Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Congressman Rick W. Allen (R-Ga-12) held a telephone town hall last week to answer questions from residents of Georgia’s 12^th District. Congressman Allen gave an update on important issues facing our nation such as tax reform, funding our military, deregulation efforts, and President Trump’s first five hundred days in office.

For those who were unable to participate in the call, here are some of the highlights:

Linda from Grovetown asked what Congress is doing to help students with staggering student loan debt:

Congressman Allen: “We [are] reauthoriz[ing] higher education through the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act. This is going to help more Americans by simplifying and improving student aid…empowering students and families to make informed decisions and ensuring strong accountability and limiting the federal role…What we have to do is give students more options and allow them to look at programs that will get them into the workplace much earlier.

The PROSPER Act has passed through committee, but it has not been brought to the House floor for a vote… we need to get it there because we have 6.5 million jobs open in this country and as I said before, for the first time ever we have more jobs available than people seeking jobs. This is one of the best times in history for young people to get upward mobility in the workforce right out of high school.”

Glenda from Statesboro asked about the paperwork process at the VA:

Congressman Allen: “I’ll be honest; this comes up all the time. Our Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee hears it as well and unfortunately, it is the government red tape and bureaucracy. One of the things we have done is attack this type of red tape on our agencies, but you would not believe the amount of push-back we get. We will continue working to improve this process at the VA.”

Mike from Augusta asked what we have done to protect our power grid from threats across the world:

Congressman Allen: “I can share some of this with you, but a lot of what I know is classified information. As you know the Department of Energy is in charge of all of this, and they are collaborating with the Department of Defense and we’re upping our game. I feel good about what is going on as the Secretary [of Energy] was just down in our district, and we had a nice conversation at the Savannah River Site... We are collaborating with the Department of Defense, and I assure you we are in a better position than we were yesterday.”

Betty asked about Social Security:

Congressman Allen: “I’ve got some good news for you, and it’s news I have not been able to give in the last eight years… because of President Trump’s policies, the economy has grown over three percent. With this growth, we will be able to increase Social Security benefits by two percent, and I feel sure that in coming years there will be another... As I explain on my calls and in the district, all of this is tied to the growth of the economy. And for about eight years, we had a stagnant economy, but we think with continued work in this Congress and with President Trump, we are going to see increased benefits in the future.”

Graham from Metter asked what we are doing about Obamacare:

Congressman Allen:  "As far as healthcare is concerned, we have a lot of work to do. I have had a lot of meetings with folks from the district, and we’ve discussed various ways to fix this problem… but unfortunately, our healthcare bill did not pass as it failed by one vote.

That would have fixed the problem as we were going to block grant [funds to the state]. This top down bureaucratic system is not working. We pay twice as much as any developed nation. We are over spending by twenty percent on healthcare, and growing. This is not sustainable. We have to bring in all groups and come up with solutions. We have solutions, but we’ve got to pass them. I believe that if we continue this process that things will improve, as we have met with the President and his [Department of Health and Human Services] Secretary. There is tremendous opposition to what we are trying to do here. Obamacare is imploding as we speak...we are working on that and we are going to fix [healthcare].”

If you would like to sign up for the next telephone town hall, please sign up here. If you would like to learn more about the work Congressman Allen is doing in Washington and for the 12th District, please sign up for his weekly e-newsletter here.

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