Blue Dogs Recess Roundup

Blue Dogs to President: Investigate IRS:Earlier this month, co-chairs of the fiscally conservative, Democratic Blue Dog Coalition – Reps. Barrow (D-GA), Cooper (D-TN), Matheson (D-UT) and Schrader (D-OR) – sent a letter to President Obama condemning the inexcusable behavior by the IRS in targeting outside conservative groups and urging him to immediately initiate an investigation.

"As co-chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition, we are very concerned the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allegedly targeted certain groups based simply on the perception of partisanship in their names," the terse letter read. "The IRS should never target Americans for their political beliefs. It goes against everything we stand for as a country. We must investigate who broke the law and punish them."

Rep. John Barrow (D-Georgia):Congressman Barrow last week introduced legislation, Keeping the Promise of IRCA, H.R. 2124, to dramatically enhance border security and crack down on illegal immigration. Congressman Barrow was joined at a press conference to introduce the legislation by Chris Crane, President of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council.

Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah): Congressman Matheson recently saw his bill H.R. 1919, Safeguarding America's Pharmaceuticals Act of 2013 ("track and trace"), pass via voice vote in the full Energy and Commerce Committee. This bill would strengthen the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain, while eliminating a growing and burdensome patchwork of state-by-state requirements by establishing a uniform national standard for industry stakeholders to comply. Mr. Matheson has been working on this issue for nearly a decade. It will likely be on the floor next month.

Last week, the House passed H.R.3, the Northern Route Approval Act, with a vote of 241 to 175. The bill declares that no Presidential Permit shall be required for the remainder of the pipeline and deems the final environmental impact statement from August 2011 to satisfy all NEPA requirements. This also takes into account the Nebraska re-route evaluated by the state's Department of Environmental Quality. Rep. Matheson was the lead Democrat on the bill.

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee):In a speech at the Nashville Bar Association's annual Law Day luncheon, Rep. Cooper proposed a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would guarantee voting rights to Americans. While the Constitution has been amended repeatedly to expand voting rights to groups such as African-Americans and women, it does not explicitly grant the right to vote.

Also, a proposal first introduced by Rep. Cooper to keep members of Congress from getting paid if the U.S. defaults on its debt passed the House with 340 votes.

Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon):Congressman Schrader has introduced a bill to provide certainty to forestry companies and workers, by reaffirming the Environmental Protection Agency's 37-year-old policy toward regulation of runoff from forest roads. The Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act would aid efforts to increase timber harvests and forestry jobs by preventing unnecessary litigation on a question that the U.S. Supreme Court settled in the EPA's favor earlier this year. The bill, like the Supreme Court decision, upholds the EPA's existing policy, which does not require water discharge permits for forest roads.

"The ability to independently manage our forests in a sustainable and responsible way is crucial to the vitality of Oregon's rural economies and helps to keep our forests healthy and thriving," Schrader said in a statement. "The timber industry and EPA have worked together for over three decades to reduce forest roads runoff with much success. The Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act restores the certainty our state and local governments and private forest landowners need to continue managing forestlands using best management practices that have been successful in the past."

Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas):Texas wins when its delegation works as a team. Congressman Gallego has teamed up with Republican Kevin Brady (R-TX) as of late in an attempt to bring the full Texas delegation to meet regularly and bring results back to Texas together. The New York Times has highlighted their efforts.

Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia): Last week Congressman Bishop, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, worked to pass the 2014 MILCON/VA Appropriations bill out to the full House Appropriations Committee, which highlighted many areas of needed attention including VA medical services, DOD-VA electronic health records sharing, disability claims processing backlog, VA mandatory funding and oversight.

Rep. Jim Costa (D-California): Congressman Costa last week introduced bipartisan legislation to increase competition, stabilize food prices and enhance American energy security and global competitiveness. The Domestic Alternative Fuels Act, H.R. 1959, would allow ethanol produced from domestic natural gas to be included under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and compete with corn-based ethanol.

H.R. 1959 would establish Domestic Alternative Fuel as an independent fuel category and list it within the regulations that specify volume obligations to meet the RFS. The bill would also enhance America's energy security and global competiveness by expanding the eligibility requirements within the RFS to allow ethanol derived from natural gas to compete with corn-based ethanol.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas):Congressman Cuellar announced early last week that he plans to focus all his efforts and attention on stopping furloughs at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—as a result of budget cuts provoked by sequestration. Nearly $600 million dollars in cuts to the federal border protection agency's budget have forced a hiring freeze on all non-frontline personnel, limited reductions in overtime, and the elimination of any monetary disbursement for the fiscal year 2013—more commonly known as "on the spot" and "special act" payments.

