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Amodei Report: Washington Wrap Up 4.23.21

April 23, 2021
E-Newsletter
Congressman Mark Amodei, representing the 2nd District of Nevada
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dear Friend,

Although the House has voted on several issues over the last two weeks, unfortunately, none of these bills do anything to directly address some of the critical policy challenges that need our immediate attention – such as the crisis at our Southern border or our nation’s infrastructure needs. This week, I wanted to take a moment to cover some of those issues, as well as some of the other legislative efforts my office has been managing as we continue working to ensure Nevada is on track for recovery.

Next, with appropriations season in full swing, the introduction of Community Project Funding (CPF) to the 2022 appropriations process has provided an opportunity for local non-profit entities and governmental organizations to apply for direct federal funding. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, requesting funding in a transparent and accountable way for CD-2’s most critical project needs is a responsibility I take very seriously. Please click here to head over to my website for more information regarding the CPF process. 

Washington Wrap-Up

Supporting Special Event Businesses in Nevada

As we continue working to safely reopen our economies, we must also ensure that those who were forced to shut their doors, through no fault of their own, have the support they need to reopen when the time comes. As part of those efforts, I recently introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R.2120) that would expand the eligibility for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) Program, administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and funded by Congress at $16.2 billion, to more appropriately capture businesses in the special events, hospitality, and tourism industries that have suffered negative economic impacts due to COVID-19-related closures and cancellations. This bill is supported by the U.S. Travel Association, the American Society of Travel Advisors, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and the International Association of Fairs & Exhibitions.

For more perspective on this issue, you might be interested to know that nationwide, the hospitality, tourism, and entertainment industries have been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. In Nevada, our world class entertainment and live events typically draw in more than 50 million visitors each year, generating billions of dollars to support good-paying jobs and fuel our local economies. In CD-2 alone, special events like the National Championship Air Races in Reno, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Burning Man, and Hot August Nights bring in more than $750 million each year for our economy. These events, as well as those in Southern Nevada, are crucial to our economic stability. Unfortunately, canceled travel plans and the shuttering of special events due to COVID has disproportionally impacted our tourism-based economy, leaving Nevada with the second highest unemployment rate in the nation.

Although Congress sought to help struggling venues and event operators in December through the creation of the SVOG Program, unfortunately, the SBA has implemented the Program in such a narrowly tailored fashion, leaving many special event vendors ineligible for assistance. My legislation would provide that support by ensuring that SVOG eligibility comprehensively includes struggling businesses involved in all aspects of the live special events landscape, which was Congress’s original intent.

In Case You Missed It: Before introducing this legislation, I originally submitted its text as an amendment to the House Rules Committee during its consideration of the American Rescue Plan Act last month. Click here or on the video below to view my full testimony and here to view the full text of H.R.2120.

 

Amodei SVO Testimony – House Rules Committee Markup


Legislative Update – Week of April 12th

H.R.7 – The Paycheck Fairness Act: Under current law, it is already illegal to pay different wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work. While this legislation claims to help women in the workforce, I voted against it because it offers zero new protections against pay discrimination and would instead benefit trial lawyers by creating a system that would allow for never-ending frivolous lawsuits against job creators. When it comes to this issue, nobody is opposed to equal pay, but endless litigation is certainly not the answer. You might be interested to know that I am a cosponsor of Rep. Stefanik’s Wage Equity Act, which would ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. Her bill is modeled after bipartisan legislation that has been signed into law in states across the country and would encourage employers to proactively evaluate their pay practices and eliminate pay disparities in the workplace while empowering employees to negotiate pay based on their qualifications and merit.

H.R.1195 – The Workplace Violence Prevention Act: While there is bipartisan agreement on the need for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a workplace violence prevention regulation to protect workers in the health care and social service industries, not all agree that H.R.1195 is the appropriate means to get there. I voted against this legislation, because despite the bill’s name, it fails to deliver on its promises by undermining an ongoing, collaborative, and evidence-based rulemaking process to mandate that OSHA hastily issue an interim final standard addressing workplace violence on an arbitrary and unnecessarily rushed timetable. In fact, the bill is so unnecessarily prescriptive, that it would essentially force the Department of Labor (DOL) to adopt the same strict standards as those in California, regardless of whether those standards are appropriate for the entire country. During consideration of this bill in the Education and Labor Committee, Republicans offered an amendment that would accomplish the same goals contained in H.R.1195 while still requiring that OSHA follow the normal rulemaking process, but the amendment was rejected. 

This Week’s Legislative Update

Despite the ongoing crisis at the border, House Democrats chose to prioritize two flawed immigration bills this week. As a result, House Republicans offered a set of Motions to Recommit on Wednesday that sought to advance commonsense proposals. Learn more about these bills and the Motions to Recommit below.

