Blue Dog Coalition

Blue Dog Coalition Opposes Republican Budget: The leadership of the Blue Dog Coalition issued a statement earlier this month strongly opposing the Ryan budget and furthering calls for a big, bold, bipartisan budget proposal.

Rep. John Barrow (D-Georgia): Congressman John Barrow (GA-12) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives about proposed cuts to the Medicare Advantage (MA) program for seniors. A Medicare Advantage Plan is a type of Medicare health plan offered by a private company that contracts with Medicare to provide you with all your Part A and Part B benefits.  Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 5.9 percent cut to the program, which would reduce benefits and increase premiums by $35 to $75 per month for MA beneficiaries. There are more than 15 million MA recipients throughout the country, including more than 308,000 in the State of Georgia. The video of Congressman Barrow’s speech is available here.

Congressmen Barrow and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have led the effort to prevent these proposed cuts each year. In 2013, they successfully encouraged CMS to leave MA rates untouched for 2014 afterbuilding a bipartisan coalition of House members who were committed to pushing back against proposed cuts. Earlier this month, Congressmen Barrow and Cassidy again led an effort to prevent the proposed cuts for 2015, leading a letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, along with over 200 members of Congress, to encourage her to keep rates untouched.

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee): Congressman Cooper’s Taxpayers’ Right to Know Act passed the House unanimously on Feb. 25. Introduced by Cooper and Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), the bill would require every federal agency to publish an annual report card for all of its programs. The Office of Management and Budget would then determine how many duplicative and overlapping government programs exist and recommend ways to eliminate wasteful programs. In March, Cooper cosponsored the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would change the law to transfer the prosecution of crimes such as rape and sexual assault from commanders to independent military prosecutors. “Threats to our troops should only come from the enemy,” Cooper said. “Not our fellow soldiers.” Cooper also continues to call for flexibility at the Department of Defense.

Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon): Congressman Schrader joined his colleagues in passing flood insurance reform with strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. He spent much of last year meeting with coastal residents and state and local officials about how best to address the costly, unreasonable rate increases that were due to take effect on September 30, 2014. The product of those discussions was the introduction of bipartisan legislation that he wrote, which allows homeowners to purchase a flood insurance policy with a high deductible in exchange for lower premiums. This proposal was included in the final bill that was signed into law by the President.

Rep. Ron Barber (D-Arizona): Congressman Barber worked with Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-FL) to urge the secretary of Health and Human Services to immediately reverse proposed cuts in Medicare Advantage. http://barber.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/us-rep-ron-barber-leads-bipartisan-effort-to-prevent-medicare-advantage In a letter also signed by 26 of their colleagues, Barber and Murphy said the cuts “will mean fewer benefits, fewer doctors and less choice. This is wrong and we cannot let it happen.” Soon thereafter, the administration announced that the cuts had been halted.

Barber introduced legislation that will name the post office in Patagonia, Ariz. http://barber.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/us-rep-ron-barber-introduces-bill-to-name-post-office-for-jim-kolbe after former Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), who grew up in the area. The bill was cosponsored by the entire Arizona delegation – Republicans and Democrats. Kolbe represented Southern Arizona in the House for 22 years before retiring in 2006.

Barber introduced legislation to spur research into preventing suicides – an especially troubling problem in Arizona which has a suicide rate almost 30 percent above the national average with one person dying by suicide every eight hours. http://barber.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/us-rep-ron-barber-champions-bill-to-combat-suicide Barber introduced HR 4075 – the Suicide Prevention Research INnovaTion Act or the “SPRINT Act.” Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK).

Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia): Congressman Bishop, top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies worked with his colleagues on the Subcommittee to bring the MilCon/VA appropriations bill to mark up in the House Appropriations Committee. The bill provides $6.5 billion in military construction for military family housing, medical facilities, NATO, chemical demilitarization construction, the Guard and Reserve facilities around the country, and other measures. It also provides $158.2 billion for the Veterans Administration, assuring that all areas of administrative expenses, research, medical care, information technology, and facilities will be adequately funded, allowing our Veterans to receive the highest quality of care. To address the outstanding veteran’s claims backlog within the VA, an additional $20 million on top of the already allocated $173.3 million will help the VA reach its goal to end the backlog in 2015.

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Illinois): Congresswoman Bustos spent February and March traveling her district to talk with her constituents about a variety of issues important to them and their families.  This includes the recently-passed Farm Bill that will help farmers and producers across Illinois.  Bustos also continued her “Partnering for Illinois’ Economic Future” initiative by holding a week-long workforce tour of the region.  She held a week-long tour to discuss a new report she put together on the state of women’s economic health in her district and across the country and advocated for passing legislation to close the wage gap and raise the minimum wage.  She also held a career fair in Peoria to help connect job seekers to local jobs. 

Additionally, she attended a White House event to help announce that Illinois was chosen to be home to a new first-of-its-kind national Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute organized by the Department of Defense.  Finally, she introduced the Taylor Morris Act to help ease the financial burden for American’s most severely injured servicemembers, helped lead an effort opposing President Obama’s proposal to switch to a “chained-CPI” system for calculating Social Security benefits, and helped lead a new effort to stop the marketing of e-cigarettes to children. 

Rep. Jim Costa (D-California): Continuing his fight to combat the effects of the devastating drought facing California, Congressman Costa led a bipartisan, bicameral letter directing the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce to maximize pumping operations during the most recent storms.  Additionally, Costa introduced a bill with Rep. Miller that would expedite the construction of Los Vaqueros Reservoir and provide additional tools for water managers to develop additional water supply.

In recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Crime Victims’ Rights Week in April, Costa led the fight to protect federal programs important to victims across the country. The founder and Co-Chair of the bipartisan Victims’ Rights Caucus, Costa led two letters with his colleagues in the House supporting funding for Victims of Child Abuse Act programs and the Crime Victims Fund. Costa continues to build support for his legislation to reauthorize the Victims of Child Abuse Act (H.R. 3706).

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas): This past month, Congressman Henry Cuellar invited Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) to visit the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, a site of rapid economic expansion following the discovery of shale oil. Rep. Cuellar and the Chairman toured NuStar, an energy company based in Cotulla and got to see firsthand the success we have had in South Texas.  

Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-North Carolina): On March 3, 2014, Congressman McIntyre hosted the Thirteenth Annual 7th Congressional District Youth Summit. This summit was designed to provide students a forum to discuss issues affecting youth and ways to improve their community and the nation.

The event was attended by more than 40 students from all 12 counties in the district and from both public and private high schools. High schools from across the 7th Congressional District were invited to nominate one junior to represent them at the summit. Lenoir County attorney and community leader James “Jimbo” Perry and Miss North Carolina Johna Edmonds attended as speakers.

As the founder and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Youth Sports, Co-Chairman of the Task Force on Fatherhood, and a member of the Congressional Children’s Caucus, Representative McIntyre remains committed to providing students with the opportunity to voice their opinions on issues that our nation’s leaders deal with every day.

Rep. Collin Peterson: The House Agriculture Committee Wednesday again demonstrated that it is possible to pass legislation in a bipartisan way. The Committee approved by voice vote H.R. 4413, the Customer Protection and End-User Relief Act to reauthorize and improve the operations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is reasonable legislation that ensures a well-functioning CFTC, regulates financial entities dealing in the swaps market, and allows end-users to continue using derivatives to hedge the risks associated with their underlying business.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-West Virginia): Following the recent move by the Supreme Court not to consider the Spruce Mine case, U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall pushed for congressional action to put an end to the EPA’s Clean Water Act permitting overreaches. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where Rahall is the top Democrat, advanced H.R. 524, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) that puts an end to the EPA’s practice of retroactively revoking permits they issue. Rahall is an original cosponsor of the bill.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-California): Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-46) recently sent a letter to the FDA advocating for a change to nutrition menu labeling regulations to make them more business-friendly.  Rep. Sanchez introduced a bill last summer that would provide menu labeling alternatives to small businesses across the country.

Rep. David Scott (D-Georgia): Congressman David Scott joined his colleague, Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN), to introduce H.R. 4234, the Ensuring Veterans Resiliency Act, a bipartisan bill to improve psychiatric care in military and veteran communities.

Congressman Scott joined Reps. Frank Lucas, Collin Peterson, and Michael Conaway to introduce H.R. 4413, the Customer Protection and End-User Relief Act. This legislation is a bipartisan effort to reauthorize and improve the operations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as address concerns relating to protecting customers from another market failure such as MF Global and Peregrine Financial. The measure was approved by the Agriculture Committee by voice vote on April 9.

Congressman Scott joined a bi-partisan group on a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and the Financial Stability Oversight Council board to exercise caution before utilizing the Office of Financial Research’s flawed study on the asset management industry. Using this flawed study as a baseline for regulations could hinder Americans’ ability to invest their money and save for the future with the help of an asset manager.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona): Congresswoman Sinema recently introduced two important pieces of legislation: the Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act and the Student Testing Improvement & Accountability Act.

The Strengthening Healthcare Options for Vulnerable Populations Act extends an important program for one of Arizona’s most vulnerable populations. This bill ensures that seniors and others in these plans will be able to keep the managed care services they have selected. This bill provides states with greater flexibility to control cost and provide improved services. Finally, this bill can help control cost for a very expensive population nationally while at the same time improving healthcare outcomes. Ensuring that vulnerable seniors continue to have access to these valuable plans is an important part of ensuring that they can live out their golden years with dignity.

The Student Testing Improvement & Accountability Act replaces current yearly testing requirements for math and language arts/reading with the exact same grade span testing requirements that are in current law for science.  This returns federal requirements on testing frequency to pre-No Child Left Behind standards.  Under the bill, States would retain the ability to exceed federal testing requirements if they deem that appropriate.  Importantly, the bill ensures the decision about when and how often student assessment occurs will happen at the state and local level. 

Additionally, Congresswoman Sinema testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Health regarding the Classified Veterans Access to Mental Health Act which ensures that veterans with classified experiences can access appropriate mental health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-California): An effort to fix the out-dated formula used to determine Medicare reimbursement payments that U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) helped lead through the House passed the Senate this month as part of H.R. 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, and will now go to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

Also this month, Thompson and U.S. Reps. Pete King (R-NY-2) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY-18) introduced the bipartisan Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Assessment Protection Act of 2014. The legislation, HR 4285, helps spur local job creation and increase energy efficiency by enabling State and local governments to develop and implement PACE programs through local government financing of residential and nonresidential energy efficiency improvements. PACE programs – currently available in 31 states and the District of Columbia – allow property owners to finance the purchase and installation of energy retrofits to their homes and businesses and then pay for them each year as part of their property tax.

Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine): Congressman Michaud, Ranking Member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced legislation earlier this month that would improve outcomes and increase accountability within the executive rank of the VA. Michaud also toured Togus VA Medical Center in Maine with Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Chairman of the VA Committee.

This week, Michaud sent a letter to President Obama urging him to directly raise the issue of Japan’s currency manipulation when meeting with Prime Minister Abe next week in Asia.