Dear Friend,

The united push by Democrats in Congress for net neutrality and a pathway to citizenship for DREAM Act students is paying off as a handful of Republicans are joining us to try to force votes in the House.  Last week, Senate Democrats successfully pushed through a bill to reestablish net neutrality rules for a free and open internet.  President Trump’s FCC previously overturned net neutrality rules and we are working to change them back.  Consumers, entrepreneurs and small businesses must have a level playing field and access to all content and applications regardless of the source and without internet service companies blocking certain websites.  Democrats also are working to bring the Dream Act to the floor for a vote despite Speaker Ryan’s ardent opposition.  We have convinced a handful of Republicans to join us and only need five more to force a vote to provide a pathway to citizenship for our DREAMers.

Another major difference between Democrats and Republicans in the House is building as Republicans refuse to take meaningful action to address the opioid crisis as is being called for by families and communities back home.  I continued to press for a comprehensive response to the public health crisis.  It is frustrating because instead of working together, Republicans propose deep cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that will only harm avenues for treatment and recovery.  The impact of the repeated assaults on our health care by President Trump and Congressional Republicans also are driving up the cost of health care premiums.  Floridians in the ACA marketplace are likely to see premiums increase by 16.9 percent with over 600,000 Floridians newly uninsured or underinsured all due to their sabotage.  The entire Democratic Florida Delegation joined me in urging Gov. Scott to take action now to prevent higher health premiums and costs on Florida families.  We need solutions that will improve the ACA and lower Americans’ health care costs, not continued attempts to take our health care away.

This week the U.S. House of Representatives has scheduled votes for the following bills:

S. 2155 – After one of the nation’s largest financial crises, Congress enacted a series of financial rules to ensure that big banks are not free to participate in the excesses that brought about the Great Recession and that our families do not feel the great weight of another financial crisis.  This bill proposes to rollback and weaken the regulatory framework for large banks, even with the memory and effects of the results of unchecked financial institutions still fresh in our minds, reflected in small business bottom lines and tainting state budgets all across the country.  Efforts to loosen oversight and protections for American families and small business must be done in ways that do not allow private banks to jeopardize the stability of an economy that belongs to us all.  If enacted, S. 2155 could make the U.S. financial system more vulnerable to another financial crisis like the 2008 Great Recession, which these policies were established to specifically prevent.

S. 204 – Much like a similar bill the House voted on in March, H.R. 5247, this bill ultimately would completely remove the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from the review process of investigational therapies.  This would create a dangerous precedent that removes vital protections of vulnerable patients.  The FDA’s oversight and approval process is essential to help protect patients and this legislation does not guarantee those protections or, as a last resort, access to investigational therapies.  Manufacturers of experimental drugs like these typically only produce enough drugs for use in their planned clinical trials, and significant expansion of access to the drug outside of clinical trials is unlikely because it could lead to shortages.

H.R. 5515 – The FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes approximately $708 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD), in addition to close to $10 billion in mandatory spending for a total of roughly $718 billion in spending.  I helped champion the inclusion of investments at MacDill including a 2.6 percent boost in pay, an expansion in the expertise and faculty at SOCOM’s Joint Special Operations University and $3.1 million for the KC-135 beddown to add flight simulator training at MacDill AFB.  I have also submitted two amendments to the bill.  I am leading a bipartisan amendment with Rep. Francis Rooney (FL19) to permanently prohibit oil drilling off the entire coast of Florida – including the Gulf of Mexico.  This amendment will protect the Military Mission Line in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Department of Defense reiterated on May 9 “continues to be a strategic national asset critical to the lethality of our weapon systems and the readiness of our service members.”  The second bipartisan amendment, introduced with Rep. Richard Hudson (NC08), requires the Secretary of Defense to re-examine the process for awarding Imminent Danger and Hostile Fire Pay for members of the Armed Forces – particularly to ensure our special operators, who go where the fighting is, irrespective of defined geographic areas, get the benefits they have earned.

This week, the House is also taking up legislation to help veterans by modernizing Veterans Affairs Department (VA) record-keeping, creating a pilot program to provide medical care for eligible veterans for injuries or illnesses resulting from military sexual trauma, bolstering VA efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, and more.

Our Tampa Bay Lightning will also play game six against the Washington Capitals! After their amazing job last week pulling ahead of the Capitals, I expect lightning to strike again tonight. Let’s Go Bolts!