Many factors have contributed to the sharp increase in oil and natural gas prices in recent years. While some are outside Washington's control-most notably the rapidly growing global demand for energy-others are the result of policy mistakes made by the federal government during the 1990s. Correcting these mistakes would significantly improve the nation's future energy prospects and should form the core of the federal government's energy agenda for 2006.
Americans disagree on many areas of immigration policy, but not on the basic principle that only citizens should be able to vote in elections. To keep non-citizens from diluting citizens' votes,immigration and election officials must cooperate far moreeffectively, and state and federal officials must increase theirefforts to enforce the laws against non-citizen voting that arealready on the books.
The Secretary of Homeland Security has identified many systemicshortfalls that have retarded the development of a more effectivenational response system. Congress should support his proposals tofix the problem and consider reforming the grant allocationprocess, regional preparedness, and the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency's response mission to strengthen the Department'scapacity to deal with deadly disasters.
With Russia and the U.S. currently on the warpath during the escalating conflict in Ukraine, the world is again at serious risk of nuclear disaster, write