What a Nightmare!

Here is Congresswoman Comstock's letter to me about ending the 40 year ban on exporting U.S. oil (I've highlighted text in pink for items with which I completely disagree) Dear Ms. Guynup,           Thank you for contacting me about your concerns with the recent government funding bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016, otherwise known as the Omnibus.  I appreciate and respect your views and the opportunity to hear from you.  This legislation passed the House by 316 to 113, and passed the Senate by a vote of 65 to 33 with a majority of Republicans in both chambers.  It was signed into law by the president on December 21.             Concurrently, Congress also passed a significant tax-cut-and-reform package that included $600 billion in tax relief for American families and small businesses.  The funding and tax relief measures that passed contained a number of important wins for conservatives and the country, including increases for military and national security spending and easing the misguided defense sequester cuts, improving the protections in our visa system so as to not be exploited by terrorists, ending the 40 year ban on exporting U.S. oil, putting a stop to a number of Obamacare taxes; and passing permanent tax cuts for research and development, business investment, and families with children, among many other important items.            I understand the concerns that many have about both the process by which this bill came to pass and having one large spending bill instead of individual appropriations bills which would allow us to cut more inappropriate spending.  Our new Speaker has already implemented reforms for the next budget cycle to change and improve this process and results going forward.             In terms of overall spending, it is important to note that the spending levels in this legislation are actually below those prescribed in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), which was hailed by conservatives at the time as a deal that would lead to the largest spending decreases since the end of World War II.  Specifically, this budget: Spends $56 billion less than what was budgeted in the BCA for Fiscal Year 2016, and  Spends $70 billion less than what the BCA outlined for Fiscal Year 2017.           Finally, despite intense pressure from the president to raise taxes on hard working American families and small businesses, this budget was coupled with legislation that actually cut taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars—another big win for conservatives. Budget Priorities To Improve Our National Security And Improve Our Economy Include: Easing defense sequester cuts that were gutting our military and providing much-needed resources to our military so that our troops can confront ISIS and the dangerous national security challenges we face; Giving well-deserved pay raises for our men and women in uniform; Implementing new Homeland Security measures to prevent terrorists from exploiting our visa system;  Repealing the antiquated, 1970s-era Oil Export Ban, which will now create an estimated 1 million jobs throughout the country by 2018 and add an estimated $170 billion to the nation’s GDP; Repealing/Delaying a number of Obamacare provisions including:  Prohibiting any new funding for Obamacare; Cutting $15 million from the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which is an unelected board that restricts services to seniors and patients;  A two-year delay on the Obamacare tax on high-quality healthcare plans; A one-year delay of the Health Insurance Tax, which if implemented would have raised the cost of small business health insurance premiums—to the tune of $159 billion over ten years—and would have been passed on almost entirely to consumers; A two-year delay of the Medical Device Tax, which was a harmful tax that would kill jobs, harm innovation, and prevent new, lifesaving healthcare tools from entering the market;  Prohibiting a government bailout of health insurance companies. Blocking EPA overreaches by lowering the EPA budget to the lowest levels since President Obama took office, and by prohibiting certain illegal or unconstitutional EPA mandates; Shifting billions of dollars from agencies like the EPA and the IRS to Customs and Border Protection and ICE to monitor the border and enforce our immigration laws; Preventing the IRS from harassing 501(c)(4) organizations based on their ideological beliefs and freezing IRS funding at $1.7 billion below the president’s request; Providing resources to our dedicated researchers who are working to discover new cures and medical breakthroughs for diseases like leukemia, Alzheimer’s, cancer, Lyme disease, diabetes, and so many others; Reauthorizing healthcare benefits for 9/11 first responders who continue to suffer from complications due to their heroic actions in the aftermath of the attacks; Prohibiting the president’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay or transfer terrorist detainees to the United States—without a doubt, moving detainees to the mainland would pose imminent danger to communities in which they would be placed; and  Zeroing out the dollars in the account that would be used to implement the Paris climate change agreement. Next Actions: Repeal Obamacare and Defund Planned Parenthood           The first agenda item in the House this week will be to pass a budget reconciliation bill that will, for the first time, send to the president’s desk a bill repealing Obamacare, defunding Planned Parenthood, and redirecting the Planned Parenthood funding to community health centers.  It will also increase funding to these more accessible and community-based services.  The bill is known as the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, for which I have already voted in 2015.  The Senate has also now voted on this bill and returned it to the House for final passage to put on the president’s desk.               Providing Relief and Helping The Economy: A Year End Tax Cuts Package           With all of the discussion of the Omnibus, many people failed to learn of the $600 billion tax cuts package we passed at the same time.  It has always been a priority of mine to support policies that lower taxes on our businesses and hard-working families.  The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act, or the PATH Act, reauthorized a number of worthy tax provisions. Provisions made permanent: The Research and Development (R&D) Credit that will create jobs and spur our economy, especially the economy of the Tenth District; Code Section 179 Expensing, which helps businesses invest in new business equipment and property; The State and Local Sales Tax Deduction; A number of Charitable Tax Deductions; Deductions for teacher classroom expenses; Temporary American Opportunity Tax Credit, which is a credit for qualified education expenses paid by college students; Temporary changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit (reducing marriage penalties and assisting families with three or more children);  Expansions of the Child Tax Credit, including the refundability for low-wage workers; Commuter Tax Benefits Parity, which raises revenues to the Treasury while easing traffic congestion; and The Employer Wage Credit for active duty military, including expansion for all employers There is also a five-year extension of Bonus Depreciation provisions for businesses to use against the depreciation of equipment (50% for 2015-17, 40% in 2018, 30% in 2019); and A two-Year Extension for Mortgage Debt Forgiveness provisions.           With passage of these bills, Congress is poised to take on a much larger overhaul of the tax code that will lower rates, broaden the tax base, and make America competitive again in an ever-increasing global economy.  I look forward to taking on these challenges in 2016 under regular order.           Thank you again for contacting me.  I am honored to serve Virginia’s Tenth Congressional District.  I may be contacted at my Sterling office at 703-404-6903, or my Washington, D.C. office at 202-225-5136.  By visiting http://comstock.house.gov, you can sign up to receive my email newsletters and follow my efforts to serve you.  You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for real-time updates on my activities in Congress and in the District.  If I ever may be of service, please do not hesitate to call on me.         Sincerely, Barbara Comstock Member of Congress