Freshman Congressman Steve Scalise (R-Metairie) told the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce Friday morning he was forced to hit the ground running after his recent election to fill Gov. Bobby Jindal’s 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. Congress.

Elected on May 3, Scalise was sworn into office on May 9, and without any preparation was put in the hot seat.

“Right after being sworn in, I had to go do 20 votes on the House floor,” Scalise said. “It’s been a hectic three weeks, and I’ve had no real orientation.”

Congressman Steve Scalise addresses members of the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce Friday. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

Despite that, Scalise sounded like a person who has been on the job for years instead of weeks. He has already been appointed to the House Committees on Veteran Affairs and Natural Resources, two issues close to Scalise’s heart.

As a member of the Committee of Natural Resources, Scalise told Chamber members he is working on getting tax revenue from the oil and gas industry to help pay for coastal restoration and rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He said the state won’t get these revenues for another five years, but he said he wants to make sure the funds go to coastal restoration.

He also said he wants to speed up the process of building another VA hospital in New Orleans and even getting a medical VA facility on the Northshore. Congress has allocated $650 million for the hospital, which is tentatively slated for New Orleans. However, Scalise said bonding issues and acquiring more land is holding up the project.

Since Hurricane Katrina, veterans have had to travel far to get medical treatment, spending their own money on travel, and Scalise thinks that has to stop.

“We can’t have this. Congress should at least help out the veterans by giving them money to go to local doctors and hospitals,” Scalise said.

Scalise said his biggest goal as a congressman is to help reduce spending by the federal government. For example, he voted against a bill that would provide $10 billion to Louisiana for hurricane protection, because the bill was amended to include a $25 billion tax increase, which he said is not needed. The Senate took out the tax increase and is sending it back to the House, and Scalise believes the bill will pass and be signed by President Bush.

He also voted against the massive farm bill because of subsidies to corn farmers for growing corn to be turned into ethanol.

“Ethanol is not an efficient fuel alternative,” Scalise said.

On the issue of fuel and increased gas prices, Scalise said the solution is simple. The U.S. has to do more drilling for oil, specifically in Alaska. He said, the U.S. cannot ask OPEC to lower fuel prices, when the country isn’t doing its part to find more oil. He said that environmentalists should know that today’s drilling technology is environmentally safe. He said the Democrats are to blame for no drilling in the U.S. He also said the country has to start using more nuclear energy and investing in electric car technology, hybrid cars, plus solar and wind power.

“We have to become completely independent of foreign oil,” he said.

He also said keeping oil out of the Strategic Oil Reserve is self-defeating. Not only does it decrease the country’s emergency oil supplies, but it will do nothing to decrease gas prices at the pump.

He told the Chamber audience he would like to see constitutional amendments forcing Congress to have a balanced federal budget and to allow the President to line-item veto the budget. He would like to see a spending cap imposed on the federal budget.

“This would decrease a lot of unnecessary spending and waste,” Scalise said, adding the generals on the ground in Iraq must be given “all the tools to win.” He thinks if this happens the war will end in a shorter time.

When asked what is the difference between working in the Louisiana Legislature and the U.S. Congress, Scalise said it was getting used to the idea of not having a lot of debate in Congress.

“Unlike the Legislature, there are no direct debates on issues in the House,” Scalise said. “It’s not easy, but it is a learning process.”