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VETS HEALTH
The White House changed course Wednesday on a veterans health care proposal after Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, led 70 House members from both parties last week to oppose the plan.
The group, which includes Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Tom Perriello, D-5th, sent a letter this week to President Barack Obama, calling for the administration to abandon plans to bill private insurance companies to pay for combat-related injuries.
Late Wednesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced the president called for dropping the plan from consideration.
Currently, private insurers pay only for veterans’ health care costs unrelated to military service. The change would have made private insurers responsible for covering treatment of service-related conditions ranging from amputations to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nye and veterans groups argued the change could result in increased health insurance premiums for veterans and potentially could discourage employers from hiring injured veterans.
The White House had sought the change to save the Veterans Administration around $530 million dollars and “maximize the resources available for veterans," Gibbs said in a statement. He said the president listened to veterans groups’ concerns that the change could affect the ability of veterans to get insurance.
SPENDING PLAN
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, is working to force Congress to curb spending on Social Security and Medicare.
Wolf reintroduced the bipartisan plan to rein in the entitlement spending that would work like the Pentagon’s base closing commission, on whose recommendations Congress typically votes.
Wolf’s bill (H.R. 1557) calls for creating the Securing America’s Future Economy – SAFE – Commission. Unlike other commissions such as the Iraq study group, this bill would require Congress to act on its recommendations.
“There is no ducking the issue,” Wolf said in a statement. “Congress is never going to tackle this growing cancer of spending on its own. That is why we need the SAFE Commission.”
HIGH SCHOOL
Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, is taking aim at what he calls the nation’s “dropout factories” with a bill that would require the use of a national formula to calculate graduation rates.
The Every Student Counts Act builds on a concept endorsed in 2005 by the nation’s governors to simplify comparisons among the nation’s high schools. Scott noted that relatively few schools are responsible for most of the nation’s dropout problem.
“The current high school accountability system is failing our students,” Scott said in a statement.
The bill would require schools to keep graduation data by minority groups to monitor success of all students and focus on closing achievement gaps.
CHINA
Recent Chinese harassment of a U.S. Navy ship calls for a congressional condemnation, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, said Thursday.
"We've had time to pass legislation questioning China’s treatment of the people of Tibet and to name post offices, but the House has yet to take the time to address the harassment of an unarmed U.S. Naval ship carrying civilians,” Forbes said after a private briefing on the confrontation.
The U.S. Navy has called China’s actions in the South China Sea aggressive. Forbes introduced a resolution that would condemn any Chinese actions that could escalate tensions with the U.S., specifically citing the March 8 naval incursion.
The White House changed course Wednesday on a veterans health care proposal after Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, led 70 House members from both parties last week to oppose the plan.
The group, which includes Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Tom Perriello, D-5th, sent a letter this week to President Barack Obama, calling for the administration to abandon plans to bill private insurance companies to pay for combat-related injuries.
Late Wednesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced the president called for dropping the plan from consideration.
Currently, private insurers pay only for veterans’ health care costs unrelated to military service. The change would have made private insurers responsible for covering treatment of service-related conditions ranging from amputations to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nye and veterans groups argued the change could result in increased health insurance premiums for veterans and potentially could discourage employers from hiring injured veterans.
The White House had sought the change to save the Veterans Administration around $530 million dollars and “maximize the resources available for veterans," Gibbs said in a statement. He said the president listened to veterans groups’ concerns that the change could affect the ability of veterans to get insurance.
SPENDING PLAN
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, is working to force Congress to curb spending on Social Security and Medicare.
Wolf reintroduced the bipartisan plan to rein in the entitlement spending that would work like the Pentagon’s base closing commission, on whose recommendations Congress typically votes.
Wolf’s bill (H.R. 1557) calls for creating the Securing America’s Future Economy – SAFE – Commission. Unlike other commissions such as the Iraq study group, this bill would require Congress to act on its recommendations.
“There is no ducking the issue,” Wolf said in a statement. “Congress is never going to tackle this growing cancer of spending on its own. That is why we need the SAFE Commission.”
HIGH SCHOOL
Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, is taking aim at what he calls the nation’s “dropout factories” with a bill that would require the use of a national formula to calculate graduation rates.
The Every Student Counts Act builds on a concept endorsed in 2005 by the nation’s governors to simplify comparisons among the nation’s high schools. Scott noted that relatively few schools are responsible for most of the nation’s dropout problem.
“The current high school accountability system is failing our students,” Scott said in a statement.
The bill would require schools to keep graduation data by minority groups to monitor success of all students and focus on closing achievement gaps.
CHINA
Recent Chinese harassment of a U.S. Navy ship calls for a congressional condemnation, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, said Thursday.
"We've had time to pass legislation questioning China’s treatment of the people of Tibet and to name post offices, but the House has yet to take the time to address the harassment of an unarmed U.S. Naval ship carrying civilians,” Forbes said after a private briefing on the confrontation.
The U.S. Navy has called China’s actions in the South China Sea aggressive. Forbes introduced a resolution that would condemn any Chinese actions that could escalate tensions with the U.S., specifically citing the March 8 naval incursion.