The Hill Report: Week of March 3 - 7, 2014

Statement

This week, President Obama released his fiscal year 2015 budget request. His budget came to Congress a month late, marking the fifth time in six years that President Obama has missed his deadline. Unsurprisingly, President Obama's overdue budget blueprint prioritizes election year politics over leadership that our nation deserves and our economy needs. His plan breaks the bipartisan budget agreement spending caps and he proposes more government spending and job-destroying tax hikes all while jeopardizing our nation's military readiness. The Administration also refuses to tackle entitlement reform in this plan that would lower our debt and keep important programs sustainable for current and future generations.

It's disappointing that the president produced a campaign document instead of putting forth a serious budget blueprint that makes the tough choices necessary to get our fiscal house in order. As your Member of Congress, you can rest assured that I will continue to work to put our nation on a fiscally solvent path and restore our economic vitality.

Legislative Update
The House continued our work to pass common-sense bills this week to help provide relief to the American people from the failed policies of the Obama Administration. On Wednesday, we approved H.R. 4118, the Suspending the Individual Mandate Penalty Law Equals Fairness Act, which delays ObamaCare's individual mandate. Since ObamaCare was enacted in 2010, the Administration has delayed or modified parts of the law more than 20 times through unilateral executive. Although the employer mandate has been delayed twice due to pressure from businesses and unions seeking reprieve from the law's onerous costs, the Obama Administration refuses to delay the individual mandate. I believe that families and individuals deserve the same relief as businesses from the devastating health care law. While I continue to fight to fully repeal the president's health care law, I was pleased to vote this week to protect all Americans from ObamaCare's individual mandate.

On Thursday, the House passed H.R. 3826, the Electricity Security and Affordability Act, and H.R. 2641, the Responsibly And Professionally Invigorating Development (RAPID) Act. These bills seek to address the Administration's failed energy and jobs policies. At a time when millions of Americans are looking for work, the focus in Washington should be on productive ways to harness our nation's vast energy resources instead of promulgating new onerous and expensive regulations that undermine economic growth. The RAPID Act streamlines the approval process for infrastructure, energy, and construction projects to generate economic activity and job creation. The Electricity Security and Affordability Act repeals recently proposed EPA regulations for future fossil fuel-fired power plants to ensure that we have abundant, affordable, and domestically-generated energy.

DART Meeting
On Thursday, I met with representatives from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) to discuss the new developments of the Orange Line. The Orange Line expansion is a key component of the regional rail system that will increase DART's rail network to 90 miles by the end of 2014. The Orange Line will run parallel with the Green Line through downtown Dallas and head northwest to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. This project, expected to be completed in the Fall of 2014, will increase public transportation options in the Dallas area and provide affordable and energy-efficient transportation to the people of North Texas.

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