This week, the 114th Congress commenced, and the House of Representatives wasted no time in passing bipartisan legislation to confront the serious challenges our great nation faces. We in the House passed three major bills to provide real solutions for the American people by mitigating the harmful impacts of the President’s healthcare law, reducing the burdensome impact of regulations that hamper small business job growth, and implementing a sensible and robust domestic energy policy.
On the first day of the new Congress, the House unanimously passed the Hire More Heroes Act, which would provide small businesses relief from the senseless employer mandate in the President’s healthcare law and create new opportunities for veterans looking to find work. We also passed the Save American Workers Act to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of ‘full-time employment’ to help protect hardworking Americans from having their hours and wages cut. As I travel throughout the Fifth District, I continue to hear from Virginians who have had their hours cut as a result of the‘30-hour rule’ and the negative impacts it has had on their families, and I welcomed the opportunity to pass legislation to address this harmful provision.
On Friday, the House also approved legislation to advance the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a crucial piece of our energy strategy aimed at increasing North American energy production and giving Americans more affordable energy choices. I was proud to support each of these measures, and I was pleased that so many of our Democrat colleagues joined us in the effort to advance these proposals that will make life easier on our working families.
While we in the House spent the first week of the new year working together, the President took actions that call into question his willingness to work with us to provide more opportunity to all Americans. Just two days into the 114th Congress, the President had already issued three veto threats against bipartisan bills. If that were not enough, the Obama administration issued 300 new rules in the federal register in the first week of 2015. It is my hope that the President will change his go-it-alone approach and meet us at the negotiating table as he pledged to do after the election.
The people’s House will continue to fight for real solutions to the challenges our great nation faces. We will continue to advance bipartisan policies like those we passed this week, and it is my hope that our colleagues in the Senate will now take up these good bills and join us in advancing policies to build a stronger America for our children and grandchildren.
If you need any additional information or if we may be of assistance to you, please visit my website at hurt.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-4711, Charlottesville office: (434) 973-9631, Danville office: (434) 791-2596, or Farmville office: (434) 395-0120.
Robert Hurt represents Virginia’s Fifth District in Congress.
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