WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) this week addressed the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Symposium in Washington, D.C. As co-chair of the Senate Hunger Caucus, Sen. Moran emphasized his commitment to fighting global hunger and food insecurity.

“Utilizing the abundance of food grown by farmers and ranchers in Kansas to feed people around the globe is a noble and worthy cause,” said Sen. Moran. “Global food assistance also serves our own national interests – not only do food aid programs provide an additional export market for our ag producers, but food assistance also raises our moral standing and leadership in the world. By reducing food insecurity, our country increases political and social stability in the world, including in areas important to our national interests.

Sen. Moran continued, “If we want to ensure a bright future here in America, we must also make sure there is a bright future across the world.”

Background

• Sen. Moran is a member of the Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture and State and Foreign Ops, where he has fought to increase support for food aid programs, including Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Food for Education.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced bipartisan legislation this week (S. 726) to allow veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances in classified incidents to access their military records as they apply for disability benefits and VA health care. 

“Often, the impacts of toxic exposure don’t appear until long after service members have returned home from the battlefield and military records are filed away,” Sen. Moran said. “It is my privilege to lead legislation that honors the life of Gary Deloney of Fort Scott who passed while working with my staff to access the classified military records that would have proven his exposure to Agent Orange and service-connected illness. Our veterans and their families deserve the best our nation has to offer, and giving them access to their classified military records is the least we can do to make certain they receive the benefits they earned.”

Veterans who were exposed to toxic substances face greater chances of suffering from cancer and other health issues. Veterans who have health conditions that are linked to exposure to toxic substances during their military service are eligible to apply for disability benefits and health care from the VA; however, some missions and projects that resulted in their exposure to such substances remain classified by the Department of Defense, despite having taken place decades ago. 

This policy prevents these veterans from accessing and using their service records to establish their service-connected conditions and securing a disability rating that grants them eligible for care and benefits. The Gary Deloney and John Olsen Toxic Exposure Declassification Act would call on the Secretary of Defense to declassify the records of experiments or incidents that resulted in troops’ exposure to toxic substances and could be used in a veteran’s claim for benefits.

Gary Deloney served in the U.S. Navy from 1962 to 1965. He was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal and his financial statements noted hazardous duty pay. Despite additional evidence that demonstrated proof of his missions during Vietnam, Mr. Deloney was unable to prove his exposure to Agent Orange. Tragically, he passed away while still waiting to receive a service connection designation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, even with the support from Sen. Moran, because records of his missions are classified. 

“Gary loved his time in the service and the friends he made there,” said Charyl Deloney, wife of veteran Gary Deloney. “Up until Gary passed from cancer, Senator Moran’s office was working with us to obtain the classified documents that would prove his exposure to Agent Orange. He would be honored to have this legislation named after him to help future veterans in a similar situation get the benefits they were promised, and I am thankful that Senator Moran is continuing to work on this in Gary’s memory.”

Click here to read the Gary Deloney and John Olsen Toxic Exposure Declassification Act.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – Chairman of the Senate Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee – yesterday convened the subcommittee’s first hearing of the 115th Congress to examine the damage of scams on American consumers and the economy. The hearing also focused on state and federal law enforcement efforts to combat consumer scams, and the implementation of consumer outreach and education programs.

“With technology becoming more and more sophisticated, the complexity of scams has continued to progress,” said Sen. Moran. “From fake charity donation solicitation calls to ‘phishing’ email scams that lead to identity theft, a wide variety of scams that harm Americans continue to bypass consumer protection enforcement measures at the federal, state and local levels. Consumers need protection from those who seek to defraud them through scams, and today’s hearing helps us evaluate the best possible ways we can prevent American consumers from being scammed out of billions of dollars each year.”

Witnesses included Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen; Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Terrell McSweeny; Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine; Abagnale & Associates Consultant Frank W. Abagnale, Jr.; and KWCH-12 Eyewitness News Reporter Mike Schwanke.

Sen. Moran invited KWCH’s Mike Schwanke to testify and share with the committee examples of the more common scams impacting Kansas consumers. Three examples mentioned: grandparent scams, when someone calls claiming that a consumer’s grandchild is in danger and needs immediate financial assistance; IRS scams, in which consumers receive a phone call from someone claiming to represent the IRS and threatening jail time for failure to pay taxes; and most recently, a scam taking advantage of those impacted by the state’s wildfires, in which Kansans received phone calls claiming that, if they paid an application fee, they would be issued a government grant to help them recover.

Highlights of Sen. Moran’s questions for the witnesses may be found below, along with a link to the video:

Sen. Moran (0:01): “Let me start with Chairwoman Ohlhausen. Is there a reliable financial macro cost to scams in the United States? … What does this cost the economy?”

Chairwoman Ohlhausen (0:18): “Based on the redress that the FTC has been able to get for consumers, even just last year, it costs billions and billions of dollars.”

Sen. Moran (1:23): “[Mr. Schwanke] you indicated something that was discouraging to me because one of the conversations we’ve had already just in this hearing is the value of information but you indicated that a particular instance, the victim had seen the similar identical fraud being talked about on your program but still felt necessary to respond to the cries of a grandchild. Do you have evidence that this consumer awareness actually makes a difference?”

