Important news from this week:
- This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced
Tennessee will receive nearly $1.4 million in federal grants to help give
rural Tennesseans better access to doctors, health care, school
counselors and teachers.
- The
Restore Our Parks Act is one step closer to becoming
law. This legislation that I introduced will cut in
half the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog at our national parks,
including the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park.
- This week, I supported and Congress
passed a short-term funding agreement to keep the government
open.
Supporting the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park
This week, the Restore
Our Parks Act, legislation I sponsored that would
cut in half the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog
at our nation’s 419 national parks, including the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, moved one step closer to becoming
law. This bill was approved by the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources committee I serve on by a 15-5
vote.
This legislation could do more to restore our
national parks than anything that has happened in the last half century,
and the reason we need to restore them is so Americans can enjoy
these sites -- from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park to the Grand Canyon -- for generations
to come. This bill will help restore the campgrounds, trails, and roads
in what one of America’s greatest story tellers, Ken Burns,
calls “America’s best idea” -- our national park
system. This bill will allow future generations to enjoy
America’s best idea in the same way that we have.
Considering President Trump’s
nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration
The Senate health committee I
chair held a hearing this week to consider Dr.
Stephen Hahn’s nomination to serve as the
U.S. Food and Drug
Administration’s (FDA) commissioner. Dr. Hahn currently serves as the chief medical executive at the
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. This
is a critical time for FDA, and there is a lot that FDA needs to do --
approve lifesaving drugs, regulate tobacco and e-cigarettes, complete
the ongoing lung injury investigation and continue addressing the
opioid crisis. Dr. Hahn is well prepared and a strong choice to lead the
FDA.
Working
to pass permanent funding for Historically Black Colleges and
Universities and Minority Serving Institutions
Now is the time to pass permanent
funding for Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions. I spoke on
the Senate floor this week after Democrats blocked
my bipartisan package of higher education proposals that
includes $255 million in permanent annual funding for HBCUs and
simplifies the FAFSA, the federal aid application that eight million
minority students fill out each year. Governor Bill Haslam told me
that the FAFSA form is the single largest impediment to
Tennesseans taking advantage of Tennessee Promise, which gives students
two free years of community college.
Addressing
the real driver of the
$23 trillion federal debt
— entitlement spending
The above chart illustrates all federal
spending over the last 10 years and the projected spending for the
next 10 years. Discretionary spending (blue line) is under control.
Mandatory spending (red line) is the real driver of the out-of-control
federal debt.
This week,
I cosponsored legislation introduced by Senator
Mitt Romney (R-Utah.) that would establish “rescue committees” tasked with
creating legislation to help put the United States on the road
to fiscal responsibility and get our spending under control.
The
real driver of our out-of-control federal debt is mandatory
or entitlement spending -- which is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
and interest on the debt. As spending on mandatory entitlements and
interest grows, there will be less money for national defense,
national laboratories, national parks, and the National Institutes
of Health. Unless Congress acts within 13 years, Social Security,
Medicare and the Highway Trust Funds will
go broke. This legislation will help put the United
States on the road to fiscal responsibility by bringing automatic,
mandatory spending under control.
We should spend more on clean energy instead
of wasteful wind production tax credit
This week, I spoke on the Senate floor
about the wind production tax credit --
taxpayer dollars given to wind developers. The wind production tax credit
has been extended 11 times, has been on the books for more than 25
years, and has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The credit expires
at the end of this year but now some members of Congress are trying to
extend it. Asking the American taxpayer to pay more to extend
the wind production tax credit – the most wasteful,
conspicuous taxpayer subsidy in Washington D.C. -- is
unjustifiable. Instead of subsidizing wind developers, we could be using that money
to double the amount we spend on research and development to make truly
bold breakthroughs that will help us provide cleaner, cheaper energy,
and raise family incomes. Click here for a video of my floor speech.
Below are some articles from this
week I thought you would enjoy:
Chattanooga Times Free
Press: Sen. Alexander pushes for passage of Restore Our Parks Act in
what will likely be his final major piece of conservation
legislation
Clarksville Online: Lamar Alexander says
Congress Would Save Lives of Thousands of Tennesseans by Controlling All
Forms of Fentanyl
Nashville Channel 5: Sen. Lamar
Alexander says CDC and FDA can do more to save
lives
Plan your work and work your plan.
#98 in Lamar Alexander’s Little
Plaid Book
