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McKinley-Sponsored Amendment to Combat Illegal Drug Trafficking Passes House |
Our amendment to boost funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (HIDTA) to $160 million was included in an appropriations bill passed by the House this week.
In 2010, the First District didn’t have any counties designated under the HIDTA Program. Through our advocacy, it now has seven designated counties, and another two going through the application process. This increased funding will enable more resources to come to the state to fight the scourge of the opioid epidemic.
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McKinley Effort to Spur Economic Development Passes House |
Our bipartisan amendment to boost funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program to $160 million passed the House this week as part of the Department of Interior appropriations bill.
Abandoned industrial sites are an eyesore to communities and are detrimental to economic development. The brownfields program provides critical grant funding to mitigate environmental hazards and convert these abandoned sites to productive use. During committee testimony, experts testified that we have an estimated 450,000 brownfield sites.
At current spending levels we can clean up an average of 356 sites per year, meaning it would take over 1,200 years to clean up the remaining 450,000 sites. This amendment simply increases the funding for the program to enable communities to clean up more of these sites. We were happy to help provide more resources to help spur more cleanups and redevelopment.
Click here to watch my speech on the House floor in favor of this amendment.
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| House Passes McKinley and Scalise Anti-Carbon Tax Amendment |
This week, the House passed an anti-carbon tax resolution I authored with Majority Whip Steve Scalise (LA-01). Recent CBO and Stanford studies have warned that a carbon tax is the most regressive form of tax that could be implemented and would impact poor and middle-class families at double the rate. It would raise the costs on everything Americans consume like gasoline, diesel fuel, food, clothing, or supplies.
Thanks to tax cuts and regulatory reform, America's economy is on the rise. Implementing a carbon tax would put the brakes on that progress. To address environmental concerns, we should focus on research, innovation, incentives, and efficiency.
Click here to watch my speech on the House floor in favor of this resolution.
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McKinley Fights for Rural Newspapers
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This week, I testified before the United States International Trade Commission on the unintended consequences of the new tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada. Earlier this year, the Department of Commerce – responding to a petition filed by North Pacific Paper Company (NORPAC), a Wall Street-owned paper mill based in Washington State, assessed preliminary tariffs on the newsprint industry.
Papers across the United States are now facing significant cost increases from these tariffs. The impact varies by paper, but as a whole this amounts to an estimated $421 million annual loss to the industry every year the tariffs remain in place. This is having a particularly negative impact on rural America, which depends on their paper for local news.
Look, the closure of newsprint plants on both sides of the border boils down to a declining market, not unfair trade. If the Commission feels compelled to help NORPAC, they should find a regional solution for the Northwest, and exempt the rest of the nation’s papers from the tariffs.
Click here to read an op-ed I wrote about these new tariffs.
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| Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since 1969 |
This week, U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest levels since 1969. Thanks to the tax cuts and President Trump's pro growth policies, our economy is once again growing.
Click here to read more. |
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