In The News
May 23, 2014
Health Affairs Blog: Traditional Budgeting Fails To Account For The Changing Face Of America
The United States has been undergoing a major demographic shift over the past four decades, and by 2042, the various “minority” communities will in the aggregate make up the majority of our country. That has real implications not only for things like immigration policy, but also – and critically – for population health considerations. And it’s time that Congress started thinking about its health policy decisions in ways that recognize this coming demographic reality.
May 8, 2014
The Hill: Current Budget Law Makes Congress Too Near-Sighted
The gridlock that has persisted on Capitol Hill in recent years has largely stemmed from fundamental disagreements over how to address our country’s major health and economic challenges.
May 8, 2014
Fox 11: Congress Talks LCS Funding
MARINETTE- Jobs at Marinette Marine look as if they will be safe, for the time being. Congress talked about funding for the Littoral Combat Ship program today. Republican Congressman Reid Ribble says funding for navy ships, like those built at Marinette Marine, have passed a House subcommittee. It’s part of the larger National Defense Authorization Act. But that legislation still has more hurdles.
May 8, 2014
WBAY: House Committee Funds 2 LCS Ships for 2015, Only Part of Original Contract
The future of the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program was under debate on Capitol Hill Wednesday. As part of the 2015 Defense Authorization Act, members of the House Armed Services Committee voted to approve full funding for two ships and advanced procurements for two more. The Navy's original proposal would have fully funded all four.
Apr 21, 2014
Miwaukee Journal Sentinel Op-Ed: Congress needs better information
Recently, President Barack Obama released his budget proposal for the upcoming year. Among the many elements of this proposal were recommendations for creating savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs — by his estimate, about $402 billion of savings over a decade. Assuming that number is correct, what is missing from the budget is a clear sense of how we can find savings to shore up health care programs for the next 50 years.
Apr 17, 2014
| The Hill Newspaper
The Hill Op-Ed: Give the CBO long-range tools
Congress regularly weighs policy reforms that affect our national economic mooring for decades, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is limited in its official scoring to a 10-year budget horizon. It’s time to give the agency tasked with estimating the cost of Congressional policy proposals the resources it needs to present long-term budget projections to Capitol Hill. A bill introduced last week by Reps. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) would do just that, by creating a new division within CBO tasked solely with long-term budget scoring. The bill is particularly timely as...
Apr 14, 2014
Post Crescent: Thumbs Up to Reps. Ribble and Pocan
Thumbs Up: To Rep. Reid Ribble and Rep. Mark Pocan, for their bipartisan approach to federal medical research funding. Ribble, R-Sherwood, and Pocan, D-Madison, introduced a bill this week that would provide $5 million for the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government’s nonpartisan number-crunching agency, to estimate the costs and benefits of legislation for several decades. Currently, the CBO makes estimates for the next 10 years. Their goal, as it affects medical research, is to show that investing in it will pay off for the nation in the long term. It’s a different approach —...
Apr 9, 2014
Ribble, Pocan team up on long-term approach to medical research funding
Rep. Reid Ribble calls himself a “budgeteer” and can often be heard ruminating on the fiscal benefits of such banal-sounding topics as inter-modal transportation. So when the Green Bay-area Republican decided to tackle the issues of chronic diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s, he approached it as a number-cruncher. The product of his work —the “Long-Term Studies of Comprehensive Outcomes and Returns for the Economy Act” —was slated to be introduced Wednesday.
Mar 24, 2014
Sheboygan Press: Some Wisconsin lawmakers donate shutdown pay, others keep it
The federal government shutdown may have cost the economy billions by some estimates, but it was a boon for some Wisconsin charities, who banked checks for thousands of dollars thanks to members of the state’s congressional delegation. Reps. Reid Ribble of Sherwood, Tom Petri of Fond du Lac, Paul Ryan of Janesville, Ron Kind of La Crosse, and James Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls all donated their pay from the 16-day shutdown — roughly $7,400 — to charities in their districts.
Mar 21, 2014
Wis. State Journal: Ribble, Pocan have the right attitude
Issues: Congressional Reform
Shortly after arriving in Congress three years ago, U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble did something unusual: The Republican lawmaker invited a Democratic colleague to dinner. Ribble was frustrated by the polarization in Washington, which included his first committee meeting. “Republicans were sequestered into their room,” Ribble, R-Sherwood, recalled this week. “Democrats were sequestered in their room. And the only time you would come together was when you were going to mark up a bill. But at that point it’s already antagonistic.
