I was back in the Valley this week, where I enjoyed having a townhall meeting with around a hundred Cigna employees who discussed ObamaCare, jobs, water, and other issues with me. Hundreds of Cigna jobs in Visalia had been jeopardized by ObamaCare regulations that put U.S. insurers at a disadvantage with foreign-based companies in issuing health plans for Americans living overseas. However, a bip... Read more »
Democratic commissioners on the FCC have adopted net neutrality rules, which will allow the FCC to regulate Internet Service Providers as public utilities. It’s hard to see the need for this action, since the Internet has been thriving without these regulations. Furthermore, these rules may stifle innovation and could be exploited to ram through Internet taxes and price controls. A Forbes article... Read more »
I have developed a tax reform proposal that would make it far easier for people to start up, operate, and expand their own business. The Hill recently published an analysis of my plan, which you can read here. Read more »
Spring and summer internships are available in my Washington, D.C. office, and summer internships are available in my Visalia office. If you know someone who is interested in politics and public affairs, wants to gain professional experience, and can excel in a fast-paced environment, please pass along this message. Interns provide critical staff support and are often called on to work at public ... Read more »
The labor dispute between the longshoremen’s union and ship owners at dozens of West Coast seaports has become a critical problem, with some ships being forced to wait weeks before entering terminals. The economic costs in the Central Valley are increasingly severe – as ships get stuck at the ports, commerce is being slowly strangled. Customers for our products and commodities are canceling contr... Read more »
This week has been filled with grim news, including the savage murders of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot by ISIS. Amid reports of crucifixions taking place in ISIS-held territory and the organization’s systematic torture, rape, and killing of children, it’s clear that ISIS is a spreading cancer that must be eradicated. It cannot be reasoned with or moderated – the only course of acti... Read more »
In a meeting with reporters this week, California Senator Barbara Boxer lashed out at House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who had blamed the senator for killing House-Senate negotiations on a California water bill. Pronouncing herself a Brooklyn street-fighter, the senator accused Leader McCarthy of not consulting closely enough with her and some of her allies. In previous Congresses, the House... Read more »
I am currently working to organize the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Two articles were recently published discussing my plans and goals as the committee’s chairman. You can read them here and here. Separately, two articles also appeared on my tax reform proposal. You can read those here and here. Read more »
I recently returned from a trip to the Middle East that included visits to the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Erbil. There was some good news out of Iraq recently, as Kurdish fighters – helped by U.S. airstrikes – pushed back ISIS forces around the town of Sinjar. This advance broke ISIS’s siege of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of civilians had fled after ISIS launched a calculated campaign of mass ... Read more »
The House of Representatives this week passed its third bill in three years to alleviate the California water crisis. Based on extensive, bipartisan House-Senate negotiations, the California Emergency Drought Relief Act (H.R. 5781) included numerous Senate demands. The bill did not even strive to permanently solve the crisis, instead proposing measures simply to bring some short-term relief to fa... Read more »
