Heather Wilson - U.S. House of Representatives - Tenure

Tenure

Wilson was the first woman to represent New Mexico since Georgia Lusk in the 1940s. Wilson was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of centrist Republican leaders. Wilson has appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.

According to Congressional Quarterly, from 2001 to 2003, Wilson voted in agreement with the Republican Party at least 90 percent of the time. This dropped to roughly 80 percent in 2004 and 2005. From 2001 to 2004, she voted in support of president George W. Bush nearly 90 percent of the time, falling to 70 percent in 2005. The Albuquerque Journal reported several instances in 2004 when Wilson acted in opposition to Republican interests: requiring the Bush administration to release cost figures for his prescription drug plan, lecturing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the importance of the Geneva Conventions during an Abu Ghraib hearing, and opposing a move by House Republicans to protect Tom Delay from his fundraising scandal. Critics said these were calculated moves to moderate her image for her upcoming election. Later, she lost her seat on the House Armed Services Committee due to the actions of Republican Joe Barton, an ally of Delay.

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 Motion to Recommit

In 2003, Wilson joined 221 Republicans and 1 Democrat in voting against a Motion to Recommit the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (HR 1). The motion would have deleted entire sections of the joint House and Senate compromise bill and replaced them with the respective Senate version. The sections pertained to allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The Secretary would have the authority to use the purchasing power of the federal government to negotiate contracts with manufacturers in order to ensure that enrollees in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit paid the lowest possible price. Drug manufacturers lobbied heavily against drug re-importation and price negotiations in part because of the lower consumer costs it would bring. The Motion to Recommit has been widely used as a political tool designed "to set up 30-second attack ads against vulnerable Members for supporting child molesters and pornography."

Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act

On January 21, 2004, legislation was introduced by Congressman Fred Upton to increase the fines and penalties for violating the prohibitions against the broadcast of obscene, indecent, or profane language. The effort was "fueled in large measure by the soaring number of complaints about indecency to the F.C.C., nearly 250,000 in 2003 from just 346 in 2001... ." On February 12, 2004, the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the bill, at which representatives of the Federal Communications Commission (Kathleen Q. Abernathy, Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps, Kevin Martin, and Michael Powell), major broadcasting corporations (Gail Berman of Fox Broadcasting Company, John Hogan of Clear Channel Communications, Mel Karmazin of Viacom, Harry Pappas of Pappas Telecasting Companies, Bud Paxson of Paxson Communications, Alex Wallau, of ABC, and Alan Wurtzel of ABC), and the National Football League (Paul Tagliabue) testified. During the hearing, Wilson denounced Karmazin saying, "You knew what you were doing. You knew what kind of entertainment you're selling, and you wanted us all to be abuzz, here in this room and on the playground in my kids' school, because it improves your ratings. It improves your market share, and it lines your pockets." Karmazin resigned from Viacom on, 2004. Even though "Congressional efforts, both bipartisan, were well under way before the Super Bowl ... ", CNN's Reliable Sources ran an episode titled, "Is Media Blowing Bush's National Guard Service Out of Proportion?; Congress Discovers Sex" on which Gail Shister, television columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, characterized the congressional hearings as "a tempest in a teacup" and "a great election year issue". Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times, called the hearings "congressional grandstanding." The bill, H.R. 3717, passed the House of Representatives on March 26, 2004 by a vote of 391-22-1.

NSA warrantless domestic surveillance

On February 7, 2006, Heather Wilson, while serving as Chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, called for a full congressional inquiry into the NSA warrantless surveillance. Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times said that "the congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and political liabilities" In an interview for the article, Wilson said, "The president has his duty to do, but I have mine too, and I feel strongly about that."

Fired U.S. attorneys

Wilson was accused of and later cleared of influencing the termination of a U.S. Attorney.

In February 2007, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias alleged that Wilson's competitive 2006 campaign for re-election to the House was a significant reason for his dismissal from the Justice Department. Both Wilson and Republican United States Senator Pete Domenici contacted Iglesias in October 2006.

In a March 2007 statement, Wilson said her October call to Iglesias was to resolve an allegation of ethical impropriety made against Mr. Iglesias. Iglesias denied the charge and Wilson took him at his word. Iglesias never reported the contact, as he was required to do by DOJ rules.

In July 2007, the United States House Committee on Ethics under the leadership of Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) did an initial review of the matter, including interviewing Mr. Iglesias. It decided not to proceed with any investigation of Wilson. The Justice Department also did a review. Wilson never contacted the Justice Department about Iglesias' performance and the matter was closed.

Environmental record

Wilson was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, the Chairs of which introduced legislation to make the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a cabinet department.

Wilson, along with 80 Democrats and 215 other Republicans, supported House passage of the conference report on the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which opponents argued would "reduce and expedite (speed up) environmental and judicial reviews of forest thinning projects. The bill would authorize $760 million a year from fiscal 2004 to fiscal 2008. The Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service would have the authorization to remove vegetation that could cause or assist the spread of wildfires, disease or insect infestation. All forest thinning project would come after public meetings had been held. Forest thinning would be restricted to land that is within a 1.5 miles of at-risk communities, high-risk land that serves as a home for threatened and endangered species, high-risk land in the area of municipal water sources and high-risk land that is specifically susceptible to disease or insect infestation."

Wilson, 36 Democrats, and 192 other Republicans supported House passage of the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005, which would have amended and reauthorized the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide greater results conserving and recovering listed species, and for other purposes, including: Repealing the authority to designate an area as "critical habitat" for an endangered species; Requiring the Secretary of the Interior to create "recovery plans" within two years of classifying species as endangered or threatened; Allowing recovery agreements with private citizens whose land may be part of a species recovery plan; Issuing grants to support private property owners who voluntarily help to increase the number of endangered or threatened species on their private land; Providing compensation in an amount no less than fair market value to private landowners who have had regulation imposed upon their land; and, Calling upon the Secretary to submit an annual cost analysis of the previous years spending to Congress, including the amount of Federal and State funds used for each species."

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, the political advocacy group's Political Action Committee (PAC), named Wilson to its 2006 "Dirty Dozen" list. of members of Congress targeted for defeat by the LCV in the 2006 elections." As justification for inclusion on the list, the LCVAF stated: "The key purpose of this report is to shine a spotlight on Members of Congress who have consistently sided with the energy industry and against the interests of those they are elected to represent," said LCV President Gene Karpinski. "Each of these seven voted for the disastrous, backward-looking energy bill, which gave billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to oil companies at a time of record breaking profits. All voted to drill in the Arctic Refuge and, with the exception of Rep. Harris, all voted against sensible clean energy solutions such as increased fuel economy standards for cars and trucks." The LCVAF also issued a press release in which Wilson was criticized by New Mexico farmers for what they saw as her anti-environment stance: she voted against a $58 million dollar fund for voluntary conservation measures in the state. The League of Conservation Voters gave Wilson an "abysmal" rating on its 2003 National Scorecard, rebuking her for taking more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from the energy lobby.