Keeping Our Children Safe...

Dear Friend:

During the past few weeks, my colleagues and I have begun the process of carefully and thoughtfully determining what actions Congress should take to respond to the alarming trend of increased school violence. Schools should be safe. We need to ensure that schools are a place to learn, unimpeded by fear. Further, parents should never have to wonder if their children are safe at school.

This week, I am pleased to report that the House of Representatives took a significant first step to meet this important goal. We passed H.R. 4909, the ‘STOP School Violence Act of 2018’ with overwhelming (407-10) bipartisan support. This bipartisan proposal includes many proactive measures we can take to prevent violent acts to occur at school.

The ‘STOP School Violence Act’ will provide an additional $75 million a year, for school security, over the next decade. This funding is targeted at preventative measures; such as, technological equipment and staff training. With these funds, schools can develop and install means to assess threats and successfully intervene before violence occurs.

In the event violence does occur, our schools must also stand ready to respond quickly and effectively. HR. 4909 also helps here by establishing improved communications between law enforcement and school officials. HR, 4909 will also provide funding to expand programs like Colorado’s successful Safe2Tell. Through the combined elements of this bill, once enacted, I think we will have laid the groundwork to proactively address and ultimately prevent future school tragedies from occurring.

Since I fully expect Congress to consider additional measures to address violence at schools, I am currently in the process of meeting with school safety officials and here in Colorado to hear their ideas. I look forward to continuing these listening sessions and bringing back those ideas to Washington, to ensure we do everything possible to keep all our schools safe.

In addition to our focus on school safety, we also worked on many other issues this week. In particular, on Thursday, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing titled ‘Security Challenges in Europe & Posture for Inter-state Competition with Russia.’ The rising threat that Russia poses is of great concern to me, and I think of concern to all Americans. During the hearing, I questioned General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the U.S. European Combatant Commander. My questions focused on Russia’s use of nonconventional “hybrid” tactics used to destabilize the Ukraine through information operations and the use of covert Russian forces that could be used against other NATO allies. In addition, I expressed my concerns that the majority of our NATO European allies remain reluctant to bear their share of the responsibility for defending Europe. You can view the complete hearing by clicking here.

Lastly, I continued my efforts to ensure our Veteran’s needs are properly addressed. I was the first Member of Congress to call for Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Secretary, Dr. David Shulkin to resign and I still believe this is a necessary step given the Inspector General (IG) report on his misuse of taxpayer dollars and his lack of leadership in changing the culture of bureaucratic incompetence at the VA. Now there are reports that a new IG report highlighting further misconduct by the Secretary is eminent. So, I again called on President Trump to dismiss the Secretary. Secretary Shulkin is a holdover from the previous administration and I strongly believe that only someone from outside the VA can clean up the VA. I hope the President heeds my call sooner rather than later. Our veterans deserve better.

I encourage you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date as I continue to work on your behalf in our nation’s capital.