President on Immigration
On Friday, the President issued an executive order granting “deferred action” to parents of children who were born within the United States and who have been in the country for five years and children brought into the country illegally as of 2010. With an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally, approximately 4.5 million people will benefit from this order. I am very disappointed at the President’s executive order, though I am not surprised. This action is very typical of how President Obama has operated — unilaterally—and without consideration of the American people or the co-equal legislative branch. It is this overuse of Presidential power against which the American people rebutted on Election Day, and it appears the President, once again, is ignoring the wishes of the governed.
Anticipating such blatant disregard for rule of law, I was proud to sign onto a letter led by Congressman Matt Salmon earlier in November urging the House Appropriations Committee to prohibit funding for the President’s executive order granting amnesty. While President Obama may use his phone pen to circumvent Congress, enforcing such executive orders will require funding, which my colleagues and I aim to prevent. Twenty-two times in recent years the President himself stated such executive orders were unconstitutional, yet he has carried them out anyway. As I have said time and time again, the President must enforce the laws already on the books, and I invite him to heed his own words about the constitutionality of his actions.
Veterans Corner
House Passes H.R. 5441 – To amend the federal charter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to reflect the service of women in the Armed Forces of the United States
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) congressional charter was signed in 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at a time when the military was composed almost entirely of men. Today, over 200,000 women are serving active duty in the U.S. military. To more accurately reflect the demographics of today’s military and veteran population, I introduced H.R.5441, which would amend the Federal charter of the VFW to replace any mention of “men” in the Federal charter with “veterans”, and “widows” with “surviving spouses.” I am pleased to announce H.R. 5441 passed the House on November 17, 2014. I believe VFW Commander-in-Chief John Stroud said it best when he stated, “We are changing our Congressional charter not because it’s politically correct. We’re changing it because being an eligible veteran is what’s important to our great organization, not one’s gender, and changing ‘widows’ to ‘surviving spouses’ is more representative of today’s military.” I want to thank all of my colleagues who supported this measure, and I want to thank all the men and women who are serving or have served our great Nation.
H.R. 4795 – Promoting New Manufacturing Act
In the House, we are committed to advancing pro-growth legislation that will get government out of the way and allow our Nation’s businesses to take advantage of our God-given natural resources to grow their businesses and all sectors of our economy. Even President Obama, during his 2014 State of the Union Address, spoke about the importance of sparking a manufacturing renaissance through increased natural gas production, and he vowed that he would “cut red tape to help states get those factories built.” While the Administration has done nothing to deliver on this promise, the House passed legislation last week that would help ensure that manufacturing projects, including 180 projects that the American Chemistry Council estimates are in the works, are able to quickly comply with EPA permitting process so that they can get built and begin operation.
H.R. 4795, the Promoting New Manufacturing Act, which I voted for and passed by a vote of 238-172, would support the construction and development of manufacturing projects by increasing transparency and reducing delays in the preconstruction permitting process. To achieve this goal, H.R. 4795 requires EPA to provide timely guidance about how proposed manufacturing projects can comply with new or revised EPA standards that could impact the status of their permit applications. Additionally, the bill would increase transparency by requiring EPA to publish information on its website the number of permits issued, as well as statistics on the length of time it takes EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to resolve administrative appeals.
Especially in our current economic climate, there is no reason for the EPA to be holding up important manufacturing projects through mountains of bureaucratic red tape. H.R. 4795 helps ensure that EPA is more responsive and transparent in the permitting process, and it is part of a much larger effort by House Republicans to support hard-working American families and businesses. In addition to H.R. 4795, the House also passed two additional pieces of legislation last week related to the EPA.
Increasing Transparency at the EPA
With EPA regulations having an ever-increasing economic impact on our Nation, it is vital that the science cited by EPA to justify their actions be fully transparent and unbiased. Yet, far too often, the scientific justifications underlying EPA’s actions are not made available to the public and are reviewed by a board of individuals that is significantly unbalanced and whose members may benefit from the outcome of specific EPA decisions. The House passed two bills last week, which I voted for, aimed at increasing public participation, transparency and accountability by promoting sound science at the EPA.
H.R. 4012, the Secret Science Reform Act, would prohibit the EPA from finalizing, proposing, or disseminating regulations unless all scientific and technical information used to support the proposed regulation is made available to the public in an manner that is easily accessible for independent analysis and verification. The data access provisions that are included in H.R. 4012 are modeled on the independent verification methods used by major scientific journals like Science and Nature. Ultimately, hard-working American families and businesses are the ones that foot the bill and feel the burden of EPA’s numerous rules and regulations, and it is only right that the public should have access to the science that EPA uses to come to these decisions.
H.R. 1422, the Science Advisory Board Reform Act, would make important reforms to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), which is tasked with reviewing the quality and relevance of the scientific and technical information being used by the EPA or proposed as the basis for Agency regulations. Unfortunately, recent actions by the EPA have systematically silenced and shut out opinions on the SAB that EPA deems unpopular, while consistently ignoring calls to increase balanced participation and preventing the SAB from responding to Congressional inquiries. In addition, the independence of the SAB has been called into question thanks to the fact that 34 of its current 58 members have received grants from the EPA, leading to a situation where these scientists are reviewing EPA research that is often directly related to the grant money they receive.
H.R. 1422 would help restore the SAB to its original Congressional intent by requiring the Administrator of the EPA to select members so points of view represented are fairly balanced, with at least ten percent of board members coming from state, local, and tribal governments. Additionally, the bill requires the EPA to solicit nominations from the public and from relevant federal agencies, while also requiring that the list of nominations and the entities that nominated them be made public and that provisional nominees disclose their financial relationships and interests, as well as relevant public statements. Finally, H.R. 1422 seeks to increase transparency and public involvement as it relates to board decisions by making all reports and scientific information available to the public at the same time they are provided to the SAB, and by requiring public information gathering sessions, soliciting public comments, and requiring written responses to significant public comments.
Congressional Internship
The Office of Congressman Jeff Miller seeks interested college applicants for the competitive internship program. Internships are offered in all three office locations: Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, and Washington D.C. Interns will be afforded the unique opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the workings of a congressional office and legislative process as well as learn the importance of constituent services. All internships are unpaid; however, interns can arrange to receive academic credit for their work. Interested candidates should submit a completed intern application found at this link, along with their resume, cover letter, and recommendation letter to FL01InternCoordinator@mail.house.gov. The application deadline for the spring program is December 19, 2014 and March 6, 2015 for the summer program.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Washington Update