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Sen. Moran Statement on Violence in Dallas
Jul 08 2016
MANHATTAN, KAN. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) issued the following statement after last night’s violence against Dallas police officers:
“The targeted murder of law enforcement is an attack on every American those officers serve to protect. My heart goes out to the officers and their families affected by this tragedy. Americans are right to be deeply disturbed by violence in our country. Initiatives are already underway in Kansas to strengthen and reinforce relations between law enforcement and the communities they serve. I commend those efforts and call on each of us to actively work to make America a more safe, unified and peaceful place.”
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Appropriations Health Subcommittee – issued the following statement after Senate Democrats rejected advancement of the MilCon-VA/Zika Appropriations bill:
“The threat the Zika virus poses to Kansans and Americans – particularly pregnant women and newborn babies – must be taken very seriously. Providing our experts with the resources they need to keep us healthy is too important to play partisan politics. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to do that today.
“This failure also jeopardizes real steps forward to support veterans and prioritize critical military construction projects like those at McConnell Air Force Base and Fort Leavenworth. Refusing to support this legislation means reduced readiness for our military, an inability to meet the critical needs of veterans and putting the health of mothers-to-be and their children at risk.”
Background
- The $1.1 billion in funding provided by this legislation to battle Zika would fund immediate Zika-related needs.
- In fact, CDC Director Frieden acknowledges it is sufficient to respond to the crisis.
- The $1.1 billion funding level was agreed to in May, with every Senate Democrat voting in favor.
- The legislation includes record levels of funding to improve access to quality care for veterans.
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Sen. Moran, U.S. Chamber Urge Senate Action on Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act
Calls Issued in Response to Supreme Court’s Tribal Sovereignty Ruling
Jun 28 2016
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in urging Senate action on the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act (S.248) following yesterday’s Supreme Court rulings in Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Government v. National Labor Relations Board (No. 15-1024) and Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort v. National Labor Relations Board (No. 15-1034).
“The court’s refusal to review these cases underscores the importance of passing the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act this year,” said Sen. Moran. “It is imperative that tribal governments retain the right to make decisions free from federal encroachment. This legislation has broad support in Indian Country, which is reflected by the bipartisan support in Congress. It is far past time tribes be afforded the same treatment under the National Labor Relations Act received by other levels of government.”
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) sent a letter to members of the United States Senate requesting that the Senate act on S. 248 at its earliest opportunity.
“S. 248 would build upon a principle that is now well-understood in Indian Country,” wrote R. Bruce Josten, Chamber Executive Vice President of Government Affairs. “Where tribal sovereignty flows, economic success follows. S. 248 would prevent an unnecessary and unproductive overreach by the NLRB into the sovereign jurisdiction of tribal governments. By amending the NLRA to specifically exempt tribal governments, S. 248 would provide certainty and clarity to ensure that tribal governmental statutes concerning labor relations would remain intact.”
Sen. Moran introduced the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act in 2015. The bill passed out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in June 2015 and passed the House of Representatives by a 249-177 vote in November of the same year. The 13 sponsors of S. 248 include U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Full text of the Chamber’s letter can be found here.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and member of the Aviation Operations, Safety and Security Subcommittee – spoke on the U.S. Senate Floor this week about the importance of the House taking up the Senate-passed FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S. 2658).
S. 2658 passed the Senate by a 95-3 vote in April 2016. Now two months later, the Senate awaits House passage as expiration of the FAA’s current authorization approaches on July 15, 2016.
I am here to speak on FAA Reauthorization and several things…have arisen in the last few days that are very discouraging to me and troublesome to a cause I care a lot about.
I am an advocate for general aviation, and I was pleased that the Senate was able to pass FAA Reauthorization Act of 2016 by a vote of 95 to 3…this Senate approved legislation reauthorizing the FAA for the next 18 months. That’s an unusual occurrence around here when anything passes 95 to 3.
I also would indicate our committee vote – I am a member of the Commerce Committee – and the vote there was unanimous to report that bill to the Senate in a favorable recommendation, and again demonstrating overwhelmingly bipartisan support in regard to this aviation legislation.
Kansas is an aviation state. Wichita and South Central Kansas are known as the significant provider of airplanes – general aviation airplanes and parts. We have lots of subcontractors in that process. We are also a rural state. Wichita, in fact, is known as the Air Capital of the World. But in addition to the manufacturing sector, which is so important to our state’s economy, so important to our ability to compete globally, we’re a rural state, and airplanes and airports matter to us greatly.
