District Connection - 6/9/14

Statement

I had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of 7th District residents last week at my two in-person town hall meetings in Buford and Cumming and during my telephone town hall meeting last Tuesday. I want to thank all of you who were able to visit with me and share your passion for America.

The last of our June town hall series will be a telephone town hall meeting on Thursday, June 12th at 7pm. Please take the opportunity to call in and join me in a discussion.

Rep. Rob Woodall hears from 7th District residents at the Gwinnett County Town Hall Meeting in Buford on June 3rd.

Meeting with 7th District Leaders

Visiting with constituents and community leaders is a top priority for me. Last Tuesday I had a great conversation with the folks at Gwinnett Sunrise Rotary and am grateful for their willingness to invest their time in me. These men and women understand the importance of being involved and serving their neighbors. I shared with them the status on many issues facing Congress, and in turn they had a lot of questions about items that are near and dear to them. Their feedback is a great help to me. With that kind of leadership here at home, it makes my job of working for limited government in Washington and preserving local control much easier.

Rep. Rob Woodall meets with members of the Gwinnett Sunrise Rotary Club on June 3rd.

Sergeant Bergdahl Prisoner Exchange

Congress and the American people have been trying to understand and assess the consequences of President Obama's announcement last week that the United States had traded five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for the release of an American POW, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Like most Americans, I am heartened to know that Sergeant Bergdahl is on his way home to his family and friends. No matter your political persuasion, the thought of an American serviceman in the hands of our terrorist enemies is abhorrent. What most concerns me about this incident is that the President has seemingly violated the law by refusing to work with Congress. This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue of respecting the rule of law.

Working Together to Provide for America's Veterans

This week the House Veterans Affairs Committee is going to hold an important hearing assessing the extent to which VA officials have been manipulating data about wait times at VA hospitals. We are all angry and dismayed at the lack of compassion that our veterans at the Phoenix VA hospital were subjected to by bureaucratic roadblocks. The House has already passed a bill making it easier to fire VA officials who mismanaged veterans' cases, and also the Senate has come to a bipartisan agreement to move toward allowing veterans to access private health care options if the VA is failing to serve them. You can read more about that bipartisan agreement below.

You may remember that my office hosted a Veterans Assistance Open House in Gwinnett County this past January to bring government agencies at the Federal and state level together with veterans in our area to ensure that our veterans are getting the services they have earned. On Friday, June 27th I am hosting another Veterans Assistance Open House, this time at the Cumming Regional Readiness Center at 100 Aquatic Circle in Cumming. You will be hearing more about this event in the coming weeks, but I hope you put it on your calendar now and tell any veterans you know in Forsyth County that they are welcome to attend.

Supporting Georgia National Guard

On Saturday I had the opportunity to speak at the National Guard Association of Georgia's (NGAGA) state conference about how important it is that Congress and the National Guard work together. In the past decade, we have called on our National Guard soldiers to shoulder a heavy burden -- both here and abroad -- to protect us from terrorism and to secure our homeland. Just as we must take care of our active duty military personnel, we must do the same for our National Guard soldiers. I was proud to work with my friends in the Georgia National Guard earlier this year to support their goals in the National Defense Authorization Act, and I hope that our relationship will grow in the future.

Rep. Rob Woodall speaks at the National Guard Association State Conference in Stone Mountain, Georgia on June 7th.

The Week Ahead

This week the House will consider the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Act of 2015. I expect that we will be debating amendments late into the night tonight and tomorrow. And I'm so pleased that we will because that means that not only is the House continuing to move forward on our essential function to fund the government but we're doing in an open and transparent manner that takes into account the needs of every Congressional district. I look forward to working together with my colleagues to pass a bipartisan THUD bill.

The House Rules Committee, on which I sit, may also consider the Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Act of 2015 and a number of bills to extend expired tax credits on charitable contributions and small businesses.

Like Me on Facebook

Throughout the week, I'm constantly updating folks on the happenings in Washington and in the Seventh District through my Facebook page. If you want to start seeing these short, real-time updates, please click here and "like" me on Facebook

Sincerely,

Rob Woodall

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