The Elkhart Truth
October 14, 2014
Tim Vandenack
ELKHART — With Election Day approaching, U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski addressed theElkhart Rotary Club, touting her efforts to help military veterans and to fight sexual assault in the military.
She blasted the Environmental Protection Agency for heavy handedness and offered a defense for the efforts of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., criticized by many as being dysfunctional.
“There are a lot of good people in Congress doing their small part,” she told the crowd Monday, Oct. 13, at the Rotary Club’s noon meeting here.
Walorski, a Republican seeking her second term in the 2nd District U.S. House post, faces a challenge from Democrat Joe Bock. Here are some highlights of the freshman lawmaker’s 20-minute address to Rotary members:
Accomplishments: As in her campaign advertising, Walorski emphasized her efforts pushing legislation that reforms healthcare delivery to veterans at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. She backed bipartisan legislation, eventually inked by the president, to improve care offered to veterans.
Sitting in on committee hearings, she said she was “flabbergasted” at some of the stories she heard about inefficiency and entrenchment among top officials at VA facilities. The new legislation represents “a couple steps forward,” she said, noting she still had to intervene with VA Secretary Bob McDonald to make sure a Goshen veteran, Erik Olson, got the cancer treatment he needed.
The legislation she authored to combat military sexual assaults was eventually inserted into the military spending bill for 2014. Her provisions give those making reports of sexual assault protection as whistleblowers and requires investigations into charges of retaliatory action against victims.
Dysfunction: That Congress is dysfunctional is a pretty common complaint among some critics, but Walorski indicated things aren’t always as advertised.
The Republican-led House, she said, has approved numerous bills, only to be stymied by the Democrat-led Senate and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
“We’ve sent some 400 bills out of that House that are bipartisan, with a lot of Democratic votes,” she said. But they get to the Senate and nothing happens.“
She noted her efforts to address a propane shortage last winter, brought on by cold weather and strong demand. She called transportation officials and others and eventually action was taken allowing needed deliveries of propane, used in heating systems, to address the problem. “So it’s small things and it’s doing your small part,” she said.
EPA: Walorski has offered strong criticism about the EPA previously, and she reiterated her strong comments to the crowd, made up of many business leaders. One of the top complaints she hears from constituents is about heavy-handed EPA rules.
“We play defense with them on so many fronts,” she said. One effort combating the agency, she noted, has been over the definition of navigable waterways in EPA rules, a seemingly trivial thing to some, but important to others.
Energy dependence: If she had her druthers, if she were president, Walorski said she’d push for a domestic energy bill to augment exploitation of U.S. energy resources, reducing dependence on foreign energy.
Bock is to address the Rotary Club on Oct. 27.
