Conaway Chronicle
Conaway ChronicleVolume 7, Issue 1State Of The Union Address Yesterday, the President called on Congress to work in a spirit of bipartisanship, to focus on making better lives for ourselves and our children. I agree with the President that we need to work together on common-sense solutions to our nation’s problems and believe the best way to start would be for the Senate take up and pass the 27 bipartisan jobs bills waiting for action. After three years in office, it’s clear the President’s policies have failed and are making the economy worse. Rather than creating jobs, he has created a higher degree of fear about the future and rather than cutting the budget, he has increased spending and grown our nation’s dependence on the federal government. Americans want less speeches and more action. We need more economic freedom, more competition, a simplified tax code, streamlined regulations, and a balanced budget.Camp Bowie Tomorrow, I will be visiting Camp Bowie in Brownwood, home to the 111th Engineering Battalion. While there, I will take an operational tour of the Texas Army National Guard training facility with an emphasis on training capabilities and family support programming. The 111th Engineering Battalion is currently deployed in Afghanistan.Brownwood News: Texas Army National Guard to Welcome US Rep. Conaway to Camp Bowie CFTC Cost-Benefit Analysis Today, as General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee Chairman, I issued the following statement regarding the passage of several pieces of legislation aimed at clarifying or amending certain parts of the derivatives section (Title VII) of the Dodd-Frank Act. The fundamental responsibility of a regulator is to accurately gauge the costs and benefits of each of the regulations it proposes. Congress delegates this authority to federal agencies because it recognizes the body lacks the expertise to assess the impacts of detailed rules. For the past year the CFTC has been pushing through the Dodd-Frank Act, the most sweeping change to our financial markets in a generation, and has rarely even attempted to accurately estimate the cost of compliance. My bill would require the CFTC to perform a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis with each rulemaking. This small mandate on the economists and lawyers at the CFTC will ensure that the burdens placed on business large and small are justified in the real world, not just in the pages of the Federal Register.” Our regulators must walk a fine line between the safety offered by transparency and regulation, and the dynamism found in liquidity and innovative products. The bills we passed today will help clarify how Congress intended them to walk that line.
Financial Management and Auditability Reform Panel Yesterday, as Chairman of the Defense Financial Management and Auditability Reform Panel, I presented the Panel's findings and recommendations. This report is the culmination of the Panel’s six month comprehensive review of the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) financial management system. Over the course of the Panel’s review, we found that although DOD has taken positive steps towards improving financial management and achieving audit readiness, more work must be done for DOD to achieve this goal. While there is still work to be done, the DOD demonstrated its capacity to achieve auditability in the effort to put in place financial management reform. Down Payment To Protect National Security Act 
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I am a proud original Cosponsor of the Down Payment to Protect National Security Act. This would prevent a further round of cuts, beyond the $465 billion already announced by the President, from hitting our military as a result of sequestration and is fully offset. H.R. 3662 achieves the first year of savings required in sequestration through attrition in the federal workforce by 10% over ten years. This common sense approach to preserve our national security has over 30 co-sponsors in the House. By The Numbers: Defense Cuts Since 2011 As always, you can follow me on Facebook, YouTube, andTwitter. Sincerely,  Rep. Mike Conaway, 11th District |
