Long Island's Congressman-elect, Timothy Bishop, focusing on

Long Island Business News, Dec 27, 2002 by Martin Cantor

Congressman-elect Timothy Bishop considers himself an environmental activist, and he says he plans to work to guide Congress toward refocusing President Bush's national energy policy.

Long Island's freshman representative from the First District in Suffolk County will begin that campaign Jan. 7 when he takes his oath of office. Bishop, a Democrat and the former provost at Long Island University's Southampton College, upset first-term Rep. Felix Grucci, R-Patchogue, in the November election.

In a recent interview, Bishop talked about a wide range of issues, ranging from the environment to taxes. He made it clear that he believes the nation's economy and the environment are inextricably linked. On Long Island, environmental issues have a particularly profound impact on fishing, agriculture, tourism and the second home market in the Hamptons. All of those industries contribute to the local economy that sustains many of his constituents. Not surprisingly, he favors open space preservation and the containment of urban sprawl.

Bishop also expressed concern about the financial pressures on those who run family farms. Because estate tax issues often force farmers to turn their land into housing subdivisions, Bishop would like to exempt such families from estate taxes when they pass a farm from one generation to the next.

On the energy front, Bishop said the United States is too dependent on fossil fuel sources, leaving the nation vulnerable to a reduction in oil supplies that could occur during a war with Iraq. He said the nation's energy policy needs to focus more on renewable energy resources.

Bishop said he believes the nation could eliminate its dependency on foreign oil by raising the minimum fuel efficiency standard for consumer vehicles such as autos and SUVs by approximately three miles per gallon. The EPA recently asked for only a one mile per gallon efficiency improvement for SUVs.

Economic development and tax relief are also on Bishop's agenda. With Long Island's economy experiencing job losses, Bishop wants to attract jobs that create investments in renewable energy technology, systems that focus on energy conservation and the elimination of greenhouse gases. One such effort is the Long Island Power Authority's planned installation of electricity generating windmills in the Atlantic Ocean off Montauk Point.

Like Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, Bishop also believes in investing in human capital. Noting that one in five schools in America are substandard, Bishop said he wants to see new federal funding for school construction on Long Island.

He also expressed concern about the sluggish regional economy and its impact on working family households. He called Congress' failure to extend unemployment benefits to the 750,000 unemployed Americans whose benefits are expiring an "obscenity." He would delay the president's proposed tax cut for the wealthiest one percent of Americans in favor of tax cuts for working families because they would be more likely to spend the money immediately. One such targeted tax cut would be the payroll tax, which impacts working families and the middle class proportionately more than the wealthy.

Bishop's plate is full, to say the least. He knows full well that Republicans are standing in line to oppose him in two years, and he intends to make their job difficult. He hopes that by focusing on the needs of his constituents, preserving Long Island's environment, providing more resources to education, reducing taxes for those working hard to make ends meet and reducing dependence on foreign oil, he'll show that he was the man the district really wanted in the first place.