E-Newsletter: May 11, 2014

Statement

Veterans Corner
In the wake of allegations that up to 40 veterans may have died while waiting for health care at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs voted unanimously to issue a subpoena to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The subpoena was prompted by the department's refusal to comply with my repeated requests for information regarding VA's admitted destruction of a document department officials have speculated may be the "secret" list cited by Phoenix VA Health Care System whistleblowers. The service of this subpoena is an unprecedented step, because until now, the committee has not served one during my chairmanship. We will not stop our investigation until VA provides complete answers to our Nation's veterans and the American people. To watch my statement on this subpoena, click on the image below.

The National Commander of the American Legion, Dan Dellinger, recently called for the resignation of Secretary Shinseki, Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel, and Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey. This is the first time the organization has called for such resignations in over 30 years. Accountability and transparency with the VA as a whole is lacking, and if the Phoenix allegations are corroborated, the calls for leadership changes at VA will only get stronger.

The situation in Phoenix has rightly received a great deal of media attention, and I appeared on Fox News' the Kelly File as well as Washington radio station WTOP to discuss what we're doing in Congress to get to the bottom of this matter. The sad truth is that the Phoenix allegations come on the heels of 23 confirmed deaths due to delays in care at VA facilities across country. Clearly, VA's entire system for ensuring veterans receive timely care is in dire need of an overhaul, and we will keep up the pressure on the entire administration until these problems are fixed. To listen to my interview with WTOP click here, and to watch my interview with Megyn Kelly, click on the image below.

Bryan/College Station, Texas Chamber of Commerce

I joined my colleague Congressman Bill Flores (R-TX) at a meeting with members of the Bryan/College Station, Texas, Chamber of Commerce last week to discuss the role of the House Veterans Affairs' Committee and efforts we currently have underway. Over the last year and a half, the Republicans and Democrats of the committee have worked tirelessly to execute a comprehensive legislative and oversight agenda with two overarching goals: helping veterans while improving accountability and efficiency at the Department of Veterans Affairs. We've approved 13 bills containing 50 different provisions, and eight of these bills have passed the House and await Senate action. These include the G.I. Bill Tuition Fairness Act, which would expand educational opportunities for veterans by allowing them to attend the state-run higher-education institution of their choice at the in-state tuition rate. On the oversight front, we are working to address VA's backlog of disability benefits compensation claims as well as the growing pattern of preventable deaths at VA medical centers across the country and VA's failure to hold poorly performing executives accountable. As it stands now, VA executives who preside over mismanagement and negligence are more likely to get a bonus than any sort of punishment, and that is completely unacceptable. In order to increase accountability at VA, I have introduced the Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014.

Constituent Voice
In the aftermath of the storm and flooding experienced in our area, many constituents contacted my office to see what resources are available to help recover from the storm. After speaking with constituents and touring the area to see the devastation first-hand, I had no doubt that a federal Major Disaster Declaration was warranted, and I sent a letter to the President asking him to make this declaration.

Last Tuesday, a Major Disaster Declaration was issued, triggering the release of federal funds to aid in the recovery effort. The federal response will help augment the ongoing state and local recovery efforts. Individual assistance to impacted households and businesses in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties will be available, and individuals across Northwest Florida will be eligible to apply for hazard mitigation grants. If you were impacted by the storm, you can begin the disaster application process by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362. To find out more about the federal disaster resources click here. You can also click here for more information about the Florida emergency response resources.

Washington Update

IRS Targeting Scandal
Since reports emerged of the IRS targeting of Conservative groups, the House has undertaken a sweeping investigation, reviewing nearly 500,000 pages of documents and conducting 33 transcribed interviews with current and former IRS officials, ranging from front-line employees to Lois Lerner, former Commissioner of the IRS and former Director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS. Yet, Lois Lerner, refused to comply with a subpoena to testify. Additionally, the Administration has refused to cooperate with congressional oversight, and when the Attorney General finally appointed someone to head the investigation, he chose a political donor who has given several thousand dollars to the Democratic National Committee and President Obama's political campaigns. With the Administration continuing to stonewall, the House passed two bills last week to address the IRS targeting scandal.

Last Wednesday, the House passed H.Res.574 by a vote of 231-187 to hold Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for her for refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena. In emails obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, she wrote, "Tea Party Matter very dangerous,'' and instructed the Office of the Chief Counsel to get involved. As a result, she was called to testify at a 2013 House hearing on the IRS targeting, where she read an opening statement proclaiming her innocence before invoking her Fifth Amendment Rights and refusing to answer questions; however, by reading her opening statement she waived these rights and therefore is compelled to answer questions. After being called back in March of this year to testify, she once again refused to answer questions. It was at this hearing that she was told, in no uncertain terms, that if she continued to refuse to answer questions, she would be held in contempt. Lois Lerner clearly played a central role in the IRS targeting scandal and her refusal to comply with a subpoena left Congress with no choice but to hold her in contempt. With passage of H.Res.574, this case will be referred to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to take to a grand jury.

The House also passed H.Res.565 last Thursday by a vote of 250-168. This bill calls for the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups by the IRS. Under current law, the Attorney General is able to appoint a Special Counsel if it is determined that an investigation or prosecution would present a conflict of interest for a U.S. Attorney's Office of the Department of Justice or in extraordinary cases where it would be in the public interest. The IRS targeting scandal meets both of these requirements. Regardless of political affiliation, virtually all Americans would agree that the federal government has no right to single out groups or individuals for their political beliefs. It is completely unacceptable that the IRS would even contemplate, much less follow through with this sort of behavior, and it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to take over the case.

Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act
Education is one of the keys to increasing economic earnings and work opportunities. For example, students who graduate high school earn, on average, about $630,000 more over the course of their career than those who drop out of high school. Yet, graduation rates have remained virtually stagnant since the 1970s, with just about 75 percent of students completing high school. This stagnation in education outcomes has likely been the result of a serious lack of choice in the education market.

According to a new study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research of students in Florida and Chicago, graduation rates can be greatly improved by simply empowering parents to choose where to send their kids to school. Specifically, the study found that students who are enrolled in public charter schools are between seven and 11 percent more likely to graduate high school and earn 12.7 percent more per year in annual wages between the ages of 23 and 25. Nationwide, there are over 2.5 million students enrolled at more than 6,000 charter schools. In Florida's First Congressional District, we have more than 3,100 students attending 17 charter schools. Thanks to the success of these high-quality charter schools, demand has grown exponentially, and today there are nearly 1 million students on waitlists to get into a local charter school.

Last week the House passed important charter school legislation. H.R.10, the Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act, streamlines and modernizes the two existing federal charter school programs into one new program that will promote charter schools at the state and local level and allow states to use federal funds to start new charter schools or expand and replicate existing high-quality charter schools. This commonsense bill also allows for successful charter models to be replicated around the country and promotes sharing of best practices between charters and traditional public school. I was glad to vote in favor of H.R.10, which passed the House by a vote of 360-45, and I urge the Senate to take it up and provide millions of students with an opportunity to succeed.

Benghazi Select Committee
Last week the House took up and passed H.Res.575 to form a Select Committee to investigate the events that occurred on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Given the recent revelations that the White House was involved in altering the message of what actually transpired in the deaths of four Americans and their continued stonewalling of information to the five House committees of jurisdiction, this vote had my full support. This administration has a history of being far from open and transparent, and I look forward to assisting in any way possible to get to the truth about what happened in Benghazi.

National Defense Authorization Act
The House Armed Services Committee passed this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) out of full committee to the full House with unanimous support. This important and comprehensive bill continued a long tradition of bipartisan efforts to provide critical oversight and authorities required to protect our Nation's security and to ensure our military is second to none. It authorizes an overall budget of $521 billion for national defense and an additional $79 billion for Overseas Contingencies Operations (OCO) funds.

Some highlights include the rejection of the President's cuts to both TRICARE and the military pay raise; rejection of the Administration's request for a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round; diverting funds from lower priority items to address critical readiness gaps associated with depot maintenance and flying hour programs; additional funds towards military suicide prevention and outreach programs; fully funding the President's budget for the Joint Strike Fighter; assistance in the Iron Dome protection system for Israel; prohibition of U.S. military contact and cooperation with the Russian military until the Secretary of Defense certifies the Russian military is no longer illegally occupying Crimea; and prohibition of use of funds to construct or modify facilities in the U.S. to house Guantanamo Bay detainees and prohibition of use of funds for the transfer or release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or other individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay who is not a U.S. citizen or member of the U.S. Armed Forces. I look forward to the National Defense Authorization Act's final passage out of the full House in the coming weeks.

