Dear Mrs. Webb: Thank you for getting in touch with me - TopicsExpress



          

Dear Mrs. Webb: Thank you for getting in touch with me about government funding. In December 2014, Congress passed and President Obama signed legislation funding most parts of the government through September 30, 2015. The bill includes incremental increases in funding for infectious and chronic disease research at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as funding to address the Ebola outbreak. Funding will also help provide nutritious meals to children and families throughout the country; support community development initiatives and rental assistance for low-income families and seniors; increase available skills training for low-income and dislocated workers; and increase resources to support victims of domestic violence and help victims of crime. And it includes a bipartisan proposal that I introduced that will establish a Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NMI) to position the United States once again as the global leader in advanced manufacturing. Unfortunately, members of the House of Representatives used the funding bill to force through controversial policy changes. They refused to fund homeland security beyond February 2015 and added extraneous provisions that roll back protections for workers and taxpayers. Just six years after high-risk investments caused the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the funding bill repeals a critical piece of the 2010 financial reform law, assuring that taxpayers will once again be forced to pay the cost of Wall Street’s riskiest investments. The bill’s tenfold increase in campaign contribution limits will allow the wealthiest to speak with a louder voice than the majority of Americans in our next election. Changes to nutrition standards for school meals will leave millions of children with less healthy choices in the lunch line. Restrictions on the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Interior will constrain efforts to protect endangered species, mitigate the effects of climate change, and hinder clean energy development. Finally, a last-minute addition to the bill restructures the multiemployer pension system in a way that rolls back a provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in order to allow trustees to cut the pensions that workers have earned through a lifetime of work. This bill could allow for cuts to pensions for millions of current and future retirees while asking for little from the companies responsible for contributing to the plans. In addition, the legislation does little to strengthen the long-term finances of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which is predicted to become insolvent within the next ten years. While I had hoped to vote to increase funding for the federal programs and research that benefit so many Americans, I could not support changes that give further advantages to Wall Street and the top one percent at the expense middle-class taxpayers. That is why I opposed the funding legislation when it came before the Senate. I am disappointed that so many of the reforms Congress has passed over the past 15 years were undone in a single bill. In the months ahead, I will work to restore commonsense policies that benefit working Ohioans – not Wall Street. Thank you again for getting in touch with me. Sincerely, Sherrod Brown United States Senator
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:35:31 +0000

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