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August 12, 2012
Conaway Chronicle Volume 7, Issue 12
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Last week House Republicans passed legislation that will protect more than 700,000 jobs and ensure middle class families do not see their taxes rise next year. The House also passed legislation that would allow Congress to streamline the tax code to help keep jobs here and bring jobs home that have gone overseas. The job killing uncertainties hindering our nation’s small business owners have worn out their welcome. We need a simpler and fairer tax code and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to act so this progress can begin. According to independent economists, this tax reform, when coupled with spending cuts, will lead to the creation of more than 1 million jobs in the first year alone. The Obama economy has hit middle-class families hard. For 41 consecutive months, the U.S. unemployment rate has been at or above 8 percent, and nearly 13 million Americans are currently looking for work. Despite these facts, in this economy, I do not believe it is the right time to be raising taxes on anyone. AGRICULTURE DISASTER ASSISTANCE ACT Also approved on was the Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012. This bill would provide supplemental funding for drought relief by retroactively reauthorizing expired disaster assistance programs for fiscal year 2012. This is a good bill. It’s fully paid for, it doesn’t increase the deficit, and it even includes $250,000,000 of deficit reduction. I agree with many of my colleagues who think we should be passing a 5-year farm bill today and I remain committed to enacting a new farm bill this year. However, our livestock producers are in crisis and this bill helps now. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take action and help make this bill law.
THE SEQUESTRATION TRANSPARENCY ACT Earlier this week, President Obama signed into law the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012. This law will provide Congress and American taxpayers with the transparency necessary to understand how arbitrary, across the board spending cuts will affect our national defense and key domestic priorities. Under the new law the President will have 30 days from the signed date to submit this report to Congress. While House Republicans remain committed to achieving the full spending reduction required by the Budget Control Act, we believe that we cannot solve our national debt crisis by deliberately permitting a national defense crisis, which is exactly what would happen if sequestration were to occur. I urge the Senate and President Obama to follow our lead in providing an alternative to replace the harmful effects of sequestration. We must work together to replace these arbitrary cuts. A TASTE OF HOME Some folks from home who stopped by my Washington office recently:
As always, you can follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Sincerely,
 Rep. Mike Conaway, 11th District
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