So, while we care a lot about the manufacturing of general aviation airplanes, we also care a lot about airports and their ability to take care of flights coming in and out of small communities across our state and certainly across the country. That general aviation airport is a connection to the rest of the world, and it allows for medical expertise to be flown into a community in lifesaving efforts, but just on a more day-to-day basis, it allows for us to have access to customers, to suppliers, to clients because we have manufacturing and other businesses in rural communities across Kansas whose connection with their customer base and suppliers is through that airport. So in the absence of general aviation manufacturing, our state suffers greatly, but in the absence of general aviation airports, our state would suffer greatly as well.
What I am worried about is that the House has not acted in any positive way to the passage of this bill, and the deadline of July 15 is rapidly approaching. And what that would mean is if the House does not take up the Senate-passed version, the expectation – in fact, the stated circumstance is that the House would pass a short-term extension of the current FAA legislation and leave the Senate bill hanging.
Many of the folks in this Senate who have served longer than I have would recognize the history of this issue, in which one extension after another was required because consensus was never developed, and the leadership was not provided to resolve the differences over the years on FAA reauthorization. And the point I want to make by being on the Senate floor today and expressing my views to my colleagues is, do not allow us to get into this position again in which we would have a series of extensions of the FAA legislation.
We need the House to act on the Senate bill that’s pending in their committee, that is pending on the House side, and differences need to be resolved. At the moment, the House has not passed an FAA reauthorization bill. Time is short. July 15, the current law expires. And my plea to my colleagues in the House, where I formerly served, is take up the Senate bill, address the issues you want as Members of the House in representing your constituency, and send the bill back to us so we can conference this issue and have a more long-term reauthorization bill.
Certainty matters. Certainty matters to the manufacturers in Kansas. Certainty matters to the airports and the pilots who utilize those airports. And do not allow us, once more, to be in this circumstance of an extension one time after another and the uncertainty that that provides.
It is my view the bill that the Senate has approved in such an overwhelming fashion [should be passed by the House]…[it] would be a shame if the important reforms that are included in that bill were held up by the House, in large part because of a significant controversial proposal to privatize the national air traffic control system. It sharply divides Congress. Everything I have read and heard from – everything I’ve read publicly and everything I have heard from my friends and colleagues, former colleagues in the House, is there are not the necessary votes present to pass that provision in the House. And I, from my own experience here in the Senate, those votes don’t exist in the Senate Commerce Committee and they do not exist on the Senate floor.
So let’s not tie this bill up over a proposal that does not have the votes to pass, and let’s not lose the opportunity to take advantage of the reforms that were included in the Senate FAA Reauthorization bill. We should not consider what would be called a clean extension of the FAA, when the authorization under our bill is the same length. The House is talking about sending us an 18-month extension. The Senate bill passed as an 18-month extension. What would be missing is the reforms we have worked so hard to include after significant amounts of testimony, after a number of hearings and conversations within the Commerce Committee to make certain we were doing good work. Don’t let that opportunity pass us by.
So my point in having this, in this case, monologue – hopefully a dialogue with my colleagues on the Senate floor – is, first of all, make sure we stand firm. I am a Senator who would be opposed to a short-term, even 18-month extension, if it does not include the broad array of things the Senate has included in our bill.
And my message to my House colleagues and friends is: Don’t bog this process down in a way that makes it impossible for us to pass the reauthorization legislation to begin with. These are important issues that we ought not let be sidetracked by a proposal that remains dubious and with great concern. And as I said earlier, every indication that I know and see is that proposal would not receive support in the Senate or even in the House.
So my request once again is please – to the U.S. House of Representatives is – please take up the Senate bill, work it – work your will in that bill but send us something more than just a short-term extension that doesn’t include the important and necessary reforms and improvements that the Senate-passed bill does.
Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation about this topic.
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Urging Executive Accountability at the VA
Jun 22 2016
A number of my colleagues both Republican and Democrat from the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee were on the floor just a few moments ago, and I would like to join them in expressing genuine concern about continued developments at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Many of us remember the tremendous circumstances that our veterans found themselves in at hospitals across the country with long waiting lines, with lists that were inappropriate – didn’t really exist – in an effort, I suppose, to camouflage the delay that a veteran was experiencing, that veterans were experiencing across the country. And yet at the same time, to demonstrate that veterans were being cared for, the VA wanted to show that things were fine, and yet we saw that that was not the case.
Those headlines unfortunately continue about the Department of Veterans Affairs. And for years, we’ve heard reports – those reports of long wait lines, privacy issues, failure to remove employees whose actions endanger the health and safety of our veterans. And many of us have worked to try to give the Department of Veterans Affairs, its leadership, greater authorities to discipline, to discharge those wrongdoers who are at the Department of Veterans Affairs. And generally, my focus has been on the upper echelon, the leadership of the Department of Veterans Affairs generally considered to be the top 400 executives at the VA. I am always nervous about the issue of the employees who are actually providing the care – the staff that provide the care for our veterans in the hospital. I don't want them to be a scapegoat for problems at the hospital when I think the most serious challenge the VA faces is its leadership.
