Throughout the month of August, I hosted community office hours, held meetings with farm families, spoke at civic clubs, toured hospitals and universities, attended summer festivals, welcomed home troops, celebrated the 70th birthday of Social Security, and met with local community leaders.  All across the Fourth District, the same concerns resonated among residents.  Arkansans are concerned about the unprecedented gas prices, protecting Social Security, and drought relief for farm families.

I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to lower the price of gasoline.  I am co-sponsoring H.R. 299, which requires the President to suspend acquisitions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).   This legislation also instructs the President to direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Attorney General to exercise vigorous oversight over the oil markets to protect the American people from price gouging and unfair practices at the gas pump.  I have also co-sponsored H.R. 1398, legislation that mandates we have ten percent ethanol in all gas by the year 2010 and five percent biodiesel in all diesel by the year 2010.  This legislation will allow the U.S. to become less dependent on foreign oil and provide a new market for our farm families. 

Arkansans of all ages expressed concern about the President’s plan to privatize Social Security.  I will continue my efforts to protect Social Security and ensure the Social Security safety net created by President Roosevelt in 1935 will continue to pay beneficiaries, in full, the security they have worked a lifetime to receive. 

Farm families are dealing with exorbitant diesel prices, abnormally low rainfall levels, and are facing the potential for widespread crop failure.  I am working to secure federal natural disaster aid to our farmers and look forward to working with our Congressional Delegation to help alleviate the burden on Arkansas’s farmers.  As we begin to draft a new farm bill to be enacted in 2007, establishing disaster programs within the bill will be one of my top priorities.

As the summer draws to a close this Labor Day weekend, I encourage you to keep in your thoughts and prayers Hurricane Katrina victims in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  I hope that you will visit www.redcross.org for information as to how you can assist ongoing relief efforts for our southern neighbors.

Each year, I truly look forward to August as a time that I can visit with constituents throughout Arkansas, learning how I can best serve our state’s residents in our nation’s capital.  As your Representative in the United States Congress, rest assured I will take your concerns to Washington, D.C. when the nation resumes business after the Labor Day holiday.  I will have the benefit of meetings and visits with you behind each and every decision I make.  I look forward to the important work that remains and will continue the fight for Arkansas’s working families.

“I am requesting that the Federal Trade Commission conduct an immediate investigation of the status of our nation's oil companies and refineries, how the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has impacted our domestic oil industry, and what can be done to ensure that climbing gas prices are not a result of unfair price gouging,” said Ross.  “Price gouging in the aftermath of what is arguably America’s worst natural disaster in history is intolerable and must be investigated.”

“As a result of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of evacuees from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama have fled to Arkansas for safety.  I traveled throughout the rural Fourth Congressional District of Arkansas in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina and have witnessed firsthand already inflated gas prices jump from $2.45 to $2.99 overnight.”

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there has been immeasurable damage to our nation’s oil production and refining infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, where 42% of our domestic oil is produced per day,” Ross continued.  “However, we must ensure that these skyrocketing gas prices are not the result of price gouging as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and our nation struggles to recover from the hurricane.” 

Ross is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which maintains oversight of the Federal Trade Commission