News

A letter to the Editor appeared on SILive.com from Anna Donlon, Eltingville:

Re: “Move to put P.A. in fed pocket,” Advance, Dec. 16:

I totally agree with Rep. Michael Grimm and New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenburg. Your article was spot on. 

It’s too bad more of our public officials don’t get on the bandwagon. If nothing is done now, what will happen when the toll is $12? Where does it go from there?

SILive.com reports:

Needless to say, the Port Authority does not have a lot of fans these days among Staten Islanders, or, for that matter, among all those other drivers who are now forced to pay sharply increased tolls on Port Authority crossings.

So any initiative that might rattle the Port Authority’s cage is likely to get strong support around here. That’s how angry people are. Commuters want to see the arrogant, unaccountable agency brought to heel for a change.

PolitickerNY.com reports:

Reports coming out of Washington show that it appears as if the House GOP has blinked and will accept the Senate bill on the payroll tax cut. In a statement sent out moments ago, Congressman Michael Grimm of Staten Island assailed his fellow Republicans, for as he put, having confidence in the trustworthiness of President Barack Obama.

“Republicans made one big mistake in the payroll tax debate, and that was having any confidence that President Obama’s intentions were sincere,” he said.

Congressman Grimm's op-ed appeared in today's Roll Call:

The end of a three-decade long civil war in Sri Lanka has given the country an incredible opportunity to address the war's root cause — long-standing ethnic tension — and forge ahead with its plans for an open, democratic and prosperous future. The war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam was devastating to all Sri Lankans: Countless lives were lost, individuals were stripped of their livelihoods and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.

SILive.com reports:

Rep. Michael Grimm voted with the majority yesterday when the GOP-controlled House defeated a Senate bill that would have extended a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months.

Republicans instead demanded immediate talks with the Senate on a plan to extend the cut for a full year.

But the Senate has already left town for the holidays. "Two months is a political joke," said Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).

"It's unacceptable. They want to go home and have turkey and ham with their families."

SILive.com reports:

President Obama's signature is all that's needed for the St. George Post Office to be named in honor of Marine Sgt. Angel Mendez, who was killed as he went to the aid of his platoon commander in Vietnam.

The legislation was shepherded through the House of Representatives by Rep. Michael Grimm.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports:

Buried deep within the bill signed into law by President Barack Obama to avoid a government shutdown, there is a provision that will keep the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from moving out of the Fort Hamilton Army Base.

Obama signed the bill to keep the federal government funded on Saturday. Under the Fort Hamilton-related provision, the corps is prohibited from using government funds to relocate to another space. The corps had expressed an interest earlier this year to leave Fort Hamilton for swanky office space in Tribeca.

SILive.com reports:

The party is really over come New Year's Day.

Staten Islanders already fed up with Port Authority toll hikes, will have to deal with yet another tariff increase after they cross over into New Jersey.

Island commuters can look forward to a 53 percent toll hike on the Turnpike and 50 percent toll increase on the Garden State Parkway.

The Hill reports:

Jon Corzine’s recent run of appearances before a handful of congressional panels has allowed Republicans to give Democrats a taste of their own medicine.

Where in recent years Democrats have used the financial crisis and the bank bailouts to push for strong financial regulation, Republicans are using Corzine’s testimony of his time as the head of financial firm MF Global to criticize financial regulations they say don’t work and legislation that they want to repeal, like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Dodd-Frank reforms.

SILive.com reports:

Citing recent Port Authority toll hikes, amid charges of mismanagement and a lack of accountability, Rep. Michael Grimm and U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg have introduced a bill to return oversight of the bi-state agency to the federal government.

Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) and Lautenberg (D-N.J.) say their Consumer Protection Act would restore the ability of the U.S. Department of Transportation to determine whether toll hikes are "just and reasonable" -- something it had the power to do until 1987.