there unacted upon,” he said.

As for who he would like to see clinch the Republican presidential nomination, Benishek said he was going to wait and see what happens, as he previously endorsed former candidate Herman Cain, who has since ended his campaign.

“It may be all decided by the time the Michigan primary comes around next month, but I’m sure any one of those guys would be a better president than Mr. Obama,” he said. “We’ve just got to get one of them elected.”

Although he expressed his frustration with the Obama administration, Benishek did highlight a major accomplishment since he’s been in office.

“One thing we actually did accomplish was that forestry bill that we sponsored,” said Benishek. “That actually got incorporated into law. Not the bill itself, but the language of that bill got incorporated into one of the appropriations bills at the end of the year, and the president signed it.”

The bill, H.R. 2209, was introduced in response to Benishek learning from businesses and industry specialists that responsible timber harvesting of federal forests was being slowed by bureaucratic barriers and long delays.

“It affects a lot of the industry here in the U.P. and, of course, around the country, but I was trying to get something done that would affect us here,” said Benishek.

He said he hopes, once this takes effect, it will be a positive thing for the logging industry and will bring about more timber harvesting.

“I’m pretty proud to get that accomplished,” said Benishek. “That’s the only piece of legislation I actually got passed into law, but I think that’s actually pretty decent.”

As for the coming year’s election, Benishek said he has not done as much yet in comparison to the last time he ran for election.

“I’m just going to try to do my job,” he said. “It’s different running as an incumbent than it is as a candidate for an open seat.”

In 2010, he said he spent every single day campaigning by calling people and attending events, but now he is primarily going to continue doing his job. He also hopes to reach out to new parts of the district, set up some forums where he highlights some of his issues, and touch base with individual county GOP groups.

Benishek said if anyone wants to see his accomplishments over the past year, he has information compiled on his activities as part of his 2011 annual report.

“It’s more than 100 pages of what we actually did in our office over the past year: the bills that I sponsored, co-sponsored, just a report to the constituents of what we’ve done,” he explained. “We had 68,000 different communications with constituents through the year. We’ve had about 1,800 individual instances where we’ve helped people out in dealing with the federal government.”

The report also highlights the different positions he has taken on issues, committee activities, and other initiatives.

To view the annual report, visit www.benishek.house.gov/2011AnnualReport.