Sincerely,

Making School Lunches Work
Looking back on the month of June, much of our focus has been on school lunches. That may seem odd since I am in Washington, however, Washington has become a problem with this issue.

Ms. Evelyn Hicks, who serves lunches in Winston County, came to me a while back, concerned that her school’s lunch program is drowning in the new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations; believe it or not, there are over 200 policy memos and directives that were made in less than 12 months alone! These new regulations are so overreaching that they would even outlaw a simple hard-boiled egg! So, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture (House Committee on Appropriations), I included language to the annual Agriculture Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4800) to allow school lunch programs that demonstrate difficulty in implementing these new rules to be eligible for a one-year waiver from the new regulations. Since I introduced this proposal, the Obama White House has dug in to support the Washington regulations that have forced school lunch participation down nationwide by 1 million students in 48 different states (including Alabama).

The House Committee voted June 11 to report this bill out of committee; the House is expected to vote on the measure this summer. I will try to update you on the issue as we move forward.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
Most of you have heard about the Obama Administration’s exchange of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for 5 Taliban prisoners.

I’m sure many of you are also aware of the comments, by some, suggesting that Sgt. Bergdahl deserted his unit. That matter is rightfully being investigated. In addition to breaking the long-standing U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists, this exchange represents a willingness by the Obama Administration to flout the most basic of checks and balances. Congress passed and the President signed into law a bill in December (P.L. 113-66) that explicitly requires the Executive branch to give Congress 30 days’ notice of any Guantanamo Bay prisoner transfer that it intends to make. The Administration ignored this provision in the law and exchanged the 5 prisoners without a word to Congress until the exchange had already transpired.

Coupled with his previous outspoken advocacy to close the Guantanamo Bay facility completely, the President’s decision to deliberately ignore the notice provision even has members of his own party criticizing his actions. Meanwhile, this stands in stark contrast to the Administration’s sluggish response to assist in the release of imprisoned Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, who, to date, has been held in Mexico for nearly three months due to a simple navigating mistake along the border while traveling with his legal, personal firearms.

Illegal Steel Dumping
On June 16, I had the opportunity to speak at a steelworkers jobs rally at the USX facility in Fairfield, Alabama.

Recently, the Department of Commerce began investigating the illegal foreign dumping of steel products into the United States, a practice that has undercut employment across the country. Steel workers in Alabama’s 4th District have surely felt the loss, too; I heard from a constituent just last month who was laid off multiple times because of the most recent dumping of underpriced foreign goods.

In spite of these challenges, I’ve worked hard to make sure that American workers get the opportunity to compete in a difficult economy. I included language in the 2014 Interior Appropriations bill that asserts a “Buy America” preference for any drinking water or wastewater program that receives federal funding. The most recent National Resources Development Act that Congress passed also included the language I proposed, as it has come to be called, to permanently apply this requirement to state and local projects. Up unto that point, there had been no requirement on U.S. water and infrastructure programs to spend hard-earned tax dollars on products that are m¬ade in America.

U.S. Border Patrol
If elections have consequences then so do misguided presidential policies.

An absolutely stunning humanitarian crisis is unfolding along the southwest border due to the signal that the President’s misguided “deportation policies” have sent to the Central American people. In just the month of May alone, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that some 9,000 unaccompanied minors crossed over the United States’ southern border under the misguided belief that if they touch American soil, they can stay.

House Republicans have urged the President to: (1) detain recent border crossing families in shelters near the Southwest border; (2) expedite immigration proceedings to determine whether these families have arrived illegally; (3) expedite deportation procedures for those who are not eligible for an immigration benefit, including those who make false claims of credible fear; and (4) broadcast public service announcements on U.S.-based, Spanish-speaking television to warn of the deprivations and dangers to anyone who attempts to cross from Central America through Mexico to the United States.

We must make sure we don't let this situation get out of hand, and you can be assured that I will continue to keep a close eye on the situation.