Saturday, January 13, 2007

Thank you, Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis


Republican Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis continues to SURPRISE!

And in a good howling kind of way.

The final tally for the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act in the House was 255-170 with the gentle lady from Virginia breaking ranks with her Republican colleagues and voting for the bill. But not only did Davis vote for the measure but she introduced the bill as well.

Davis has actually introduced a bevy of bills in the 110th Congress that "cover a wide range of issues including the health care, national security, veterans, first responders, interstate waste, and Native American recognition."
The Disabled Veteran Small Business Eligibility Expansion Act of 2007 (HR 6041) would amend the Small Business Act and allow small businesses that are owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans to be eligible for the Small Business Administration (SBA) business development grants in the same manner that small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically
disadvantaged individuals are eligible for the award.

The Veterans Health Benefits Voluntary Option Act of 2007 (HR 5044) would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow an extension of the three year limitation period for filing refund claims to members of the uniformed services whose retired pay in any taxable year is reduced due to an award of disability compensation by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This extension could be up until one year after the date of a disability determination.

The Solid Waste Interstate Transportation Act (HR 274), would provide both state and local control over waste imports. The measure would allow local control over limiting waste if a landfill imports under 100,000 tons a year by instituting a "presumptive ban" which would stop imports to a landfill unless that landfill has a host agreement. If a landfill imports over 100,000 tons, the state would have control over limiting imports and would be able to cap percentages coming in.

The State Waste Empowerment and Enforcement Provision Act (HR 70), would amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to authorize a State to limit, place restrictions on, or otherwise regulate out-of-State municipal solid waste received or disposed of annually at each landfill or incinerator in the State.

[...]

The Federal Firefighters Fairness Act (HR 697) would amend Federal law to provide first responders who develop diseases such as heart disease, lung disease, specified cancers and infectious diseases should be presumed to be caused by their job. Also, if a first responder’s disability or death in fire protection activities results from such diseases, it would also be presumed to be the result of injury sustained while performing their job. "First responders put their life on the line and risk injuries and illnesses associated with dangerous substances to save others. We should recognize these risks and provide assistance to them if injury or illness from performing their duties does occur," said Davis.

To Extend Recognition to the Rappahannock Tribe, (HR 5130). This measure would provide federal recognition to the Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia,granting members of the tribe eligibility for all services and benefits the federal government provides to recognized tribes. The service area of the Rappahannock Tribe would include King, Queen, Caroline, Essex, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Richmond Counties in Virginia. "As a former member of the Virginia Council on the Indians, it is important to me that the Native Americans tribes who were here before the English landing at Jamestown in 1607 be recognized and granted receive the proper benefits," said Davis.

The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Conforming Amendments (HR 437) would require group health plans to include coverage for post-mastectomy reconstructive surgery. "I strongly support legislation that seeks to improve health care for women facing breast cancer through research and therapy. We know that breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in the United States, with 180,000 new cases each year," said Davis. "Research efforts continue to learn what causes it, and find new ways to detect, diagnose and treat this type of cancer."

[T]he Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act (HR 1849) would require group health plans or insurers offering group health coverage that provides medical and surgical benefits to ensure that inpatient and in some cases outpatient coverage and radiation treatment are provided. Under this bill, the plan or insurer must notify patients and their beneficiary about the coverage required under the Act and must ensure that full coverage is provided by the secondary consultations by appropriate specialists to confirm or refute a cancer diagnosis.
Davis also supports the Democratic majority ethics reform legislation and on Wednesday voted with Democrats to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "60,000 out of 1.75 million [workers in Virginia] earned the minimum wage or less in 2005."

Hmmm, what's going on here?!?

Even though Howling Latina remembers from the past that Davis did not vote for CAFTA or the ill-fated Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of '06, Davis as recently as last year supported building a fence across the US-Mexican border, Bush's warrentless electronic surveillance and cutting funds for poor students and keeping the tax cuts for the fat cats on the books.

Davis is a cancer survivor and a Pentacostal Christian. Perhaps the brush with her mortality opened her to the light that Christianity is more than worrying about people's sexual orientation and abortion. A central tenet of the faith is to provide comfort for the least of us.

In any event, the bills Davis introduced in Congress are good bills; and they should be supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

Comments:
OR was it perhaps her brush with a Democratic candidate in November? Like Tom Davis, Jo Ann is still a nasty Republican who needs to be replaced.

This is one shameful example of how quickly bloggers can flip to the dark side
 
No, I thought about that!

Believe me, I was a strong supporter of Shawn O'Donnell whose campaign manager is a personal friend of my sister's and works with her. O'Donnell indeed did remarkably well, considering how Republican the 1st District is.

But...even as I supported Shawn, I often wondered about what was up with Davis not voting with the GOP on CAFTA and their Immigration Bill. I thought maybe she might have an immediate family member who was Hispanic.

HL is normally very, very biased toward the lefties; but you gotta admit, those damn bills could've just as easily been sponsored by Jim Webb, Tim Kaine or St. Mark Warner, si?!?
 
Oops, HL is visiting Egypt and blogging and forgot she was using someone else's sign-in.
 
So was this really posted by a Republican public relation's person? It's almost word for word from a Jo Ann Davis press release
http://joanndavis.house.gov/HoR/VA01/News/Press+Releases/2005/Davis+Introduces+New+Bills.htm

The Howling Latina (or her Republican stand in) should have been asking: Why doesn't Davis show up for votes like CAFTA (she couldn't find her way from a Caroline County to Washington in 7 hours)

Or why she voted against Nancy Pelosi as the first woman speaker of the US House.

Or why she first voted against increasing the minimum wage
 
Dah, yep, word for word. I think that's why there's a link and it's indented like a quote.
 
Oh, I think that her bout with cancer might've had a little something-something to do with her missing the vote.
 
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-28235sy0jan16,0,5086417.story?coll=dp-opinion-editorials

Letters to the editor: National security should come first
January 16, 2007

Rep. Jo Ann Davis has once again shown that her party loyalty rises above the good of the country. In one of the first votes of the 110th Congress, she and 127 other Republicans voted against implementing many of the national security recommendations of the Sept. 11, 2001, commission.

Included in these recommendations were provisions for complete examination of air and shipping cargo containers, of which only 5 percent are now checked. In one of the country's largest port areas, our own representative doesn't want to protect Americans.

Davis might suggest that fiscal conservatism was behind her vote. If only she had those same qualms when she voted for George W. Bush's Iraq disaster, which now has a price tag of $400 billion, more than 3,000 American lives, no strategy and no end in sight.
Andrew Smith
Wiliamsburg
 
I fully agree with you. She has been wrong on MANY ISSUES.

Yet...at least she has been right on a few as well:)
 
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