Congressman McHenry Weekly Update

JULY 20, 2014

Congressman McHenry Weekly Update

It is Time the Senate Act

This week, the House of Representatives continued its work on appropriations bills by passing a bill to fund Financial Services and General Government agencies. With the passage of that bill, the House has now passed 7 of the 14 annual appropriations bills. The Senate on the other hand, has passed 0. This continues a theme that we have seen throughout the 113th Congress: the House passes legislation, often bipartisan, and then it dies in the Senate. On Wednesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner authored an op-ed on this subject highlighting to President Obama that, while he likes to blame the House, Congress' dysfunction is actually the result of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's continued obstruction. The graphic below illustrates this obstruction. Among those 418 House passed bills are 40 bipartisan jobs bills. It is long past time that the Senate get to work.

Investigating Operation Choke Point

On Tuesday morning, my Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on Operation Choke Point. Operation Choke Point is a Department of Justice initiative to stop banks from providing services to businesses suspected of consumer fraud. Unfortunately, the DOJ's focus for Operation Choke Point has often focused on legitimate businesses like gun retailers and fireworks stores that have committed no fraud. Earlier this year I spoke with the Washington Times about some of my concerns with the operation. This week's hearing was the first Congressional hearing to feature representatives from each of the government agencies responsible for Operation Choke Point: OCC, DOJ, FDIC, and the Federal Reserve. Click the image below to see my questioning of the witnesses:

You can find coverage of Tuesday's hearing in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Washington Business Journal. To learn more about this week's hearing, including full video and a complete list of the witnesses who testified, please visit the Financial Services Committee's website.

Federal Reserve Chair Yellen Testifies

Continuing with the busy week for the Financial Services Committee, Wednesday we heard from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. This was Chair Yellen's second appearance before our Committee since becoming Federal Reserve Chair and it came at an important time as tomorrow marks the 4-year anniversary of President Obama signing into law the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Law. My questioning of Chair Yellen was focused on Dodd-Frank as we approach the anniversary. Click the image below to see video:

To see full video of Wednesday's hearing, please visit the Financial Services Committee's website.


	What I Have Been Reading
	Can Crowdfunding Jumpstart Early Stage Drug Research? *The Wall Street Journal* Crowdfunding has shown tremendous potential as a means for charities and businesses to solicit funds from investors interested in their cause or product, regardless of their physical location. This article highlights another potential use for crowdfunding, funding early stage drug research. These are projects that could lead to treatments or cures for deadly diseases. Through crowdfunding, scientists can now solicit funds for research directly from those impacted. House votes 277-130 to extend tax breaks for charitable giving *The Hill* This week, the House passed a bill to make the 2013 tax break for charitable giving permanent. We are blessed to live in a country of giving people who care about their neighbors and are willing to donate their own hard-owned money to support. It is only right to not tax someone for being charitable. Crowdfunding bill endorsed by Senate committee *Raleigh News and Observer* I was excited to see that crowdfunding legislation before the North Carolina General Assembly advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee this week. As the author of the federal crowdfunding statute, it is great to see it being embraced in my home state. Many other states have passed and benefited from similar laws. I was particularly happy to see so many legislators from the 10^th District on the original House Bill as cosponsors including Representatives Tim Moffitt (Buncombe), Kelly Hastings (Cleveland), Nathan Ramsey (Buncombe) and Mitchell Setzer (Catawba).

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Gaston Co. Administrative Bldg
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Telephone: 828.669.0600