{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://rokita.house.gov/editorial/10-07-2016-rokita-report", "10-07-2016 Rokita Report", "2016-10-07", "2016", "2016-10", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Todd Rokita", "R000592", "rokita.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear Friend,\nThank you for the opportunity to update you on the work of the 114th Congress.\u00a0 I trust this finds you and your family well, as we work together to bring Hoosier common sense to Washington.\nFor daily updates, please take a moment to \"Like\" my Facebook page by clicking here\u00a0\u00a0or follow me on Twitter if you prefer\u00a0\u00a0@ToddRokita.\n \u00a0 \n   In this week's Rokita Report \n Federal Employee Reform\nFighting Washington's Reckless Spending\nOverriding the President's Veto\nObamaCare Payments to Insurers\n  \u00a0 \n  Federal Employee Reform\nRecently, I introduced H.R. 6278, the\u00a0Promote Accountability and Efficiency (PAGE) Act.\u00a0\u00a0The PAGE Act\u00a0addresses growing concerns about the conduct and performance of federal employees.\nLike many Hoosiers, I am tired of seeing federal employees from the Internal Revenue Service, Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration, and many other agencies maintain employment, at the taxpayers\u2019 expense, after engaging in misconduct, receiving consistent poor performance reviews, and abusing the appeals process for employees.\u00a0 Even more, taxpayers should not have to pay for employees who don\u2019t answer letters, return phone calls, or solve problems that often times are created by the bureaucrats themselves.\u00a0 This bill is a step toward holding federal employees accountable to ensure that citizens are receiving the best service possible.\nThe\u00a0PAGE Act\u00a0would create at-will employment status for new federal employees, immediately suspend employees due to misconduct or poor performance, and ensure that taxpayers are only paying for official work activities.\n  Fighting Washington's Reckless Spending\nLast Wednesday, I voted against a reckless spending resolution that authorized more spending without making needed cuts.\u00a0With our national debt already over $19 trillion, I could not support the continuing spending resolution because several of the provisions were not even paid-for, including Zika funding, and therefore add to the national debt.\nAs an alternative, I recently introduced a fully paid-for Zika bill, the Zero Impacted Kids in America (ZIKA) Act which provided the requested levels of virus research while remaining budget-neutral.\u00a0 My legislation was not considered.\u00a0 This continuing resolution also fails to pay for disaster relief funds for the flooding that has devastated parts of the South. \u00a0I saw the need for these relief funds firsthand during a visit earlier this month, but without being paid-for, this bill will try to solve one problem only by enlarging another: our debt.\nThis funding bill passed the House and\u00a0provides\u00a0money to fund the government through December 9.\u00a0 Of the $1.1 billion in Zika funding research, only $400 million is paid for.\u00a0 As Vice-Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I look forward to continuing to fight for fiscal responsibility.\n \u00a0 \n  Overriding the President's Veto\nLast week, the House and Senate overturned President Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).\u00a0 This was the first time that a veto from President Obama has been successfully overturned.\nThe House and Senate took this historic step towards restoring the checks and balances of our government by taking a hard line against President Obama's senseless veto.\u00a0 The override effort passed the House with the support of 348 members, including myself.\nFifteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 Americans, JASTA allows the families of the victims to pursue justice and finally present their case in our nation's courts.\u00a0 The bill does so by amending federal law to allow civil claims against foreign countries involved in acts of terrorism perpetrated on United States soil.\n \u00a0 \n  ObamaCare Payments to Insurers\nThis month is the third anniversary of the ObamaCare insurance exchanges.\u00a0 We have new from auditors at the Government Accountability Office that the Obama administration is illegally sending payments to health insurers instead of the federal Treasury as the law requires.\nObamaCare created a reinsurance program that collects money from all health plans to help insurers cover the cost of sicker patients in the health care law's exchanges.\u00a0 To manage this program the government collects taxes from the insurers.\u00a0 After covering the cost of the program, the law requires the payments be sent to the federal Treasury.\u00a0 In 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services paid insurers $7.9 billion in claims and held the remaining $1.7 for future payments, instead of sending it to the Treasury.\nThis is another in a long string of examples on how ObamaCare is failing Hoosiers.\u00a0 To offer an alternative, I co-authored the American Health Care Reform Act with my colleagues on the Republican Study Committee.\u00a0 Our bill repeals and replaces ObamaCare with patient-centered solutions.\u00a0 In addition, I have served on the Health Care Task Force, which has laid a series of proposals to reform healthcare that includes my proposal for Medicaid Block Grants.\n \u00a0 \n  Thank you for your continued interest in Congress and for supporting my efforts to bring Hoosier common sense to Washington. Take care.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\tSincerely,  \u00a0  \n\t\t\t\t\tTodd Rokita", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://rokita.house.gov/editorial/10-07-2016-rokita-report"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8999609854072332, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}