Newsletter: On Ebola

Statement

Dear Friend,

We've seen lots of news regarding cases on Ebola in the United States this week as this morning, the Dallas nurse who contracted the disease was declared Ebola-free, and last night, a doctor who traveled from Guinea tested positive. My thoughts are with Nina Pham and her loved ones as they celebrate her recovery, and I hope you will join me in praying for Dr. Spencer and those still sick, as well as those affected by this terrible epidemic across the globe. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced new requirements that people who have traveled through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will be required to travel through the five major airports that have screening processes in place.

This morning the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the handling of the response thus far. This is the most recent of a series of congressional hearings that will continue in the coming weeks. In last week's survey, 68 percent of you questioned the President's decision to appoint Ron Klain as the administration's Ebola response coordinator and 78 percent of you felt the administration had not taken all the necessary action to protect the country from the spread of Ebola. I share your concerns and will continue to closely monitor the ongoing actions we can take to protect the well-being of the American people.

Here in California, officials in Sacramento are meeting this week to discuss how public health institutions are working together to ensure that we are prepared to respond to possible cases of Ebola. State and local agencies must have the appropriate training and resources to respond to any incident.

I started the week in Riverbank on Monday where I dropped off surplus books from the Library of Congress to the school district office for distribution to schools throughout the city and to the Riverbank Language Academy.

The Riverbank Language Academy will make good use of these donated books!

Later that afternoon I joined the Tracy Kiwanis Club at the request of Tracy City Council Member Nancy Young to give the group an update on some of my priorities -- water legislation and job creation were two items that we discussed in depth.

On Wednesday morning I joined the Manteca Chamber of Commerce and some of Manteca's business owners at SSJID for coffee. I presented an award to Dr. Katy Marconi for her work as director of the Doctors Hospital Pharmacy and congratulated Jeff Shields, manager of SSJID, for their recent recognition by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage. Last month they received the Commission's annual WatSave Technology Award for their irrigation management efforts.

Great to see SSJID Manager Jeff Shields.

I met with my Veterans Advisory Committee to ask for their participation in some of our upcoming events and to get their feedback about some of the challenges facing our local vets. I especially wanted to invite them to the Honor Flight send-off I'll be attending Monday morning in Atwater. Honor flights allow our vets to see, often for the first time, some of the monuments to commemorate their service in Washington, D.C. There is nothing quite like these trips and I'm looking forward to seeing many of our Central Valley veterans off on Monday morning.

My Veterans Advisory Committee members are a huge help to me in serving our veteran community.

Yesterday I spoke with seniors at the English Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Modesto. They had great questions about their Social Security and Medicare benefits and so many of the pressing issues facing our country. I shared information about my votes to protect their hard-earned benefits and those for future generations and talked about ways to ensure access to medical care.

I spoke at the Modesto Chamber of Commerce's State of the Region Luncheon about the future of our county and how we can work together to create opportunities for our children to stay and raise families here, rather than forcing them to leave to find available jobs. This means stable federal policies, fiscal prudence in our spending and a government that gets out of the way of job creation. We cannot dictate the future of our economy, but we can unleash the natural dynamism and creativity of Central Valley entrepreneurs, farmers, students and community leaders to build a better future.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

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JEFF DENHAM

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