The Local Delegation: Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.)

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia's 8th District was online Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions about Congress's recently finished session, and the one that will start after the August break.

The transcript follows.

Related Discussions: Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Rep. Albert R. Wynn.

Rep. Moran has been a U.S. congressman serving Northern Virginia since 1990. Moran is a co-founder of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of approximately 75 centrist House Democrats committed to fiscal responsibility, free trade, technology, and maintaining America's security and economic competitiveness.

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Rep. Jim Moran: Good afternoon. Glad to be with you. Looking forward to some thought-provoking questions.

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Lawrence, Kan.: You're one of the chief proponents of moving Gitmo prisoners to lockups stateside -- including to Fort Leavenworth, just a few miles down the road from where I'm writing. There's lots of local concerns that such a move would raise our profile as a terrorist target. How do you answer such objections?

Rep. Jim Moran: We prosecuted the so-called 20th hijacker in Alexandria, Va., without problems. Fort Leavenworth has many prisoners who would be a greater threat than the vast majority of Gitmo detainees would represent. Bear in mind that about 5 percent of them actually were involved in combat against U.S. forces.

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San Francisco: What is up with your colleague Brian Baird from Washington State? Has he completely gone over to the dark side on the Iraq occupation for his fifteen minutes of CNN fame? It's scary how quickly Democrats get television time when they decide to support the president's policy.

Rep. Jim Moran: I just returned from Iraq and I can understand why Brian got the impression he did. Our military and the Iraqi government all are singing off the same song sheet -- which is to say that everything is going on schedule and the worst thing that could happen would be to withdraw our unlimited support for the operation. This is the same spin that Gen. Petraeus provided two months before the '04 election, i.e. that as head of training he could attest that more than 200,000 Iraqis were trained and ready to defend their country. The mission was accomplished, in other words -- President Bush was re-elected.

The fact is that while our military is doing an outstanding job, the result of their efforts is going to be a Shia-dominated theocracy where women's rights and human rights are going to be suppressed, and Iran's influence in the region will be enhanced. How is this worth the sacrifice of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars?

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Alexandria, Va.: As a co-founder of the New Democrat Coalition, I am curious about your philosophy regarding earmarks in lieu of the New Democrat Coalition's pledge to be more fiscally responsible and transparent.

Rep. Jim Moran: Every dollar gets earmarked, it's only a question of who does the earmarking. When the administration chose to cut the funding to New York City and Northern Virginia by 45 percent so as to spread it out to more rural areas (read, larger Republican constituencies) we saw the result of executive branch earmarking. I can defend every dollar I have earmarked for my congressional district. Now that we have full transparency -- which I strongly supported -- I think that the public is more equitably served, and the democratic process will regulate any abuses.

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Arlington, Va.: Arlington and Fairfax trying to put light rail down Columbia Pike. Do you support this? Will there be federal help in making it happen?

Rep. Jim Moran: Not only do I support putting light rail down Columbia Pike, I have been earmarking money for this purpose in the Transportation Appropriations bill for the past several years, and will continue to do so until we get an administration that recognizes the need for public transit in urban communities like Arlington.

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Alexandria, Va.: As a Virginian with consistent and pretty accurate views, what is your prediction on whether Sen. Warner will or will not retire after this session?

Rep. Jim Moran: I would be surprised if Sen. John Warner were to run again -- just as I would be surprised if Rep. Tom Davis doesn't run for his seat against former Gov. Mark Warner.

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Frederick, Md.: Rep. Moran, do you believe that the Shiite militia roll-back will affect Congress's view of political progress in Iraq? With this being one of the key "milestones" in the funding legislation, I wonder if this will affect the negotiations. I for one don't believe it should.

washingtonpost.com: Al-Sadr Orders Six-Month Shutdown of Mahdi Army (Post, Aug. 29)

Rep. Jim Moran: The Shiite militia, the largest of which is the JAM (Jaish al Mahdi) is still a dominant factor in Iraq -- and is working in fairly close coordination with the Iraqi police forces, which are dominated by Shia extremists. They already have turned multi-ethnic Baghdad into an overwhelmingly Shia city. The pull-back of the militia is a temporary thing and in my view done solely for the American public's consumption.

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Washington: What are your thoughts on the Clean Money, Clean Elections bill that would allow public financing of congressional campaigns? Do you believe that it would save taxpayers more than it would cost?

Rep. Jim Moran: I support public financing of elections. It is the only way to ensure that our electoral system is more beholden to voters than contributors.

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Alexandria, Va.: What is the status of the Public Service Academy bill that you introduced last session?

Rep. Jim Moran: We have insufficient support in the Congress today for expanding and improving the civil service at any level of government -- but with 90 percent of senior executives and half the civil service eligible for retirement in this decade, this attitude will improve. But it will take a president who respects the role of the public sector and understands that not all government work can be contracted out to the private sector to make the necessary investment to rebuild our civil service. When we have that environment, I do think that a public service academy comparable to our military academies will become an idea well worth considering, and I will do everything I can to make that happen.

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Anonymous: Did the Democratic Congress give in to illegal surveillance of the phone calls and e-mails of American citizen because they expect to be in the White House in 2008 and want the same ability to spy on us?

Rep. Jim Moran: No. The Democrats were afraid that if there had been a terrorist strike in August, they would have been vulnerable to criticism from the White House that it had been because of the NSA's inability to wiretap communications. The Senate had passed the president's bill and then gone home, and so if the House had passed a bill that was more respectful of the Constitution nothing would have gotten done until after Labor Day. Nevertheless, I argued strongly in the Democratic Congress against giving in to this White House ploy, and voted against the bill that passed.