So, those stories are continuing and we keep waiting for accountability to occur. It’s been something the current Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has said he cares greatly about, but even when it comes to the circumstances we found, particularly at the hospital – the VA hospital in Phoenix – we still have yet to see disciplinary action take place. And now it is too long: it’s 2 years. It seems to me that 2 years is too long in which we see any real concrete effort at discharging those in positions who wrongfully use that position and fail to provide the necessary care and treatment for veterans.
The secretary of the department indicated in an interview back in November of 2014 – it’s a “60 Minutes” interview, I happened to watch it – the Secretary referred to a report that was generated in 2014 that listed more than 1,000 VA employees who should be removed from the VA for violations: “people who violated our values,” these are his words: “its integrity, its advocacy, its respect, its excellence.'' He also described with other news outlets that he would be taking “aggressive, expeditious, disciplinary action'' to address the wrongdoers that violated VA values.
It was made abundantly clear that Congress needed to give him the necessary tools to discipline VA employees because he was “hamstrung” by the current process with the Merit Systems Protection Board and the appeals process. Congress did that. And while we may not remember the provisions of the Choice Act because what it’s known for is the efforts to provide veterans across the country who live long distances from a VA facility or who can’t get the services they need within 30 days from the VA, gave them hometown local options. That’s what the Choice Act was known for, but the Choice Act also included important accountability provisions. So the Secretary has those provisions now with the passage of the Choice Act that occurred in August of 2014. Those authorities are seemingly the ones the Secretary has been reluctant to use. And so we have complained about the reluctance at the VA to use those authorities and to discipline members of the leadership, employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but now we just learned, as my colleagues earlier indicated, that the leadership of the VA refuses to use the authorities at all. So it’s not just a reluctance. It’s now an admission that we are not going to use them.
As disappointed as I am as a Member of Congress, as my colleagues are who spoke earlier in this VA decision, our frustration has to be nothing – nothing – compared to what our nation's veterans experience in their dissatisfaction with a VA that declines to hold accountable those who work in leadership positions. We ought to be honoring their service. What Department would you expect to care for, to treat, to love and show compassion for more than our Department of Veterans Affairs? And who would we expect to receive that kind of noble treatment? It would be those who served us in our military. Americans, both veterans and nonveterans, are waiting for the VA to step up and do what is right by removing those who have no place within the VA system.
I also would say, as I talk to Department of Veterans [Affairs] employees – those who actually work in the hospitals and provide the benefits, who man the computers, they’re dissatisfied too. They want to see change at the VA. So many, many employees are looking for leadership at the VA that holds accountable those in leadership who have failed to bring about the necessary change, and to have that necessary change takes discipline of those who are wrongdoers.
So, I want to make certain that people understand this is not an attack on those who work at the VA. They, too, want a VA system that they can be proud to work for. And I acknowledge and pay my respect and regard to the many, many, many employees of the Department who work every day to make certain that good things happen and that care is provided for those who served our nation.
It’s unfortunate, it seems to me, that the VA – they blame everybody but themselves for the problems at the VA. And in fact, just earlier this year, a couple months ago, April of 2016, the Secretary indicated that the fault – the inability to fix these problems – the fault lied with Congress for not giving the VA enough money. He said that budgetary failure led to the crisis. We’ve worked hard to make certain and, in fact I have indicated that if you can show a demonstrated need for more money at the Department of Veterans Affairs to take care of those who served our country, I am one who will vote for that.
No one asked those who served our country about what it was going to cost to go to war. We ought not be unwilling to pay the price for those who did go to war on our behalf.
But I would say the VA’s problems are not budgetary. President Obama himself stated that the VA is the most funded agency across the federal government with an increase of more than 80 percent in resources since 2009. I remember reading this quote. The president said the most resourced agency in his administration, in his time in office, was the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The blame for the VA’s inadequacies have nothing to do with the demand or insufficient funds, but [with] the management and lack of leadership. In fact, according to the VA’s own data, veterans are waiting 50 percent longer to receive health care services than they were in 2014 when we realized the crisis existed. At the height of the crisis, we had a waiting list. That waiting list is now 50 percent longer than then. It has become clear that the VA seemingly is more concerned with protecting those who work there within their ranks and the leadership than protecting the veteran who has sacrificed so much for our nation. The VA was created to serve veterans, not to serve the VA.
Today my colleagues from the Veterans’ Affairs Committee were here raising their desire to give the secretary even more authority and express their frustration, which I share, with the lack of urgency to hold bad actors accountable. And in that process of the conversation that took place earlier, they were advocating for legislation that is pending before the Senate called the Veterans First Act that was passed by our Veterans’ Affairs Committee weeks ago, and they believe that legislation will give the Secretary even additional authorities. And that’s true.
