Blog: Congress Comes to Indiana

Statement

Dear Friend,

ObamaCare is as big a subject as ever, as the president's health care law continues to roil our workplaces and economy. Though, at my Congressional hearing in Greenfield last week, when Congress came to Indiana, it was hard to tell whether its strongest supporters in Congress cared to hear just how much.

In this week's ROKITA REPORT, I'll tell you what Hoosiers in Greenfield told me about the law's disastrous effects and what the country should do to fix it. I'll give you an update on the situation on the Twin Lakes in White and Carroll Counties, too, where residents are seeing results of our hard work finding more long-term solutions to this summer's water-level problem.

Finally, please take a look at the numbers behind my busy August visiting Hoosiers to hear their concerns.

CONGRESS COMES TO INDIANA

Last week, I was happy to see my friend Mark DeFabis, whose Integrated Distribution Services (IDS) -- a warehouse, packager and shipper -- is in my 4thDistrict. Unfortunately, we met at a local field hearing of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions in Greenfield. The subcommittee, absent our Democratic colleagues, convened in Indiana to hear Mark testify about ObamaCare's consequences for his business, as well as employees.

I was troubled to hear Mark confirm what I suspected: Since ObamaCare's implementation, at IDS insurance premiums had increased 76.64%, nearly double, despite their higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. The part-time workers Mark hires in a crunch will soon become too expensive, as any working over 30 hours a week -- full-time, according to ObamaCare -- will become insurance liabilities to the staffing agencies providing them.

In addition to frustrating Mark's hiring, ObamaCare will force him to refuse Hoosiers already at the margins of employment -- whom the president and his allies argued ObamaCare would most benefit. Witnesses from Ivy Tech Community College and Vigo County Schools also testified to Indiana Representatives Susan Brooks, Larry Buschon, Luke Messer and I, as well as Chairman Phil Roe from Tennessee, that their adjunct professors and even special needs teachers would lose their work hours, if not their jobs, due to ObamaCare's strict regulations. Again and again, I heard the president's law would have the worst outcome for those least able to cope.

However, ObamaCare is diminishing everyone's economic prospects. Everyone, that is, except the federal bureaucrats enforcing it. The answer to their administrative power-grab is enacting true health care reform that liberates business owners like Mark and the job seekers he would hire, if only they did not carry the weight of Washington on their backs.

AVIATION BILL GAINS ALTITUDE

The General Aviation Pilot Protection Act (GAPPA) that I introduced in Congress to return more pilots to the skies, grow our economy, and maintain air safety, was the subject of my speech to one of our country's oldest aviation organizations, the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO).

I appeared at NASAO's Annual Conference and Trade Show in Providence, RI, to describe to my audience of pilots, airline executives, state and federal officials, and aircraft manufacturers, the many ways the bill would revitalize aviation, a cornerstone not only of American industry but also our spirit of innovation. Reforming the FAA bureaucracy, which prevents able pilots from flying, and the manufacture of planes they would pilot, is critical to growing our economy when a majority of Americans doubt its future. The bill, which Missouri's Rep. Sam Graves co-authored, aims to reinforce the growth and innovation that has buoyed the country since its start.

NASAO, after hearing my remarks underscoring GAPPA's safety provisions, endorsed the bill, I am pleased to report. This same week, more co-sponsors joined the effort, bringing our total to 140. These congressmen understand the positive impact cutting federal red tape would have on our economy. The FAA's 3rdClass Medical Certification process for private, non-commercial pilots of small aircraft is a burden discouraging the most responsible people I know from taking flight. We need more of their personal responsibility and passion today, so I'm glad NASAO decided to endorse GAPPA.

AUGUST BY THE NUMBERS

The NASAO event I attended was one of a multitude these last weeks, as I concentrated my efforts in my home district. In Monticello, Rennselaer, Frankfort, Greencastle, Kokomo, and more towns across Indiana's 4th, I heard from my constituents clear messages about U.S. immigration policy, health care reform, our latest "recovery summer," and especially Lake Freeman, a national issue.

Hearing from Hoosiers at public spaces and their workplaces grows my appreciation of the community in which I live. Their common sense is sorely lacking in the capital -- their ideas for free-market health care reform, wider trade, technical training and border security, exactly what this country needs.

Elsewhere, on rare days when I'm not in Indiana, I've discovered people across the country share Hoosiers' concerns and love of liberty. They even have their very own Lake Freemans, vital economic resources, where federal interference is costing Americans their livelihoods. A California congressman tells me that farmers in his district have the same problem we do in White and Carroll Counties: a bureaucracy that thinks of taxpayers last, if it considers them at all.

Reforming government bureaucracies that fail to consider human beings -- which happened when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ordered Lake Freeman drained at the height of summer -- is a full-time job. But when Hoosiers work closely together, it becomes an easier and enjoyable one. For instance, my office and the local power company that oversees Lake Freeman are currently working to improve its alert system, in order to promptly notify Hoosiers of potential changes on the lake.

These positive developments hardly begin to account for all my activity in the last few weeks:

The Top 10 Most Town Halls in August
10 "Employee Town Halls"
11 Lake Freeman Events
13 Civic Club Appearances
5 Meetings with my Advisory Teams
81 Total Events, including committee hearings, constituent services, and a veterans roundtable

I drove over 2,000 miles to reach Hoosiers in Indiana's 4th District and gathered inspiration for my work on their behalf in the capital, which I'll tell you more about in the next ROKITA REPORT.

I'd like to extend a special note of gratitude to 9/11's First Responders, whom Congress honored with our Gold Medal on Wednesday. The award is our highest expression of national appreciation for their service. To the victims of 9/11 for whom they cared, who still bear the scars of that day, or paid the ultimate price, we honor your sacrifice in the name of freedom.

Sincerely,

Todd Rokita

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