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Bethesda, Md.: What changes do you believe should be made to No Child Left Behind so that education emphasizes learning rather than increasing test scores?

Rep. Jim Moran: Our federal education policy should reward improvement from the beginning of the school year in September until the end of the year in June. The deficiency of the No Child Left Behind law, which I voted against, is that it takes a cookie-cutter approach to all school systems without sufficient consideration for the proportion of non-English speaking immigrant children and the socioeconomic backgrounds of the children in many urban systems, whose single parents too often have less than a high school education. These are the very students that the federal government needs to be providing extra assistance to, because in many ways the conditions in which children are born are a reflection of federal policies. It is not surprising that across the nation, the state with the lowest standards is Texas. The reward system is perverse.

I have spoken with Rep. George Miller at length on this and I can assure you that the Democratic majority is going to change the NCLB law radically to reflect common sense and a more equitable distribution of federal funds.

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Arlington, Va.: Rep. Moran: Dulles rail is on the brink of collapse and there is plenty of blame to go around, as pointed out by Amy Gardner's excellent article this morning. I think most people recognize that the project has been mismanaged horribly and will not serve its stated purpose of addressing traffic and growth in Northern Virginia. What will you do to put an end to this mess and ensure that the people of Northern Virginia get the solutions they deserve? For example, there are other transit technologies that cost less and work better than our mechanically and financially-challenged Metro. Why are we not exploring these as options? By the way, I ride Metro everyday, and I would not recommend building another inch of new Metrorail service until the many problems with the existing system are resolved.

washingtonpost.com: As Dulles Rail Staggers, Players Share in Blame (Post, Aug. 29)

Rep. Jim Moran: Thanks for the question on Dulles rail. We knew from the beginning that this was going to be an uphill climb to secure $900 million in federal money because Dulles rail has the lowest cost-benefit ratio of any of the transit systems competing for the diminished pot of federal dollars. This is largely because of the cost for putting in four stations at Tysons.

The problem we have is that if we go around Tysons in order to get the system out to Dulles most efficiently and inexpensively, we will lose even more potential ridership, and those who drive into Tysons will experience even worse traffic congestion for decades to come.

I do have misgivings about the sole-source bidding process that goes all the way back to the Gilmore administration, but the Fairfax County Board, the state and the Washington Airports Authority allhave concluded that this is the best approach given the time and fiscal restraints we have to operate under. If the State, counties and property owners were willing to forgo the federal money, we certainly could start all over again with much greater decision-making latitude, but I don't think anyone is willing to give up the federal funds even with all their regulatory limitations -- such as the need for a time-consuming and costly environmental impact statement for any change in construction plans, including tunneling under Tysons.

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Pittsburgh: What are the prospects for appropriations to repair/replace deteriorating infrastructure, including old bridges?

Rep. Jim Moran: It is imperative that we invest more money in rebuilding our nation's physical infrastructure, much of which hasn't been replaced for 40-50 years. But there is no money with which to do this as long as the reduction of $3.5 trillion in federal revenue from the tax cuts of the past five years -- and the $500 billion we've put into the Iraq War -- continue to be higher priorities.

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Alexandria, Va.: Regarding civil service reform, what advice would you give a young person willing to leave the private sector and come work in Congress? How difficult is it to make this transition?

Rep. Jim Moran: Send us your resume.

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Bethesda, Md.: Sens. Dodd and Hagel ironically introduced legislation to focus more on and to finance infrastructure repairs and maintenance just hours before the bridge collapsed in Minnesota. Do you favor more emphasis on maintaining and repairing current infrastructure?

Rep. Jim Moran: Yes.

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Annandale, Va.: Congressional ratings are miserably low. From your perspective, what are the top three reasons why? And if you were in a leadership position, what would you do to improve them?

Rep. Jim Moran: The House has passed every bill it promised in the 2006 campaigns. Only two have gotten through the Senate, because their 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster by the minority stalled the rest. The minimum wage bill only was signed by the president because it was attached to the last Iraq Supplemental spending bill, which I opposed.

He vetoed the stem cell research bill and we were unable to override that veto. Similarly, we would be unable to override any veto of the legislation we are confident the American people want us to pass. As a result, we are at a stalemate, and the American people's frustration is well-warranted.

I think that we have to continue to do what we believe is right while working to create a political environment that will better reflect the priorities of our constituents. I have no realistic expectation that anything will change until after Jan. '09.

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Alexandria, Va.: Mr. Moran -- it has been shown that there will be no need for a full Environmental Impact Assessment if a tunnel were considered under Tysons Corner. National Environmental Protection Act experts have said that. The tunnel represent less of an impact to the environment. Will you insist on the American Way -- competitive bidding of this project to reduce costs?

Rep. Jim Moran: I don't know who it is that "has shown" you that an Environmental Impact Statement or even an Environmental Assessment is unnecessary for a tunnel through Tysons -- every federal official that we have talked to has said expressly the opposite. If you have info to the contrary, I'd sure be interested to see it -- as would my congressional colleagues.

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Richmond, Va.: How hard are you all going to fight the president on his $50 billion extra for the Iraq war?

washingtonpost.com: Bush Wants $50 Billion More for Iraq War (Post, Aug. 29)

Rep. Jim Moran: I am going to urge that the additional $50 billion the president is requesting be rejected and that the pending supplemental of approximately $145 billion become available only for the purpose of concluding our misguided military mission in Iraq.

The task of moving out our soldiers, equipment and facilities is going to be time-consuming and expensive -- all the more reason we should start now.

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Rep. Jim Moran: Thanks for all your questions. I wish I had the time to answer all of them.

Enjoyed the dialogue. Hope we can do this again soon.

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