Includes Funding for VA in National Health Service Corps, a Key Braley Effort

Washington, DC?Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) voted today to pass the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act, a bill that provides support for family who care for disabled veterans, enhances health services for 1.8 million women veterans, expands mental health services and access to care in rural areas and relieves financial burdens for veterans who are catastrophically disabled. The legislation passed today includes a key provision, championed by Braley in the House, to include Veterans Administration facilities in the National Health Service Corps.

"In my office there is no higher priority than helping veterans and military families receive the compensation, benefits, and other services they have earned," Braley said. "I'm proud that the bill we passed today includes language reflective of the Veterans Access to Care Act, a bill I introduced to make VA facilities eligible for National Health Service Corps funding. The VA is facing an increased and unprecedented demand for medical services today as aging World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans require more medical care and thousands of veterans are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious physical and mental health needs.

"These key provisions in the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act will allow the VA to recruit more qualified mental health professionals, doctors, dentists and nurses to treat our nation's veterans by competing for National Health Service Corps funding and ensuring our veterans have access to the care they have not only earned, but also the high-quality care they deserve."

The legislation passed today will direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to transfer $20 million to the Department of Health and Human Services to include facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs on the list of facilities eligible for assignment of participants in the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program.

Additionally, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act will provide support services to family and other caregivers of veterans, including health care and a stipend for caregivers living with severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, education about how to be a better caregiver, counseling and mental health services and respite care for family and other caregivers.

The bill also improves health care for veterans living in rural areas by expanding transportation for veterans to local VA hospitals and clinics through VA grants to local Veterans Service Organizations and expands VA health care services for women, providing up to seven days of care for newborn children and enhancing treatment for victims of sexual trauma.

For more information, visit http://Braley.House.gov.

There's Still Time to Respond to Neighborhood Census Workers

SPRINGFIELD - April 20, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today encouraged individuals who haven't responded to their 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire to get counted. As of April 15, 73 percent of Illinoisans had mailed in their response cards for the Census. Friday was the last day Illinois residents could mail in census forms, but Governor Quinn encouraged those who hadn't yet responded to welcome the census workers who will soon be knocking on their doors.

"During an economic downturn, it's more important than ever that we take advantage of federal dollars available for schools, public works projects and other critical needs," said Governor Quinn. "Being counted by your neighborhood census worker is one way to do your part to make sure Illinois is not left behind."

Illinois is currently tied for the sixth highest response rate across nation. Four Illinois municipalities (over 50,000) are among the top 50 cities in the nation for response rates: Orland Park, Wheaton, Arlington Heights and Tinley Park.

Governor Quinn stressed that providing family data for the census is safe, secure and confidential. Every Census Bureau employee must pass a background check before being hired and must swear under oath to protect the confidentiality of census responses. Any employee who reveals personal census information is subject to severe penalties, including a fine of up to $250,000, imprisonment of up to five years, or both. Finally, individual census data can't be released publicly until after 72 years.

If a resident isn't home when a census worker knocks on their door, they will find a door hanger featuring a phone number, which they can call to schedule a visit and be counted.

Governor Quinn noted that Illinois is currently at the same response percentage as the state achieved overall in the 2000 census. Both in 2000 and 1990, Illinois lost a congressional seat because the census showed a smaller population.

The Governor was joined at today's Census Rally in the State Capitol rotunda by Frank Smith, Earnfare Director for East St. Louis Township; Sandy Smith, Director of the Office of Community Relations, City of Springfield; Danny Stover, Marion County CCC Chair; and Mary H. Schaafsma, True Census Count Project Manager for the League of Women Voters of Illinois.

How to Identify a Census taker

• They must present an ID Badge which contains: U.S. Department of Commerce watermark, and expiration date.

• They will provide you with supervisor contact information and/or the regional office phone number for verification, if asked.

• They will provide you with a letter from the director of the Census Bureau on U.S. Census Bureau letterhead.

• They may be carrying a laptop and/or bag with a Census Bureau logo.

Ensuring your Confidentiality

• By law, no other government agency, law enforcement agency, national security agency, court, or anyone else can access your responses -- not anyone for any reason.

• No law overrides the confidentiality law that protects personal information collected by the Census Bureau, or can force the Census Bureau to share census responses.

• Only after 72 years have passed, individual records of a census can be released. (This figure was chosen based on the average lifetime of Americans some years ago.)  So, in 2082, if current laws continue, the individual records of the 2010 census will be released for genealogical research. This has happened for several decades now.  The 1930 census is the latest census to be so released

• This year's 10 question form only asks how many people live at the address, whether the home is rented or owned and whether it has a mortgage, and the telephone number of the residence. It asks seven additional questions about each individual at the address, including name, sex, age and date of birth, race and whether the person is of Hispanic origin or not, and whether that person sometimes lives or stays at another address.

(Courtesy U.S. Census Bureau, Chicago Regional Census Center)

WASHINGTON - Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) are urging the Senate to act on legislation they introduced today to strengthen America's energy independence and create jobs through the production of domestically produced biofuels.

The bipartisan bill would extend, through 2015, the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit, or VEETC, which is also known as the blenders' credit; the small ethanol producers tax credit; the cellulosic producers tax credit; and the ethanol import tariff.

