Congressional Recap: Budget, Banking, Trucking And Veterans Highlight Week In D.C.

Arkansas’ Congressional delegation dealt with a wide range of domestic issues in hearings and bill filings, but Sen. Tom Cotton’s push on foreign policy started the week’s news.

The week marked the first major speech by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., as well as discussions over the federal budget.

The following is a breakdown of the week that was in the nation’s capital:

COTTON SPEECH
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., spoke Monday about foreign policy and the nation’s policies toward Iran during a speech on the Senate floor.

The speech brought up history, with Cotton drawing a line between the time before World War II and now.

“Today, perhaps more tragically because we ought to benefit from these lessons of history, the United States is again engaged in something of a grand experiment of the kind we saw in the 1930s. As then, military strength is seen in many quarters as the cause of military adventurism. Strength and confidence in the defense of our interests, alliances, and liberty is seen not to deter aggression, but to provoke it,” Cotton said.

“Rather than confront our adversaries, our president apologizes for our supposed transgressions. The administration is harsh and unyielding to our friends, soothing and supplicating to our enemies. The president minimizes the threats we confront, in the face of territory seized, weapons of mass destruction used and proliferated, and innocents murdered.”

WESTERMAN, WOMACK SUPPORT BUDGET
On Tuesday, Reps. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs and Steve Womack, R-Rogers said they supported the 2016 federal budget presented by House Republicans in the House Budget Committee.

Westerman said the proposal will create a balanced budget, with $5.5 trillion in savings, over the next 10 years.

“The budget crafted by this committee does something the president’s proposed budget never could do – it balances,” Westerman said. “This budget not only balances, but it produces more than $5 trillion in savings over 10 years, creates a surplus by 2024, repeals Obamacare and creates a workforce requirement for recipients of federal income assistance programs. By taking my proposed workforce requirement legislation – H.R. 886 – and expanding it to all able-bodied, working age federal income assistance program recipients, taxpayers will save $600 billion over 10 years.”

Womack said the budget will seek to reduce spending and put the nation back into fiscal buoyancy.

“America cannot afford to continue down this unsustainable path; we are more than $18 trillion in debt. Even more concerning is that 66 percent of our spending is going out the door automatically – without any oversight – to finance mandatory programs and the interest on our debt. We cannot solve our financial crisis by cutting discretionary spending alone. This House Budget recognizes that and takes the important and necessary steps to get America back on track and ensure that we are spending responsibly, purposefully, and within our means, just like families across the Third District of Arkansas and all over the country have to do. I applaud its introduction.”

BOOZMAN SPONSORS VETERANS BILL
A bill that would allow Guard and Reserve retirees who served honorably for at least 20 years but do not meet the active duty service requirement to qualify as veterans under law was introduced this week.

Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., filed the Honor America’s Guard-Reserve Act of 2015, along with Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn.

Currently, the law defines a veteran as servicemen and women who have served on active duty. The legislation would amend current law and allow Guard and Reserve retirees to be recognized as a veteran. Due to the fact that no additional benefits beyond the title of veteran are extended to these retirees, there is no cost associated with this legislation, the bill notes.

“National Guard and Reserve members who selflessly serve in defense of our country should to be honored for their sacrifice. These men and women earned this recognition for their steadfast commitment to our national security and Armed Forces and rightfully deserve to be honored with the title of veteran,” Boozman, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said.

The House of Representatives approved similar legislation in the last Congress.

HILL, WESTERMAN SUPPORT EPA TRANSPARENCY BILL
Reps. French Hill, R-Little Rock and Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs voted this week to approve the Secret Science Reform Act of 2015.

The bill, which passed the House Wednesday by a 241-175 margin, would prohibit the EPA from proposing or implementing regulations without first publishing the science on which they are based for independent review, Hill said.

“For years the EPA has made unilateral regulatory decisions behind closed doors that have lasting and crippling effects on business owners and farmers throughout Arkansas and America. By increasing transparency and review of the science behind the EPA’s regulations, we can ensure a higher quality of scientific evidence and eliminate the politically driven, overly burdensome regulations of the EPA,“ Hill said.

“The passage of the Secret Science bill this week ensures that businesses in my home state of Arkansas and across the country are able to see the science behind the often-times burdensome regulations placed on private industry by the Environmental Protection Agency,” Westerman said. “Transparency in government is needed, especially when regulation based on secrets are coming from the Obama administration, resulting in skyrocketing costs to businesses which means less jobs.”

HILL CHALLENGES IRS, BANKING REGS
Rep. Hill also appeared in two committee hearings this week and challenged some assumptions dealing with the IRS and the Dodd-Frank Act.

Hill told Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew that the scandal involving the IRS losing emails as part of a Congressional investigation sends the signal of a double-standard to citizens.

“On this email issue, I think the American people are really frustrated by it, and I urge everybody in the Administration to be focused on this,” Hill said. “The IRS example on losing emails, all of us in the private sector would be excoriated by our regulators were we to lose our emails…. I think it’s a double standard that frustrates American taxpayers and business owners.”

On a panel later in the week dealing with financial regulatory practices, Hill showed a panel how changes enacted by the Dodd-Frank Act had impacted the paperwork conducted by banks in transactions.

Highlighting a 20 page mortgage loan document that was in place before Dodd-Frank, the requirements for processing the home loan now require a 255-page loan document.

“I got a note the other day from a bank [in my district] for a 174,000 home loan, and prior to the ability to repay rules that are now in place, the packet was this thick … this is the size of the packet today. Two hundred and fifty-five pages—not including the appraisal, not including the tax returns—to go through a loan approval process. Two hundred and fifty-five pages versus twenty pages. I think that speaks to what everyone is feeling: all that cost is sent to the consumer,” Hill said.

HIGHWAY SAFETY BILL INTRODUCED
On Thursday, Boozman and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, introduced a bill to recognize hair testing as an alternative option on pre-employment drug screening for truck drivers.

Under current regulations, urinalysis is the only accepted method of drug and alcohol testing. Boozman said the bill would give companies greater flexibility when doing drug and alcohol testing, plus removes redundancy.

“Preventing drug-users from operating commercial trucks will improve safety on our roads and enhance industry standards,” Boozman said. “This legislation eliminates the duplicative drug-testing process and allows trucking companies to use the more effective option, without having to pay for two tests.”

A similar bill has been sponsored in the House by Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro.