Press Releases

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Jim Risch met with Sergeant Samuel Manifold of Grangeville during a tour of the Egypt/Israel border earlier this week. The stop was one of many that Risch is scheduled to make during his visit to the Middle East. The U.S. has some 650 troops currently serving in the Sinai Peninsula […]

I look forward to meeting with the various government and policy leaders on this trip. The discussions I have with them will provide valuable insight for my work on the Foreign Relations and other committees on which I serve.

I am excited to be in my official Senate office. The added space will allow me and my staff to better serve Idahoans who both stop by my office or call and write from the state.

Once again Congress is demonstrating that they cannot control their spending. We are in an economic crisis and the response is to spend, and then to spend some more.

I am pleased that additional funding has been made available to accelerate the environmental cleanup work at INL that will meet the obligations of the agreement between the State and the DOE.

Idaho needs to further develop our bountiful geothermal and biomass resources to meet future energy needs. We need trained technicians as these resources are developed and our community colleges are an excellent place to provide this training.

When our families and businesses have to make do with less, so should our federal government. This amendment would have just frozen agency spending at last year's level. But we were not successful in even freezing spending, let along cutting spending. Again, Congress is still conducting business as usual and I am very disappointed that this spending spree continues.

In these difficult economic times Congress approved 6.7 percent more in spending over the previous year, and that doesn’t include the TARP and stimulus spending. When families lose income, they reduce their spending. When the Federal government loses revenue, Congress spends more!

The President delivered a very good speech and a speech people can agree with in most respects. It was light on details, but I was delighted to hear he is turning his attention to what we have said is the root of the problem—the frozen credit in the banking sector and the housing market.

I am honored to serve as Ranking member on the Subcommittee on Energy. The availability, sustainability and cost of energy are the biggest challenges of future generations. A strong economy and quality of life are directly linked to energy, and our obligation is to see that the American people get the best of both.