Mr. Schwanke (2:03): “That’s one example. Oftentimes we do hear from victims who say, ‘I knew better,’ and when they see these stories of victims they sit back in their home and think, ‘how in the world could I ever fall for something like that?’ In that case, she saw our story and she explained it as ‘tunnel vision,’ and I think that’s what these scammers depend on… once she thought that her granddaughter was in trouble, she said, ‘it was almost like I had blinders on’… You’re not going to be thinking clearly when someone calls for a grandparent scam or someone calls claiming to be with the IRS saying that they’re going to haul you off to jail if you don’t pay your taxes. Once you hear that your mind shuts off oftentimes. That’s what we try to get across in our education.”

Sen. Moran (3:07): “General, you’ve been involved in public service announcements. Is there evidence that they’re useful, successful, and prevent additional fraud?”

Attorney General DeWine (3:14): “We do get calls, Mr. Chairman… sometimes I’ll actually see people who say, ‘I saw you on TV talking about the grandparent scam’ or ‘I saw you on TV talking about the IRS scam.’ So while we are successful in some prosecutions, the ones that are over the internet, the ones that are long distance, are very very difficult… frankly we think that our prime job in this case is to really warn people… The public sometimes thinks, ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ or they think, ‘these are people who aren’t very smart.’ And that’s not true. These are smart people.”

Sen. Moran (4:33): “Mr. Abagnale, the perpetrator of a fraud, what is it about them that allows them to be able to elicit that response from somebody who is apparently smart and has seen information about the potential scam and still falls for it? What’s the way to capture somebody?”

Mr. Abagnale (4:47): “First of all, thank God that the majority of Americans are honest. Because they’re honest, they don’t think in a deceptive way. So when the phone rings and the caller ID says it’s the Internal Revenue Service or United States government or their local police department, they believe that to be true. They’re not aware that caller ID is easily manipulated.”

Mr. Abagnale (7:47): “I always teach FBI agents to follow the money and have for four decades. So what we find is that most of these crimes that are committed by people living in Russia, India, China that are making these calls in their pajamas or on their laptop from their kitchen, are stealing money from the American consumer. It is leaving our economy. But it will come back. It always comes back because it will tend to boomerang and return to our country but in the form of drug trafficking, human trafficking, child pornography and much more hideous crimes. So it is very important that we try to prevent that money from getting in the wrong hands of people who are going to commit a lot worse crimes with that money.”  

Click here to watch Sen. Moran’s questions on YouTube.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) today introduced legislation to support young people in agriculture by creating a tax exemption for the first $5,000 of income students 18 years of age or younger earn from projects completed through 4-H or FFA. Their bills, the Agriculture Students Encourage, Acknowledge, Reward, Nurture (EARN) Act (S. 671) and the Student Agriculture Protection Act (SAPA) (H.R. 1626), enable students to keep more of the modest income they earn, which can then be invested in education savings or future agricultural projects. 

“With the number of new farmers trending downward and more mouths to feed than ever across the globe, Congress must support young people who are interested in a career in agriculture,” Sen. Moran said. “This bill is one step we can take to encourage those involved in FFA and 4-H to turn their modest income from the agricultural projects into savings, money for education and training, or toward a future project. Farming kids across the country represent the future of a critical industry and way of life, and this legislation represents an important investment in the next generation.”

“Ensuring members of student organizations like 4-H and FFA are afforded every opportunity to succeed is not only important for the student’s future, but the future of our nation’s agriculture,” said Sen. Ernst, a former member of the 4-H. “I’m proud to support the Agriculture Students EARN Act to allow our future farmers to gain valuable experience and skills through hands-on projects. By investing in our students’ futures, we are investing in the next generation of our nation’s leaders that will be on the forefront of agricultural innovation and production for years to come.”

“We must do more to encourage our future farmers to stay in the farming business so our country can maintain a secure and steady food supply,” said Rep. McCaul. “These students across the nation today represent the future of agriculture, and enabling them to succeed means we all succeed. That is why I am proud to reintroduce the Student Agriculture Protection Act. This bill would eliminate unnecessary barriers for our young farmers to ensure the U.S. remains outfitted with innovative minds that have allowed us to be the world leader in the agricultural industry.”

“Recruiting and retaining the next generation of young people to the family farm or to other agricultural pursuits starts here; it starts with legislation like the Agriculture Students EARN Act and the Student Agriculture Protection Act,” said National FFA Western Region Vice President Trey Elizondo. “This proposal would undoubtedly enable me and other agricultural education students to strengthen agriculture and support the communities in which we live. My generation is ready to accept the challenge of feeding, clothing, and sheltering our world, and this legislation helps us accept that challenge.” 

Typical 4-H and FFA projects include showing animals at local and state fairs, growing and harvesting crops, building agricultural mechanic projects and many others. Ag Students EARN would lower the tax burden on the students and give them an opportunity to invest more of what they’ve earned in future projects, college funds or savings accounts. 

“The Agriculture Students EARN and Student Agriculture Protection Acts will significantly impact student agriculturists,” said Chapman, Kansas, FFA Member Natalie Harris. “Lots of young people across the nation, like me, are trying their hardest to begin their own supervised agricultural experiences. Any help we can get to make it easier on us to apply what we are learning, to eliminate paperwork, and to strengthen agriculture would be extremely beneficial and appreciated.”

Supporters of the legislation include National FFA Organization, National 4-H Council, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union and National Young Farmers Coalition.

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