In the News
U.S. policy on alternative fuel vehicles is at a turning point in the transition away from gasoline-powered engines, according to witnesses at a congressional hearing Thursday.
Delays in securing the metals and minerals to manufacture rechargeable electric motors are likely to mean China jumps in to take over the market, they said.
"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to discover and develop new electric vehicle technologies, said Venkat Srinivasan, a director of energy storage science at the Argonne National Laboratory.
The U.S. needs to create a "road map" to the batteries of the future even as it solves existing supply chain issues, experts told a House panel on Thursday.
President Biden has pushed domestic automakers to electrify their vehicle fleets, a goal that in the short term will require securing supply chains for critical minerals like lithium and cobalt that are used in lithium-ion batteries, experts say.
Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly more popular in the United States at a time when lawmakers acknowledge the country should make better investments in battery technology and its supply chain.
On Thursday, Rep. Bill Foster (D-Illinois) led a field hearing in suburban Woodridge to discuss the expected surge in demand for electric vehicle batteries over the next decade, while considering the implications for the metals required in EV battery manufacturing.
While the fate of a bill to make daylight saving time permanent remains unclear, one suburban Congressman is asking his constituents what they think of the measure.
Rep. Bill Foster, whose 11th District includes portions of Aurora, Naperville and Joliet, sent out an email to constituents this weekend asking their opinion on the idea of putting the United States into daylight saving time permanently.
The Illinois congressional delegation is thus far standing firm in its bid to repeal the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions—albeit strictly along party lines.
It's become a potentially divisive issue for Democrats—just as Republicans intended when the cap was instituted as part of the Trump tax cuts at the end of 2017. But it's also proved to cut both ways.
Hoping to end the partisan impasse over lifting the statutory debt ceiling, House leaders are considering taking up legislation designed to relieve Congress of the burden.
On Tuesday, lawmakers from the US House of Representatives heard from three academics who argued that social media companies cannot be trusted to police themselves.
Almost every year, Congress fights over a "silly rule that we make up for ourselves," Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois told Insider. "Everyone is completely fatigued with this issue and those who have been in Congress a long time are probably more fatigued than anyone else."
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers came to Aurora Tuesday to urge Congress to pass new federal legislation to protect women's access to reproductive health care in the wake of a new Texas law which prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks.
While the governor and Illinois U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Bill Foster spoke inside at the event at Planned Parenthood on East New York Street in Aurora, dozens of members with the Pro-Life Action League protested outside the facility.
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster said he supports President Joe Biden's move to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan.
The U.S. military completed the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghans this week by the Aug. 31 deadline.