President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is actively lobbying a number of world leaders to support Indonesia’s stance on climate change he promoted in the national statement read at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said the President had met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd soon after reading out the statement.
He is scheduled to meet with chairman of the ASEAN and Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva later in the day as the climate conference is nearing its end.
“The core (of the talks) is to bridge the different interests between developed and developing countries to ensure a new consensus will be produced (at the climate summit),” Dino briefed reporters before the meeting with Abhisit.
On Wednesday night, Yudhoyono met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg upon arrival in Copenhagen.
Prior to his Copenhagen stop, the President also met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during which they agreed to ensure the success of the climate change summit.
Dino added that Yudhoyono had also sent Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to lobby Sudan, which chairs the G77 economic group.
“There are high mistrust and big different (interests)… Presently countries are intensively lobbying one another to create a new consensus. And this might lead to a prolonged conference,” Dino said.
Yudhoyono unveiled five points in his statements at the high-level segment of the climate change summit, which was attended by some 110 world leaders.
Among the points are that he urges developed countries to cut their emissions by 40 percent by 2020 and to provide bigger amount of funds to mitigate the climate change.
Source:thejakartapost.com/
Showing posts with label House Senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House Senate. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Review Due On Lobbying Effort, Riverfront
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 9:16 AM CST
A year-end review of the city’s lobbying efforts and a progress report on a riverfront opportunity analysis are in store when the Fort Smith Board of Directors meets for a special study session Thursday evening.
According to a memo from Deputy City Administrator Ray Gosack, two representatives from Watts Partners, the city’s Washington lobbying agency, will report on current lobbying activity and plan future efforts in Washington, D.C.
The lobbyists will be seeking clear direction on funding priorities for the coming year.
Federal budget requests will likely be due in February, and requests for the next highway authorization bill will likely be due some time in 2010.
“It’s important for the board to reaffirm that the existing priorities are still current,” Gosack wrote.
Although the order can be rearranged and new priorities added, he cautioned against sending “confusing signals” to the congressional delegation or making wholesale changes that could undo efforts on several multi-year initiatives.
The top five previously established funding priorities are:
• Interstate 49 between Interstate 40 and U.S. 71 South.
• Industrial site improvements at Chaffee Crossing.
• May Branch flood control project.
• Wet-weather sanitary sewer system improvements.
• U.S. Marshals Museum.
Also Thursday, property owner Bennie Westphal and consultant John Castro with the Dallas-area firm Cushman & Wakefield will report on progress in the yearlong analysis of riverfront development opportunities.
Westphal, whose family owned an 80-acre tract along the riverfront and adjacent to the property they donated for the future U.S. Marshals Museum, approached the city in January seeking a private-public partnership to help pay for the analysis.
He envisioned a development that would include a minor league baseball park, a concert and hockey arena, restaurants, retailers, a hotel, a pair of condo and office towers, a park and a wedding chapel.
In early February, directors agreed to contribute a third of the cost of the analysis, about $62,000. The city entered into a contract with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, which in turn contracted with Castro for the study. Westphal was a third party to the latter contract.
Castro said in January that the opportunity analysis would help define what the property could be and would also identify the kinds of things needed to create jobs, attract people and meet the “live-work-play” ideal of mixed-use development.
Directors ranked riverfront and economic development at the top of their budgeting priority list in January, followed closely by quality of place. In October, they prioritized a number of quality-of-place initiatives, putting a $20 million riverfront sports venue high on the list. However, they put off a decision about funding sources in the face of tough economic conditions.
On Dec. 1 the board passed a no-frills budget that allowed no funding for quality of place.
The special study session is 6 p.m. Thursday at Elm Grove Community Center, 1901 N. Greenwood Ave.
Source:swtimes.com/
A year-end review of the city’s lobbying efforts and a progress report on a riverfront opportunity analysis are in store when the Fort Smith Board of Directors meets for a special study session Thursday evening.
According to a memo from Deputy City Administrator Ray Gosack, two representatives from Watts Partners, the city’s Washington lobbying agency, will report on current lobbying activity and plan future efforts in Washington, D.C.
The lobbyists will be seeking clear direction on funding priorities for the coming year.
Federal budget requests will likely be due in February, and requests for the next highway authorization bill will likely be due some time in 2010.
“It’s important for the board to reaffirm that the existing priorities are still current,” Gosack wrote.
Although the order can be rearranged and new priorities added, he cautioned against sending “confusing signals” to the congressional delegation or making wholesale changes that could undo efforts on several multi-year initiatives.
The top five previously established funding priorities are:
• Interstate 49 between Interstate 40 and U.S. 71 South.
• Industrial site improvements at Chaffee Crossing.
• May Branch flood control project.
• Wet-weather sanitary sewer system improvements.
• U.S. Marshals Museum.
