CARDIN URGES “BIG 5” OIL EXECUTIVES TO COMPLY WITH NEW TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, at a hearing Thursday on subsidies and tax breaks for the oil industry urged the top executives of the top five oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and Conoco Phillips -- "to work with us to end corruption and ensure transparency in mineral-rich countries that depend on the extractive industry for their wealth." In questioning the oil company executives, Senator Cardin noted transparency in oil-… Continue Reading

CARDIN CO-SPONSORS DREAM ACT

WASHINGTON -U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) has co-sponsored the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, along with Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and 30 other Senators. This narrowly tailored bill would give undocumented students a chance to earn legal status if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and complete two years of colle… Continue Reading

CARDIN INTRODUCES BILL TO HELP CONNECT UNDERSERVED APPALACHIAN REGION WITH COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) has introduced legislation with Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA) to help facilitate the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS), which serves as a critical link between the geographically isolated Appalachian region and major commercial corridors. Construction of the ADHS was authorized in 1965 by Congress and is 88 percent complete. The remainder of the highway must be constructed in the mid-Atlantic portion of Appalachia and d… Continue Reading

CARDIN CO-SPONSORS BIPARTISAN RESOLUTION CONDEMNING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN SYRIA

WASHINGTON -U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today has co-sponsored a resolution strongly condemning the escalating crackdown in Syria, warning that President Bashar Al Assad has lost legitimacy and urging President Obama to keep pressure on his regime. The resolution was introduced by U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). The bipartisan resolution calls for the expansion of targeted U.S. sanctions against Syrian officials responsible for human rights abuses, including again… Continue Reading

CARDIN SIGNS LETTER TO BIG OIL URGING THEM TO REJECT TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, signed a letter today urging the Big 5 oil company executives to reject any more taxpayer subsidies in light of the fact that they have made nearly $1 trillion in profits over last decade. Senator Cardin has co-sponsored legislation that would end $4 billion a year in subsidies and tax breaks to the five biggest oil companies: Exxon Mobil Corp, Conoco Phillips, Chevron Corp., Shell, and BP America. The lett… Continue Reading

CARDIN CO-SPONSORS BILL TO END TAXPAYER HANDOUTS TO “BIG 5” OIL COMPANIES

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) has co-sponsored legislation to repeal tax loopholes that help subsidize the five largest, most profitable oil companies in the world and use the savings to reduce the deficit. Oil production is one of the most heavily subsidized industries in the United States, receiving more than $4 billion in tax breaks and subsidies every year. At the same time, gas prices have risen to roughly $4 a gallon. "In a time of record high gas prices and budget defi… Continue Reading

NOMINATION OF JAMES COLE TO BE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE US

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I greatly respect my friend from Alabama, Senator Sessions, although I come to a different conclusion in regard to Jim Cole. I have worked with Jim Cole. I was part of a legislative committee in the House of Representatives that had to do some very difficult work on an ethics issue involving a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. It was a tough decision to bring together six Members of the House--three Democrats, three Republicans--and do it in a way that w… Continue Reading

CARDIN COMMEMORATES BICENTENNIAL OF NATIONAL ROAD IN CUMBERLAND, MD

CUMBERLAND, MD - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today celebrated the Bicentennial of the National Road, which was the nation's first federally financed infrastructure project, with construction beginning in Cumberland on May 8, 1811. Senator Cardin walked in Downtown Cumberland's National Road Bicentennial Parade, then toured the Allegany Museum's National Road Exhibit and presented a copy of his Congressional Record statement on National Road's bicentennial to be encased in the National Road B… Continue Reading

CARDIN, MIKULSKI APPLAUD $180,000 GRANT TO HELP ELIMINATE HEALTH DISPARITIES IN WESTERN MARYLAND

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (both D-MD) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded a $180,000 Rural Health Network Development grant to the Western Maryland Area Health Education Center on behalf of the Mountain Health Alliance (MHA). MHA will use the funding to expand access to and improve the quality and delivery of essential health care services in the Hancock regio… Continue Reading

SENATOR CARDIN INTRODUCES BILL TO FUND GREATER NUTRIA ERADICATION EFFORT

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) has reintroduced bipartisan legislation to expand nutria eradication efforts in Maryland and Louisiana and to begin eradication programs in four additional coastal states. The nutria is a large, semi-aquatic rodent that has often been described as "an eating machine" and can eat up to 25 percent of its body weight in plants per day. The nutria is a high-reproductive species that has devastated wetlands in Maryland, Louisiana and other coastal states,… Continue Reading