H.R.3361, the USA Freedom Act
Last week, I joined my colleagues on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) in advancing H.R.3361, the USA Freedom Act. As a Member of Congress and as a Member of the Intel Committee, it is my responsibility to help ensure our Nation has the critical tools it needs to allow our intelligence community to monitor overseas threats, while allowing the federal government the ability to effectively carry out its constitutional directives to provide for both the common defense of our Nation, and at the same time, to protect our Constitutional rights. Similar to the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act introduced by Chairman Mike Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger in March, which I cosponsored, H.R.3361 would eliminate the bulk collection of metadata, including e-mail, telephone, and sensitive personal records and protect the privacy rights of Americans. Amended by the House Judiciary Committee earlier in the week and further amended in HPSCI during our mark-up of the bill, I was pleased we were able to achieve bipartisan agreement in the end to successfully move H.R.3361 forward to the full House.

AUSA Cocklin Award
I enjoyed visiting with representatives from the Association of the United States Army and was both honored and humbled to receive the Cocklin Award from a prestigious organization so dedicated to the care of our soldiers. I applaud AUSA on their committed advocacy to both servicemembers and veterans. It has been a pleasure working with the AUSA, and I look forward to our continued efforts to advocate for the entire Army family.

CCA Conservationist Award
I was also honored to be named "Conservationist of the Year" by the Center for Coastal Conservation. As an avid sportsman and a member of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, I care deeply about ensuring that the resources we have today can be enjoyed by future generations. I am proud to be an advocate and voice of sportsmen in Congress as we continue to address some of the most pressing issues facing the outdoors community.

Col Todd Canterbury, 33rd Fighter Wing Commander
I visited with Colonel Todd Canterbury, Commander of 33rd Fighter Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, last week during his visit to Capitol Hill. A former Thunderbird demonstration pilot, Colonel Canterbury took command last June and will usher in the F-35, Joint Strike Fighter, toward future operational ready status for the combat air forces of the United States and our allies. During our meeting, we discussed the progress of the F-35 at Eglin. The F-35 has already completed 4,600 sorties and over 6,000 flight hours in operational testing. I look forward to the sustained cooperation between the military and the people in Northwest Florida and appreciate Colonel Canterbury's continued service in defense of our great Nation.

Dr. Gregory Hickman, Gulf Breeze, Andrews Institute
I met with Gregory V. Hickman, M.D., Medical Director and Anesthesia Director at the Andrews Institute Ambulatory Surgery Center, in Gulf Breeze. Dr. Hickman moved to Florida in 2007 to help open the Andrews Institute, and now, thanks to his ingenuity in the medical field, people in the world of orthopedic anesthesia regularly follow his work. Specifically, they hope to learn Dr. Hickman's technique during surgeries that uses ultrasound to guide numbing medication surrounding nerves that send pain messages to the spinal column. Patients can now be released from some surgeries after just a few short hours whereas it used to take days at the hospital to recover. We are a truly blessed community to have Dr. Hickman and the Andrews Institute in our back yard.

Gulf Power Meeting
Stan Connally, Jr., Jim Fletcher, Brian Yablonski, and Greg Smith from Gulf Power stopped by my office last week to meet. We discussed the work being done by Gulf Power to meet the energy needs of Northwest Florida, as well as their response to the recent flooding. We also talked about the importance of Northwest Florida's military installations. We are proud to have a first-class company like Gulf Power in Northwest Florida, and I thank them for their service to our community.

In the District

Recognizing West Florida High School's Girls Softball Team as State Champs
I would like to recognize the West Florida High School Jaguars on winning the Class 4A State Softball Championship, which took place on May 8, 2014 in Vero Beach, Florida. They reigned victorious over P.K. Yonge High School, winning the game 6-5 after overcoming a four run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. This victory marks the lady Jaguars softball's first ever state championship. Congratulations Jags on a great season and a job well done.

