5 minute read
Congressional Spotlight: Rep. Stephanie Bice, OK-5
As your first year as a Member of Congress comes to an end, what pices of legislation or work on behalf of the Oklahoma 5th district are you most proud of?
The first bill I authored this year was H.R. 2378, the Protecting Military Families with Disabilities Act, which would prevent service members and their families from being charged out-of-pocket expenses for needed housing upgrades to accommodate a disabled family member. Sadly, this is an issue we have seen at military bases across the nation, and Tinker AFB has had several housing related issues over the last few years.
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I’m pleased to say that a modified version of my bill was included in both the House and Senate versions of the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act, and I expect it to be signed into law before the end of the year.
I was also proud to have authored successful amendments that secured millions of additional dollars to assist the National Guard in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, and an amendment that would require the Department of Defense to strengthen its mental health and suicide prevention efforts.
I’d also like to mention the casework my constituent services team has been focused on. My office has been inundated with passport requests and assistance with the IRS for stimulus checks and other issues. We’ve handled more than 374 of cases successfully. Constituent service is one of the most important things members of Congress do, and my team is the best.
This June, you toured Energy Workforce & Technology Council Member Company Kimray’s facilities in your district. You saw first-hand how manufacturing and distribution can be affected by the ups and downs of the energy industry. What is Congress doing to relieve regulatory burdens targeted at the energy and manufacturing industries?
This is an issue I think a lot about because it affects the livelihoods of millions of everyday Americans. Sadly, we have seen this Administration take drastic actions to halt oil and gas exploration, shut down key infrastructure like the Keystone XL pipeline, and propose new burdensome regulations on a range of our nation’s most important industries.
I have been working on legislation with my colleagues to counter these efforts, including cosponsoring H.R. 4132, the Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act, which would require the federal government to put together an annual list of burdensome or duplicative regulations and would establish a process to allow Congress to quickly eliminate such regulations through passage of a joint resolution of disapproval.
I’m also a cosponsor of H.R. 1776, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act) which would require Congressional approval of all major agency rules and regulations that have an economic impact of more than $100 million.
These bills represent two important ways for Congress to reclaim its power, and for the American people to be respected by federal bureaucrats.
Washington seems increasingly polarized on major issues affecting Americans and their everyday lives. Do you think there are areas where the country and Congress can come together to get things done?
Now more than ever, our nation needs its lawmakers to be thoughtful and to respect the wishes of all Americans. Sadly, we have witnessed Democrats in Congress writing major legislation behind closed doors, in the dead of night, with little to no input sought from Republicans.
With that said, I have seen quite a lot of bipartisanship during my time serving on the House Armed Services Committee. Nearly all of the members of that committee, on both sides of the aisle, recognize the importance of supporting our nation’s troops, and protecting the American people from our nation’s adversaries.
I have been successful at advancing several common sense, bipartisan pieces of legislation through this Committee, including several of the bills previously mentioned.
As the COVID-19 economic recovery continues, many companies are struggling with supply chain issues importing materials produced overseas. What can Congress do to help encourage reshoring of production and manufacturing jobs to the U.S.?
As our nation continues to face increasing aggression from China and other adversaries, it’s increasingly clear that we need to re-shore the production of certain national security, telecom and healthcare products. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare just how brittle and vulnerable our supply chains are on foreign inputs.
Earlier this year I served on the Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force of the House Armed Services Committee, which put together a listing of policy proposals to protect the Department of Defense from such vulnerabilities. I’m pleased to say that many of our Task Force’s recommendations were included in the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act, including a provision I authored to require DoD to engage with workforce and education stakeholders to build the workforce of tomorrow.
As a member of the House Energy Action Team, what does this group do and what are the issues you focus on?
The HEAT team is a coalition of House Republicans each with an energy focus in the district they represent. They emphasize an “all of the above” platform that promotes energy policy to create jobs in the industry and support America’s energy independence.
Following President Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and other executive orders that have been detrimental to the industry, I knew I had to do more to protect the thousands of jobs in my home state of Oklahoma that rely on the energy sector. This coalition meets regularly to discuss issues impacting oil and gas, and we hear from leaders from across the U.S. with interest in energy issues.
