Latest from Lamar, Notes from the Senate
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*Beyond the headlines, Congress is getting results for
Tennesseans*

* *

I often suggest Tennesseans look at Washington, D.C., as if
it were a split-screen television. On one side, you hear about
impeachment and tweets, but, on the other side, you have members of Congress
working together to get results. And in 2019, we've done just that.
We've passed legislation that President Trump has signed into law to
provide permanent funding for Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions, simplify the
Federal Application for Federal Student Aid -- or FAFSA form -- 400,000
Tennessee families fill out every year to qualify for student aid, provide
our troops with the biggest pay raise in 10 years, encourage drug
competition, raise the tobacco age to 21 and provide record-funding for
our 17 national laboratories and supercomputing. Congress has also
confirmed five Tennesseans who were President Trump's nominees. And, as
chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,
I've worked to pass 21 bills in our committee, including new laws that
will ensure we are better prepared for public health threats such as
wildfires, hurricanes, or bioterror attacks and to help us better
understand diseases and disorders including Lyme disease, approved 51 of
the president's nominees and held 13 hearings hearing on topics that
impact the lives of every American, including e-cigarettes and vaping,
the importance of vaccines, and updating the Higher Education Act to
ensure students are earning degrees worth their time and money.




It's been quite a year, and you can learn more about what we've been
able to accomplish HERE
[link 1]and HERE [link 2].



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*

*President Trump signs into law legislation that will lower Americans'
health care costs*



The U.S. Senate passed, and the president
signed into law, legislation that takes several important steps to address
Americans' number one financial concern: what they pay out of their
own pockets for health care.



The new law includes five
provisions from my bipartisan legislation the Lower Health Care Costs Act
[link 3] -- including the CREATES Act, which will increase generic drug
competition and lower the cost of drugs -- as well as two provisions to
increase biological drug competition and lower drug costs, including
in the insulin market, Tobacco-21, which will raise purchasing age of
tobacco to 21, and the Kay Hagan Tick Act to better protect Americans
from diseases transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes and fleas.



But
there is more we need to do. I will continue working with my
colleagues in the New Year to end surprise medical billing, deliver long-term
funding for the nation's 1,400 community health centers -- including
the 29 in Tennessee -- lower the cost of prescription drugs, and bring
more transparency to the health care market.







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*I've enjoyed spending some time with Payton, who is a
junior in high school from Brentwood and has been serving as a U.S. Senate
Page this semester. Thank you for your impressive work and service,
Payton!*







*President Trump, Congress give troops
biggest pay raise in 10 years*



The U.S. Senate passed legislation
[link 4] Tuesday that gives the military the biggest pay raise in 10
years. President Trump has signed this bill into law, which authorizes
$738 billion to fund the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department
of Energy.



Governing is about setting priorities, and this
bill shows our priority is the men and women who serve in our armed
forces. This defense bill authorizes pay raises for troops at Ft.
Campbell, Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma and the Naval Support Activity
Mid-South in Millington, and continues to make research and development
of new technologies a priority so our military can deal with new and
emerging threats. The new law improves housing and increases employment
opportunities for military spouses. This new law also, for the first
time, provides two months of paid family leave for all federal
employees, which Ivanka Trump and the President worked to include in the
bill. This legislation will also strengthen our national security by
supporting important programs at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak
Ridge to help modernize and maintain our nuclear weapons arsenal.






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*The Foothills Parkway is one of the
prettiest drives in America. So, it's no surprise that **the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park is crediting the drive for breaking the park's
record for the number of visitors, estimating there will be** **12
million visitors by the end of the year. I enjoy visiting the Foothills
Parkway** any time I can - which most recently was when we dedicated the
new Dean Stone Bridge.*





*President Trump* *signs
legislation into law that will help Tennessee students and families*




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This week, I was with President Trump at the
White House to talk about the FUTURE Act [link 5] -- bipartisan
legislation I sponsored that will help Tennessee students and families.




First, it provides permanent funding, fully paid for, for
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving
institutions attended by over two million minority students. Second,
after five years of bipartisan effort, the measure also simplifies the
Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) and removes the most
important roadblock for the 20 million Americans, including 400,000
Tennessee families, who apply for federal grants and loans to attend
college.



Last week, the president of Lane College -- one of six HBCUs
in Tennessee -- told me that he has three staff members who spend a
significant amount of time helping the 40 percent of Lane College
students who are currently selected for verification each year, a
complicated bureaucratic process that stops a student's Pell grant payments
while they send their tax information to the U.S. Department of
Education. This legislation greatly reduces this burden on his students and
their families and allows the staff to spend their time counseling
students about academics or jobs, instead of helping them fill out a form.




President Trump signed this important legislation into law,
giving a Christmas present to HBCUs and millions of students and their
families.







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*The rain didn't stop
us from breaking ground on the Saint Thomas Sports Park expansion last
Friday. I'm grateful the Tennessee Titans continue to invest in the
Nashville community and bring even more jobs to Middle Tennessee. *

*
*



*President Trump, Congress provide record-funding for 17
national laboratories, supercomputing*



The best-kept secret in
Washington is record-funding for the Office of Science, which funds our
national laboratories and supercomputing [link 6]. The legislation
the Senate passed Thursday will provide record-level funding for the
fifth-consecutive year for our 17 national laboratories. Our national
laboratories are our secret weapons, which is why I've worked hard as
chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations
Subcommittee to help increase funding for the Office of Science by 38
percent over the last 5 years. The legislation also includes $230
million for the first year of a new advanced reactor demonstration program,
which will build at least 2 advanced reactors over the next 5-7
years.



This bill includes funding to keep America number one in the
world in supercomputing and build the next generation of
supercomputers. The funding in this bill will also modernize our nuclear weapons
facilities at Y-12 and accelerate cleanup of hazardous materials and
facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, which is building
the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War
II.



Our legislation also includes $7.65 billion -- a new
record funding level in a regular appropriations bill -- for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to maintain and rebuild our nation's waterways,
including up to $94.5 million to fully fund construction at Chickamauga
Lock for the sixth consecutive year. This is great news for East
Tennessee since the new lock will help keep up to 150,000 trucks off I-75
and keep the cost of shipping goods low for manufacturers across the
state. Finally, our bill includes up to $2.163 million for dredging the
Memphis Harbor McKellar Lake.



This is an important bill for our
country and for Tennessee, and I'm glad President Trump signed it
into law. Funding these priorities is not the cause of the runaway
federal debt. These priorities are funded in the portion of the budget that
only increases at about the rate of inflation.








*Below are some articles from this week I thought you would enjoy:*




Chattanooga Times Free Press: Alexander touts elimination of
'bureaucratic nightmare' provision on student federal college aid
applications [link 7]

* *

Kaiser Health News: Surprising Swings In
Momentum For Legislation On Surprise Medical Bills [link 8]



Ed Week:
What the FAFSA Simplification Trump Signed Means for Students [link
9]







Remember that the family is the basic unit of
society.

*#162 in Lamar Alexander's Little Plaid Book*








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