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November 9, 2012

Best of Austin 2012
Best Elected Official: Lloyd Doggett (Readers Poll, Politics & Personalities)

Longtime Austin Congressman Doggett has been targeted so many times by GOP redistricters that he has his mail sent to "General Delivery, Texas." This time they strung him out along I-35 to San Antonio – where he inspired a new generation of loyal Doggett supporters. We're happy to share him with the other River City, as long as his roots remain here – and we can celebrate the defeat of the DeLayers one more time. Doggett's been under sustained political and personal attack all those years, while still fighting the good fight for health care, education, and the interests of all Texans – it’s understandable he’s now won “Best Elected Official” seven times. The elephants have failed to defeat him, and more importantly, Doggett continues to fight for peace, justice, and equity – always with relentless energy and real courage.

Austin–More than 30,000 Texas National Guardsmen and women have been deployed over the past few years to keep us safe at home and abroad. While armed to protect us, a KVUE Defenders investigation uncovered they may not be armed with the best system to track military equipment.

KVUE News

The number of property loss investigations at the Texas National Guard has increased more than 222 percent over the past five years. It includes equipment lost, missing or damaged during deployment and training.

Some of the equipment includes $8,900 radio transmitters, night vision devices that cost $3,000 each, and one unaccounted for $497 handgun the Defenders found in randomly selected investigative reports.

The total loss totals $3.5 million, out of $2.45 billion worth of all equipment maintained by the guard.

Col. Amy Cook, a spokeswoman for the Texas military institution, attributes the spike to several reasons. She says a large part of the increase involves thousands of soldiers returning home from deployments who misplace to damage equipment assigned to them.

“Yes, the turbulence of sending folks overseas and bringing them back does cause more financial liability investigations,” said Col. Cook.

Some of that personal equipment includes $500 body armor vests and $336 binoculars the Defenders found unaccounted for in one property loss investigative report.

Col. Cook also credits an improved tracking system that uses electronic cards to identify missing equipment. “So, it makes it easier in the electronic age to track who has what property and if something happens to that property – lost, damaged, destroyed – to figure out what happened to it,” contends Col. Cook.

The increase also includes old property loss investigations that have been reopened by the guard.

U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett of Austin says more accountability is needed. “That increase in investigations may suggest some increase in policing to see if taxpayer funds are held accountable, but there are still too many of those that are going unresolved; too much property lost in action, but some of it may have been stolen,” said Rep. Doggett.

If a solider is found liable for losing equipment, the guard does require that solider to pay a portion of that cost back to the DOD, but it’s usually a fraction of the original cost.

The Department of Defense sets policies on how the Texas National Guard and other military institutions track equipment. For years though, federal auditing agencies say that tracking system needs improvement.

A June, DOD Inspector General's report recently highlighted missing night vision devices within the U.S. Army that showed "Department of Defense contractors did not maintain complete accountability."  In 2009, an audit found $2 billion in U.S. military equipment was accidentally shipped off to other countries "that could be used to threaten national security."

“It's a defense department-wide problem. The defense department cannot pass the kind of audit we ask of other government agencies,” argued Rep. Doggett.

Potential budget cuts could make it worse. If Congress can't reach a deficit-reduction deal early next year, thousands of soldiers could lose their jobs. What's unknown is whether staff in charge of tracking equipment are included in those cuts.

“It's been one year after another, one part of the Defense Department after another, that while doing truly vital jobs for our national security, have not done an adequate job of assuring accountability,” continued Rep. Doggett.

As a member of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Doggett plans to make further inquiries about this issue. Congress has set a deadline for the DOD to put in place policies for it to pass a basic audit in three to four years, just as other agencies already do.

–By Andy Pierrotti, Erin Coker

October 2, 2012

Washington – Today, the First Focus Campaign for Children, a national, bipartisan child advocacy group, recognized Representative Lloyd Doggett as a “Champion for Children” for leadership on issues important to children during the 112th Congress (2011-2012).

“Lots of politicians talk about kids’ issues, but few back it up,” said Bruce Lesley, president of the Campaign for Children. “Representative Doggett delivered for kids.”

