Foxx Report for the Week of July 17, 2015

Statement

This week a group of six nations led by the United States announced it had reached a final nuclear agreement with Iran. Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is critical to securing peace in the Middle East and protecting U.S. interests, and I remain deeply concerned that this agreement simply delays Iran's path to a nuclear bomb and further empowers the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

In return for marginally slowing the pace of its nuclear ambitions, the Obama administration wants to reward Iran with billions in sanctions relief despite the fact Iran continues to feed the flames of unrest in the Middle East. With my colleagues in Congress, I will carefully review the proposed agreement and do all in my power to make certain that we prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capabilities.

End Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood

Earlier this week a disturbing video surfaced of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, discussing the sale of fetal organs from aborted babies as she casually eats lunch. The heartless way that Dr. Nucatola describes how Planned Parenthood clinics kill innocent children and then harvest their precious hearts, lungs, and livers to sell is sickening.

Following the release of the video, I joined my colleagues in calling for a congressional investigation into the trafficking of fetal tissue by Planned Parenthood that examines current federal laws and regulations as well as potential violations of current law and identifies areas where the law may be insufficient.

In 2014 alone, Planned Parenthood was directly responsible for killing over 350,000 unborn babies in their clinics. It is unconscionable and inexcusable that we are giving the hard-earned money of American taxpayers to an organization that callously kills an innocent, unborn child every 90 seconds. At its core, Planned Parenthood supports the systematic extermination of the most vulnerable among us, and it is past time to end federal funding of this organization, which views the life of the unborn as a revenue-generator.

Highway and Transportation Funding Act

On Wednesday the House passed legislation that would fund the nation's highway and transit programs through December 18th. Transportation and infrastructure are key components of economic development efforts in North Carolina and in the 5th District, and this fiscally-responsible bill keeps important road and bridge projects going in the short term while discussions continue on a longer-term bill.

SIMPLE IRA Rollovers

This week I introduced legislation suggested to me by a constituent that will simplify retirement planning by correcting a technical limitation preventing the rollover of tax-deferred retirement funds into existing SIMPLE IRA accounts that are older than two years.

Individuals should be able to consolidate their retirement funds in a way that best meets their needs. This legislation is a small but important first step on the long road to ensuring our tax system works for Americans, not against them.

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