Economy

ü Spoke on the House Floor about the AIG bonuses and Congress’s response. Please click here to watch Representative Forbes’ floor speech on AIG bonuses. 

ü Voted to support H.R. 1586, to tax bonuses received from AIG and other TARP recipients.  This narrowly tailored legislation would impose a 90% tax on employee bonuses of companies that received taxpayer TARP funding.  The tax would apply to executives of companies that have taken more than $5 billion in taxpayer TARP funding, and also Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The tax would only apply to gross pay above $250,000 that is not salary or commission-based.  The tax would only apply to bonuses received after December 31, 2008.    American International Group (AIG) paid out more than $165 million in bonuses while receiving more than $170 billion in taxpayer dollars to avoid bankruptcy. Congressman Forbes opposes tax increases, but could not support handing out taxpayer-funded bonuses to the same AIG executives whose actions led the company to come to the federal government to save their business.

 ü Attended a House Judiciary Committee markup of H.R. 1575, the End Government Reimbursement of Excessive Executive Disbursements (End GREED) Act.  This bill attempts to reclaim AIG’s executive compensation packages by using Congress’s bankruptcy power (Article I, Section 8, Clause 4).  Since AIG was prevented from entering bankruptcy because of a government bailout, it is unclear whether the approach to reclaiming bonuses in H.R. 1575 is constitutional. 

Veterans  

ü Signed a bipartisan letter to President Obama urging him to reject a plan that would change veterans health care. President Obama announced a plan requiring private insurance companies to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs for care provided for service-related care and disabled veterans.  This proposal ignores the government’s charge to care for veterans, and if implemented, it could have forced many veterans to exceed their maximum coverage limits.  In light of pressure from veterans groups and Members of Congress, including the entire Hampton Roads delegation, President Obama rescinded his proposal at the end of the week.  

Taxes

ü Cosponsored H.R. 1521, the Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009. The average wireless telephone customer pays a combined 15.2% in federal, state, and local taxes and fees on their wireless bills, over twice the 7.1% rate imposed on other competitive goods and services. H.R. 1521 does not take away any existing revenue from state or local governments. It calls for a period of tax stabilization as stakeholders work to determine what is best for consumers, the economy, and the further deployment of advanced wireless services in rural and urban areas. Without a temporary freeze on new discriminatory wireless taxes, many wireless consumers, particularly those with lower incomes, will be unable to afford new advanced wireless services.

Small Business

ü   Supported H.R. 1541, which would extend certain expiring small-business programs through July 31, 2009.  This bill would reapprove the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and other Small Business Administration programs designed to help small high-tech businesses in federal research activities and help commercialize cutting-edge high-tech research. 

Defense

ü    Visited Wounded Warriors at Bethesda Naval Hospital.  Congressman Forbes met with wounded warriors and their families and inspected the quality of the care at their facility at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Fort Belvoir’ hospital.   

ü    Signed a letter to the Government Accounting Office asking them to review Navy ship manning and training and its impact on readiness. The Navy has reduced manning and revised their training even as deployments continue on an ongoing basis. This tempo seems to have negatively impacted readiness. Congressman Forbes called for a hearing on Navy Readiness of our surface fleet in the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, which will be held this week, where he serves as ranking member on the Subcommittee.  

 ü    Introduced H.R. 1638 to prohibit Guantanamo Bay detainees from being transferred to facilities or locations in Virginia. The new bill modifies previous legislation (H.R. 1186) to encompass both federal and state localities. The new Administration continues to plan for the closure of the detention center at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even after the Attorney General provided assurances that the detention center met all Geneva Convention standards and called the facility “well run now.” Congressman Forbes remains committed to ensuring these enemy combatants are not relocated to Virginia in any capacity – state or federal.   

Health Care

ü Cosponsored H.R. 1086, a bill to reform our medical malpractice liability system by reducing frivolous lawsuits. Too often, physicians are forced to practice “defensive medicine” which unfortunately drives up health care costs for everyone. This bill would combat these problems through commonsense reforms. H.R. 1086, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2009, would establish reasonable guidelines—not caps—on punitive damages and would lower health care costs by preventing unfair double recoveries (for example, a plaintiff being awarded future lost wages both by his insurance company and by a court judgment).

