Dear Friend,
With thousands of our overseas troops scheduled to come home by the end of this year, it is our responsibility to uphold the promise to ensure care for our active service members, veterans and their families. I have heard from many veterans in our area who are frustrated with the bureaucratic obstacles they have faced in attempts to receive care when they return home. I am working to make these transitions seamless.
At Vet Centers across the country, thousands of veterans continue to encounter obstacles when obtaining their DD-214, a verified record of their service. This week, I introduced the Efficient Service for Veterans Act to streamline the bureaucratic processes for veterans at Vet Centers, allowing the Vet Centers access to electronic records programs. I was proud to have the support of the American Legion behind this legislation.
A recent study from the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that in 2009, approximately 76,000 veterans were homeless on any one particular day and 136,000 veterans were homeless at some point during the year. To begin raising awareness of this issue, on Monday, I introduced a Resolution supporting the creation of a National Underserved Veterans Awareness Week. This week will help educate veterans and the public on the available resources offered to current and returning veterans.
Couple of weeks ago, the House passed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act, coming together in bi-partisan fashion to put veterans back to work. This week, the House found another area where we can agree—protecting American businesses from increased regulations. We passed H.R. 674 yesterday, which will repeal the 3%withholding tax and prevent another regulation from being forced on our job creators. With so many Californians out of work, we must work harder than ever to improve the climate for job growth in our country. I voted to repeal the 3% withholding tax, because instead of putting obstacles in the way of job growth, we must focus on making America’s business climate competitive again in order to get people back to work. To track the progress of the job-creating bills that the House has passed, "like “my Facebook page and check out the Jobs Tracker for real-time updates. It is my hope that the Senate will take action on these bills and help us in our effort to get Americans back to work.
Next week, the House will remain focused on job creation and deficit reduction, and we will begin to hear more about the progress that the Super Committee is making in finding $1.2trillion in cuts to reduce our deficit. I know there are areas of government where we can identify real savings that we can all agree on; this is why sent a letter to the Committee urging them to include my bill, H.R.1734, the Civilian Property Realignment Act (CPRA)in their proposal. Many people are not aware of the significant amount of savings we can find in vacant and underused properties our government owns, and taxpayers continue to pay for. If eliminated, this waste would amount to billions in savings for Americans. To find out more, click here.
Thank you to all of my followers on Facebook and twitter. I also encourage you to tell your friends and family members to sign up for this weekly re-cap. Each of these forums is great way to stay up-to-date with my activity and learn about upcoming events and votes.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween weekend!
Sincerely,
JEFF DENHAM
United States Representative
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