In this week's edition of E-News...

Murphy Urges Focus On Healthcare Reforms
Health Committee Working To Connect Military Medics With Civilian Jobs
Murphy Responds to President's Tax Plan
Recent Riots in Belfast Reaffirm Need for US Role In Peace Process

Murphy Urges Focus On Healthcare Reforms

This week, Congressman Tim Murphy urged lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to get to work on meaningful healthcare reforms to bring down costs and improve the quality of care.

“We need to focus on delivering real reform so that every American has access to the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at a price they can afford,” said Murphy in a speech on the House floor to his colleagues.

During debate on a measure to repeal the 2010 healthcare law, Murphy highlighted his initiatives to improve healthcare, urging adoption of legislation to “allow individuals to take the plan you need across jobs, ensure you can’t be cut for being sick, promote chronic disease management to keep seniors healthy and out of hospitals, and allow families to join groups and purchase insurance across state lines.”

On Monday, one of Congressman Murphy’s signature healthcare reforms was signed into law by the President, expanding access to affordable generic medications.

The Generic Drug and Biosimilar User Fee Act (H.R. 3988) was included in a larger FDA reform bill. In addition to putting foreign factories under the same rigorous inspection regime as domestic plants, Murphy’s bill establishes the first-ever generic drug user fee program so that generic drug companies — not taxpayers or consumers— bear the $300 million annual cost of application review and foreign factory inspections.

The Murphy bill is expected to reduce healthcare costs by hundreds of millions of dollars for senior citizens, who save $1,000 annually through access to life-saving generic medications. Murphy discussed his legislation with employees of Omnicare, a specialty pharmacy that manages prescription drugs for seniors in nursing homes, during a tour of their facility in Robinson Township last Monday. In advance of the legislation approved this week in the House to repeal the President’s 2010 healthcare law following the Supreme Court ruling, Rep. Murphy solicited opinions from his constituents in an email survey of the law.

Thousands of Southwestern Pennsylvanians responded with a majority - more than 55% —advocating for full repeal of the bill. Almost twenty percent supported a partial repeal, 23% opposed to any changes in the law, and 3% were “unsure.” More than 70% of Murphy’s constituents want Congress to specifically undo the bill’s $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, as well as stop the expansion of Medicaid to cover childless, able-bodied adults who live far above the poverty line. The Medicaid expansion is expected to cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $100 to $150 million annually.

Click here to watch Rep. Murphy's full floor speech on repealing the 2010 healthcare law.

Survey respondents split on several other provisions in the bill. Sixty percent supported a new prohibition on insurers denying coverage to persons with preexisting conditions, and a slim majority (53%) want a federal mandate requiring companies to provide health insurance for children up to age 26 through their parents’ policies.

Congressman Murphy supported the repeal vote and urged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to start over and work together to fix, instead of just finance, the nation’s broken healthcare system. This bill, which gained the support of six Democrats, now heads to the Senate however Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed to forbid a Senate vote on the measure.

Watch Rep. Murphy’s latest Fox News interview on the importance of fully repealing the healthcare law on YouTube here.

To share your thoughts with Congressman Murphy on the repeal legislation, please click here.

Health Committee Working To Connect Military Medics With Civilian Jobs

Tens of thousands of military medics boast an advanced skill set in emergency health training. The U.S. Army alone has more than 13,000 medics on duty, and the service prepares thousands of new medical recruits each year for the Army Reserve and National Guard. These men and women often seek to utilize their healthcare expertise and training when returning to the civilian life.

Rep. Murphy joins Dan Nichols at the Health Subcommittee hearing on Veteran's employment issues.

However, since the military is not an accredited or certified training provider, the skills accrued by service members have no direct recognition by any government credentialing or education authority. Thus, these highly trained medics must often start from scratch to acquire the federal and state credentials needed to work in a hospital or emergency medical services (EMS).

This week, Congressman Murphy joined members on the Health Subcommittee at a legislative hearing to explore ways to break down the barriers facing trained military medics who want to enter the civilian healthcare sector. Lawmakers are considering a national federal standard for military medics who want to become EMTs.

To address this problem, Rep. Murphy signed onto legislation to allow service members to translate the skills developed in military service into good paying civilian jobs. The bipartisan Veterans HIRE at Home Act (H.R. 4115) helps states reform outdated certification procedures so that veteran’s military training is taken account when seeking work as EMTs, registered nurses, or commercial truck drivers.

“I have the distinct pleasure and honor of serving in the Navy Reserve with many of these corpsmen,” said Congressman Murphy at the hearing. “These men and women have gone through a remarkable amount of training and are such a source of strength to their colleagues and to those they assist. When it comes to conducting EMT work, the horrors of the situation often weed some people out. This is an incredible skill that many of those who have gone through corpsman training bring to the situation. I applaud their efforts and will continue working to do whatever I can to ensure that these individuals have a spot in the workplace when they return home.”

Testifying before the Committee was local resident Daniel Nichols, a Vice President of Victory Media in Coraopolis. Mr. Nichols’ company publishes magazines geared toward troops and military families such as the GI Jobs web site, which provides career services to returning service members.