National Teacher Appreciation
In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week and National Teacher Appreciation Day on May 6, I proudly joined my colleagues in cosponsoring H.Res.571, which recognizes the role that America's teachers serve in building and enhancing our Nation's civic, cultural, and economic well-being. Northwest Florida has been blessed with an abundance of exemplary educators, and it is with great appreciation that I recognize and thank all the educators in Florida's First Congressional District for their dedication and service to our Nation. As a father and grandfather, I am grateful for teachers who have equipped our children with the tools they need to achieve academic success, and I hope that you join me in taking the time to say thank you to the educators in your lives.

National Nurse Appreciation
National Nurses Day is celebrated annually on May 6 to raise awareness of the important role nurses play in society. It marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, which ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910). The English nurse became known as the founder of professional nursing, especially due to her pioneering work during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Due to her habit of making rounds at night, Nightingale became known as "The Lady with the Lamp". Therefore, this week across the country we also joined together to celebrate the selfless--and oftentimes thankless--work of our Nation's nurses. Day in and day out, these unsung heroes work long and often arduous hours caring for their patients.

I want all of our teachers and nurses to know that we are grateful for their service not just during one week of the year but each day.

In the News

Supreme Court Decision on Prayer at Public Meetings

From the earliest days of our Nation, prayer has been a guiding principle of private citizens and public officials alike, and prayer has long been used to open important public meetings and events. In fact, the tradition dates back to at least September 7, 1774, when Reverend Jacob Duche delivered a prayer to open the First Continental Congress. This tradition continues today, with Congress opening its daily sessions with a prayer offered by the House Chaplain or a guest chaplain, and the religious history of our Nation is also reflected in our National Motto--"In God We Trust"--the National Day of Prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, amongst many others. Last week the Supreme Court ruled on a case, Town of Greece v. Galloway, which gets to the very heart of this important issue.

Greece is a town in upstate New York that, since 1999, has opened its monthly town board meetings with an invocation intended to invoke divine guidance and follow the tradition employed by Congress and many other state legislative bodies. After many years of opening these meetings with prayer, two local citizens filed a lawsuit alleging that the prayers were "offensive" and "intolerable" because they were explicitly Christian in nature and excluded individuals of different faiths. In response, the local board invited members of other faiths to deliver the invocation and were led in prayer by a Jewish resident and the chairman of the local Baha'i temple. Nonetheless, the lawsuit was not dropped, and it eventually reached the Supreme Court. I firmly believe that the Town of Greece--like the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and other local bodies--has the right to open public meetings with prayer, and I joined 85 of my colleagues in sending an amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting the Town of Greece.

After hearing arguments in the case last November, the Supreme Court ruled last week in favor of the Town of Greece, upholding their right to use prayer to open their public board meetings. As Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the decision, "As practiced by Congress since the framing of the Constitution, legislative prayer lends gravity to public business, reminds lawmakers to transcend petty differences in pursuit of a higher purpose, and expresses a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society," and, as his decision concluded, "the town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment by opening its meetings with prayer that comports with our tradition." I was glad to see the Supreme Court's ruling on this question that respects the religious foundation of our Nation.

NewsRadio 1620 Interview
I was interviewed on NewsRadio 1620's The Pensacola Morning News program last Friday to talk about the ongoing House investigation into the accusations of wait time manipulation in VA healthcare that have lead to the death of veterans across the country. For nearly a year, we have been pleading with top department leaders and President Obama to take immediate steps to stop the growing pattern of preventable veteran deaths and hold accountable any and all VA employees who have allowed patients to slip through the cracks. This unacceptable situation must be remedied as soon as possible. We also discussed the devastating flooding in Northwest Florida, as well as the need to support our Nation's troops through robust funding for the Department of Defense.

Mother's Day
On this day we show our gratitude and love for the incredible women in our lives who are blessed to be mothers. Therefore, in closing, I would like to wish my wife, Vicki; mother, Peggy; mother-in-law, Winona; daughters-in-law Jill and Julie and all of the mothers in Northwest Florida a very happy and special Mother's Day.
Happy Mother's Day Mom

As always, I welcome your comments. To share your thoughts on legislation, votes or issues, please visit http://jeffmiller.house.gov/ to send an e-mail or call any of my offices.

Thanks,
Jeff

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