Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – The House Problem Solvers Caucus, which is co-chaired by Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) and includes 25 Democrats and 25 Republicans, unveiled its “March To Common Ground” proposal to help break the gridlock on the latest COVID-19 relief package.

The 50-member bipartisan Caucus, which is also Co-Chaired Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), said in a recent media release that it developed and came together in support of the framework after listening to constituents and outreach to stakeholders over the past six weeks.

Since its unveiling on Tuesday, the proposal has received praise for the New York Times, Washington Post, and the New York Post.

The package addresses key areas of need, including COVID-19 testing, unemployment insurance, direct stimulus, worker and liability protection, small business and non-profit support, food security, schools and child care, housing, election support, and state and local aid.

The Caucus said that in light of the urgent needs facing millions of Americans, families, and small businesses, the framework is designed for a six month horizon and through the next inauguration, except for state and local funding which extends for a full year.

Depending on the severity of the pandemic and if a successful vaccination program is adopted by March, 2021, a system of automatic “boosters” are designed to incrementally increase the amount of relief to individuals and families. Conversely, a system of “reducers” will decrease the total cost of the package.

The framework calls for both new stimulus money and the reallocation of previously appropriated “CARES Act” funding, and allocates resources to the following key categories:

• Testing & Healthcare ($100B)
• Direct Assistance to Individuals & Families ($316B)
• Unemployment Assistance ($120B)
• Small Business & Non-profit Support ($290B
• School & Child Care ($145B)
• State & Local Aid ($500.3B)
• Election Support ($400B)
• Broadband, Agriculture, USPS, & Census ($52B)
• Worker & Liability Protections
• Automatic Boosters & Reducers

“Americans deserve a functioning Congress that can rise to the challenge and deliver the relief they need,” said Reed. “Our framework reflects months of bipartisan consensus-building on the actions the federal government can take to help working families and local communities across the country as they navigate the impacts of COVID-19. We are hopeful this package will help bring lead negotiations back to the table as we try to solve this problem for the American people.”

The house Problem Solvers Caucus includes 24 Democrats and 24 Republicans. On Friday morning the group released a package of policy recommendations to help address COVID-19.

The Problem Solvers Caucus, co-chaired by congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY-23) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), said it “believes the country must set aside partisanship and work together to help solve this national emergency.”

The recommendations were sent to both Congressional leadership and the White House for immediate consideration in the next phase(s) of Coronavirus response.

The Caucus’ proposed recommendations include:

1.  Economic Response for Businesses, Employees and the Self-Employed

• Immediate, Direct Financial Payments to Individuals: Limited only to the crisis, significantly increase unemployment insurance benefits, including payment amounts, for hourly and salaried workers, under a certain income threshold. This relief should focus on mid-to-low-income workers and furloughed workers. Provisions to be made for freelancers and the self-employed to ensure the same relief.
• Bridge Loans to Help Keep Businesses in Business: Low-or-zero-interest loans to businesses of all sizes willing to keep their employees (furlough, but preserving benefits) in their positions during the coronavirus crisis.  Must include long-term repayment options, and not exclude any industries.
• Allow Individuals and Businesses to Defer Mortgage Payments and Rent: During the national crisis, stay all foreclosure and evictions proceedings.
• Contract and Insurance Protections for Existing Contract and Business Insurance Policies: Legislatively declare the coronavirus a public health crisis, and, as such, a qualifying event for all existing force majeure contract provisions and business interruption insurance policies.
• Loan Deferral and Forbearance: Develop and allow loan deference, modification, and forbearance mechanisms for individuals and businesses of all sizes, during the crisis (e.g. mortgages, lines of credits, student loans, and other qualifying loans).
• Refundable Tax Credit to Employers for Employee Retention: During the crisis, provide immediately advanceable, refundable tax credits for employee retention by employers — including maintaining employment status or providing benefits for furloughed employees.