The senators said that extension of these policies is the right thing to do because biofuels offer an alternative to foreign oil and generate economic activity in the United States.  Today, ethanol comprises nearly 10 percent of the U.S. fuel supply.  Ethanol produced in the Midwest replaces oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria.  Ethanol is good for rural economies, and a recent study found that the failure to extend the VEETC credit and the secondary tariff would result in the loss of 112,000 jobs nationwide and reduce ethanol production by nearly 40 percent.  Iowa would lose the most jobs at nearly 30,000.

Grassley said the lapse of the separate tax credit for biodiesel, which expired at the end of 2009, has cost 29,000 clean-energy jobs and put 23,000 more at risk.  "We can't risk a repeat performance with ethanol, where 112,000 jobs are at stake."  Of the ethanol tariff, Grassley said, "the United States already provides generous duty-free access to imported ethanol under the Caribbean Basin Initiative, but the CBI cap has never once been fulfilled.  In fact, last year, only 25 percent of it was even used by Brazil and other countries."

Conrad said, "Our country is in serious danger because of skyrocketing energy costs.  This growing crisis demands urgent action. We must be committed to coming together in a bipartisan way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, while aggressively pursuing alternative sources of energy such as biofuels. Extending these tax credits is a step in the right direction."

Grassley and Conrad are longtime advocates for tax incentives for biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.  Grassley is Ranking Member of the tax-writing Finance Committee.  Conrad is a senior member of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.  Grassley is a senior member of the Budget Committee.

The bill they introduced today - the Grow Renewable Energy from Ethanol Naturally Jobs Act of 2010, or the GREEN Jobs Act of 2010 -- is cosponsored by Senators John Thune (R-SD), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Tim Johnson (D-SD).

Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL).

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Opening Statement of Sen. Chuck Grassley

Hearing, "The President's Proposed Fee on Financial Institutions Regarding TARP"

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Mr. Barofsky, I want to welcome you here today.  You and I are both big believers in oversight, accountability and transparency. Today we're discussing what the President calls a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.  However, the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy told the dozens of people in attendance at a briefing for Senate staff on the President's fiscal year 2011 budget earlier this year that the President's proposed fee is actually an excise tax.

This is similar to the name game that the Administration and Congressional Majority played with the excise taxes in their health care bill.  Although they referred to the excise taxes as fees, the legislative text clearly states that they are actually excise taxes.  I will refer to it as the TARP tax, and not the bank tax as some call it, because the proposal applies not only to banks, but also to insurance companies, securities brokers, and thrifts, among others.

The statute that created TARP required the President to submit a plan by 2013 to recover any losses under TARP so that the taxpayers are fully repaid for any TARP losses.  However, three years before it was required, the President proposed this excise tax?the TARP tax.  One problem that surfaced recently is that Congressional Democrats are already reportedly planning ways to spend the money raised by the proposed TARP tax.

One proposal gaining steam among many on the other side lately is to add the TARP tax to the financial regulatory reform bill.  The Congressional Majority is so strapped for money to pay for out of control spending that members are looking to the banks and other financial institutions for money.  This reminds me of the story about a reporter asking Willie Sutton, a notorious bank robber, why he robbed banks.  Sutton allegedly said, "because that's where the money is."  I cannot emphasize this next point enough, if Congress decides to pass a TARP tax, that money should only go toward paying down the deficit.  Otherwise, the TARP tax wouldn't even pay for losses from TARP, it would just enable more taxing and spending by those who want to spend more.

All economists state that corporate entities don't actually bear the burden of taxes -- people do.  I wanted to know which people would bear the burden of the proposed TARP tax.  So I wrote a letter asking the nonpartisan experts at the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation a series of questions.

The CBO responded to my letter by saying that customers would probably pay higher borrowing rates and other charges, employees might bear some of the cost, and investors could bear some of the cost.  The CBO also said that the TARP tax "would also probably slightly decrease the availability of credit for small businesses." In addition, the CBO said that, "for the most part, the firms paying the fee would not be those that are directly responsible for loss realized by the TARP."

One other item from the CBO letter worth noting is that the TARP tax would not apply to firms in the automotive industry.  That is really odd, since CBO's March 2010 TARP report states that the automotive industry accounts for $34 billion of the program's estimated total cost of $109 billion.  Chairman Baucus and I invited GM to testify before our Committee at one of the later hearings, but GM representatives said they didn't want to testify.  I believe GM's silence is deafening.

On another TAR-related matter, I want to thank you for investigating the multi-million dollar severance payments that Treasury is allowing TARP recipients like AIG to pay their departing executives.  As you know, I have communicated on several occasions with Treasury and the TARP Special Master for Executive Compensation about this troubling issue, and I have run into a stone wall.  I am also pleased that you are going to investigate the possible conflicts of interest on the part of key people at Treasury who worked on the TARP executive compensation regulations.

Since those regulations helped executives walk away with huge severance payments, we need to find out if they were drafted by people who used to represent the very executives affected by the regulations.  Treasury claims that all the proper recusals were made, but it has provided none of the documentation necessary to verify that claim.  I trust that you will be able to get to the bottom of these important questions and report back to the Committee in the near future.