Message from Dave

Dear Friends,

It’s been a successful May in Washington, D.C.  As many of you are probably aware, I introduced legislation several months ago to protect our youth in foster care from the horrors of sex trafficking.  Last Tuesday, this bill passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, along with four other bills addressing other aspects of sex trafficking crimes.  This is a huge step in the fight to end this terrible epidemic, and I look forward to seeing those bills signed into law. 

This week, I offered an amendment to the 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill which would protect funding for the highly successful Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program and enable our local law enforcement to carry out their job of protecting our communities.  The amendment passed the House unanimously.

As Chairman of the Human Resources Subcommittee, I held a hearing on Thursday to examine a problem in the foster care system that we are becoming aware of – overmedication.  Too often, foster care children are prescribed psychotropic drugs not because they truly need them but as a way of medicating their troubles away.  This usually fails to do anything to alleviate their very real problems, and can create new problems to be overcome.  We had a wonderful panel of witnesses including former foster youth who had experienced this for themselves, and the well-known Dr. Phil, or Dr. McGraw as I had to call him for the hearing.

I was also able to spend a few days in the District between voting on important legislation and holding hearings. I toured MorphoTrak in Federal Way and learned about their innovative technologies and how Congress can help companies like theirs achieve success.  I spoke to the Eatonville Chamber and the Maple Valley Rotary and had many other highly productive and informative meetings with constituents from across the district. Next week, I will be able to spend my entire time in the District and I look forward to many more of those constituent meetings on both sides of the Mountains.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Dave

               

New Chairmwoman in town?! Rep. Reichert is seen here with hearing witness Dawna who experienced for herself what it is like to be improperly prescribed medication in the foster care system.

Rep. Reichert joined Central Washington University students for their annual Civics Week where he gave one of the opening addresses.

Other News Items:

- Reichert statement on WRRDA Passage

- Reichert, Pascrell introduce tax bill to benefit federal law enforcement officers and firefighters

- Reichert appointed to Leader's House Trafficking Task Force

- Reichert, McDermott introduce bill to reform tax rule

- Reichert, Blumenauer introduce bill to eliminate HRA tax rule