CARDIN JOINS 49 SENATORS IN LETTER TO PRESIDENT IN OPPOSITION TO MEDICARE PRIVATIZATION

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a member of the Senate Finance and Budget committees, has joined 49 Senators in a letter to President Obama expressing opposition to the plan passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would privatize the Medicare program. "The House Republican budget for Fiscal Year 2012 would end Medicare as we know it and throw seniors into the private market with no more than an insufficient voucher to offset the rising cost of private health insurance," th… Continue Reading

FLOOR STATEMENT BY U.S. SENATOR BEN CARDIN PROTECTING AMERICA’S WATERS

Protecting America's Waters Mr. President, this month, people all over the country will grab their tackle boxes and head off in pursuit of elusive trout in mountain streams. Mothers and fathers will turn on kitchen faucets and hand their children glasses of clean, pure drinking water. Farmers will irrigate their spring plantings of vegetables and grains with clear water from nearby streams. All over the United States, Americans will take advantage of the simple but priceless natural r… Continue Reading

CARDIN SAYS U.S. AID TO PAKISTAN MUST BE FOCUSED ON PARTNERSHIP WITH PAKISTANI PEOPLE

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection, at a hearing on Pakistan today said that U.S. aid to Pakistan must be tied to Pakistan meeting certain conditions and focused on partnering with the people of Pakistan. "In Pakistan, we have an obligation and responsibility to American taxpayers to make … Continue Reading

CARDIN INTRODUCES BILL TO REDUCE POLLUTED STORMWATER RUNOFF FROM HIGHWAYS

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), chairman of Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has introduced legislation aimed at treating and containing highway stormwater runoff at or near highways to prevent polluted stormwater from reaching nearby rivers, streams or other waters. The Safe Treatment of Polluted Stormwater Runoff (STOPS Runoff) Act will require the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop performance-based standard… Continue Reading

CARDIN SALUTES SACRIFICE OF MARYLAND SOLDIER RETURNED HOME FROM WWII AFTER 66 YEARS MISSING IN ACTION

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) today paid special tribute to Marylander Private First Class (Pfc) Robert B. Bayne of Dundalk as he was finally returned to his family after nearly seven decades of being interred in an "unknown" grave in France. Pfc Bayne was one of three servicemen missing in action while patrolling the Rhine River in March 1945. Pfc Bayne will be buried in Dundalk on Saturday, May 7. "I join all Marylanders in honoring Private First Class Bayne of Dundalk… Continue Reading

CARDIN, MIKULSKI ANNOUNCE $50,000 TO EXPAND BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS IN GARRETT COUNTY

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (both D-MD) today announced that the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Garrett County Board of Commissioners' broadband feasibility study. Currently, only 65 percent of households in the county have access to broadband Internet. The lack of broadband Internet access in Garrett County impacts the community in education, economic development, and community support services like public safety and … Continue Reading

CARDIN CO-SPONSORS BILL TO ELIMINATE ETHANOL SUBSIDY, TARIFF

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) has joined U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) in introducing the Ethanol Subsidy and Tariff Repeal Act, S. 871, which will fully eliminate the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) and fully repeal the tariff on imported ethanol. "The ethanol industry does not need nor does it deserve subsidies and tariffs that are costly to American taxpayers, harm our environment and increasing the cost of gas," said Se… Continue Reading

CARDIN, MIKULSKI ANNOUNCE FEDERAL FUNDING TO RECRUIT VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS IN FREDERICK COUNTY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) today announced the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services was awarded $548,120 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program to recruit volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians. As a member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Mikulski fights each year to increase… Continue Reading

STATEMENT BY U.S. SENATOR BEN CARDIN ON THE NEED TO PROTECT MEDICAID

I stand with the National Association of Counties and many other groups across America in denouncing the House Republicans' plan to block grant and reduce funding for the Medicaid program. As the leaders of jurisdictions across Maryland know, stable and adequate Medicaid funding from the federal government is necessary to help our state provide health services to Marylanders who are most in need. Medicaid is a federal-state partnership, with the federal government paying 50 percent of the cost… Continue Reading

STATEMENT BY U.S. SENATOR BEN CARDIN ON NAS REPORT ON NUTRIENTS & SEDIMENT REDUCTION IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), chair of the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today released the following statement regarding the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science's report on "Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: An Evaluation of Program Strategies and Implementation." The 183-page report contains an evaluation of the Bay Program's Tracking and Accountability as well as the… Continue Reading