Rep. Doggett was one of only 50 Members of Congress whose extraordinary efforts to protect and improve the future of America’s next generation earned recognition as a Champion.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition from a group that does such good work advocating for the needs of our youngest Americans. The budget and policy decisions made in Washington need to be focused on the impact on the health and well-being of our children. I will continue advocating for common-sense policies to protect children in these tough economic times,” said Congressman Doggett.

In selecting Champions, the First Focus Campaign for Children noted leaders who introduced, co-sponsored, and voted for legislation to meet children’s needs. In addition, the organization considered Members who demonstrated extraordinary initiative by spearheading activities such as sponsoring hearings or garnering the support of their colleagues to improve the health and well-being of children.

This is the Campaign for Children’s third annual class of Champions for Children.

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The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.

For more information, visit www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.

September 23, 2012

Rep. Doggett: Reaching more of our neighbors through American Sign Language, I recently appeared on ACCESS News with Tamara Suiter-Ocuto (and signing provided by Jennifer Stoker).The program already aired on KLRU and will run again on Channel 19 of the ACC Network.

Video courtesy of ACCESS News

September 20, 2012

Washington—Today, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett spoke on the House floor during debate on TANF waivers in strong opposition to a Republican resolution that would undermine attempts by states to implement new and better ways to move individuals from welfare to work.

“Every able-bodied person who has the capacity to work, should work yet unfortunately, Republicans talk work for everyone else, but they just don’t do much work in this Congress,” said Rep. Doggett.

[Rep. Doggett’s full remarks, as drafted, follow below]

“As one who believes in the value of work, I voted for the 1996 law to transform welfare to workfare.  Now as the Ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee overseeing this law, I want to strengthen reform and ensure that  every able-bodied American who can work is working, —say, someone like Mitt Romney’s father, who long ago was on a form of welfare himself before becoming wealthy. Those are the people who should be working. Unfortunately, Republicans talk work for everyone else, but they just don’t do much work in this Congress.  Just like the expired federal education law.  They have been in power for over 20 months, but no administrative waivers would be needed here, if Republicans had simply done their own work to renew workfare.

The real question is not whether we emphasize work but how--how we achieve the most effective ways to get more people working.  The Administration has simply responded to Republican Governors and some Democrats, who are seeking more flexibility and less paper work, who sought better ways to get more people working.  Even the Republican staff director who wrote much of the original Welfare Reform law and who recently spoke with 42 state TANF directors, says these Republican attacks are “exaggerated.”

So why would Republicans be here today when there is so much other work this Congress has failed to do?  Why would they present what is really an anti-work resolution masquerading as pro-work?  Because particularly during this week, such a difficult week for Mitt Romney, they are a little desperate.  They think they can hoodwink enough Americans to turn on their neighbors by falsely dividing us, dividing us between the “makers and takers,” “manufacturers and moochers,” “producers and parasites.”  That is not America. Whenever they bump into an inconvenient fact, like what actually is actually involved in this legislation, they just ignore it.  They have made this Congress largely a fact-free zone.  When confronted with reality, they hold up those signs that say “Believe”— they left a word off, what they really mean is “Make Believe.”  And fantasy, that is what they bring with this legislation.  Fantasy is a mighty poor way to govern America.”

September 7, 2012

Rep. Doggett: I greatly enjoyed interviewing with Tamara Suiter-Ocuto for her American Sign Language (ASL) news program on ACCESS News. Jennifer Stoker, pictured on the right, kindly translated for both of us. This unique ASL program airs with captions and a voiceover. We covered many topics, and I am thankful for their efforts to help communicate to all our neighbors. I have been involved in the Texas deaf community since my work as a young state senator, and authored a Texas law expanding the rights of deaf persons to interpreters in civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings.   

The episode is scheduled to air on KLRU-TV on September 23 at 1:00 p.m. and thereafter on Channel 19 of the ACC Network. 