 ü Spoke at the 6th Annual Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation (AIMS) Capitol Hill Exhibition about his bill, the Enhancing SIMULATION Act of 2009, H.R. 855. The AIMS exhibition demonstrated the latest medical simulation equipment and technology designed to enhance the training of medical professionals and prevent medical errors, which kill 98,000 people annually. Medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States and cost our healthcare system between $17 and $29 billion each year. Medical simulation provides a safer, yet highly realistic way of learning medical procedures and techniques, allowing for unlimited practice as well as feedback from observers, actor-patients, and peers. Ultimately, medical simulation greatly improves clinical skills, while reducing medical errors and decreasing health care and malpractice costs. As Founder and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Modeling and Simulation Caucus, Congressman Forbes introduced H.R. 855 to increase the use of medical simulation technology and create nationwide centers for training, education and research.

 ü Spoke about adult stem cell research at the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) weekly meeting and the Paul Weyrich Luncheon. Both groups invited Congressman Forbes to discuss his bill H.R. 877, the Patients First Act, which prioritizes stem cell research toward those that  that show the most evidence of providing near-term clinical benefit for human patients and are ethically obtained. Scientific advances show that research on human embryonic stem cells may become unnecessary and may pose a more costly route to patient treatment. ATR was founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan and advocates for a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter and more visible. Paul Weyrich, who passed away on December 19, 2008 at the age of 66, co-founded the Heritage Foundation and was the Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation, an influential political think tank. 

Foreign Affairs

ü Attended a top secret briefing on the USNS Impeccable/China incident.  On March 8th, an unarmed U.S. naval ship manned by a civilian crew avoided a grave escalation between China and the United States caused by dangerous and provocative action taken by Chinese ships. This classified briefing examined the actions of the Chinese in the South China Sea and events associated with the USNS Impeccable’s harassment by five Chinese boats.   Rep. Forbes’ bipartisan resolution on this matter, H. Con. Res. 72, has the support of 29 other Members of Congress, and calls on China to avoid any action that could unnecessarily escalate relations between our two countries, such as the USNS Impeccable incident. Congressman Forbes spoke on the House Floor about Congress’s lack of response to this incident. 

Transportation & Infrastructure

ü   Supported H.R. 1512, which would extend the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) authority through the end of the fiscal year 2009. This bill would extend the FAA’s authority to collect revenues that maintain the aviation system through September 30, 2009, giving lawmakers time to work toward a comprehensive update of the FAA. The FAA has been operating under a series of short-term extensions since October 2007.

Education

 ü Opposed H.R. 1388, which would have spent $6 billion to provide subsidies for volunteers. The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act stretches the definition of “volunteer” by providing government subsidies to volunteers for stipends, health benefits, housing, and other items. This bill would hugely expand national service programs and create new programs with a goal of increasing the number of volunteers in service programs, despite the fact that some of the programs funded by this bill have been deemed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as ineffective.  

Government Reform

ü Supported H.R. 1323, to reduce the number of government documents unnecessarily shielded from public view.  The Reducing Information Control Designations Act would would require the federal government to create regulations on how to control access to documents that are not classified, as well as provide information to date and track such documents.  This measure would provide a single standard for all federal agencies and reduce the likelihood of documents being improperly shielded.

Family Values

ü Signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to defend and enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which has been federal law since 1996. DOMA provides that states cannot be forced by residents of another state to recognize same-sex marriage, and that for purposes of federal law, marriage is the union of one man and one woman. On March 3, 2009, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Boston, Massachusetts on behalf of same-sex couples who have been deemed married by the state of Massachusetts. These couples are now seeking federal benefits including pensions, Social Security, and joint tax filing status from the federal government on the basis of those “marriages.”  Their claim is that DOMA is unconstitutional because it protects the federal government from having to recognize such unions.