"Sequestration has so far threatened hundreds of thousands of jobs and has put the health of our economy in jeopardy. Unless we mobilize now—by supporting CBP's plan to Congress—we run further risk of leaving our border vulnerable, our families without a sense of security, and our communities doubting our commitment to their safety," Rep. Cuellar said in a statement.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois):Congressman Lipinski introduced legislation to address the continuing problem of sexual assault in the military by requiring the armed services to provide professionally trained sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) to assist in investigations and provide specialized medical attention and care to victims. Rep. Lipinski's bill, The SANE Deployment Act, comes in the wake of a recent Department of Defense report showing that military sexual assaults and related crimes have risen 35 percent in the last two years.

"I have been greatly disturbed by recent reports that show sexual assaults in the military are increasing and that investigation and punishment in these cases are often lacking. Clearly, the current system in place to deal with these horrible crimes isn't working and must be changed," Rep. Lipinski said in a statement. "The SANE Deployment Act will help give victims more confidence to come forward knowing their cases will be handled with greater professionalism and sensitivity."

Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-North Carolina):Congressman McIntyre announced last week that language he authored and proposed to help the Carolina Beach renourishment project has been incorporated in a critical coastal bill that has passed the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that includes legislative language to extend the renourishment period for this critical beach project and others nationwide. The Carolina Beach project was due to expire next year.

Rep. McIntyre in a statement said, "We must do everything we can to keep the Carolina Beach renourishment project going forward, as it is important for the economy and the environment of New Hanover County. Beach renourishment is critical to public safety and for the protection of private property for businesses and homeowners. Ending this project and initiating a new start project from scratch would require potentially millions of dollars to be spent on duplicative reconnaissance and feasibility studies."

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-California):An amendment offered by Congresswoman Sanchez passed by voice vote last week in the House Homeland Security Committee to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit to Congress a plan to implement a biometric exit capability at airports under the US-VISIT program. Implementation of a biometric exit component to US-VISIT was a key 9/11 Commission recommendation, and has been mandated by Congress on a bi-partisan basis multiple times. The Department has piloted such a program at two airports, using Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration personnel. However, the program has never gone beyond the pilot phase. The time for action on this critical homeland security and immigration enforcement is long overdue.

Rep. David Scott (D-Georgia):In response to an investigation into recent deaths at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center, Congressman Scott joined a bipartisan effort from Georgia this week to ask for a top-level inquiry from the VA. Georgia Congressmen Scott, Phil Gingrey and Tom Price sent a letter demanding answers from the VA Under Secretary of Health. Congressman Scott has largely helped bringing the problems to light.

Also, Congressmen Scott and Goodlatte (R-VA) offered an amendment in the House Agriculture Committee's mark-up of the 2013 Farm Bill that would have struck the dairy market stabilization program that is included in the base text of the FARRM Act and replaced it with a stand-alone margin insurance program for dairy producers.

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-California): An op-ed written by Police Chief Jim Johnson appeared in Roll Call last week commending Congressman Thompson's work to improve law enforcement safety.

Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine): Last week Congressman Michaud was joined by veteran groups on Capitol Hill, as House lawmakers unveiled a legislative package designed to help the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) accomplish its goal to eliminate the backlog by 2015. All ten bills in the package have now been introduced, and a summary of the plan can be found here.

"I applaud the VA's ambitious goal, but the time for relying on them to get the job done alone is over," said Rep. Michaud, Ranking Member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, who spearheaded the introduction of the legislative package. "Congress needs to act in order to get veterans the benefits they've earned faster. This legislation represents a pragmatic and commonsense approach that members of Congress of all political stripes should support."

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota): Congressman Peterson, Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee, has been working hard for some time to pass a bipartisan, comprehensive 2013 Farm Bill with significant savings and reforms.

Following the recent mark-up of the bill Peterson said in a statement, "I'm pleased the Committee was able to work together, find some common ground, and advance a five-year farm bill today. Needless to say this process has gone on far too long and it is past time to get this bill done. With today's action, I'm optimistic the farm bill will continue through regular order and be brought to the House floor in June. If we can stay on track, I think we should be able to conference with the Senate in July and have a new five-year farm bill in place before the August recess."