Newsletter - Sam Johnson

Statement

First, let me say Happy New Year! As we begin a new year, I will continue to make it a top priority of 2014 to get our fiscal house in order and ensure that your hard-earned tax dollars are getting the biggest bang for their buck.

Protect our veterans, prevent child tax credit fraud
To further fight egregious abuses, I recently joined my colleague, Representative Mike Fitzpatrick's (PA-08) bipartisan effort to protect ALL veterans from a hit to their pensions due to a provision included in the Murray-Ryan budget, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Fitzpatrick's bill (H.R. 3788) would replace the $6 billion savings in the budget, accomplished by reducing the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for working age military retirees, with my bill (H.R. 556) that would require tax filers to provide their Social Security numbers to claim the $1,000 refundable child tax credit. Requiring Social Security numbers to claim the tax credit is a long-standing, common-sense policy. It's one simple, easy fix, which the non-partisan Joint Tax Commission has estimated will save American taxpayers approximately $24.4 billion. That's not pocket change!

Regardless of political ideologies, I think we can all agree that our men and women in uniform put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms, and we have the utmost responsibility to stand by them when they come home. With this bill, we can both honor our commitment to those who have sacrificed and served this country while cutting spending and holding Washington accountable.

H.R. 3811 -- Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014
Last Friday, I voted in support of H.R. 3811, the Heath Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014, to require Health and Human Services to notify all individuals within a 48 hour period of their personal information being compromised through an ObamaCare exchange, both federal and state exchanges included. Sadly, but not surprisingly, an internal memo was sent to the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency running healthcare.gov, warning that insufficient testing "exposed a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk." As someone who has made protecting Social Security numbers a priority, I'm deeply concerned. It's utterly irresponsible to launch a website knowing there is high-risk to the American people's private information.

You see, Social Security numbers are the key to identity theft, yet CMS has consistently failed to protect seniors' identity by refusing to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. Last February, I introduced H.R. 781, the Medicare Identity Theft Prevent Act, with my Democrat colleague and fellow Texan, Lloyd Doggett to keep the private information of seniors just that -- private. Although many people disagree on the content of ObamaCare, we can all agree that Americans deserve to have their personal information secure.
View my floor statement here

H.R. 3362 -- Exchange Information Disclosure Act
Tomorrow, the House will take up H.R. 3362, Exchange Information Disclosure Act, to promote greater transparency and accountability from ObamaCare. This bill would require the Administration to be more forthcoming and provide weekly reports on problems with healthcare.gov, including the efforts being made to resolve those problems. Texans want, need and deserve transparency and openness from their government, especially when it directly affects their most personal needs, i.e. their health care.

Until next time, God bless you and God bless America.

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