PALM SPRINGS — Rep. Mary Bono Mack has launched a bipartisan effort to develop a national strategy to create more manufacturing jobs.

The policy is being shaped by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, which Bono Mack leads.

The strategy is still in its draft stages, but the resulting legislation would aim to keep America competitive in the global market and promote economic growth.

Bono Mack announced the legislative effort on Wednesday after touring the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership’s office in Palm Springs.

“My job is to find that sweet spot of still protecting consumers, protecting the American people, yet allowing jobs to flourish,” Bono Mack told The Desert Sun.

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Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over consumer privacy and security issues, wants Facebook to explain how hackers penetrated the social networking site, resulting in violent and pornographic images on some users’ Facebook pages.

Mack, chairwoman of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee, has asked Facebook for a briefing next week. She will be looking for details on how many users were affected, how the attack occurred, whether the vulnerability hackers used to penetrate Facebook could be used by others to gather personal data about users, and what the company is doing to prevent the incident from happening again, Bono Mack’s spokesman Ken Johnson said Wednesday.

“The chairman is very concerned about what took place and wants to make certain – to the extent possible – that it doesn’t happen again,” Johnson said.

Bono Mack has been working on legislation that would set national standards for what actions companies must take to prevent and respond to data breaches involving consumer data.

Facebook explained the source of the images used in the attack. “During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious javascript in their browser URL bar, causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content,” Facebook said in a statement. “No user data or accounts were compromised during this attack…We’ve built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious pages and accounts that attempt to exploit it.”

A Facebook spokesman added that the company “looks forward” to briefing Bono Mack’s subcommittee on the incident.

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By Eddie Trent
PalmDesert.Patch.com

Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack called for less government regulation in business this morning and lower tax rates when she spoke at a breakfast meeting of the Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce.

“To get our country back on track, we need to lower the corporate tax rate, “ she said to the pro-business crowd of about 150. “The reason we’re not competitive, the reason so many businesses are fleeing is because the corporate tax rate in America is punitive.”

Bono Mack also called on multi-national companies to repatriate profits to create more American jobs.

“One of my goals and my quests as Chairman of Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade is to make ‘Made in America” matter again,” she said.

The Congresswoman is running for an 8th term in November. The only Democrat to announce plans to run against her is Dr. Raul Ruiz. Due to redistricting, both will run in the newly formed 36th Congressional District, covering central and eastern Riverside County.

Bono Mack says her re-election campaign will focus on the economy and jobs.

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President Obama is doing his best to ratchet up the pressure on Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. But if history repeats itself, the ones getting “jobbed” will be American taxpayers.

The facts speak for themselves. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the president’s first stimulus package — signed into law in February 2009 and carrying a price tag of $821 billion — may have saved or created an estimated 1.4 million jobs nationwide. That sounds pretty impressive until you do a cost-benefit analysis. In this case, CBO says each of those jobs cost taxpayers an astonishing $586,428.

Need more proof? Then consider this:  At the time the stimulus was enacted, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics — and now an outspoken cheerleader for the American Jobs Act — predicted that “with the stimulus, there will be 4 million more jobs and the jobless rate will be more than 2 percentage points lower by the end of 2010 than without any fiscal stimulus.” At the time, unemployment nationwide was 8.2 percent. Today it stands at 9.1 percent with 14 million Americans struggling to find work.

But one of the biggest red flags can be found in my home state of California, where Solyndra went belly up after squandering a $535 million federal loan. Less than six weeks after assuring Congress that its finances were improving, the company laid off more than 1,000 workers, declared bankruptcy and was raided by the FBI as part of an ongoing fraud investigation.

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Rep. Mary Bono Mack will be one of the headliners at the California Republican Party’s fall convention.

The Palm Springs Republican will be giving what her office described as a major address on job creation and the economy. Bono Mack also will be honored at a dinner banquet, which is billed as a celebration of Republican women.

The convention runs Sept. 16-18 in Los Angeles.

It will be the most high-profile role Bono Mack had had at the twice-a-year event. In 2009, when the fall convention was held in Indian Wells, she delivered the closing remarks.

This year’s convention also features Reps. Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Thaddeus McCotter — all of whom are vying for the GOP presidential nomination.

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Mariecar Mendoza
The Desert Sun

LOS ANGELES — Moving in the same circles as three GOP presidential hopefuls, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, played what state Republican officials viewed as a vital role during the California Republican Party 2011 Fall Convention in Los Angeles.

Her speech that prompted a standing ovation Saturday during the convention’s dinner banquet criticized President Barack Obama as “tone-deaf,” said the government spends too much money and urged loosening regulations on businesses to help spur job growth.

While it didn’t break any new ground, her presence elevated her profile among insiders who run and pay for California Republican campaigns.

That will come in handy. Today, hours after her speech, Dr. Raul Ruiz, a Democrat from Palm Desert, will announce his plans to run for her seat.

“For most Americans, jobs is the most important issue, and so we’ll we need to reach more Californians on this,” said Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the California Republican Party. “Mary’s the highest ranking woman leader in the state and a leader in that arena, so we’re pleased to have her shed some light on the topic.”

The spotlight on Bono Mack at this year’s convention comes as more Republican women have become formidable opponents in national elections, including presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who headlined events during the three-day Los Angeles convention. The other presidential hopefuls were Thad McCotter and Congressman Ron Paul.

Ron Nehring, a Republican strategist and former California GOP chairman, said Bono Mack’s personality makes her an especially appealing figure within the party. She is the only female Republican representing California in Congress.
“She’s a model for Republican candidates because she combines her pro-economic growth philosophy with a great attitude,” said Nehring, who has campaigned for Bono Mack.

Bono Mack wasn’t a new presence at the California Republican Party Convention — she introduced then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 and gave brief closing remarks in 2009 — but Saturday marked her highest-profile role.

