{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://rokita.house.gov/editorial/rokita-report-2013-year-review", "Rokita Report 2013 Year-in-Review", "2013-12-31", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Todd Rokita", "R000592", "rokita.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear Friend,\nThank you for allowing me the opportunity to update you on my work in the 113th Congress. I trust this finds you and your family well.\nAs we are at the end of 2013, I wanted to use this Rokita Report as a quick \"Year-in-Review\" of some of the bigger accomplishments this year.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\n  \u00a0\u00a0\n\n\n\tIn September, I, along with\u00a0several Republican Study Committee colleagues, introduced the American Health Care Reform Act - a consumer-driven, commonsense health care reform bill designed to increase access and reduce costs for all Americans.\nWe introduced this legislation because we believe it is important to improve health care, not just repeal ObamaCare.\u00a0 This bill now has\u00a0nearly 120 cosponsors and I look forward to more of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle joining us in 2014.\nYou can view my remarks\u00a0from the press conference where we\u00a0rolled out\u00a0the legislation here.\nA brief summary of the bills reforms\n Encouraging a more competitive health care market - Allows Americans to purchase health care across state lines, increasing transparency in Medicare by making claims data public, and allowing small businesses\u00a0to pool together to lower costs.\nIncreasing access to portable, affordable health insurance - Implements an across-the-board standard deduction for all health insurance plans, and expanding access and options for Health Savings Accounts.\nImproving access to insurance for vulnerable Americans - Ensures affordable coverage for those with pre-existing conditions by funding state high-risk pools, and removing barriers that prevent continual insurance coverage.\nReforming medical liability law - Caps non-economic damages, and placing a statute of limitations on liability cases.\nRespecting human life - Prohibits taxpayer funding for abortion.\nRepealing Obamacare\n We continue to seek input from anyone that wishes to constructively contribute to meaningful and responsible health care reform.\nYou can read the full bill text, summaries of the bills, and learn more about the\u00a0American Health Care Reform Act here.\u00a0\n\u00a0\n  \u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\nIn August, the House considered and passed the Student Success Act.\u00a0 The Student Success Act, introduced in June, is a bill I authored\u00a0in my role as Chairman of the\u00a0Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education\u00a0that reforms No Child Left Behind and reasserts Indiana's explicit right to direct the education of Indiana's children.\nThe Student Success Act reforms our nation's K-12 education system by restoring local and state control to our schools.\u00a0 In particular, the Student Success Act gives states, not Washington, D.C., the authority and responsibility to set academic standards, to measure if students are meeting those standards, and to make changes if they are not meeting their own standards.\u00a0\u00a0\nRep. Rokita Responds to Student Success Act Criticism 7-19-13\nNo Washington bureaucrat cares more about a child than a parent does. And no one in Washington knows what is better for Indiana\u00a0students than Indiana families, teachers, and\u00a0school boards. That is why the Student Success Act (SSA) puts an end to the administration\u2019s National School Board by\u00a0returning control to state and local school districts.\n\u00a0\nMany Hoosiers will also be pleased to know that the Student Success Act prohibits the Secretary of Education from coercing states into adopting Common Core.\n\tI would like to thank my fellow Education and Workforce Hoosier colleagues - Reps. Larry Bucshon, Susan Brooks, and Luke Messer for their help with this legislation.\u00a0\nIt is my hope that the Senate considers\u00a0their reauthorization\u00a0legislation in 2014. I look forward to working with my Senate counterparts pass this plan next year.\u00a0\u00a0For more information on the bill, please\u00a0click here.\n  \u00a0\nProtecting your 4th Amendment Rights - Stopping the NSA from Spying on Americans\nLike many Hoosiers, I was greatly concerned when I learned about the\u00a0various National Security Agency spying scandals that\u00a0were reported this year.\u00a0\u00a0 As more and more revelations emerged about the NSA spying on Americans\u2019 phone calls and electronic communications, it was clear that the Obama Administration has been slow in taking responsibility for abuses and invasions of Americans\u2019 privacy.\u00a0\u00a0\nSince that news broke, I have continually been working on a bipartisan basis to rein in the NSA\u2019s domestic surveillance operations and protect Americans\u2019 privacy through legislation and congressional oversight.\u00a0\u00a0\nMost recently,\u00a0I co-authored bipartisan legislation called the\u00a0USA Freedom Act to address NSA abuses.\u00a0 The USA Freedom Act makes reforms to end the dragnet collection of Americans\u2019 phone records under Section 215 of the PATRIOT.\u00a0 This bill also provides more safeguards for warrantless surveillance.\nIn September, I introduced legislation to\u00a0establish a Select Committee to investigate and report on the surveillance operations of the National Security Administration.\u00a0\u00a0\nAlso this year, I introduced another bipartisan bill to curb unconstitutional surveillance, the Ending Secret Law Act, to require declassification of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) decisions.\u00a0 Read my op-ed regarding this bill from the UK's Guardian, which first broke the news of this surveillance, here.\nI am committed to continue and win this fight to uphold our constitutional Fourth Amendment rights.\u00a0\u00a0\n  \u00a0\n\u00a0\n\n\u00a0\nIn the spring of 2011, my office in conjunction with the Indiana Chamber of Commerce embarked on a critical initiative called \u201cRed Tape Rollback,\u201d\u00a0to identify and roll back unnecessary and overly burdensome federal regulations that kill jobs and hurt our economy.\u00a0\u00a0 The purpose of\u00a0Red Tape Rollback is to give businesses, individuals, and institutions across the Hoosier State one location to report information on these job-destroying rules and regulations.\nI\u2019m pleased to report that at the end of 2013\u2014just over two years into this effort\u2014we\u2019ve achieved 33 significant victories in our fight against excessive regulations, and we\u2019ve made major progress on dozens of other issues.\u00a0 From victories that will reshape the framework of regulation in America to more specific regulations that burden Hoosiers, we\u2019ve achieved victories across the federal government.\u00a0 We\u2019ve pushed back against regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and more.\u00a0 I will be releasing an annual report in early 2014 that contains stories about some of our successes and some of our ongoing work.\nHowever, our work is far from done.\nAs economic leaders across the Hoosier State, the\u00a0Red Tape Rollback program only works with your participation.\u00a0 The Constitution vests Congress with the duty to legislate, but equally important is our duty to provide oversight of the executive branch.\u00a0 As we in Congress investigate and debate the appropriateness of federal regulations, I invite you to join us in our efforts.\u00a0 If you know of any regulation that\u00a0is destroying jobs, inhibiting growth, or slowing our economy, I want to know about it.\u00a0\nIt is important that we act now to remove unnecessary and burdensome regulations that destroy jobs.\u00a0 It is time to put Hoosiers back to work and unleash our economy by tearing down the barriers that keep businesses from growing.\nTo learn more about this program and to share your stories of regulatory overreach visit\u00a0rokita.house.gov/redtape.  \n\t\u00a0\n  I appreciate your continued interest in Congress and for supporting my efforts in Washington. Take care and have a great 2014.\nSincerely,\n\u00a0\n\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/rokita-report-2013-year-review"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4127108734101057, "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"}