Stuff in the news: Postal Service, Patient Access, Energy, Education, Homosexual Blood Donations

U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations State Department Subcommittee, has been calling for an independent review of a State Department proposal to construct a brand new training center in Virginia, instead of using an established federal training facility in Georgia that could save taxpayers millions of dollars. Senator Perdue led a joint Georgia Delegation letter requesting additional information from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and introduced a provision that was included in the State Department Authorization bill. Similar language was included in the Senate Appropriations process. Recently, Senator Perdue visited the FLETC facility in Brunswick, Georgia and continues to push for Congressional oversight of this process.

U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) joined his colleagues in introducing legislation to improve rural mail service and delivery and provide protections for post offices and postal employees in rural communities across the country. The Rural Postal Act of 2015 would place a two-year moratorium on postal mail processing facility closures, restore delivery standards and preserve six-day mail home delivery.

U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced legislation to increase patient access to medical devices by removing government red tape. The Accelerating Innovation in Medicine (AIM) Act, authored by Portman and Heinrich, will streamline access to medical devices by giving patients the option to self-pay rather than going through the time-consuming Medicare coverage process. It will also allow doctors to present patients with more choices when deciding on the best care for them.

U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced legislation, S.1755, to extend the Residential Energy Efficient Property Tax Credit (25D) by five years. The legislation would extend a successful tax credit that helps families pay for residential clean energy equipment, such as solar photovoltaics, solar hot water heaters, geothermal heat pumps, and small wind turbines.

Affirming his belief that every child should have access to a high quality education, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), a leading voice for school choice in the U.S. Senate, has offeredS.Amdt. 2132 to the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) to allow Title I funds to follow low-income children and strengthen educational options for their parents. Currently being debated on the Senate floor, the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal law governing the federal role in K-12 education.

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), and 79 of their congressional colleagues sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to the agency's draft guidance document, which, if finalized, would change the blood donation policy for men who have sex with men (MSM) from a lifetime ban to a one-year deferral from the donor's last sexual contact with another man. "While we appreciate the FDA's willingness to address this issue and release draft guidance to alter the current policy," the members wrote, "we continue to have deep concerns about many of the conclusions and statements made in the Draft, and about the lack of plan to move towards a fully risk-based system."