This week, a bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the White House urging executive action on prescription drug prices. In addition, two key bills gained support in the House..Congress is now in recess and is not scheduled to start again until April 20. Of course, that could change, depending on the situation with the spread of the virus..On Wednesday, the Board of Trustees hosted a successful breakfast reception for all Members of the 113th Congress and their staff, along with Shannon Benton, former Congressman David Funderburk and Mrs. Betty Funderburk, and TSCL's staff. More than 125 Members of Congress and/or staff were in attendance, and we were pleased to have the chance to speak with them about the issues that matter most to TSCL's members and supporters. We especially want to thank Rep. Nick Rahall, who has been a regular attendee at TSCL's receptions..Medicare's extraordinarily high reimbursement rates for durable medical equipment like back braces and power wheel chairs have made it a particularly lucrative target for crooks and abuse billing practices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently reported that an astonishing 66% of all durable medical equipment claims were improperly paid in the government's fiscal year 2012, costing Medicare more than billion..Social Security is a promise that the federal government has made to its citizens. It is a promise on which millions of Americans rely on, and one that needs to be there for them when they retire. I am proud to sponsor H.R. 141, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in any capacity available, to ensure that we keep the promises we made to our public-sector employees..This week, five new cosponsors signed on to Rep. Mike McIntyre's Notch Fairness Act, bringing the total up to seventeen. The new cosponsors are: Reps. William Enyart, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson, Don Young, and Jim Himes. If signed into law, Rep. McIntyre's bill would provide modest compensation to Notch babies, or those who receive lower Social Security benefits because they were born between the years 1917 and 192TSCL believes that some compensation for this injustice should be provided, and the Notch Fairness Act would do just that..This is exactly the wrong approach. Social Security is about economics, but it is also about our values. It's about who we are as a people, and what kind of country we are determined to build. Every person who represents you in Washington should be talking about protecting and expanding Social Security not cutting it..The provision would ban earnings from jobs worked without legal authorization from being used to determine entitlement to Social Security benefits and for calculating the amount of initial benefits, legislation that TSCL and TSCL's grass roots members have long supported. TSCL's Legislative Assistant, Jessie Gibbons delivered a letter from Chairman, Larry Hyland, expressing TSCL's support for the amendment to Senators Hatch and Rubio..Refinancing can be a good way to reduce your monthly mortgage payments but doing so generally means you extend the pay-off period of your loan and spend more money on interest up front. Choosing a 15 - or even 10 - year loan can save you money on interest, but the monthly payments will be higher and potentially harder to sustain over time.
