Bill would make coins from U.S. steel

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By Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman
Staff Writers 9:17 PM Sunday, December 18, 2011

WASHINGTON – Rep. Steve Stivers says it costs 9.22 cents to make a nickel and 1.79 cents to make a penny — and he introduced a bill last week to change that.

Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, joined with Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Niles and Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Twp., to back a measure to lower the cost of producing pennies and nickels and to ensure they are minted with steel instead of minerals imported from outside the United States.

Currently, pennies are made of copper and zinc; nickels are made of copper and nickel. Most of the copper, zinc and nickel used to make pennies and nickels is imported from Canada. The Stivers bill would require the penny and nickel both be made of American steel, with the penny dipped in copper to maintain its appearance.

While the appearance of the coins would not change, the materials used to make the coins would.

According to the House Financial Services Committee, by simply changing the composition of both coins to steel, the United States will save up to $274 million in penny production and $159 million in the production of nickels for a total savings of up to $433 million over 10 years for American taxpayers.

The bill is endorsed by the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Perry consultant no longer serving

Ohioan Barry Bennett, a political consultant who has worked for Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, is no longer serving as a consultant for a SuperPAC helping Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. Bennett works for BKM Strategies, a group also headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Mary and veteran political fundraiser Kara Ahern.

Genealogy website removes SSNs

After prodding from Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the genealogy website Ancestry.com has removed Social Security numbers from its website.

Brown wrote a letter to the president and CEO of the site after Columbus resident Roberta Thomas’ deceased, infant daughter’s Social Security number was used to commit tax fraud.

Brown also wrote to the Federal Trade Commission and Social Security Administration to investigate the practices of these websites, and asked the FTC to work with the Internal Revenue Service to ensure that victims of this type of tax fraud are provided with a prompt remedy.

We appreciate your desire to provide detailed profiles of deceased individuals in order to facilitate genealogical research,” Brown wrote in a letter to Ancestry.com President and CEO Tim Sullivan. “Yet, it is clear that your website — because it lists decedents’ entire Social Security numbers — could be used by identify thieves to perpetrate their crimes.”

The letter was also signed by Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Chabot: Fed funds needed elsewhere

When the White House this week offered $10.9 million in federal dollars for the Cincinnati streetcar project, Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, sent out a message of his own: The money would be better spent elsewhere in the city.

Chabot said the money would be better spent on the Brent Spence Bridge, which the Obama administration used in a photo opportunity earlier this year to demonstrate the nation’s infrastructure needs. The bridge, which carries Interstates 75 and 71 across the Ohio River, has been deemed “functionally obsolete.”

“If the Department of Transportation is in need of projects to fund, I would contend that the bridge project is far more valuable to our community and would be a wiser use of these dollars,” Chabot said in a release.

Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman cover news from Washington for the Springfield News Sun and The Columbus Dispatch.

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