U.S. Rep. Altmire talks national issues with students

U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire gave a quick prediction for next year’s presidential election as part… U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire gave a quick prediction for next year’s presidential election as part of a talk with 10 Pitt students Monday afternoon.

“If [Republican presidential candidate Mitt] Romney is the [Republican] nominee, he’s got a shot to win. If they nominate any other out of that cast of characters, forget it,” Altmire, D. Pa., said — even with President Barack Obama’s support waning in key swing states.

Altmire spoke for about 40 minutes in the reading room of Pitt’s Honors College to answer students’ questions about the national budget, energy policy and funding cuts to education.The students called attention to the recent reduction in the education budget at both the federal and state levels.

“The worst place to cut the budget is our future,” Altmire said in response. He said that making cuts to essential services like education is not the right way to fix the budgets.

Instead, Altmire advocated closing “unnecessary programs,” specifically citing a federal highway program under the Department of Transportation that sent employees abroad to study billboards in locations like Australia and Europe. He said he wrote a letter to the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHoodcriticizing the program in line with public outcry over the taxpayer-funded trips. The program was suspended in June.

“Over time, that was millions of dollars that was being wasted,” Altmire said.

Senior Becky Schroeder asked Altmire about the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a project proposed by the company TransCanada. The 1,700-mile-long pipeline would stretch from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas.

Altmire said he supports the project because he said it will make the U.S. more self-sufficient when it comes to oil. But Schroeder disagreed with him.

The environmental studies and physics and astronomy major attended this weekend’s protest against the pipeline in Washington, D.C., along with more than 10,000 others. She expressed concerns about TransCanada’s safety and environmental records. Schroeder said that instead of trying to shift to domestic use of fossil fuels, there should be a stronger push for alternative energy.

Altmire, who has built a reputation while in office for being ideologically moderate, said that he has caught criticism from both sides of the political spectrum.

In reference to the Tea Party and Occupy movements, he said that often those who hold the most extreme views and project those views most loudly receive the most media attention. Altmire said that the protesters involved in the Occupy movements need to set clear demands for Congress and have a more centralized plan.

“They’ve done a good job of highlighting their message. Now they’ve got to translate that message into, ‘We’re going to ask our federal legislature to do something,’” Altmire said.

Senior Kelly Posenau, a political science major, said that she enjoyed Altmire’s speech and appreciated that he addressed every issue the students raised.

“He’s very honest, and you can tell he means what he actually says,” Posenau said.