March 5, 2022
America's Vets Deserve Our Best
The House of Representatives this week considered legislation to address the healthcare needs of veterans who were exposed to toxic substances.
The Pelosi-backed bill -- H.R. 3967 the Honoring Our PACT Act -- abandoned the longstanding tradition of working in a bipartisan fashion to take care of our veterans, and it ignored crucial input from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Were this bill to become law, the VA expects that the disability claims backlog would increase to 1.53 million claims by the end of Fiscal Year 2023.
I know many of our constituents who served already face long wait times for VA assistance, which is why I voted instead to pass the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act which already passed the Senate unanimously. This bill would act as a first step to improve care and access to benefits for toxic exposed veterans by establishing a one-year open enrollment period for post-9/11 combat veterans. This bill could be on President Biden's desk tomorrow and begin helping veterans immediately.
Standing with Ukraine
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to condemn Russia's invasion of a sovereign nation. I proudly stood with my colleagues and voted to denounce the tyrannical acts of Vladimir Putin and to support continued United States aid to Ukraine. While President Biden failed to deliver on his promise to stand up to Putin, the Ukrainians need to know that we stand with them against this power-hungry bully.
There should be zero loopholes in sanctions on Russia. Our leadership has failed to keep intact sanctions on Russia that would limit their desire to attack surrounding countries. Weak leadership exemplified by this President has led us to where we are, and it is our duty as the Congress to protect the American people first while remaining committed to aiding those who value freedom and individual liberties around the world.
I am also calling on the Biden Administration to make America energy independent again. Unleashing American energy will not only help people here at home who are suffering from skyrocketing gas prices, but it would displace Russian leverage over world energy markets.
State of the Union Address
President Biden gave a poorly organized and willfully misleading speech for this year's State of the Union Address. The Biden Administration's COVID spending, lockdown and mandate policies undermined our economy for the past year. His new "plan" to fight inflation demonstrated a fundamental failure to understand economic principles and would leave the American people worse off a year from now. In fact, there is absolutely no question we would be better off had President Biden done nothing for the past 14 months. Instead, President Biden continues to double down on failed, radical, socialist policies that Congress has already rejected. He called for the passage of a national election "right to cheat" bill as well as the irresponsible spending programs like Build Back Bankrupt. This President and his administration have created crisis upon crisis for the American people to deal with, including a wide-open southern border and disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. No speech will make up for his failed record or poor leadership.
President Biden did make a brief mention in his speech about finally returning federal employees to in-person work. While he did not make a specific promise on the timetable for the return, I can tell you it is well past time for the federal government to catch up with the private sector and get back to work for the American people. Too many Americans are simply not receiving the benefits or services they were promised.
This week I published an Op-Ed talking about a story not enough in the media have covered -- the failures of the deserted federal agency offices. You can read it here.
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