Even at the California Republican Party convention in Indian Wells two years ago, Bono Mack didn’t headline any convention events.

But since then, she has become chairwoman of the House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade subcommittee, giving her a platform to engage in national economic issues.

On Saturday, she participated on a panel alongside former gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon and other business elites for a workshop titled: “Where Are the Jobs? Putting America Back to Work” and gave a rousing speech during the convention’s dinner banquet calling for “cuts, cuts, cuts” in federal spending while allowing American ingenuity to run free after being “held hostage by a regulatory regime.”

During the evening’s dinner, Bono Mack laid out a six-point plan to not only “end the exodus of jobs overseas, but also begin the process of bringing thousands of those jobs back to America.”

• Ensure regulatory fairness and “place a moratorium on any job-killing regulations” until a more transparent review process is established.
• Encourage innovation and job growth by lowering the tax rate on U.S. businesses to no more than 25 percent.
• Make protecting intellectual property a top priority because “our nation’s economy cannot thrive in a world of ‘no cost’ competitors.”
• Open up more foreign markets to American-made products because the United States “cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while other nations sign free trade agreements and gain a foothold in promising, new markets.”
• Increase energy production to reduce dependency on foreign oil through an “all-of-the above approach to energy that includes more American-produced oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear, along with alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal.”
• Rein in federal spending through what is known as the Mack Penny Plan, introduced by her husband, Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla.

Bono Mack was initially hesitant to back the plan publicly but now sides with her husband, who did not attend the Saturday banquet.

“I have to admit: this started off as a good debate at the dinner table one night with my husband, Connie,” she said, laughing. “But the Mack Penny Plan is also good public policy, achieving a balanced budget by 2019 through a series of annual 1 percent cuts to all federal spending.”

Also known as the One Percent Spending Reduction Act, it proposes cutting total federal spending by 1 percent a year for six years; setting a spending cap of 18 percent of gross domestic product in 2018; and reducing overall spending by $7.5 trillion over the course of 10 years.

“Today, we are at a critically important crossroads in our nation’s history,” she told the more than 200 Republicans who cheered her on Saturday. “Tough times require tough choices and we’re prepared to make them.”

Republicans around California are grumbling over a newly minted set of political lines that they say are friendlier to their Democratic rivals. But Inland GOP Reps. Ken Calvert and Mary Bono Mack have few complaints about the way their districts look.

In each of the past two elections, Calvert, R-Corona, and Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, faced stiffer challenges than any of their Inland colleagues. But the new maps appear to strengthen the lawmakers’ re-election chances, prompting speculation that Democrats will look elsewhere to pick up the seats they need to regain the House majority.

The independent Citizens Redistrict Commission, created by voters fed up with lawmaker-imposed gerrymanders, was tasked to ignore political ramifications as they set out to redraw state assembly, state senate and congressional districts to better reflect the state’s population.

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Today, American consumers are under constant assault.

As quickly and quietly as your wallet can be stolen by a skilled pickpocket, your personal identity can be hijacked without you knowing it by online hackers and cyber thieves. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that nearly 10 million Americans fall victim to identity theft every year, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars annually — and those numbers are growing steadily and alarmingly.

Just last week, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies broke up a cyber crime ring operating in the United States and at least seven other countries after consumers were bilked out of nearly $75 million.

According to the Office of Privacy Protection in Sacramento, California now ranks No. 4 in the nation in the number of victims of identity theft per capita.

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By Josh Smith (National Journal)

Updated: June 13, 2011 | 3:11 p.m.

June 13, 2011 | 1:25 p.m.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., is circulating draft legislation that would require companies to provide a basic level of protection for consumers’ personal information and notify the government when data is stolen.

After Mack held hearings last month on enormous data breaches at companies like Sony and Epsilon, she promised to introduce a bill to protect consumer information. The International Monetary Fund and Citigroup have also reported recent cyberattacks.

Mack’s discussion draft promises to “protect consumers by requiring reasonable security policies and procedures to protect data containing personal information, and to provide for nationwide notice in the event of a security breach.” According to a background staff memo, the Secure and Fortify Electronic Data [SAFE Data] Act, is based on a bill that passed the House in the last Congress.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the bill. Mack spokesman Ken Johnson said there could be a few tweaks before it is formally introduced.

“But it’s safe to say that we are going to have an aggressive timetable in place for moving the bill through subcommittee and full committee,” Johnson said. “Consumers want something done soon.”Wednesday’s hearing will feature testimony from Federal Trade Commissioner Edith Ramirez, as well as representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Software Alliance, the Consumer Data Industry Association, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The bill would require companies to dispose of old or unnecessary data, as well as notify the government within 48 hours of discovering a breach, unless the breach is an accident.

The legislation also grants the FTC limited authority over data protection at nonprofits such as universities and charities.

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When White House officials warn of Congress triggering another worldwide financial crisis by not raising the limit on the national debt, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes refuses to scare.

Unless the White House agrees to Republican demands for significant “structural” spending reforms and economic-growth measures — especially related to oil drilling and other energy steps — the financial markets will be equally unimpressed, Nunes says.

The Central Californian’s refusal to be cowed by the predictions of the administration and many leading economists exemplifies how many Republican lawmakers feel, including those who identify with the tea party movement.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, also wants to see lawmakers make more cuts, spokesman Ken Johnson said Tuesday.

“As a U.S. senator in 2006, President Obama voted against raising our nation’s debt limit, citing a failure of leadership in Washington. Since then, America’s debt has skyrocketed and nearly doubled,” he said.

“Congresswoman Bono Mack believes it is time for the president to get serious about cutting nonessential government spending — and we should be looking at trillions of dollars in savings, not just billions — in order to get our economy turned around.”

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