H.R.1333 – the “NO BAN” Act: This bill strips the president of authority under section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, meaning he would no longer have the ability to act quickly to deny entry to foreigners if their entry is considered detrimental to the national interest. By forcing the President to use the “least restrictive means” to enact immigration policy, this legislation would expose the federal government to even more potential litigation. While I voted against this bill, I voted in support of a Motion to Recommit to H.R.1333 that would delay implementation of the bill until a policy is in place requiring migrants released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody to obtain a negative COVID-19 test before being permitted to board a domestic flight in the United States.

H.R.1573 – the Access to Counsel Act of 2021: This bill also does nothing to address the crisis at the border. Instead, it complicates the job of border patrol agents by requiring access to counsel for travelers referred to secondary inspection at a port of entry, instead of providing access to counsel when and if that traveler becomes the focus of a criminal investigation. This creates logistical challenges for CBP agents who will not only have to expand access to additional lawyers, but will also have to provide additional space for attorney-client discussions, which will slow processing times. While I voted against this legislation, I voted in support of a Motion to Recommit to H.R.1573 that would ensure counsel accessed pursuant to the bill will not be paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. 

H.R.51 – The Washington, D.C. Admission Act: Since President Biden took office, we’ve seen numerous efforts by Democrats in Congress to abuse their power to enact partisan agendas. Some of those recent abuses include legislation to federalize our nation’s elections and restrict our First Amendment right to free speech (H.R.1), attempting to overturn a certified election in Iowa's Second Congressional District, and introducing legislation to pack the Supreme Court. H.R.51 simply adds to that list of partisan power grabs. While there are numerous concerns with this legislation, the most important to note are its constitutional concerns, as it violates the 23rd Amendment, which already provides presidential and vice presidential electors to the District and its residents. In fact, sixty years ago, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said granting D.C. statehood absent a constitutional amendment was “inconceivable” and would produce “an absurdity”. Further, it is concerning that D.C. is not fiscally viable and cannot balance its budget without heavily relying on Congress for annual help. While several alternatives other than statehood exist for D.C. to obtain voting representation in Congress, Democrats are not interested in any of them, making clear that this irresponsible push for statehood is rooted in partisan interests.


Looking Ahead

Immigration Update

In January 2021, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report explained that, "Since early 2020, CBP has faced a growing number of individuals attempting to cross the southwest border, averaging about 3,000 arrests per day in January 2021." To echo those concerns, earlier this year, Texas State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, a Democrat who lives in the border town of McAllen, said the influx of migrants is quickly becoming a crisis and officials do not have the resources needed to process the migrants or to test them all for COVID-19. In March, 172,000 migrants were taken into custody, many of which were unaccompanied minors. This is the highest number of migrants apprehended in a single month in nearly two decades. Additionally, during last week’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus hearing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, testified that the President’s housing of migrants in overcrowded facilities is violating U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, stating that this violation was a “major concern.”

As you can see, there is absolutely a crisis at our border that has been downplayed by the Administration for months. As the situation has only grown more dire, it was not until this past weekend that President Biden finally admitted the border is in crisis.

While the surge in illegal immigrants trying to enter the country continues, House Democrats, as we saw with this week’s legislation above, still refuse to offer real solutions. Instead, they are more interested in putting forward partisan policies that will further exacerbate the crisis by hindering CBP’s ability to do its job and encourage even more migrants to illegally enter the country. I urge my Democrat colleagues to quickly change course and come to the table with Republicans to secure our border and put an end to this escalating national security, public health, and humanitarian crisis.

Infrastructure & Climate Change Update

While there’s been some discussion surrounding the recent infrastructure framework released by the Biden Administration, we have yet to see any real legislation. Additionally, when it comes to this issue, clearly it depends what your definition of “infrastructure” is, because from paid leave to expanding the Supreme Court, Democrats are claiming everything is “infrastructure”, using this tactic in an attempt to advance their $2.3T partisan spending plan.

Unfortunately, this framework has a lot more money going toward programs than projects. In fact, only 6% of the plan is focused on improved infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, and highways – that both parties agree we need – while other elements of it go to fund programs. For example, the framework includes a provision that would provide $174 billion for a program to incentivize the purchase of electric cars. This and other programs will raise taxes on Americans and lead to job losses. Should this framework be crafted into legislation that becomes law, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has predicted the loss of more than one million jobs.

