Addressing domestic concerns amid an overseas war was an important point in President Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday, said U.S.Representative Beverly B. Byron, D-6th.

"The war with Iraq has preoccupied us all. It is understandably a subject of enormous concern for everyone," Byron said in a prepared statement released Tuesday.

"But as the president himself said, life goes on," the seven-termcongresswoman said. "So I was happy to hear the president lay out a domestic agenda in some specific terms."

Though focusing much of his 47-minute speech on the gulf crisis, Bush revealed a number of proposed domestic initiatives, such as a bank reform plan, a transfer of$15 billion in domestic programs from the federal governments to thestates, and a blueprint for a new national highway system.

"We have our own pressing problems here at home that need to be addressed now, ones that can't wait for a conclusion to the gulf crisis," Byron said.

A proposal that could have an impact on Byron came when Bushannounced his intention to abolish political action committees. During her 1990 re-election campaign, Byron received more than half of her campaign revenue from PACs.

Byron spokesman Beau Wright said thecongresswoman could not be reached Friday for comment on the president's proposal to abolish PACS.