Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – This week, the U.S. House continued its focus on Americans' top priorities – jobs and the economy, providing our veterans with the care they've earned and protecting our borders. The U.S. House has passed more than 350 bills in the 113^th Congress that address some of our nation's most pressing needs. While there have been some bi-partisan successes, Congressman Scott Perry (PA-04) remains frustrated that most of these bills remain stuck in the U.S. Senate.

Veterans Administration (VA) Reforms

On Wednesday, the House passed a bill to overhaul the Veterans Administration (VA), giving veterans access to more responsive care, including private care, and making it easier to hold more accountable senior VA managers who are failing our veterans. The Veterans Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (H.R. 3230) passed the House by a massive bipartisan majority of 420-to-5; the Senate subsequently passed it and President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

As a 34-year military veteran, Rep. Perry was outraged at recent revelations surrounding the VA and the medical care provided to our veterans. Multiple news reports have raised allegations regarding preventable deaths and attempts to cover up treatment delays at VA health clinics. This legislation:

• Allows veterans to seek medical attention outside the VA system if an appointment is not available within 30 days, or if a veteran resides more than 40 miles from the nearest VA medical facility;
• Provides funding to hire additional doctors, nurses, and medical staff;
• Extends several existing pilot programs, including those helping veterans with traumatic brain injuries and victims of sexual assault; and
• Permits the VA Secretary to fire or demote employees in an expedited fashion based on performance or misconduct.

Jobs and the Economy

The House also adopted the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 (H.R. 5021), a bill that funds surface transportation programs through May 2015, providing certainty and stability for states, while providing Congress time to continue working on a long-term funding solution for our surface transportation programs. H.R. 5021 has passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into law.  If Congress had failed to act, thousands of transportation projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country would have been at risk.

 “One of the core functions of the federal government is to ensure that America has the necessary transportation infrastructure to facilitate interstate commerce and strengthen America's competitive edge in the global economy,” said Rep. Perry. “This bill is paid for and addresses the immediate need to ensure the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund and provide fiscal certainty to the states. While this bill leaves a lot to be desired, all of us can see that our infrastructure is crumbling around us. I'm actively working with my colleagues on long-term solutions to make our transportation system safer and more efficient, thereby growing our economy and spurring job creation.”

Earlier in July, the House passed legislation to help modernize and improve our nation's workforce development system and help put Americans back to work. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (H.R. 803) reforms and modernizes federal workforce training programs by: eliminating 15 duplicative programs, applying a single set of outcome metrics to federal workforce programs, aligning workforce development programs with local economic development and education initiatives, and enabling businesses to identify in-demand skills and connect workers with the opportunities to build those skills. H.R. 803 was first adopted by the U.S. House in March 2013 as the “SKILLS Act”. H.R. 803 was recently signed into law by President Obama.

These bills continue efforts in the U.S. House to lay the groundwork for a stronger economy and increased opportunities for all Americans. Legislation already passed by the House would: strengthen our water transportation networks; embrace American energy resources; lift barriers to clean renewable energy; give working families more flexibility and increase oversight of expensive federal regulations. Most of these bills remain stuck in the U.S. Senate.

Protecting Our Borders and Our Constitution

This week, the House also advanced legislation (H.R. 5230) to address the current immigration crisis on the Southwestern border. The U.S. Senate has not acted on this issue. The goals of H.R. 5230 are to secure our border, address the humanitarian crisis, and expedite the return of migrants to their home countries by:

• Reducing the president's $3.7 billion request to $694 million, which is fully offset by spending cuts and recessions to existing funds, and specifically targets all funding toward addressing the most immediate needs at the border;  
• Changing a 2008 law to expedite the return of unaccompanied minors to their home countries by treating Central American children the same as those from Mexico.  President Obama has repeatedly called for such a change, characterizing it as a “bipartisan priority”;
• Prohibiting the Interior and Agriculture secretaries from limiting the activities of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents on federal public lands within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border;
• Providing funding for National Guard troops at the southern border to help respond to the humanitarian crisis and relieve the border patrol to focus on their primary duty of securing our border;
• Increasing the number of temporary immigration judges, allowing the courts to process more cases and reduce the lengthy wait periods between detention and removal; and
• Prioritizing repatriation assistance to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador from within existing foreign aid funding to facilitate the return and reintegration of children in their home countries.
• In a separate vote, the House took steps to prohibit President Obama from unilaterally providing amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Finally, the House adopted H. Res. 676, a resolution authorizing the House to enter into litigation in opposition to President Obama's attempts to make his own laws and commit actions that challenge the constitutional separation of powers. The Constitution says the president must faithfully execute the laws, and makes clear that only the Legislative Branch has the power to legislate. The current president has demonstrated that he believes he has the power to make his own laws – at times even boasting about it. If this is allowed to continue, future presidents (Republican or Democrat) will have the ability to do so as well.

Throughout the 113th Congress, House members have put their cards on the table and sent hundreds of bills to the Senate, waiting for them to pass their own versions so we eventually could come together to try and find some common ground. These proposals largely have been met with silence by the Senate and President Obama.  Examples of jobs bills passed by the U.S. House may be reviewed here: http://www.speaker.gov/jobs.

Residents are welcomed to contact Congressman Perry and his staff at any of his offices, or via Perry.House.Gov, where they can sign up for e-mail updates and for his Facebook, Twitter and You Tube pages.