Our nation is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and our senator in Washington is proposing a bill about copper thefts. This is the best you can come up with right now? The Dow just dropped 700 points today and drug addicts stealing copper scraps is the project you're working on right now?

It's no wonder our nation is in crisis. The house is burning down and Senator Hatch wants to make sure that druggies don't steal the copper wiring from the walls.

This is poor solution. If methamphetamine addicts can't get drug money from stealing copper wire, they will just steal something else. This does not fix the root of the problem.

Washington has a bad habit of pulling the leaves off the tree when they should be chopping at the root.

Sounds like a good idea for cities to pass this type of law. Then the local police can follow up on the crime(s). Why make it a federal law. With terrorism and other serious national crimes to deal with, I don't think the FBI will have time or interest for local copper thefts.

My sentiments exactly, couldn't have said it better myself.

I am voting against Hatch and will assist anyone running against him any way I can.

Hatch... RETIRE!!!

Wonderful. More fiddling while the world economy declines. At best this is something that should be a state or local law. No federal attorney will ever prosecute anyone under this law (if passed) so this is all grandstanding, not real problem solving. Fiddle. Fiddle.

Instead of trying to figure out who added millions of pork for wooden arrow makers and Rum distillers and film makers, running up the cost of the bailout bill, Senator Hatch is messing with this?

We truly are stuck with a choice between the stupid party and the evil party.

Didn't someone say just recently say something about being able to do more than one thing at a time?

I find it fascinating that some people out there think that there is only one problem in the world at a time and that Congress should only work on one thing. There are obviously more problems than just the economy and if Congress can try to solve other problems than just the economy then I believe they should try. I checked the senate web site just to find out and discovered that the senate has also passed bills introduced by Hatch that helped get some land for the Utah National Guard at Camp Williams, helped fight breast cancer, help to fight child exploitation, to settle orphan copyright problems, solved a visa problem for foreign missionaries that come to the united states, some admendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act and to end the moratorium on Oil Shale development and a bill to move forward with nuclear energy using Thorium instead of Uranium. I know the economy is a huge problem but that doesn't mean Congress should ignor everything else just to work on the economy. The economy will take some time - I think they should try to solve any problems they can.

Agreed. For his next piece of legislation, maybe Mr. Hatch can sponsor a bill seeking to limit the number of granules of salt per pretzel. That would be very helpful, as salty pretzels make me thirsty.

C'mon. There is a list of 1,000 top issues that need to be addressed. You and I agree on that. A bill on copper wire thievery isn't even on that list.

State laws theft address this just fine.

Now Orrin, go back and wrap yourself in the flag and think up your next trick.

In reading up on this, local law enforcement support this legislation since it is impossible for them to tell valid scrap copper from stolen scrap copper. They agree that regular theft laws don't cut the mustard on this problem. The law does not stop states from passing laws that are equal to or even more stringent. It sounds to me like it is common for thieves to steal the copper in one state and sell it in another. One account in US News said that some thieves stole 1700 pounds of copper in one state and sold it for almost $7,000 in another state.

I'm one of the recyclers. Utah state law actually addresses this very well, and some of the earlier comments address this-this is an area for states and cities and counties to address. I don't know if other states have failed to enact this type of legislation, but it has been done here. The biggest problem with the bill is that it only talks about copper theft, while other things are stolen as well, for the same reasons. If I thought that Federal legislation would fix the problem, I would be all for it, but it won't. As someone else pointed out above, state and local laws can't help us figure out which copper is stolen and which is OK, and the Federal Government will be unable to sort this out either. Leave it at the state and local level, and we'll do the best we can.