News · Press Release

GOP SUMMER BUMMER

This Sunday marked the first day of summer, and boy do House Republicans want it to be a scorching reality for people across the country. In honor of what’s supposed to be everyone’s favorite season, here are the top ten ways that the House Republicans are ruining your summer:

  1. Air Conditioning Costs Through the Roof – House Republicans have proposed cuts to LIHEAP, a critical energy assistance program that provides cooling assistance to low-income households.
  2. Risky Barbeques – Think twice before you enjoy that burger and listeria-ridden ice cream! The House Republicans have appropriated less than half of the funding needed to bring food safety standards into the 21st
  3. Dirty Beaches – Republicans apparently don’t mind swimming in spilled oil, since they voted against an amendment that would have required polluters to pay for the cleanup of oil and other toxic spills that hurt local fisheries.
  4. Endangered Construction Worker Jobs – Republicans failed to lead and come up with a long-term highway funding bill, meaning thousands of construction workers have little job-certainty beyond July.
  5. Imperiled Summer Travelers – The Republicans’ failure to come up with and pass a long-term highway funding bill has forced many states to postpone major transportation projects and leaves tens of thousands of bridges across the country in structurally deficient condition.
  6. Pro-Wildfires – Summer is sadly wildfire season, yet the House Republican appropriations bill ignores the USDA’s request for additional disaster funding for wildfire responses.
  7. Anti-Baseball – The recent hack of the Houston Astros was just the latest hacking scandal to plague Americans. Add federal employees, Target shoppers, and many others to the list, thanks in part to Republicans’ failure to develop and pass a comprehensive cybersecurity bill.
  8. Gone (is) Fishing – House Republicans don’t mind if we eventually run out of fish – which they made clear through their bill that removes requirements to ensure that fish stocks can be replenished and sustained
  9. Hope your sunscreen works! – House Republicans have rejected Democrats’ attempts to provide additional funding to NIH, which conducts key biomedical research for dangerous conditions like skin cancer.
  10. Airport Security – Why should the TSA have up-to-date information about terrorist threats? House Republicans voted against requiring intelligence agencies to share up-to-date information on terrorist activity with the TSA.

AIR CONDITIONING COSTS

House GOP Appropriations Bill Cut LIHEAP Program By $25 Million. “This morning the Labor, Health & Human Services (LHHS) Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee voted to fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) at a $3.365 billion level for FY 2016.  This represents a minor reduction from FY 2015’s enacted level of $3.39 billion.” “The Obama Administration requested $3.39 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), in essence requesting flat funding for the critically important energy assistance program. This request is significantly higher than previous years and we appreciate the show of support from the Administration.” [LIHEAP Action Center, 6/17/15; LIHEAP Action Center, 2/2/15]

IMPACT EXAMPLE:

LIHEAP Program Provided 17,237 Low-Income Arizona Families With Home Cooling Assistance. [HHS – LIHEAP AZ, accessed 6/18/15]

LIHEAP Program Provided 4,409 Crisis Grants To Arizona Households In Immediate Danger Of Losing Home Cooling. [HHS – LIHEAP AZ, accessed 6/18/15]

RISKY BARBECUES

House GOP Proposal Funded Less Than Half Of Requested Budget For Implementation Of Food Safety Rules. “The House Appropriations Committee has allocated a $41.5-million increase for the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety activities for fiscal year 2016, but it’s less than half of what President Obama’s budget requested. . . . The administration’s budget request released in February asked for a $109.5-million increase over the previous year for FSMA implementation as the law’s major rules are finalized by the end of FY 2016.” [Food Safety News, 6/19/15]

Headline: Food Dive: “House committee approves less than half of requested FSMA funding.” [Food Dive, 6/19/15]

FDA Commissioner: “I Cannot Overstate The Importance Of Our Request To Fund Continued Implementation Of FSMA.” “Before leaving her post as FDA Commissioner in March, Dr. Margaret Hamburg told both the House and Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittees that more money is critical for modernizing inspections and retraining staff, providing guidance and technical assistance, working with states, and raising the level of oversight overseas. ‘Significant funding gaps still loom,’ Hamburg told the Senate subcommittee. ‘I cannot overstate the importance of our request to fund continued implementation of FSMA. A shortfall in funding will undermine Congress’ intent to transform our country’s food safety program and will harm all stakeholders.’” [Food Safety News, 6/19/15]