“As a nation, we have been unable to adequately address the perceived gap between military training outcomes and civilian workplace skills, and that includes the healthcare sector,” said Mr. Nichols, who is a Navy Reserve veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Our military members have skills, and have no problem being put to the test to prove their competence. I believe the ultimate solution would create a means by which training provided by the DoD could be accredited by civilian standards, and therefore allow military training and skills to easily transition into existing safeguards and competency standards established by civilian and state institutions.”

To share your thoughts with Congressman Murphy on Veteran’s issues, please click here.

Murphy Responds to President's Tax Plan

During an address on Monday, President Obama urged Congress to act now to preserve current tax rates for families earning less than $250,000 annually. The President’s plan, which would raise $65 billion in taxes next year (or enough money to fund the government for 6.5 days), would impact 1.25 million filers including many small businesses.

Congressman Tim Murphy said he wanted to prevent a tax hike on middle-class families. “With 23 million Americans looking for a job, allowing a tax increase to take effect on January 1st would be catastrophic,” said Murphy. “I don’t disagree with taking action now to stop the pending tax hike on middle class families struggling to make ends meet in this jobless economy.”

Rep. Murphy warned that lawmakers need to focus on economic growth and a tax hike would help the private sector create jobs. Murphy urged the President to sign into law a number of bills passed by the House to dramatically expand American energy production and make the United States less dependent on OPEC and other foreign countries. Specifically, Murphy’s Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act (HR 1861) dedicates a portion of dramatically-expanded offshore royalty revenue for rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, locks, and dams. The bill would spur $8 trillion in economic output and create 1.2 million new jobs annually. Ten percent of the new revenues are also dedicated to deficit reduction.

Congressman Murphy again urged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make good on their promise to keep taxes low for the middle class by repealing the 21 tax increases included in the healthcare law. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the taxes are part of the reason why 800,000 to one million jobs will be lost under the bill.

Unless Congress acts, a wave of tax hikes will hit the American people in 2013.
•    Families: $4,138 average tax increase
•    Baby Boomers: $4,223 average tax increase
•    Millennials: $1,099 average tax increase
•    Low-Income Workers: $1,207 average tax increase
•    Retirees: $857 average increase

To share your thoughts with Congressman Murphy on the President’s tax plan, please click here.

Recent Riots in Belfast Reaffirm Need for US Role In Peace Process

More than a decade ago, U.S. congressional and diplomatic leaders helped negotiate a power sharing agreement between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. The historic Good Friday Agreement, coupled with the St. Andrews Agreement, began the process of transferring police and judicial powers from Great Britain to a semi-autonomous Northern Ireland. While significant progress has been made, peace in Northern Ireland is fragile and tensions remain between the two sides as trust is built day by day.

The United States continues to play an instrumental role in the Irish peace process after violence began in 1969 (resulting in 3,500 deaths). The matter is of particular concern locally. Pittsburgh has a flourishing American Ireland Fund Chapter and Ancient Order of Hibernians with more Southwestern Pennsylvanians claiming  Irish heritage than any other ethnic group (according to U.S. Census data ).

July 12th is the busiest marching day, marking the 1690 Battle of Boyne, and on Thursday twenty police officers were injured and numerous shots fired after trouble flared in Belfast over dueling public parades by Catholic and Protestant communities. Bombs were thrown at officers in the Bogside area, the location of the Bloody Sunday killings by British soldiers in 1972. The violence carried over into Friday in mainly Catholic districts of Northern Ireland after the protests began on Thursday with vehicles set on fire in Derry, and a public bus hijacked and burned in County Armagh.

Rep. Murphy Speaks With Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson & Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

As a senior leader on the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus, Congressman Murphy has been actively engaged in working to bring together Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Murphy, who has participated in four official Congressional Delegation visits to Great Britain, Ireland, and Northern Ireland to work on achieving peace in the region, commented on the recent violence.

“The process of peace and self-governance in Northern Ireland has been marked by passion and sadly, sometimes tragedy. One of the things I learned when I was in Ireland in 2010 meeting with Ian Paisley [the former First Minister of Northern Ireland] and Martin McGuinness [the deputy First Minister] was the overwhelming desire of Catholics and Protestants to find a peaceful resolution. There is still much work to do, but our commitment in Congress to support those who believe peace is achievable remains unshaken.”

In 2011, Murphy was presented the Public Service Award by the American Ireland Fund for his tireless support of American-Ireland issues. Named one of the Top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America Magazine in 2008, Rep. Murphy also received the Flax Trust Award for his contribution to the peace process in 2010, and was recognized as the Hibernian of the Year by his own Division 32 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Carnegie, PA in 2010.
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Click here to comment on the peace process in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday power sharing agreement.

Rep. Murphy in the News

Rep. Murphy discussed the importance of repealing the President’s healthcare law on July 3 with Fox News’ America’s Newsroom. Watch the segment on the Congressman’s YouTube page here.

On July 10, Murphy joined Paul Orgel of C-Span’s Washington Journal to address the House’s plan to repeal the healthcare law in its entirety. You can watch the interview online.

Rep. Murphy shared his perspective on the House’s vote to repeal the President’s healthcare law on July 11 with Fox Business’ Willis Report. The interview is available online here.