August 17, 2012

Washington—Today, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a senior member of the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees, announced $149,000 in federal funds is available for Texas State University from the National Science Foundation. The funds will help enhance the undergraduate computer science curriculum to better prepare students for real-world deployment of their computer programming skills. Outreach activities associated with this curriculum improvement will help to increase the participation of female and Hispanic Central Texas students in the computer science field.

“Continued investments in STEM education ensure that Central Texas remains on the cutting edge of our economy,” said Rep. Doggett. “We must prepare all of our students for the global workforce with the best education possible, especially in the science and technology fields.”

Texas State Assistant Professor of Computer Science Apan Qasem also noted the importance of the funding. "The enhanced curriculum will equip computer science students with skills that are highly sought after by the computing industry. The project bears special significance as it will leverage Texas State's diverse student body to broaden the participation of both female and Hispanic students; two traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines," he said.

Texas State’s Department of Computer Science will use the funds to develop course material to introduce parallel computing concepts in earlier computer science courses and to design a new upper-level course focused on parallel computing. The new materials allow students to learn both traditional sequential programming and more modern parallel programming throughout their curriculum.

Funding from the National Science Foundation is critical to developing STEM education and to ensuring students are taught the modern skills and thinking patterns required in this career field. These funds will also help increase diversity in this fast-growing area of study.

August 15, 2012

Washington—Claims made by Governor Romney that President Obama is somehow ending work requirements in welfare by giving States more flexibility to increase work by welfare recipients has failed all independent reviews of truthfulness. 

“The American people want to trust their leaders,” said Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-MI). “Governor Romney is quickly losing this trust by continuing to say things he knows, or should know, are false.  Every independent fact checker has said his claims about the President eliminating work requirements under welfare are dishonest.”

“Getting people back to work is precisely what this innovative approach is designed to achieve,” said Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett (D-TX). “The only real threat to putting people to work is Romney’s promise to return to the Bush-Cheney economic policies.”

Here are some of the reviews of the Romney campaign’s claims from those instrumental in creating the 1996 welfare reform law, as well as independent fact checkers.

• President Clinton, who enacted the 1996 welfare law, said Romney’s ad saying the Administration is weakening work requirements for welfare was “not true” and that the Administration “has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained.”
• Ron Haskins, the lead Republican Congressional staffer in charge of drafting the 1996 welfare reform law, has said “there is merit to what the Administration is proposing, and I don’t see how you can get to the conclusion that the waiver provision undermines welfare reform.”  He also stated, “I think – and now remember I’m a Republican – that the [Romney] ad is very misleading.”
• Politifact declared that Romney’s claim that the Administration’s waiver proposal would eliminate work requirements for welfare recipients was “pants on fire” false.  The fact checker said the contrary was true, stating: “by grating waivers to states, the Obama administration is seeking to make welfare-to-work efforts more successful, not end them.”
• FactCheck.org says the Romney TV add on the issue “distorts the facts” and is “simply not true.”  It reiterates that work requirements are not being dropped under the waiver proposal, and that “benefits still won’t be paid beyond an allotted time.” 
• The Fact Checker at the Washington Post rated Romney’s “over-the-top” ad on welfare as deserving four Pinocchios for being so dishonest.

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August 3, 2012

Beginning August 15, 2012, you may access the deferred action application online at www.uscis.gov.  The following is a message from Rep. Lloyd Doggett on the importance of applying and the work that remains to be done.  The Immigration Policy Center estimates that 226,700 young people in Texas will be eligible to apply.

August 2, 2012

Washington—Today, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a senior member of the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees, delivered the following remarks in opposition to Republicans’ proposal to “fast-track” their principles of tax reform including lowering the corporate tax rate and shifting to a territorial system that would ship more jobs and profits overseas. 

“This session ends, as it began, with meaningless maneuvers and failure to act on critical matters about which agreement could not be reached between the Republican far right and the not so right,” said Rep. Doggett. “They recess with a promise to fast track, after the elections, what they have not done during their many years of domination here--produce a tax system that is more equitable for families and small businesses.  While they offer an empty promise, the changes Republicans propose would only mean more taxes for many working families and more American jobs exported abroad.”