2.  Health Care & Food Security Needs

• Speed Testing to Market: Provide additional regulatory relief at FDA and CDC for market-based testing solutions and essential supplies (e.g. testing kits, ventilators, PPEs, reagent supply, and hospital conversion).
• Childcare Enhancement: Reflecting new work and school environment, enact childcare assistance policies and regulatory relief to provide childcare coverage during term of crisis.
• Price Gouging: Enact applicable measures to strictly enforce anti-price gouging measures.
• Medical Personnel and Supplies:  Where available, deploy federal government excess medical personnel and equipment capacity, including military sources (e.g. vents), to affected areas needing service.
• GI Benefits: Correct the technical glitch, so that, during this time of crisis, veterans can utilize GI benefits for online learning.

3. Infrastructure Investment: Passage of a significant infrastructure package which would stimulate job growth and allow for borrowing at historically-low interest rates.

“This bold, bipartisan package will help provide immediate relief to New Jersey families during this crisis — to address the health crisis and revive our economy,” said Gottheimer. “Congress must act urgently to further protect our residents, communities, and businesses in Northern New Jersey and across our country.  Right now, more than ever, we must come together, and work together, as one nation. This virus does not see gender, religion, race — or political party.”

“It’s always better for the country when we act together. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus’ ‘Heath Crisis and Economic Revival Package’ provides Congressional Leadership and the Administration tools to continue solving the Coronavirus emergency and ensures the revival of the U.S. economy when it is over.  Together, we must see the light through the darkness,” said Reed.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would streamline the federal government’s H-2A guest-worker program by which growers hire farm workers.  The legislation would also create a merit-based visa program for agricultural workers to earn legal status through their continued employment. Supporters say that will help fill the gap between workers’ availability and the demand for year-round workers, particularly in dairying and horticulture. They also say the existing H-2A guest-worker program does not meet businesses’ employment requirements and has long needed change.

House members voted 260-165 to pass the bill with Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning) among those who voted in favor of it. Reed’s office said the bill was also endorsed by the Problem Solvers Caucus, of which the Corning Republican serves as co-chair.

“I hear it every time I step on family farms in Upstate New York — ‘when is Washington going to do something about access for farm labor?’” Reed said in a media release sent out Wednesday night. “This common sense bipartisan compromise is a step in the right direction for this decades old problem, and will deliver relief to the farmers we care about across the nation to give them fair access to workers they need to prosper. I am proud the Problem Solvers Caucus could get behind this bill as we pushed it over the finish line in the House and onto the Senate.

“However, this is just the start of immigration reform. We must secure our southern border and continue to fight to ensure a merit-based system is fully implemented – such as the one proposed by President Trump this spring,” Reed concluded.

Over 300 agriculture organizations from around the country also supported the bill, including the New York Farm Bureau (NYFB).

“New York Farm Bureau is encouraged by the swift movement on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in the U.S. House. We appreciate the bipartisan support from many members of New York’s congressional delegation, and we now call on the U.S. Senate to support the bill as well,” said David Fisher, New York Farm Bureau President.

“Access to a reliable workforce is a critical issue for Upstate New York dairy farmers like me,” said family farmer David White from Clymer. “I milk my cows 365 days a year. Current agricultural visa programs are seasonal and therefore don’t provide a solution to dairy’s unique challenges. I commend Congressman Tom Reed for his work to support and pass the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act to address this critical issue for our Upstate economy.”

“NYFB is still advocating for some changes to improve the legislation, including to the cap on year-round guest worker visas, ensuring a fair and competitive wage rate, and establishing a workable threshold for agricultural employment. Regardless, this legislation would take a significant step to ensure that New York agriculture is positioned to have a sustainable and reliable workforce that will support our rural economy,” added Fisher.

On July 19 Congressman Tom Reed (back row – fourth from right)  traveled to McAllen, Texas to tour holding facilities and the border with Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus.  (Image courtesy of Rep. Tom Reed’s Facebook page)

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) says there is a crisis at the U.S. border and it’s now time for congress to come up with a plan and take action to fix it.

During his weekly conference call with media on Wednesday, Reed offered details of his July 19 tour of the U.S. border and holding facilities, which also involved several other members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Reed said his biggest takeaway from the tour is that U.S. border agents are stretched thin and exhausted, but are still doing all they can to deal with the ongoing influx of migrants and refugees who continue to come across the U.S. – Mexican border.

