U.S. Rep.

Jason Altmire, D-4th, has teamed with two other congressmen in sponsoring legislation they said would save taxpayers $3 million a year.Altmire and Reps

. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and

Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Tuesday introduced the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act.Under current law, the lawmakers said, a divergence exists in how much compensation each former president receives from the American taxpayer, mainly due to differences in staff costs, office rental and travel expenses.Their proposal would amend and modernize the Former Presidents Act of 1958 to grant a guaranteed $200,000 annual pension to each former president and an additional $200,000 annual allowance for all other costs associated with being a former president.According to a reduction provision in the legislation, the annual allowance would be reduced dollar-for-dollar for any reported personal income earned by a former president more than $400,000.Additionally, the legislation would create a new “survivors benefit” to provide the surviving spouse of a deceased former president a flat $100,000 allowance annually, instead of the $20,000 currently provided to surviving spouses.Altmire noted that nothing in the measure would affect any provision of law relating to the security or protection of a former president or his family.In total, the lawmakers claimed the bill would save roughly $3 million in fiscal year 2013.———U.S. Rep.

Mike Kelly, R-3rd, voted Tuesday in support of the Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act, which he said would streamline the federal role in higher education and protect states, schools and students from excessive and costly regulatory burdens.In particular, Kelly said, the measure would eliminate two regulations released by the U.S. Department of Education in 2010.One regulation is the credit hour mandate that establishes a federal definition of a college credit.The other mandate is the state authorization regulation, which imposes a one-size-fits-all requirement that infringes on the right of states to regulate their higher education systems while giving states unprecedented authority over private and religious institutions.The effect of both regulations, Kelly said, is increased tuition cost and reduced availability of federal financial aid for students.———U.S. Rep.

Jason Altmire, D-4th, this week joined congressional colleagues in introducing bipartisan legislation to overturn a court ruling that decided countervailing duties could not be placed on goods from nonmarket economies.The ruling prevents the U.S. Commerce Department from applying tariffs to goods from countries, including China, that have been illegally subsidized.Prohibiting the use of these important trade enforcement remedies, Altmire said, makes it harder for American manufacturers to compete on a level playing field.In Western Pennsylvania, he claimed, the bill would protect manufacturers of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe, circular welded carbon-quality steel line pipe, oil country tubular goods, seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipe, and magnesia carbon bricks.“Our ability to impose countervailing duties is critical to protecting American companies, which have been victimized by unfair trade practices frequently used by our foreign competitors,” he said.“Without this legislation, Western Pennsylvania companies will be negatively impacted by the court’s decision.”