Senator Blumenthal, the Senator from Connecticut, the ranking member of the committee and I worked to include in the Veterans First Act a number of accountability provisions aimed to try to fix the VA at the root of its problem: at the top.
So while I agree with the desire to see the Veterans First Act passed into law and while I agree that it will give the Secretary and others at the Department of Veterans Affairs more authority to hold accountable bad actors at the VA, I think what we really need to make certain happens is that the Secretary and the leadership of the Department of Veterans Affairs uses the authority they already have provided them by Congress in August of 2014 to hold people accountable.
If actions this week tell us anything, we must push the VA to use the authorities they already have, and we would have cause, reason to be skeptical that even giving them greater authorities would result in a better outcome.
Our nation’s veterans deserve better, and they deserve a VA in which those who do wrong pay a consequence for that bad behavior.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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Sen. Moran Questions Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Strength of Economic Recovery
Jun 22 2016
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Banking Committee, this week questioned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen about the value of the U.S. dollar, its impact on commodity pricing, and the strength of our economic recovery.
“Kansans aren’t seeing our economy recover,” said Sen. Moran. “In my conversations with Kansans, I haven’t talked to many who see their economic future as brighter. They don’t feel more secure in their jobs. They’re worried about having opportunities for their kids when they graduate from school and about whether or not their kids can pay back their loans. They’re worried they can’t save for their own retirement or for healthcare emergencies. The sense of an economic recovery is far from being felt universally.”
In her testimony and again in response to Sen. Moran’s questioning about economic strength and the value of our dollar, specifically in relation to prices for agricultural commodities, Chairwoman Yellen admitted that business investment outside the energy sector has been “surprisingly weak.” She cited “slow growth and a less rapid increase in the labor force” as possible explanations for generally overall weak investment spending.
Sen. Moran continued, “Chairwoman Yellen’s testimony helps us understand the Federal Reserve’s thinking on how to strengthen our economy. It’s clear that when business owners are hit with regulation after regulation, when the Department of Labor ignores productivity and free market wages, and when potential entrepreneurs can’t see a path to success, Americans will remain out of work and worried about their futures.”
Highlights of the exchange may be found below, along with links to the video:
Chairwoman Yellen (4:55) “I don’t have a story to offer you on why this has happened, [investment spending] has been surprisingly weak over the last several months. It hasn’t been very strong, investment spending generally… we think we understand some reasons why it has generally been weak, namely slow growth and less rapid increase in the labor force, but it has been surprisingly weak in recent months. It is something we’re watching and I can’t tell you just what that’s due to.”
Sen. Moran (6:15) “One of the places we ought to focus our attention on is innovation, startup businesses, new entrepreneurs and the uncertainty that they face, which has even more dramatic consequences than a larger business that can better internalize and handle that uncertainty.”
Click here to watch Sen. Moran’s remarks on YouTube.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) this week in introducing a bipartisan reform to protect veterans from potential identity theft. The Veterans’ Identity Theft Protection Act (S. 3063) would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to stop using Social Security account numbers to identify individuals in all information systems used by the VA.
“Our nation’s veterans are vulnerable to wrongdoers who abuse the system, and the VA should be doing all it can to protect and serve them,” Sen. Moran said. “Especially at a time when cybersecurity threats are on the rise, this commonsense legislation would make certain identities of our nation’s heroes and their families are protected.”
A news investigation revealed that the Social Security numbers of hundreds of veterans were sent to an unauthorized person last year. This unintended disclosure of personal information put veterans and their families at risk for fraud and identity theft.
The legislation would require the VA to discontinue using Social Security account numbers to identify individuals in all information systems used by the VA. This would be applied to veterans with new claims for benefits within two years, and for all other veterans already in VA systems within five years. The VA would still be allowed to use SSNs if it needs to transfer information to or from another system outside of the VA that requires the use of those identifiers.
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Sen. Moran Discusses CIA Director's Discouraging Update on Fight Against ISIS, Lagging Economy
Jun 20 2016
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today supported the fiscal year 2017 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations bill, which includes provisions to continue six-day mail delivery service and rural delivery in addition to prohibiting closure or consolidation of rural post offices through the United States Postal Service (USPS). The legislation was debated by the full appropriations committee and will now await consideration by the full U.S. Senate.
“For the hundreds of rural communities in Kansas who depend upon the USPS for communication and commerce, loss of postal service would have dire consequences,” said Sen. Moran. “The economic success of our towns depends on our service, and I’m proud that this bill ensures the continuation of such an important part of our daily lives.”
The FSGG Appropriations bill provides annual funding for the Treasury Department, the Judiciary, the Small Business Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other related agencies. It includes provisions to reduce government red tape, encourage economic growth and put a stop to misuse of taxpayer dollars at the Internal Revenue Service.
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