“Folks are standing there as border agents going, ‘What do we do? How do we handle this?’ That is where it is incumbent upon us, as Problem Solvers, to step forward, tell everybody to stand down on the rhetoric, stand down on the partisan exploitation of this crisis, and recognize this is a problem of the broken immigration system that needs to be fixed and I am confident that the Problem Solvers Caucus members are going to lead the way to a solution,” Reed said.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Ny) during a tour of a holding facilities near the U.S. – Mexican border. (Image courtesy of Rep. Tom Reed’s Facebook page)

Reed also said he saw a scenario which drove home the immigration crisis for him, explaining that he saw that a man was attempting to go through customs with a six-month-old child. When border agents threatened a rapid DNA test to confirm the child’s relation to him and said he is risking kidnapping charges if it turned out there was no relation, the man admitted to “renting” the child from a smuggler because he was told it was the best way to get across.

“I can not live in a Utopic, idealistic world that does not recognize there are threats that are there at the border. I’ve seen the drugs. I’ve seen the weapons. I’ve seen the use of human beings in the most despicable way,” Reed said.

Reed didn’t get into specifics of what could be done to deal with the issue, only to say the group will begin meeting later this summer to come up with options.

Some officials have said the U.S. should focus more attention on providing humanitarian aid in the countries where many of the migrants are coming from, saying the current border crisis is the end result of years and even decades of failed U.S. foreign policy in those central American countries.

But Reed said that he doesn’t agree its the U.S.’s fault for what is currently happening, adding that the best way the U.S. can help those countries is by continuing to promote trade agreements that can help grow their economies and bring prosperity to more people living there.

“Those that want to blame America are free to do it but I am going to make an adamant disagreement with them and never apologize for America,” Reed said. “Can we do better in regards to partnerships? That’s why I like the Mexico-Canada deal for example. If we have trade opportunities that are blossoming – that’s why we have tools in the toolbox to help us fix this – where these economies can grow in their own backyard and they can have a way of life that improves, a culture that improves, and that you actually get a functioning government in place in some of these areas like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Yeah, I think that will help solve some of this problem.”

The Problem Solvers Caucus is a bipartisan group in Congress comprising 48 members – equally divided between Democrats and Republicans – who are committed to forging bipartisan cooperation on key issues. It is co-chaired by Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Congressman Reed.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group in Congress has introduced a resolution this week to claw back power from the Executive Branch.

Problem Solvers Caucus co-chairs Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced the legislation on Wednesday.

According to a media release from Reed’s office, by amending the National Emergencies Act, Congress will have to approve any new emergency declaration within 60 days – similar to the War Powers Act. The resolution aims to end the practice of governing by national emergency.

In announcing the legislation, Reed clarified that for him, the resolution is not a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s recent national emergency declaration involving the U.S.-Mexican border, but instead speaks to what he feels is the politicization of Congress and its failure to lead.

“Instead of proactively solving problems Congress has delegated our precious power away. We must take this power back. Otherwise over time, Congress will be seen as an advisory body instead of the co-equal branch of government the country needs,” Reed said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic-led House voted Tuesday to upend Trump’s declaration, which he declared to circumvent Congress and funnel billions of extra dollars to erecting his proposed wall. Reed did not support the measure.

Tom Reed (left) and President Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – Chautauqua County’s representative in Washington was able to spend time with the president this week in an effort to end theshutdown.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) – who is the co-chair of the House bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus – joined several other caucus members in a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss ending the partial government shutdown and securing the southern border.

Reed’s communications director Will Reinert says that Reed and other members of the Caucus had a constructive meeting with the President, although no solution to the shutdown came out of the discussion.

According to Reinert, there are an estimated 500 government workers in the entire 23rd congressional district who have been impacted by the shutdown.

After two years of being blocked by the White House, Republican Leadership, and The Trump Organization at every turn, Democrats hope the new year will provide sunshine on such issues as foreign government spending at Trump properties, Trump’s foreign licensing deals, Trump administration ties to lobbyists and special interests, and spending by Trump’s charitable foundation.

Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, is poised to take charge of the House Oversight Committee, which could seek Trump’s business tax returns and other company-related financial records.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s personal income taxes, which he withheld during the 2016 campaign and in his two years in office, are expected to be the purview of the House Ways and Means Committee because Internal Revenue Service law allows House and Senate tax-writing committees to request federal returns. Ranking Ways and Means Democrat, Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, has signaled publicly he would ask for them — a move the White House might fight.

Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress, Tom Reed (R-Corning) won reelection this week and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee. WRFA asked him his thoughts about the subpoena power the Democrats will have in the House now that they are in power.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

“Having oversight an investigative oversight in the house is appropriate. If they’re investigating legitimate concerns and not playing politics, hopefully that’s the course that they will pursue,” Reed said. “What I’m very concerned about is if they turn this into a political circus and they use it for political point scoring, all of a sudden that’s going to add to an even more difficult environment in DC to get things done.”

Reed also commented on House leadership and who the new speaker would be. Many speculate that person will be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Reed says that’s not a given.

“Looking at the candidates and the members on the other side of the aisle that have stated publicly they do not want to see Nancy Pelosi as speaker, I think with a ten-seat majority that is going to be very difficult for her to have the votes on the floor of the House,” Reed said. “I don’t know how 40-50 people running for office  on the Democratic side saying they would not support Nancy Pelosi and that they need new leadership for speaker can then turn their backs on their word to their constituents and vote for Nancy Pelosi. So I think they are going to have a contentious battle over there but at the end of the day, I’m willing to work with anybody who’s willing to reform these rules and start legislating. So let’s see who steps forward and hopefully it’s a breath of fresh air on the Democratic side.”

Reed, who is co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, is referring to proposed rules changes that group brought forward in July that it says will reward openness and transparency, encourage a willingness to reach across the aisle, create debate on divisive issues, and empower lawmakers to find real solutions concerning our nation’s most pressing matters. The package includes — among others — proposals to give fast-track priority consideration to bipartisan legislation and guarantees markups on bipartisan legislation from every Member of Congress.

As for alternatives to Pelosi, Reed said  he would support Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who currently serves as the House minority whip and has voiced support for the rules changes brought forward by the Problem Solvers.

The next session of Congress, which begins in January 2019, will mark the first extended period of time Reed has been part of the minority party since first being elected in 2010, when Republicans took control of the House as part of that year’s Mid-Term elections.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) says one of his top priorities for 2018 is to focus on securing funding to address aging infrastructure across the country, including here in the New York State 23^rd congressman district.

According to Reed, the House Problem Solvers Caucus – which he co-chairs – has released a series of bipartisan policy recommendations to build a 21st century infrastructure network for America.

Reed says the 48 member group of Washington Lawmakers launched an Infrastructure Working Group to find consensus on a bipartisan set of policies to serve as the bedrock for a plan that addresses the dire need to rebuild and responsibly invest in infrastructure across the United States.

“We’re going to be part of a loud voice here on the hill, in a bipartisan way, that can support an infrastructure bill  that goes down the path of rebuilding our roads, our water, our sewers, and our broadband access – for example – in districts like ours and across the country that are in such need for that infrastructure investment to get us up to the point where we have a functioning infrastructure of 21st century caliber that allows our constituents and people across the country to prosper and grow,” Reed said during his weekly conference call.

Reed says the plan being put forward by the Problem Solvers Caucus would focus on identifying and prioritizing improvements to the nation’s highways, roads and bridges, transit and railways, ports and airports, water and sewer systems, energy systems and the power grid, and broadband and communications networks.

Passing an infrastructure bill  that is estimated to run as high as $1 Trillion in the Republican-controlled Congress will likely require support from the Democratic party in the Senate where Republicans only have a slender majority.

Some Democrats have expressed a desire to see a bill passed, but mid-term congressional elections in November this year could make the politics of a bipartisan effort difficult.

Congress would need to find a way to fund an expensive infrastructure package and the cost could cause both Democrats and Republicans to oppose the legislation.

President Trump, who spoke frequently about improving infrastructure in the United States during his 2016 election campaign, has stated his desire to see an infrastructure package passed quickly.