FSMA Would Require Integration Of State, Federal Laws That Would Make Reporting Mistakes Identified In Blue Bell Ice Cream Listeria Case Less Likely. “One example of how the FSMA could improve good manufacturing practices was recently uncovered in the Blue Bell ice cream listeria case. The deadly bacteria was found on non-food surfaces as early as 2013 in the Blue Bell plant that prompted the nationwide recall in April 2015. According to FDA inspection reports, employees at the plant did not report it. They instead killed the bacteria in the isolated area and never looked into why or where it came from. It might seem shortsighted, but they were perfectly justified in doing so, as FDA and state laws did not require the plant to report any such issues. As a result of the recall, recent changes in laws in Texas and Oklahoma now require reporting. FSMA would require integration among state and federal laws so reporting mistakes like this would be less likely.” [Eater, 6/18/15]

DIRTY BEACHES

Republicans Voted Against Forcing Polluters to Pay for Cleanup of Toxic Oil Spills. On June 1, 2015 Republicans voted against an amendment to H.R.1335, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. The motion to recommit would have added language to the bill to force polluters to pay for the cleanup of a toxic spill or oil spill that harms fisheries, fishing jobs, and local fishing communities. [H.R. 1335, 6/1/15; H.R. 1335, Vote #266, 6/1/15]

ENDANGERED CONSTRUCTION WORKER JOBS

Short-Term Extension Postponed For 33rd Time In Six Years Broader Discussion On Sustaining Highway Fund. “Tuesday’s vote postpones, for the 33rd time in six years, a broader discussion about how to sustain the highway fund, which once was supported solely by federal motor fuel taxes. But those taxes remain what they were in 1993, and Congress has transferred about $65 billion in general revenues to the fund since 2008 to keep it solvent.” [McClatchy, 5/19/15]

Los Angeles Times Editorial, On Stopgap Fix For Highway Fund: “This Is Congress At Its Most Frustrating.” “This is Congress at its most frustrating. There is widespread public support for repairing and upgrading the nation’s infrastructure, and there have been bipartisan proposals to help close the funding gap by gradually increasing the gasoline tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993. Federal officials have documented the backlog of deferred maintenance — more than half of the nation’s major roads are rated poor or mediocre and one-quarter of the bridges are structurally deficient. Yet lawmakers repeatedly passed stopgap measures rather than address the underlying problem, which is that the fund doesn’t generate enough money to pay for the essential transportation investments needed.”[Editorial, Los Angeles Times, 5/20/15]

Failure To Fund the Highway Trust Fund Would Cost Thousands Of Construction-Related Jobs. “The Department of Transportation has warned that it will have to reduce reimbursements for infrastructure projects to states if the Highway Trust Fund runs out of money this summer. Transportation advocates have said that a shutdown in May would cost thousands of jobs because summer is typically the beginning of the busiest construction in the U.S.” [The Hill, 3/18/15]

IMPERILED SUMMER TRAVELERS

Headline: The Hill: “GOP senator: I’ll be ‘stunned’ if Republicans handle highway fund responsibly.” [The Hill, 5/13/15]

Many States Postponed Major Transportation Projects Due To Uncertainty Of Federal Funding. “Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming are among states that have postponed bidding on major transportation projects because of uncertainty over federal funding, said Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. ‘Many of the states are in a position where they can’t assume that federal dollars will be there,’ Wright said. ‘They can only act and move forward if there’s some assurance. Some of the higher-profile, bigger projects that require the accumulation of money over a few years just can’t go forward.’” [USA Today, 5/19/15]

USA Today: There Is Currently “Backlog Of More Than $115 Billion In Bridge Work And $755 Billion In Highway Projects Throughout The Country.” “There’s currently a backlog of more than $115 billion in bridge work and $755 billion in highway projects throughout the country, according to Department of Transportation data.” [USA Today, 4/1/15]

PRO-WILDFIRES

Republican Congress Ignored Administration Requests To Set Aside Natural Disaster Funding For Devastating Wildfires. “Jewell was joined by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and forest officials to talk about federal efforts to prepare for a potentially catastrophic wildfire season in the West. But the press conference was also used to blast Congress over firefighting funding issues that the cabinet members say are hurting efforts to prevent fires from getting out of control. Jewell and Vilsack said Congress is being ‘short-sighted’ in its response to administration pleas to set aside natural disaster funding for the worst kinds of fires.” [Colorado Statesman, 6/10/15]

Majority Of Forest Service Funding Used To Fight Fires – Detracting From Forest Service’s Ability To Conduct Management To Prevent Fires From Breaking Out In The First Place. “Vilsack said the problem lies in budgeting constraints that take away from fire prevention efforts. More than half of the U.S. Forest Service’s budget is being used to fight fires, he pointed out, compared to just 16 percent in 1995. The Forest Service has appropriated more money for fighting fires than it did for non-firefighting forest management over the last two fiscal years. And Vilsack said ‘there is a 90 percent chance’ that this year’s fires will cost more to fight than the $1 billion that has appropriated. The more the departments have to pay to fight fires, the less money there is to put in place efforts to prevent the blazes from breaking out in the first place, officials said.” [Colorado Statesman, 6/10/15]

