Ginny and Secretary Nicholson Discuss Veterans Needs in 5th District

Washington, D.C., Dec 23, 2005 -

As your representative in Congress, I wanted to alert you to some of the major legislation victories the House has passed in 2005.  These include strengthening our borders, protecting our children from dangerous sexual predators, stopping efforts to raise your taxes, supporting our troops overseas, and meeting the needs of our nation’s veterans.

The first piece of legislation that I introduced this year was a bill to guarantee that if you currently receive Social Security your benefits cannot be reduced or changed by Congress.  As the debate about how best to strengthen Social Security for future generations continues, this is the most important piece of legislation that we can implement to guarantee future benefits to those seniors who rely on their Social Security.

As all Floridians saw with the murders of Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde, Congress must take steps to protect our children from sexual predators.  I was proud to introduce the Jessica Lunsford Act in the House, legislation that will tighten restrictions on those who would prey on our weakest and most vulnerable members of our communities.  My bill was included in the Children’s Safety Act, comprehensive legislation that reforms the way we deal with sex offenders and helps protect our children from future harm.

2005 was also a year that saw substantial increases in funding for American veterans.  I successfully challenged President Bush’s plan to impose additional costs on our veterans’ health care, and held the Administration accountable when they underestimated the cost of providing care for our servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  That shortfall was filled, and veterans’ health care was once again fully funded.  In addition to increasing the total budget for the VA by $20 billion over the past five years, there has also been a dramatic expansion in healthcare services for veterans.  In my district alone we have doubled the size of two VA clinics plus added new facilities and tripled the size of a third.  Just this year, the 5^th District saw the arrival of a new VA outpatient health clinic in The Villages, and the grand opening of another outpatient clinic in Citrus County.  These new facilities will provide the access to care that Florida veterans need and deserve.

The House of Representatives reached the nearly unprecedented milestone of passing all of its appropriations bills before the July 4^th recess.  While Congress has faced some unforeseeable and unavoidable obstacles, such as the three massive hurricanes that struck Florida and the Gulf Coast, it has stepped up the plate and made the difficult decisions necessary to move our nation forward.  Congress has passed two important energy policy measures, one of which made it to the President’s desk to become law.  These measures will go a long way to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy and create the necessary conditions to reduce prices and increase domestic energy supply.

In early 2003 the President and Congress crafted an economic recovery plan to jumpstart the economy and get people back to work.  Since May of 2003, over 4.4 million new jobs have been created, GDP growth is averaging 4% and the stock markets are at some of the highest levels ever.  This growth has brought more revenue in the U.S. Treasury, and has helped decrease projected budget deficits.  By ensuring that this economic stimulation tax relief does not expire and your taxes do not increase, I was proud to support legislation that continued this growth and expansion of the American economy and helped create the jobs that Americans deserve.

Finally, the House has passed significant legislation to strengthen our nation’s border security and tighten our immigration laws.  It is clear to me that our immigration laws and border control efforts are broken and need to be fixed.  As a new member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am working hard to enforce the laws on the books, provide more border control agents along our southern border, and bring commonsense reforms to our outdated policies.

This is just the beginning.  We should expect many more important legislative victories in the second session of the 109^th Congress.  I hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season.