Rep. Wolf seeks Obama’s support for SAFE

by Jonathan Hunley, news & messenger
Published: November 21, 2008

Rep. Frank Wolf on Thursday asked the nation's next president to support an economic panel he and a Tennessee congressman have proposed.

Wolf, a Republican, wrote a letter to President-elect Barack Obama seeking his endorsement of legislation he and Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper have drafted. It would create the SAFE ("Securing America's Future Economy") Commission, a bipartisan group that would examine government spending and tax policy and make recommendations that Congress would be required to act upon.

It would operate similar to the Base Realignment and Closing Commission, according to a statement from Wolf, who represents Virginia's 10th District, which includes Manassas, Manassas Park and part of Prince William County. It has the support of more than 110 members of Congress, according to Wolf's office, and compan-ion legislation has been introduced in the Senate.

Wolf wrote to Obama that the recent financial bailout legislation was necessary but that it addressed only a "symptom of a far greater financial crisis on the horizon."

"How will we remain competitive, how will we rebuild our manufacturing base, how will our children com-pete in the global marketplace with the tsunami of mandatory spending obligations coming closer to our shores and the national debt racing past $10 trillion?" he asked in the letter.

Those questions form part of the impetus for the commission, which Wolf wrote would be different from other advisory panels because the legislation creating it requires Congress to vote up or down on its plan.

"Your active support of the SAFE Commission effort in Congress would signal the critical immediacy of attacking this problem head on in the only way I believe it will be solved—by working together in a bipartisan way," Wolf wrote to Obama.

Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.