Congressman Forbes wants your good ideas! The purpose of the Solutions Lab is to provide a platform for constituents in Virginia’s Fourth District to share ideas and possibilities for solutions to problems we face in the federal government. It may be an idea on something that impacts you as a small business owner, a parent, a student, or a veteran. Some of the best ideas come from those whose lives are personally impacted by an issue. And sometimes the best ideas are simple and straightforward things individuals have seen modeled in the private sector or in another state.

Our nation was born of leaders who were dreamers, and from their dreams and perseverance sprang a nation that has tackled monumental challenges through hard work and great innovation. There is no reason why we shouldn’t carry on this tradition today in creating solutions to some of our biggest challenges in health care, energy, the environment, immigration, education, and taxes. It is possible to create an efficient government and find effective ways to approach these important issues – and it is individual Americans who hold the keys to these solutions.

Constituents can email their ideas directly to the Solutions Lab, and Congressman Forbes will share some of the best, most innovative ideas on the Solutions Lab Web page and use them in crafting future legislation.uses them in considering legislation, and comments on some of them in his blog. To share your solutions, simply send an email with your solution to forbessolutionslab@mail.house.gov.

Reducing Fuel Consumption
Submitted by M.L.

I have a trip computer in my car that constantly calculates gas mileage. I go through two traffic stops a day to get to and from work and I can watch my vehicle mileage drop from averaging 29MPG on the highway to 25.6MPG with just two lights. That may only seem like 12%, in reality that is 12% of every vehicle that stops at these two lights each day. Solution: 1) Take the lead from the Dutch install rotary or overpasses where ever possible. 2) Require states to monitor there traffic lights and time them optimally so that someone doing the speed limit on a priority road can continue to move without a stop. 3) Install merging lanes for some right hand turns. These ideas keep traffic moving and increase fuel economy.

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Wind Energy
Submitted by Susan

How about building the windmills for energy?  There have been many studies about using wind but Tidewater does not have any windmills.  I know the plan that was to be near the barrier islands on the Eastern Shore was not developed because of the migratory birds but we need to do something to change the dependency on oil.

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Community Health Care Centers
Submitted by Katharine

We have a Community Health Center here in my town that is staffed by volunteers. On the days it is open, their schedules are full. For people without health care, this is a perfect solution. If all doctors and physician assistants would be willing to volunteer a few hours a month for a program such as this, nobody too poor to buy health insurance would be without medical care. The centers themselves would be paid for by local communities and by donations. This would be one effective low-cost solution for people unable to pay for any health care. Also, I believe if Congress would allow businesses to do a $3 deduction for every $1 of health care premium, more businesses would be able to afford employee health insurance. Giving individuals that same triple tax deduction for carrying health insurance would encourage everyone to have coverage. Instead of using age rated premiums, insurance companies could establish a national rating system where everyone would have the same premium regardless of age or the area in which they live.

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Energy
Submitted by Dennis

Maximize the utilization of all current and future discoveries of the fossil fuels we have available.  With the continued new discoveries, such as the newest in North Dakota, who knows how many decades of oil/gas we actually have at our disposal.  At the same time, build nuclear power plants as fast as we safely can.  We are way behind even the French in that regard.   It is clean, safe, and ultimately economical.  Beyond that, we can certainly pursue alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells, but even there, you must have a source of electricity to produce the hydrogen. Today that would essentially be fossil fuel. I am not sure why we don’t here that story from those advocating this technology as a solution around those same fossil fuels.   The bottom line is, the free market will produce the alternatives when they become profitable enough to do so.   Get government out of the way and let industry resolve the problem.  We will have cheaper fuel sooner than anyone thinks if that were to occur.

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Solar Energy
Submitted by Dee

A show on the history channel this week concerning alternative energy said that this country could build a solar plant in the western part of our country that could supply the whole nation. It would be very large but could work. It showed a Fedex building that was running on solar power.

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Health Care
Submitted by Joe

We need to allow health insurance plans to be purchased across state lines. This will create natural competition among health insurance companies and drive prices down.

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