Congresswoman Renee Ellmers: Our national security is too important to treat so carelessly


Photo of the Week

This week we were very excited to welcome our second session of 2016 summer interns to Team Ellmers! Christina Harp was born and raised in Cary and graduated from NC State University. Christina is now pursuing a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Dylan Blackburn is originally from the Dunn/Sampson County area and graduated from Midway High School. Dylan is a sophomore at Campbell University where he is a member of the Campbell University Student Government Association and was Freshman Class Representative. Welcome, Christina and Dylan!

 

Weekly Update
Early last week, FBI Director James Comey criticized Hillary Clinton for putting “very sensitive” information at risk in what he described as “extremely careless” handling of information which included over 100 e-mails deemed classified. Our ?national security? is too important to treat in such a reckless manner! On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee called Director Comey to testify about Secretary Clinton’s handling of classified information.  Click here to see an excerpt from Comey’s testimony in which Congressman Trey Gowdy questions him about numerous false statements Secretary Clinton made about her private email server.

We passed several important bills in the House this week which will make a real difference in people’s lives. One of these is #HR2646?, The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which I co-sponsored. This landmark legislation will provide help and hope to patients and their families by funding prevention programs that work, providing alternatives to incarceration, allowing families to help in treatment, and increasing the number of psychiatric beds and rural access to care. Congratulations and thanks to Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) for his hard work and leadership on this issue and this historic legislation! Scroll down for more information on this bill.

At the end of the week, we were all deeply saddened to see news of the shooting in Dallas which resulted in the death of five brave police officers and the wounding of several officers and civilians. Law enforcement officials across the country put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe. I hope you will join me in continued prayer for the victims of the Dallas shooting and their families, as well as the law enforcement community and our nation as a whole as we ask for healing.

 

Good News for Mental Health Reform

 The statistics are staggering. Our nation’s mental health system has failed. “Ineffective,” “incompetent,” “wasteful,” and “disgraceful” are a few words that have been used to describe it. Click on the image above to view a video with information about the landmark mental health reform bill passed in the House this week to provide relief to families in mental health crisis.           

 

Good News for Health Care Providers

I am happy to see the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reduce health IT reporting requirements to 90 days, as this will allow for more autonomy and flexibility from health care providers and offer better services to our citizens. There is still a great deal left to be done in reforming the Meaningful Use program, but I applaud CMS for this successful step. Click here for information about H.R. 5001, the Flexibility in Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Act, which was introduced in April to provide flexibility for healthcare providers who are facing burdensome fines and penalties as a result of unrealistic reporting requirements.

 

In the District
 
Late afternoon on Thursday, a thunderstorm rumbled through parts of the Second District.  As you can see in the picture above, we lost part of a beautiful dogwood tree in front of my Dunn district office.  In a more serious storm-related incident in Harnett County, a house fire was caused by downed power lines and a ruptured gas line. Thankfully all four inhabitants were able to escape free of injury.  Summer storms like this one often pop up and move through quickly, but don’t forget that they are capable of doing very serious damage.