Lincoln Journal Star: Fortenberry embraces change, but eyes nuclear threat

On the first day of the new Congress, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry turned an eye to the possibilities of tax and health care reform along with an infrastructure program that offers the potential for bipartisan cooperation.

But Fortenberry also has an eye cast on a special concern of his, the dangerous spread of nuclear weapons and increasingly loose talk about nuclear arms that should also be "a grievous concern not just for Americans, but for humanity."

Fortenberry, who is entering his seventh term as Nebraska's 1st District congressman, is co-founder of the Congressional Nuclear Security Caucus.

The best word to describe the beginning of the new Congress is "replenishment," he said Tuesday during a telephone interview from Washington.

"There is an aura of possibility."

Fortenberry said he agreed with the decision by House Republicans on Tuesday to walk back earlier action in the GOP caucus to weaken an ethics office that had been created to serve as an independent congressional watchdog.

While he voted in support of the original action by the caucus on Monday, he said, he had mixed feelings about it and believes any action should be considered in a bipartisan way.

While arguing that "people deserve the highest ethical behavior" by members of Congress, Fortenberry said he has concerns about the manner in which the watchdog body is structured now.

As Congress begins the new year, Republicans control both the House and the Senate and later this month will also have the White House in their hands.

"Movement to change the nature of the current health care law will be the first thing," Fortenberry said, but a vote to repeal Obamacare will only mark "a movement to change the nature of the current health care law" with full replacement lying years ahead.

"We can't leave anybody out and behind," he said.

"We're not going back to excluding people with pre-existing conditions. We're looking at a vision of what could be: access to affordable, quality, major medical insurance for everyone."

A major infrastructure program, heralded by President-elect Donald Trump, "could be a good win for Republicans and Democrats," Fortenberry said, with the potential to achieve "a politically good economic impact" for the nation.

Tax reform can create a more fair and robust economic system, he said, but "whether short-term, bipartisan agreement is possible is a harder question."

Fortenberry said he proposed an amendment during the meeting of the Republican caucus that stated a House-Senate conference committee could not change a legislative provision that already had been agreed to by both the House and Senate, but withdrew it when it encountered leadership opposition.

"This is the last vestige in an inappropriate concentration of power," the congressman said. "It was my shot to change the institution" in a manner that empowers members, he said.

Fortenberry's deep concern about nuclear weapons has been heightened by evidence that "the danger is going up significantly."

"The consequences of a nuclear weapons explosion are so grave that you can't get your arms around it," he said. "This is a race between collaboration and catastrophe.

"It remains one of my priorities."

Click here to read the entire article.