{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://rokita.house.gov/editorial/rokita-report-congress-comes-indiana", "ROKITA REPORT: CONGRESS COMES TO INDIANA", "2014-09-15", "2014", "2014-09", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Todd Rokita", "R000592", "rokita.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dear Friend,\nObamaCare is as big a subject as ever, as the president\u2019s health care law continues to roil our workplaces and economy. Though, at my Congressional hearing\u00a0in Greenfield last week, when Congress came to Indiana, it was hard to tell whether its strongest supporters in Congress cared to hear just how much.\nIn this week\u2019s ROKITA REPORT, I\u2019ll tell you what Hoosiers in Greenfield told me about the law's disastrous effects and what the country should do to fix it. I\u2019ll give you an update on the situation on the Twin Lakes in White and Carroll Counties, too, where residents are seeing results of our hard work finding more long-term solutions to this summer\u2019s water-level problem.\nFinally, please take a look at the numbers behind my busy August visiting Hoosiers to hear their concerns.\u00a0\n\u00a0For daily updates, please take a moment to \"Like\" my Facebook\u00a0page by clicking here  or follow me on Twitter if you prefer  @ToddRokita.\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\nIn this week's Rokita Report:\nCongress Comes to Indiana\nAviation Bill Gains Altitude\nAugust by the Numbers\n\u00a0 \n\u00a0\n\u00a0CONGRESS COMES TO INDIANA\nLast week, I was happy to see my friend Mark DeFabis, whose Integrated Distribution Services (IDS) -- a warehouse, packager and shipper -- is in my 4thDistrict. Unfortunately, we met at a local field hearing of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions in Greenfield. The subcommittee, absent our Democratic colleagues, convened in Indiana to hear Mark testify about ObamaCare\u2019s consequences for his business, as well as employees.\nI was troubled to hear Mark confirm what I suspected: Since ObamaCare\u2019s implementation,\u00a0at IDS\u00a0insurance premiums had increased 76.64%, nearly double, despite their higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. The part-time workers Mark hires in a crunch will soon become too expensive, as any working over 30 hours a week -- full-time, according to ObamaCare\u00a0-- will become insurance liabilities to the staffing agencies providing them.\u00a0\nIn addition to frustrating Mark\u2019s hiring, ObamaCare will force him to refuse Hoosiers already at the margins of employment --\u00a0whom the president and his\u00a0allies argued ObamaCare would most benefit. Witnesses from Ivy Tech Community College and Vigo County Schools also testified to Indiana\u00a0Representatives Susan Brooks, Larry Buschon, Luke Messer and I, as well as Chairman Phil Roe\u00a0from Tennessee, that their adjunct professors and even special needs teachers would lose their work hours, if not their jobs, due to ObamaCare\u2019s strict regulations. Again and again, I heard the president's law would have the worst outcome for those least able to cope.\nHowever, ObamaCare is diminishing everyone\u2019s economic prospects. Everyone, that is, except the federal bureaucrats enforcing it. The answer to their administrative power-grab is enacting true health care reform that liberates business owners like Mark and the job seekers he would\u00a0hire, if only they did not carry\u00a0the weight of Washington on their backs.\n\u00a0###\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\u00a0AVIATION\u00a0BILL GAINS ALTITUDE\nThe General Aviation Pilot Protection Act (GAPPA) that I introduced\u00a0in Congress to return more pilots to the skies, grow our\u00a0economy, and maintain air safety, was the subject of my speech to one of our country\u2019s oldest aviation organizations, the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO).\u00a0\nI appeared at NASAO\u2019s Annual Conference and Trade Show in Providence, RI, to describe\u00a0to my audience of pilots, airline executives, state and federal officials, and aircraft manufacturers, the many\u00a0ways\u00a0the bill would revitalize aviation, a cornerstone not only of American industry but also our spirit of innovation. Reforming\u00a0the FAA bureaucracy, which prevents able pilots from flying, and the manufacture of planes they would pilot,\u00a0is critical to growing our economy when\u00a0a majority of Americans\u00a0doubt its future.\u00a0The bill, which\u00a0\u00a0Missouri's Rep. Sam Graves co-authored, aims to reinforce\u00a0the\u00a0growth and innovation that has buoyed the country since its start.\nNASAO, after hearing my remarks underscoring GAPPA's safety provisions,\u00a0endorsed the bill, I am pleased to report. This same week, more co-sponsors joined the effort,\u00a0bringing\u00a0our total to\u00a0140.\u00a0These congressmen understand the positive impact cutting federal red tape would have on our economy. The FAA\u2019s 3rdClass Medical Certification process for private, non-commercial pilots of small aircraft is a burden discouraging the most responsible people I know from taking flight. We need more of their personal responsibility and passion today,\u00a0so I\u2019m glad NASAO decided to endorse GAPPA.\n###\n\u00a0\u00a0 \n\u00a0\n\u00a0AUGUST BY THE NUMBERS\nThe NASAO event I attended was one of\u00a0a multitude these last weeks, as I concentrated my efforts in my home district. In Monticello, Rennselaer, Frankfort, Greencastle, Kokomo, \u00a0and more\u00a0towns across Indiana's 4th, I heard from my constituents clear messages about U.S. immigration policy, health care reform, our latest \"recovery summer,\" and especially\u00a0Lake Freeman, a national issue.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\nHearing from Hoosiers at public\u00a0spaces and their workplaces grows my appreciation of the community in which\u00a0I live.\u00a0Their common sense is sorely lacking in the capital -- their ideas for free-market health care reform, wider trade, technical training and border security, exactly what this country needs. \u00a0\nElsewhere, on rare days when I'm not in Indiana, I've\u00a0discovered\u00a0people across the country share Hoosiers' concerns and love\u00a0of liberty.\u00a0They even have their very own Lake Freemans, vital economic resources, where\u00a0federal interference is costing Americans their livelihoods.\u00a0\u00a0A California congressman tells me that farmers in his district have the same\u00a0problem we do in White and Carroll Counties: a bureaucracy that thinks of taxpayers last, if it considers\u00a0them\u00a0at all. \u00a0\nReforming government bureaucracies that fail to consider human beings --\u00a0which happened when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ordered\u00a0Lake Freeman drained at the height of summer --\u00a0is a full-time job. But when Hoosiers work closely together, it becomes an easier and enjoyable one. For instance, my office and the local power company that oversees Lake Freeman are currently working\u00a0to improve\u00a0its alert\u00a0system, in order to promptly notify Hoosiers\u00a0of potential\u00a0changes\u00a0on the lake.\u00a0\nThese positive developments hardly\u00a0begin to account for all my activity in the last few weeks:\nThe Top 10 Most Town Halls in August\n10 \"Employee Town Halls\"\n11\u00a0Lake Freeman Events\n13 Civic Club Appearances\n5 Meetings with my Advisory Teams\n81 Total Events, including committee hearings, constituent services, and a veterans roundtable\nI drove over 2,000 miles\u00a0to reach Hoosiers in Indiana's 4th District and gathered inspiration for my work on their behalf in the capital, which I'll tell you more about in the next ROKITA REPORT.\n###\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0\nI'd like to extend a special note of gratitude to\u00a09/11's First Responders, whom\u00a0Congress honored with our Gold Medal on Wednesday. The award is our highest expression of national appreciation for their service. To the victims of 9/11 for whom they cared, who still bear the scars of that day, or paid the ultimate price,\u00a0we honor your sacrifice in the name of freedom.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSincerely,Todd 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-congress-comes-indiana"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7857370655983686, "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"}