Additionally, even though many Green New Deal priorities were already folded into President Biden’s framework, Democrats still chose to reintroduce this disastrous bill on Tuesday. I certainly agree that clean energy is the wave of the future. However, the Green New Deal is not about combatting climate change. Instead, it's a far-left effort that would cost trillions of dollars, drive up energy prices for American families, and ship good-paying American jobs and industries to countries with negligible environmental standards like China.

If Democrats were serious about climate change, they would partner with House Republicans on workable legislation that balances science-based evidence with economic impacts like costs and jobs. Instead, they chose to simply reintroduce legislation that most Americans and lawmakers, including Speaker Pelosi at one point, did not take seriously because it actually ends up rewarding some of the biggest offenders of our environment.

Spring Highlights

Conducting Oversight: Library of Congress Visit

 

As a Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, I have a responsibility to conduct oversight on the funding allocated to Legislative Branch agencies such as the Library of Congress (LOC).

Following a recent Legislative Branch Subcommittee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2022 budget, my office worked with the Library to arrange a tour of one of its Preservation Labs. A special thanks to the Librarian of Congress and the Library’s preservation experts for having me and explaining how this funding is used to support some of the challenges faced when restoring these delicate artifacts. Being a good steward of taxpayer dollars is a responsibility I will always take seriously, and I believe one of the best ways we can do that is by taking advantage of opportunities that provide a first-hand look at an agency’s activities, as well as a chance to observe some phenomenal professionals doing great work to preserve America’s history.

Click here for additional photos and to learn about the artifacts I viewed during my tour.

Tour: Hawthorne Army Depot

While I was home in Nevada, I recently had the opportunity to revisit the Hawthorne Army Depot for an update on their mission and collaboration with the Nevada National Guard. A huge thanks to their staff for showing me around. Click here for additional photos from my visit.

Tour: Sierra Army Depot

 

I also had the opportunity to tour the Sierra Army Depot to discuss its unique material readiness mission for the Army, its COVID Global Response Center, and its End of First Life Center's retrograde and redistribution operations for military vehicles and materials. You might be interested to know that 32% of the Depot’s workforce are residents of CD-2. Thanks for having me!

Tour: Nevada State Public Health Lab

 

Finally, I wanted to thank University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) President Brian Sandoval, Dr. Mark Pandori, and Dr. Pandori’s remarkable team members for recently giving me a tour of the Nevada State Public Health Lab. The work Dr. Pandori and his team do each day continues to support Nevada’s COVID testing efforts and I thank everyone at the Lab for their dedication and leadership during these unprecedented times.

Click here to view the full video from my visit.

Helping Nevada National Guard Members Suffering from PTSD

Recently, Debbie Balsinger, our Veterans Affairs Constituent Services Representative in Reno, had the opportunity to present a Certificate of Recognition to Nevada Army National Guardsman Chase Rauchle’s family. In September 2019, Chase tragically lost his battle to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a devastating condition that claims far too many of our nation’s veterans. In Chase’s honor, his family started Chase Rauchle PTSD NOW! – which stands for "Prevent, Treat, Stress & Depression Now!”. Click here to learn more.

Information for Students:

I would like to highlight two opportunities for current high school students living in CD-2. First, is the Congressional Art Competition, a nationwide high school visual art competition sponsored each spring by the Congressional Institute to recognize and encourage artistic talent in each congressional district. The deadline for submissions is TODAY, April 23, 2021. Artwork may be submitted electronically to NV02.ArtCompetition@mail.house.gov or dropped off at my Reno office, located at 5310 Kietzke Lane, Suite 103, by 5 PM PT. Click here for more information.

The second opportunity is Service Academy nominations. Each year, Members of Congress may nominate a limited number of high school seniors to attend one of our nation’s five U.S. Service Academies. As an Army ROTC alumnus and the father of a veteran and Navy ROTC alumna, I value the educational opportunities provided by our nation’s armed forces to students who are interested in serving their country, and strongly encourage all high school students seeking a nomination to attend a Service Academy in 2022 to apply by the October 28, 2021 deadline. Click here to head over to my website for additional information about Service Academy nominations and here to fill out the Service Academy form. For questions, please contact Debbie Balsinger in our Reno office at 775-686-5760.

As always, thank you for subscribing to the Amodei Report. I look forward to continuing to keep you up to date on the issues you care about most. For additional information, please visit my website at Amodei.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-6155, Reno office: (775) 686-5760, or Elko office: (775) 777-7705. To receive updates on what I am doing in Washington and in Nevada’s 2nd District follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

 
 

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

Washington, DC Office
104 Cannon House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6155 | Fax: (202) 225-5679

Reno Office
5310 Kietzke Lane, Suite 103
Reno, NV 89511
Phone: (775) 686-5760
Fax: (775) 686-5711
Elko Office
Office: (775) 777-7705

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