After several terms in the back benches of the minority party in Congress, Rep. Dennis Moore seems to be achieving a new prominence in Washington this year.The reason? Social Security.Perhaps it’s because Moore represents an otherwise heavily Republican district and has had to fight hard to keep his seat, but he’s stayed closer to the moderate center on several issues than others in his party. With the debate over Social Security reforms very much in the unresolved stage this year, Moore’s centrism — and outspokeness on the issue — has earned him more face time in the national press.For example, Moore is quoted today in the Washington Times on Rep. Robert Wexler’s proposal to protect the program:”Rep. Dennis Moore, Kansas Democrat, agreed yesterday that his party members ‘need to start talking’ specifics. “Mr. Moore, who represents a district that voted for Mr. Bush last year, offered a ‘lockbox’ proposal in February that would ensure that Social Security trust fund dollars are saved for the program and not used on other government expenses, as now happens. “‘I’d like to see our party come up with an offer, something to get the dialogue started,’ said Mr. Moore, who has conferred extensively on the issue with a group of House Democrats, including one party leader.”Other links: Jim Ryun links (EurekAlert press release) Homeland Security Committee among most partisan in the House says math study: Porter and colleagues studied these relationships in the House from 1989-2004 and provide detailed examples for the 107th Congress. Using a method known as singular value decomposition, they also examined the voting records for each of the 435 members to get an objective indication of how partisan they are. “Every representative boils down to two numbers that you can put in a rectangle on a piece of paper. One represents how far they are on the extremes of the political spectrum we called that partisanship and the other represents how well they play with others,” said Porter. Current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, along with Janice Schakowsky and James McGovern from Illinois were among the most partisan Democrats of the House. Among the most partisan Republicans were Thomas Tancredo from Colorado, John Shadegg from Arizona and Jim Ryun from Kansas.Jerry Moran links [(Pratt Tribune) Bush may veto U.S. 54 funding:][3] Additional federal funds for the U.S. 54/400 expansion project in Pratt County could be in jeopardy if President Bush uses his veto power to override a $284 billion transportation bill currently being discussed in the U.S. Senate. … “We will have a highway bill,” Moran said. “I don’t know if we’ll be done by May 1. We may have to have an extension.” The funding for Kansas could change depending on the outcome of the discussions in the conference committee but that change, if any, is expected to be small.How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation [here.][4] [2]: http://www.some-web-page.com [3]: http://www.pratttribune.com/articles/2005/05/16/news/01_veto.txt