Week in Review

Given your interest in updates from my office, you may be interested in this week’s legislative activity which has been particularly intense.  Topics of discussion ranged from diplomatic engagement to agricultural policy, from Medicare to energy policy. 

The week began in Egypt, at the World Economic Forum, where I joined a select bipartisan panel of five Congress members.  The forum was an extraordinary opportunity for honest, meaningful discourse about key challenges to international security, including peace and stability in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nuclear weapons proliferation, energy sustainability, and the global economy.  It included meetings with President Mubarak of Egypt and President Karzai of Afghanistan, as well as Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad and King Abdullah of Jordan.  This venue also presented the opportunity to discuss the South Korean beef trade situation with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. She was confident the South Korean market will be open to American beef producers soon, a big benefit to Nebraska.

In Washington, as the ranking member of the Small Business Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship, I conducted a hearing to examine how small medical suppliers will be affected by new Medicare regulations.  One of the witnesses was Dr. Jon Einfalt, a pharmacist from West Point, Nebraska.  He spoke on behalf of small pharmacies that could be affected by Medicare’s new competitive bidding process for the purchase of medical supplies.  Part of Congress’ oversight responsibility is ensuring that this process does not impede the competitiveness of small medical suppliers, many of whom are essential to providing quality supplies to rural areas.

Later in the day, Congress approved the Farm Bill with my support.  My remarks on the House floor noted that with any complicated legislation there are trade-offs and concerns. For instance, payment limitation reform progressed but did not go far enough in my view.  However, the Farm Bill promotes agricultural stability and diversification, ag-based renewable energy production, and good conservation and land stewardship practices.

All members of the Nebraska Congressional delegation were privileged to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the World War II Memorial with many World War II veterans from a number of Nebraska communities, including West Point, Nebraska City, and Lincoln.  The Honor Flight Network flew these veterans to Washington, DC.  This organization raises money and arranges for free travel for WWII veterans to visit the memorial erected in their honor.  The ceremony was deeply moving, with the veterans laying wreaths at the Nebraska and Iowa columns at the memorial, and fittingly timed as Memorial Day approaches.

Before returning to Nebraska today, Dr. Haris Silajd�ic, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and I met to discuss a number of concerns.  Bosnia and Herzegovina is on the fault line between the East and West, and has been site of some of the gravest conflicts of the 20th Century.   Interestingly, Lincoln is home to a number of refugees from Bosnia who fled during the war in the 1990s.

On Monday we celebrate Memorial Day.  I hope you have a pleasant weekend.

Sincerely,