Each Thursday, we put one of our local newsmakers On The Spot. This week: U.S. Rep. James Walsh

This week's question: What is the most important thing you hope to accomplish in your final few months in Congress?

Until my term in Congress ends in January, I'll be working to advance the priorities and projects important to me and my central New York constituents. I plan to use the next several months to make sure the work we've begun is completed.

While I no longer represent Auburn, I'm proud of our role in building the Owasco Lake seawall, improving the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, introducing NASA programming to Cayuga Community College, protecting the Lake Ontario watershed, and harnessing the potential of the Erie Canal system.

I am now working to ensure the Onondaga Lake clean up and other area watershed projects receive the funding they need; that promised federal resources for area business incubators are provided and additional private sector funding is secured in order to ensure their long-term viability and create new jobs. And that specific community projects #- like the Fair Haven sewer and Wayne County regional water treatment facility in Red Creek #- are sustained.

My hope is that Congress will return in September from its summer recess and pass a needed energy plan for America. For months now, we've all personally experienced the pain of skyrocketing gas prices at the pump, and now we in the Northeast are turning to prepare for further hardship #- the onslaught of enormous home heating costs this coming winter.

Instead of dealing with this crisis on its merits, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have blocked all meaningful debate and deliberation on possible reform legislation, instead offering a series of gimmicks and refusing to hold an up or down vote to expand offshore drilling.

America needs a long-term solution, and not a short-term fix, to solve its energy woes #- a long-term solution that requires decisions on hydrogen, wind, solar, biofuels, nuclear, electric hybrid, and next generation coal. And a long-term solution that addresses how America is to tap its hidden reserves to bolster its economy, protect its environmental assets, and advance its national security.

Developing a comprehensive solution to this problem requires debate. It requires compromise. It requires action. It's time this Congress leads, follows, or gets out of the way.

If you have an On The Spot

question, call news editor Mike Dowd at 253-5311 ext. 234 or

e-mail michael.dowd@lee.net