Also Thursday, property owner Bennie Westphal and consultant John Castro with the Dallas-area firm Cushman & Wakefield will report on progress in the yearlong analysis of riverfront development opportunities.
Westphal, whose family owned an 80-acre tract along the riverfront and adjacent to the property they donated for the future U.S. Marshals Museum, approached the city in January seeking a private-public partnership to help pay for the analysis.
He envisioned a development that would include a minor league baseball park, a concert and hockey arena, restaurants, retailers, a hotel, a pair of condo and office towers, a park and a wedding chapel.
In early February, directors agreed to contribute a third of the cost of the analysis, about $62,000. The city entered into a contract with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, which in turn contracted with Castro for the study. Westphal was a third party to the latter contract.
Castro said in January that the opportunity analysis would help define what the property could be and would also identify the kinds of things needed to create jobs, attract people and meet the “live-work-play” ideal of mixed-use development.
Directors ranked riverfront and economic development at the top of their budgeting priority list in January, followed closely by quality of place. In October, they prioritized a number of quality-of-place initiatives, putting a $20 million riverfront sports venue high on the list. However, they put off a decision about funding sources in the face of tough economic conditions.
On Dec. 1 the board passed a no-frills budget that allowed no funding for quality of place.
The special study session is 6 p.m. Thursday at Elm Grove Community Center, 1901 N. Greenwood Ave.
Source:swtimes.com/
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
House, Senate Craft Ethics Reform Bills
A House committee has unanimously approved a statehouse ethics reform package, while Senate Republicans have unveiled a similar bill of their own.
House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend) is spearheading the push to redraw the lines between legislators and lobbyists, following what he says was an unprecedented feeding frenzy of lobbyists in the closing weeks of this year's session.
Bauer's bill would require legislators or executive branch policymakers to observe a one-year "cooling-off period" out of state government before accepting lobbying jobs. The executive branch already has such a rule, but in the form of an executive order from Governor Daniels, not state law.
Several legislators have quit in the middle of their terms in recent years to lobby their former colleagues, including one who resigned just three days after being sworn in for a new term.
Bauer's proposal would also ban conflicts of interest within lobbying firms. He says there have been cases in which different members of the same firm have represented all sides of the same issue.
The bill would halve the threshold for legislators to disclose gifts from lobbyists to $50 from the current $100. And it would ban political contributions from anyone receiving more than $100,000 in state contracts.
Common Cause and other citizen watchdog groups praise the legislation but urge legislators to do more. Common Cause is calling for an outright ban on gifts from lobbyists, public financing of campaigns, and a two-year cooling-off period to match the gap between legislative elections.
The Senate version, authored by Indianapolis Republican Patricia Miller, mirrors Bauer's one-year moratorium and the $50 disclosure limit. It adds a requirement that university officials register as lobbyists, and bans statewide elected officials from using office funds for radio or TV ads.
Bauer says he supports those additions, and would even eliminate the one exception Miller allows to the advertising ban, for public service announcements from the governor's office regarding health or safety. But the speaker says legislators should guard against turning the bill into an "auction" of who can propose the most restrictive requirements.
"If you load it up too much, you're going to kill it," Bauer says.
Source:wibc.com/
House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend) is spearheading the push to redraw the lines between legislators and lobbyists, following what he says was an unprecedented feeding frenzy of lobbyists in the closing weeks of this year's session.
Bauer's bill would require legislators or executive branch policymakers to observe a one-year "cooling-off period" out of state government before accepting lobbying jobs. The executive branch already has such a rule, but in the form of an executive order from Governor Daniels, not state law.
Several legislators have quit in the middle of their terms in recent years to lobby their former colleagues, including one who resigned just three days after being sworn in for a new term.
Bauer's proposal would also ban conflicts of interest within lobbying firms. He says there have been cases in which different members of the same firm have represented all sides of the same issue.
The bill would halve the threshold for legislators to disclose gifts from lobbyists to $50 from the current $100. And it would ban political contributions from anyone receiving more than $100,000 in state contracts.
Common Cause and other citizen watchdog groups praise the legislation but urge legislators to do more. Common Cause is calling for an outright ban on gifts from lobbyists, public financing of campaigns, and a two-year cooling-off period to match the gap between legislative elections.
The Senate version, authored by Indianapolis Republican Patricia Miller, mirrors Bauer's one-year moratorium and the $50 disclosure limit. It adds a requirement that university officials register as lobbyists, and bans statewide elected officials from using office funds for radio or TV ads.
Bauer says he supports those additions, and would even eliminate the one exception Miller allows to the advertising ban, for public service announcements from the governor's office regarding health or safety. But the speaker says legislators should guard against turning the bill into an "auction" of who can propose the most restrictive requirements.
"If you load it up too much, you're going to kill it," Bauer says.
Source:wibc.com/
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