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October
15, 2004 108th
Congress: A Record of Accomplishment By
Congressman Joe Pitts Over the last two years,
this Congress has worked hard to pass legislation that will address the
challenges and needs facing our nation.
In doing so our goal was to expand freedom and prosperity for all
Americans and to build a brighter future for our kids and grandkids. We passed and the
President signed the first reform of Medicare in forty years.
This Congress was able to accomplish what politicians had promised
for years: a prescription drug benefit.
There are issues still to address, but the fact remains that we
have set up a Medicare prescription drug program for the first time ever,
getting assistance to more than 40 million seniors and persons with
disabilities. Until this year,
seniors with Medicare had no relief from prescription drug prices. The bill also included
vital seeds of reform that, if encouraged, will make Medicare even
stronger. One such reform was
the creation of Health Savings Accounts.
The savings families accrue
in these accounts will remove significant financial stress from Medicare
and from future generations faced with footing an ever-increasing bill for
health care. In addition to reforming
Medicare, we are very close to reforming our nation’s intelligence
services and implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
One thing we have learned since 9/11 is that our enemies are bent
not on our defeat, but our destruction.
We need the intelligence capability to stop them.
H.R. 10, the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act, enables us to do
that. It shifts resources and
alters organization to make sure we can adapt to the changing threats
posed by al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. In the coming weeks, the
House and Senate will work out our differences on this bill and send it to
the President. Once enacted
this reform will put terrorists on notice that we will do whatever it
takes to make our nation safe and prevent them from using their murderous,
extremist ideology to terrorize our nation and our allies. We have also increased
funding on the military and homeland security.
Our bipartisan plan for FY 2005 grants the Defense Department over
$416 billion dollars in new spending to protect These major initiatives
did not prevent us from acting to strengthen our economy. During this Congress,
bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress have worked to extend
the tax relief we passed in 2001 and 2002 and we set out to expand that
relief in 2003. Middle class families
were the primary targets of this tax relief.
So we increased the child tax credit from $600 per child to $1000
per child and extended that relief through 2010.
We made sure rebate checks were sent out immediately.
We made sure low income Americans will continue to benefit from the
10 percent tax bracket. When
the dust settled, we returned $13.7 billion tax dollars to families across
the country. For those who think
Congress only cares about tax cuts, we have passed the American Dream Down
Payment Act. It offers greater
access to the dream of owning a home to thousands of low-income and
first-time homebuyers by providing them with down-payment assistance. The House has also taken
the lead on reducing health care costs.
Association Health Plans (AHPs), passed by the House but not yet
through the Senate, would enable small business owners to provide more
employees with health insurance. Medical
liability reform, approved by the House but stuck in the Senate, will cut
costs on doctors and hospitals and lower medical bills for patients. We are also investing a
great deal of energy in protecting children and families. In this Congress, we
outlawed the barbaric partial birth abortion procedure, we recognized two
victims – the mother and her unborn child – in the commission of
federal crimes, we strengthened laws against child pornography, we
expanded laws to combat kidnapping and child abuse, and strengthened our
nation’s schools. I cannot tell you what
an honor it has been to serve in this Congress.
We have made great progress on these and many other issues that
matter to American families. And
we have a number of items that we will form our agenda next year. #
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