Senate Draft Included Language To Allow Disaster Assistance For Wildfires In “A Major Break From The House’s Proposed Spending Bill.” “In a major break from the House’s proposed spending bill for Interior and the Forest Service, the Senate bill includes a ‘fire cap adjustment’ that would provide disaster assistance for wildfire response once fire expenditures have exceeded the 10-year average cost of suppression.” [E&E News, 6/17/15]

BASEBALL

Headline: NBC News: “White House to Congress: Get Out of Cyber ‘Dark Ages.’” [NBC News, 6/5/15]

NBC News: Efforts To Bolster Cybersecurity Prevent Hacks “Bogged Down By Congressional Politics.” “Efforts to prevent evolving cybersecurity threats of the type that resulted in a massive federal data breach in the largest cyber-attack in U.S. history have been partly bogged down by congressional politics and a federal approach that the Government Accountability Office has called inconsistent. Four million federal workers may have had their personal information compromised in the attack, which officials said could affect every agency of the U.S. government.” [NBC News, 6/5/15]

Headline: New York Times: “Cardinals Investigated for Hacking Into Astros’ Database.” [New York Times, 6/16/15]

Headline: Washington Post’s The Switch: “How the Astros baseball hack explains Chinese cyberespionage.” [The Switch, Washington Post, 6/16/15]

Astros Hack & OPM Cyberattack Both Targeted Confidential Information As Currency. “Stripping away the details — such as the government breach seems to be the result of a sustained cyberattack, while the hack of the Houston Astros appears to have been enabled by poor password hygiene — the goal of both attacks seem pretty obvious: Gathering information. . . . And the attacks on the Astros and OPM could produce financial returns: A winning team means more merchandising money, and knowing another country’s trade agenda, for instance, could mean an economic edge. But what these hacks really show is that information is its own form of currency.” [The Switch, Washington Post, 6/16/15]

Fishing

House Republicans Passed Legislation To Remove Requirements To Ensure Rebuilding Of Fish Stocks Depleted By Overfishing. “Defying a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House on Monday approved a bill to give regional fisheries managers more power to set local fishing levels in federal waters. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, would remove a 10-year timeframe for rebuilding depleted fish stocks and allow fisheries managers to consider the economic needs of fishing communities in setting annual catch limits. Republicans said the bill would added needed ‘flexibility’ to the fisheries law while still protecting against overfishing. Democrats said it would roll back an important requirement that has ensured the recovery of many fish populations.” [Alaska Dispatch News, 6/1/15; H.R. 1335, Vote #267, 6/1/15]

Independent Study Found That Requirements Had Helped Rebound Some Fish Stocks – But More Than A Quarter Of Overfished Stocks Remained Depleted & Others Needed Additional Time. “A 2013 report by the independent National Research Council found that federal efforts to rebuild depleted fish populations have largely been successful, but said pressure to overfish some species remains high and some fish stocks have not rebounded as quickly as projected. Forty-three percent of fish stocks identified as being overfished were rebuilt or showed good progress toward rebuilding within 10 years, the time limit required by the Magnuson-Stevens law, the report said. Another 31 percent were on track to rebuild if sharply reduced fishing levels remain in place, the report said. More than a quarter of overfished stocks continued to be overfished, due to ineffective enforcement and errors in fish stock estimates that led officials to set catch limits that were too high, the report said.” [Alaska Dispatch News, 6/1/15]

WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN

Republican Budget Would Lead To Fewer NIH Grants. In 2015, the White House found the Republican budget framework would lead to 1,400 fewer new research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) compared to the President’s budget. The National Cancer Institute, which studies skin cancer, is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). [Cancer.gov, accessed 6/22/15; Whitehouse.gov, 5/13/15; S. Con. Res. 11, Vote #183, 4/30/15]

AIRPORT SECURITY

House Republicans Voted Against Measure To Require Intelligence Agencies To Share Up-To-Date Information With TSA On Terror Attempts & Terrorist Watch List. In June 2015, House Republicans voted against a motion to recommit that would “deter terrorist attacks, and strengthen America’s cybersecurity by requiring intelligence agencies to share with the Transportation Safety Administration the latest info on terrorist attempts to thwart airport security and who’s on the terrorist watch list; and foil and counter state-sponsored cyberattacks by China, Russia, and others that resulted in OPM hacks, and theft of personal health information of 80 million Americans from Anthem Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield.” [H.R. 2596, Vote #368, 6/16/15; Democratic Leader – Motions to Recommit, 6/16/15]

 





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