Working for You
My pledge is to serve you through hard work and listening to your ideas.
Taking Kentucky Common Sense to Washington
I will support fiscally responsible solutions to create jobs, a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution, sensible health care reform that reduces costs, and a smaller, more accountable federal government.
Helping Constituents
I am committed to responding to the concerns of constituents, assisting seniors and veterans, and ensuring that all Kentuckians have a strong advocate on their side when dealing with federal agencies like the Social Security Administration, Medicare, the VA or the IRS.
Our office has helped thousands of Kentuckians and I hope to have the opportunity to help thousands more.
More Accountable Government
In order to change the way Washington does business, we must make sure Washington has an effective check and balance system.
Far too often, legislation will be signed into law and handed off to federal agencies.
The mandates and regulations handed down by these agencies’ unelected bureaucrats cost taxpayers billions of dollars without being held accountable.
In order to effectively check and balance the power of the unelected bureaucrats, we must make sure that the elected representatives of the people are held accountable for these regulations and mandates.
Working with a constituent last fall, I introduced H.R. 3765, the REINS Act, which would rein in the regulations imposed by unelected Washington bureaucrats burdening Kentucky families and businesses.
The REINS Act would require Congress to take an up-or-down vote on every new major rule before it can be enforced on Americans. Read more here.
Protecting our Military and Veterans
Working with an injured member of the Kentucky Army National Guard from Tollesboro, Kentucky, I was proud to introduce the Citizen Soldier Equality Act, and lead efforts to correct the inequities in disability retirement pay for the National Guard and Reserves who are injured in combat.
I took on financial services companies who preyed on young soldiers and their families by selling them unnecessary and overpriced insurance and investment products and passed a law that banned these practices.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have required many members of our military to make multiple deployments abroad. To ease one burden of having to complete several tours overseas I successfully doubled the Hardship Duty Pay available for service members.
Improving Programs for the Homeless
Too much of our government is out of touch with the people’s lives in the real world. The federal definition of homelessness had not been updated in over 20 years and did not accurately reflect what was really happening, especially outside the dense urban centers. So I introduced bipartisan legislation with the late Rep. Julia Carson from Indiana to update the law to more accurately reflect the types of homelessness that families in rural areas and single parents with children often encounter. In addition, the bill increases local flexibility to ensure that shelters and other providers can nimbly respond to the needs in their communities. After 3 years working with colleagues in the House and the Senate, from both parties, this important legislation was signed into law in May 2009.