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From: Pete
To: Ken Date: Friday, October 13, 2000 THE HILL REPORT A Weekly Newsletter from Congressman Pete Sessions Week of October 7 - October 13, 2000 This Week in Washington, we witnessed a horrific tragedy in the Middle East. This week's situation has escalated into a sad reminder of the sacrifice our men and women in uniform make when they report to duty each day in service to our country. Our thoughts, prayers and support go out to their families and to all American military men and women serving our nation all over the world. This is also a reminder that though we are living in an era of relative peace and prosperity, America has enemies. There is unrest in the world and we must be prepared to do everything in our power to find the people responsible for this heinous act and bring them to justice swiftly. The world's brokers of terror will know there are consequences when America is the target of their hate. We are a peace and freedom loving people and these actions will not be tolerated against our soldiers or our citizens. In the United States House of Representatives we passed both the Defense Authorization Bill and the Agriculture Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2001. The Defense Authorization Act, (H.R. 4205) passed by a vote of 382-31 and authorizes $309.9 billion in new budget authority for national defense activities in FY 2001. In honoring our commitment to our men and women in service, this amount is $4.6 billion more than the Clinton-Gore Administration's request. Overall, the conference report authorizes (1) $75.8 billion for military personnel; (2) $110.0 billion for operations and maintenance and working capital funds, (3) $62.9 billion ($2.6 billion more than the president's request) for weapons procurement, (4) $38.9 billion ($1.1 billion more than the president's request) for research and development, (5) $8.8 billion ($788 million more than the president's request) for military construction and family housing. I strongly supported the measure and voted for it. The bill also provides a much needed and much deserved 3.7 percent military pay raise and numerous bonuses and other retention and quality of life programs. The Agricultural Appropriations bill that also passed this week will help farmers and producers of livestock and dairy who are suffering another year of weather and financial losses, including an additional provision that lifts limits to $150,000 this crop year on Loan Deficiency Payments (LDPs) and provides the first move to re-opening for agricultural trade into Cuba. On Thursday, by a vote of 340 to 75, the House approved H.R. 4461, the Agricultural Appropriations Act, with the Senate expected to follow within the week. Producers suffering a series of harvest losses due to weather extremes will be able to draw upon funding that provides as much help as possible, by providing upwards of $1.6 billion for crops - beyond USDA's recent $1.3 billion estimate. A prescription drug importation measure was also included in the bill and will become law as part of the Agriculture Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001. I hailed the measure as a victory for seniors. This is great news for America's seniors. I have always said that the world's best consumers should not be paying the world's highest prices. This week we passed a bill to change that. Currently, seniors in Texas and across the country are paying as much as 70% more for prescription drugs than their counterparts in other countries. For example, in 1998, a 30-day supply of "Prilosec" cost about $99.95 in Texas but that same 30-day supply was a mere $17.50 in Mexico. I strongly support giving seniors more choices in their health care options but warned that increased choices means increased responsibility. Millions of seniors wanted to be able to buy prescription drugs from Canada and Mexico in order to save money on some drugs. This bill does that for them but seniors must be aware of the safety concerns associated with getting drugs from other countries. Around Texas... Tomorrow, I will hold a town hall meeting in Mexia, and following the town hall meeting there will be a "Cancer Society Walk for Life". And next week, I will be in Bryan for a Town Hall Meeting. See the notices at the end of this e-mail. Have a great weekend! - Pete <<< Town Hall Meeting <<< Limestone County Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, October 14 WHEN: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm WHERE: TXU Electric 211 North Sherman St Mexia, Texas <<< Town Hall Meeting <<< Brazos and Robertson County Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, October 21 WHEN: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm WHERE: GTE Building 501 Industrial Blvd Bryan, Texas Have an old cell phone? Donate it and save a life....... http://www.house.gov/sessions/calltoprotect.htm ========================================== Please write to me using the e-mail form on my web site: http://www.house.gov/sessions/forms/intouch.htm Please do not use your "REPLY" button to reply to this e-mail. The "REPLY TO" address at the top of this e-mail ("email_newsletter@mail.house.gov") is used by our computer system to maintain our list of subscribers. Visit my web site at: http://www.house.gov/sessions Each week we add a number of new recipients to our mailing list. If you accidentally received two copies of this e-mail, please feel free to recycle the extra copy, or pass it on to a friend. If you wish to no longer receive this weekly newsletter, please send an e-mail using the form on my web page with the box beside "unsubscribe" checked. The form is located at: http://www.house.gov/sessions/forms/intouch.htm If you would like to receive this newsletter at another e-mail account, or if this e-mail was forwarded to you, and you would like to begin receiving your own copy, rather than a second-hand dog-eared copy, send an e-mail using the form on the following page: http://www.house.gov/sessions/forms/intouch.htm This newsletter was printed using recycled electrons. ========================================== 2
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