Around the World in 11 Days

Last week I had the tremendous honor of traveling to Europe and Southeast Asia on an important defense mission, as part of my role as House Armed Services Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Chairwoman.

It was an honor to represent the United States on this trip and I believe our engagements were productive in supporting our allies and our shared goals for a free and secure world.

Important bills in Washington this week

The House was busy this week! We passed multiple bills that will positively impact Missouri and our district. Here’s a brief outline.

H.R. 5895 Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act

Provides highest funding in history for the Veteran Affairs Administration including $71.2 billion for medical care including:

$589M for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) treatment

$387M for opioid abuse prevention

$270M for rural veterans’ health

$196M for suicide prevention outreach

Modernize VA’s electronic health record system & provide seamless care to vets transitioning from military service ($1.2 billion)

Provides $45 billion for the Army Corp of Engineers, Department of Energy, and our nation’s nuclear weapons security programs

Invests in our nation’s infrastructure and increases American competitiveness – including $7 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects at our nation’s ports, waterways, and flood protection infrastructure

Repeals the Waters of the United States rule, which is a massive federal land grab affecting nearly all Missouri landowners

H.R. 3 – Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act

Rescinds (de-obligates) $15 billion in funding for various programs that were unable to use their previous appropriations as requested by President Trump

Affects programs at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation and the Treasury, as well as the Railroad Retirement Board.

Funding proposed to be rescinded have in many cases been left unspent by agencies for years

H.R. 3249 – Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act

Establishes a grant program to provide resources to state and local entities to curb the rise in gang activity and violence

Allows for localities receiving grant funding the broad autonomy to use in ways best suited for their communities

H.R. 801 – Route 66 National Historic Trail Designation Act

Designates Route 66 – which winds through Missouri from St. Louis to Joplin – as a National Historic Trail

Allows for federal funding to be utilized to go towards projects that preserve and promote the historical significance of Route 66

The designation as a National Historic Trail will likely increase the profile of Route 66 and boost tourism along its path

Supreme Court rules in favor of religious freedom

The United States Supreme Court delivered a major victory this week for our First Amendment rights as it ruled in favor of baker Jack Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case.

Mr. Phillips, who runs his business according to his sincerely held religious beliefs, felt that a government directive to create a personalized wedding cake for a same-sex couple was an intrusion and a violation of his First Amendment rights. By a vote of 7-2, the justices agreed with Mr. Phillips.

Jack Phillips believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage – and the First Amendment protects his right to not be forced to do something contrary to your deeply held beliefs. I led an effort in which 88 Members of Congress submitted an amicus or “friend of the court” brief last year to the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the importance of protecting Mr. Phillips’ right of conscience. We were pleased with the outcome.

This Supreme Court ruling solidifies religious liberty, which is protected under our Bill of Rights, for all men and women of all faiths across the country. In so-doing, it makes clear that government cannot force any American to violate his or her religious convictions. It was a great outcome!

Holding Planned Parenthood accountable

I led a press conference with several of my Congressional colleagues to discuss concerns over revelations that Planned Parenthood has repeatedly failed to report the suspected sexual abuse of minors. A report was released last week from Live Action detailing multiple instances in which Planned Parenthood failed to report these atrocities to the appropriate authorities.

In response to this very disturbing report, my colleagues and I sent a letter to Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar II to express our concern and to ask the agency to investigate recipients of federal family planning money – particularly Planned Parenthood – to determine how widespread this reporting failure is. Our goal is also to determine if there are other instances in which Planned Parenthood was neglectful in its duty to report suspected child abuse.

Planned Parenthood receives approximately $60 million each year in family planning dollars. In exchange for these taxpayer dollars, Planned Parenthood is required to comply with state laws regarding the reporting of suspected cases of child abuse to the authorities. Clearly, this is not the case. HHS needs to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

A dose of good news

The New York Times ran out of words to describe how good the job numbers are!

“The real question is analyzing the May jobs numbers released Friday is whether there are enough synonyms for ‘good’ in an online thesaurus to describe then adequately. So, for example, ‘splendid’ and ‘excellent’ fit the bill. Those are the kinds of terms that are appropriate when the United States economy adds 223,000 jobs in a month, despite being nine years into an expansion, and when the unemployment rate falls to 3.8 percent, a new 18-year low.”

The good news about tax reform

Employees of yet another major company are benefitting from tax reform. Costco announced an increase in starting wages to $14 an hour, a $1 increase for entry level positions. The company will also raise wages for other hourly workers by up to 50 cents an hour. This change, which takes effect June 11, will affect 130,000 employees. MarketWatch reports Costco expects the change to cost it between $110 and $120 million annually, but it will be offset with an expected 7 percent drop in the company’s tax rate.