Picture of Congressman Blake Farenthold March 16, 2014 Protecting Our Constitutional Rights The President keeps assuming powers that directly violate the Constitution, and I will not stand Obama trying to rule the U.S. like a king. This week the House passed 2 bills that will hold the President accountable for his actions and return the balance of powers in the government. Under Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution, the President is required to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” but Obama has chosen to ignore some laws or create exemptions in laws for his friends and contributors. H.R. 4138, the ENFORCE the Law Act gives the House, the Senate, or both together the ability to bring a lawsuit against the President, or other executive officers, if a law is not enforced. H.R. 3973, the Faithful Execution of the Law Act requires that the President’s administration to publicly declare why they are refusing to enforce a law. These bills are commonsense, and only increase transparency and accountability for the American public. If laws can be changed or ignored on a whim, than the Constitution is in danger. I will continue to fight for Americans while the President plays politics. Fixing the Postal Service On Thursday, March 12th, I chaired a Government Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the USPS prefunding requirement for retirees’ health benefits. The USPS has lost close to $100 billion in unfunded liabilities, and, depending on whose accounting methods you use, has been losing close to $1 billion a month. The hearing focused primarily on a requirement that the Postal Service prefund employee’s retirement healthcare benefits. I believe it’s sound fiscal policy (and good for employees) to have benefits fully funded and not at the mercy of future revenues or a bailout of the Postal Service. USPS officials have claimed that USPS is the only government agency required to prefund these benefits. However, at the hearing, the Department of Defense testified about how they, too, prefund military retirees Tricare healthcare benefits. To watch my questioning from the hearing, click here. Hiring Our Heroes As an active supporter of our veterans, I jumped on a chance last week to increase jobs for those who have served. One of the many problems with ObamaCare is that it punishes businesses that grow beyond 50 employees by subjecting them to onerous insurance burdens. H.R. 3474, the “Hire More Heroes Act,” will increase job opportunities for veterans by excluding them from the ObamaCare employee count. This legislation is a win-win. If passed by the Senate, it will help our veterans gain employment and promote small businesses by encouraging growth, without falling under oppressive job killing ObamaCare regulations. The President’s overreach with ObamaCare has put too many Americans in tough economic times, but I believe that the Hire More Heroes Act allows our veterans to be a beacon of hope. Although we can never fully repay those that were willing to put their lives on the line for our country, we can give them every opportunity to succeed after their service. That said, I hope the Senate will act on this bill quickly. Supporting our veterans and strengthening our economy are issues that cannot be delayed. *For any veterans, active or reserve members, or family members with suggestions on how we can improve the lives of our veterans, I encourage you to attend my Veterans Summit at the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi on Monday, March 31, 2014 from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. For more info on the Summit, please contact my Veterans Field Representative Capt. Rene Coronado at: [email protected] or at 361-884-2222. DC Office Intern Profile: Karam Chauhan Name: Karam Elahee Chauhan Hometown: Arlington, VA Favorite Movie: Wolf of Wall Street Favorite Book: The Great Gatsby Favorite Sports Teams: Pakistan Cricket Team, Juventus FC, Italy National Football Team Favorite Fast Food Restaurant: McDonalds Role Model: Warren Buffet What you hope to gain from this internship: Knowledge and experience about the U.S. Political System Pick One: Sleep or Seize the Day!: Definitely seize the day! Empowering Seniors and Doctors On Friday, March 14th, the House passed a bill that will fix several errors in our broken healthcare system. The Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) is anything but sustainable and is set to expire at the end of March. I voted in favor of H.R. 4015, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act, which will repeal the SGR system and create a stable method of paying for Medicare. H.R. 4015 will help both our seniors and our physicians prosper. This bill is funded through repealing the individual mandate under Obamacare, which is a substantial misuse of tax dollars. Keeping Music and the Internet Fair Last Thursday I participated in the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s hearing to discuss the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and specifically the Notice and Takedown process. Currently, artists who have their copyrighted works published online without their permission can require internet service providers to take down infringing material immediately but often that material pops right back up under another URL which results in a process witnesses likened to a game of whack-a-mole. I believe that the safe harbor provisions in the DMCA allow innovation on the Internet. However, we need to be careful to balance the rights of copyright holders with the growth of technology to encourage creation and innovation in all areas of intellectual property. I also believe large search engines and large internet service providers need to be good corporate citizens and follow YouTubes lead in detecting copyrighted material automatically. Sites that promote or carry pirated material should also risk delisting or at least lower ranking on search engines. Ultimately, we need to attack the revenue stream that keep infringers in business. It should also be easier for average content creators to legally use copyrighted music by obtaining micro-licenses or fair use. I used cat videos as an example. It’s often difficult for armature or fledgling producers to obtain all the rights needed to include background music in whatever videos they produce. Overall, the hearing was an interesting debate on some of the key issues with the DMCA. Graphic of the Week Follow Me on Twitter Had an interesting exchange w/ Grammy winner Maria Schneider at our #copyright hearing: https://youtube/watch?v=a9f0NK2jAS0 … #JustWantMusicOnMyCatVideo 13 Mar 2014 56 percent of Americans share #ZachGalifianakis sentiments here: bit.ly/1i9Hnmu #ObamaCare #Trainwreck #BetweenTwoFerns 11 Mar 2014 .@GraceDobushToGo THX for the honor! Rep. Blake Farenthold might have the most geek cred in Congress: rollcall/news/-231374-1.html … #GeeksLikeMe 11 Mar 2014
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 09:57:40 +0000