Congressman
Henry E. Brown, Jr.

New Year Brings Higher VA Travel Reimbursement

Posted by: Henry E. Brown (December 30, 2008, 05:08 PM)

Good news! Beginning January 9th, any service-disabled or low income veteran who must travel to get health care at a VA hospital in the First District or any other VA facility across the nation will receive a larger reimbursement for their travel costs.

I have heard from many of my constituents that, with the ever fluctuating cost of gas, transportation to the necessary VA facilities can often be extremely expensive. It often was difficult for Horry County veterans to afford the cost of traveling to the Johnson VAMC in Charleston.  High energy costs and the proximity to a health care facility should not determine whether or not a veteran receives the necessary care. 

For this reason, I applaud a recent law that now enables the VA give more back to veterans for their mileage reimbursements. The VA will not only be able to keep $18/year per veteran for administrative expenses; previously the VA was keeping a maximum of $46.62 per year.

In addition to all service connected and low-income veterans now being eligible for reimbursement, other veterans traveling for Compensation and Pension examinations qualify for coverage of their travel costs as well. This change, combined with the November raise in the mileage reimbursement to 41.5 cents/mile, will now ensure that all veterans living in the First District, and across the nation, have access to the world-class health care provided by the VA.

Visit the Veterans' Casework page on my website to find VA facilities, find out information about VA health benefits, and apply for benefits.

Posted in Energy, Veterans | View Full Posting

Helping Protect and Recover Stranded Sea Turtles

Posted by: Henry E. Brown (December 29, 2008, 04:58 PM)

A recent article in the Charleston Post & Courier highlights the work of the Sea Turtle Hospital at the South Carolina Aquarium.  The presence of this hospital at the Aquarium is a great resource for our region.  Not only is the South Carolina Aquarium one of Charleston’s top tourist attractions, it educates Charlestonians and the on-site Hospital ensures that stranded turtles from all over coastal South Carolina get on the road to recovery.  I have been proud to work with the South Carolina Aquarium to make sure that badly needed federal funding goes to support the Sea Turtle Hospital's work and research  that may one day help reduce strandings in coastal South Carolina and across the globe.

In support of their efforts, during 2008, I wrote and introduced legislation to expand our nation's commitment to marine turtles.  The Marine Turtle Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2008 would assist in the conservation of marine turtles and help preserve their nesting habitats in foreign countries.  Additionally, I worked to increase funding for important sea turtle conservation programs ran through the Fish and Wildlife Service.  Next Congress, I look forward to getting my legislation enacted so that conservation efforts can be increased both in South Carolina and across the globe.

Posted in Environment and Wildlife | View Full Posting

Documents Show Fannie and Freddie at Heart of Meltdown

Posted by: Henry E. Brown (December 22, 2008, 12:00 PM)

Back in October, I led a number of my colleagues in calling for the books of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be opened up so that Americans could see how actions by executives at the two mortgage giants set the ground work for today's financial crisis.  House Republicans also called on the House Democratic leadership to hold hearings on actions by these two companies.  While the Democrats waited until other news took Fannie and Freddie out of the spot light, a recent hearing and the release of internal documents spells out just what I and my Republican colleagues have been saying all along: the leadership of these two institutions were warned about how risky their actions were, yet they ignored these warnings because any change would slow down profits and upset politicians who were pushing them to make loans that would never be repaid. 

You can read the Washington Post article on the story here, and view the documents for yourself here (note, this is a large pdf document).  The Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have also put together some information that is of interest.  I found this quote a prime example of how the leadership of Fannie and Freddie failed the American taxpayers and put our financial system in the situation it faces:

Edward Pinto, former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and now a real estate finance consultant, estimates that 1 million of the GSEs’ Alt-A loans had no down payment. Pinto said one in six home mortgages could fail over the next four years and that, before the crisis tends, 40 percent of all the loans on Fannie and Freddie’s books that originated in 2007 will default. "Fannie and Freddie have subprimed America," Pinto said. "Without their actions, we would not have this unprecedented housing crisis."

While I am pleased that the Democrats on the Oversight Committee held the hearing, the fact that the leaders at these companies were warned about risky loans at the same time they were under political pressure to make these loans demands a more through investigation.  Congress needs to get to the bottom of this situation and find out not only why the executives of Fannie and Freddie were permitted to ignore repeated warnings, and what role Congress itself may have played. 

Posted in Economy | View Full Posting

Backing Restructuring Over Bailout for the Big Three

Posted by: Henry E. Brown (December 04, 2008, 05:04 PM)

The Senate's decision before Thanksgiving to not take up legislation on the auto bailout clearly signals that the corporate leadership of GM, Ford, and Chrysler must move forward with a significant restructuring of their companies and product lines.  The three U.S. manufacturers, currently burdened with top heavy management, exorbitant and unrealistic employee salaries and benefits at all levels, and union monopolization, are unable to adjust  their product lines to meet the needs of today's consumers and were in financial crisis long before our economy took a turn for the worse.

I do not believe that it is the nation's responsibility to fix them as it was their own bad decision to continue agreeing to the labor unions' demands for exorbitant benefits and retirement packages and to rely on gas guzzlers to make their profit during a time when cost conscious foreign automakers were building cars here in the United States that people want to buy.

Locally, it would be hard for me to go to back to BMW, a company that announced earlier this year that, in a $750 million investment, the volume of cars exported through the Port of Charleston is expected to increase 50 percent to about 150,000 vehicles year, and tell them that I supported giving money to their competitors who made poor business decisions to begin with.

The CEO's of the three manufacturers were sent home after being told that they must come up with an alternate plan, as the original $700 billion bailout money was not allotted for this purpose.  This week they submitted their new plans, and Congress is currently conducting hearings on them.  Below are links to the plans.  Please let me know your thoughts at http://brown.house.gov/Contact/writebrown.html.      

Posted in Economy | View Full Posting