Press Releases

In case you missed it, Congressman Rick W. Allen (GA-12) held a telephone town hall earlier this week to answer questions from residents across Georgia’s 12^th District. Congressman Allen spoke with more than 5,000 constituents during the event, providing updates on the southern border crisis, House Republicans’ efforts to give parents a voice in their child’s education, and legislation he recently introduced to protect Americans’ retirement savings and help Georgia farmers.

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

Steven from Evans asked about how Congress plans to protect retirement savings.

Congressman Allen: “The last number I saw is that 401(k)s are down as much as 25% across the country, and it's just bad economic policy. And we've seen it created by the inflation… And the massive spending of this administration and the former majority spending over $5 trillion in a very, very short period of time. This has created an issue in the banking industry, so, obviously they don't know what they’re doing. It's pretty easy to fix it. All you have to do is unleash our economy; take the foot off the brake. We did it in 2016 – created the best economy in our generation and we were energy dominant for the first time since the 1950s.”

Chip from Dublin asked about the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.

Congressman Allen: “I've talked to both the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. There will be an intensive investigation into the management and the overall failures of that bank. Just looking at the top line and what they were involved in and how fast they grew, the bank was terribly managed. They obviously didn't know a lot about banking.

“They marketed that they were the most woke bank… And they marketed their services based on that rather than protecting depositors and a return to shareholders; and then made some horrible decisions on investing the massive deposits… This had been going on for two years and the bank examiners did not even make a note of this terrible management. So, again, we have got to have more oversight, and make sure that this doesn't happen again.”

Steven from Dublin asked about the origin of COVID-19.

Congressman Allen: “On March 10, 2023, the House of Representatives passed S. 619, the COVID-19 Origin Act, and it requires the Office of Director of the National Intelligence to declassify any information related to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of COVID-19. It passed the Senate and House unanimously, and it has been signed into law by the President.”

Michelle from Harlem asked about reports that TikTok is spying on Americans.

Congressman Allen: “TikTok is very destructive on our young people. I know more about TikTok now than I probably want to know about it, but certainly, they're not giving us the facts. Even if you've never been on TikTok, their trackers are embedded in sites across the web, and they have the ability to collect data… TikTok surveils all of us and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use that as a tool to manipulate the American [people]. They can manipulate the American people as a whole, and that's just something that is a powerful tool that we don't need in the hands of an adversary.”

Milton from Augusta asked about how Congress is working to strengthen domestic supply chains.

Congressman Allen: “The problem we’ve got right now is the regulatory environment in this country has just expanded exponentially under the current administration. We had done the Congressional Review Act in 2016 and stripped out a lot of the regulatory problems, and that's what really kicked off the best economy in our generation. But these manufacturers aren't going to invest and spend that kind of money if they think that they can't be competitive making their product here. We need to be open for business.”

“I co-sponsored the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021. It was bipartisan legislation, and it gave the Federal Maritime Commission more power to require international shipping companies that use our ports to provide our domestic exporters with shipping services. That was signed into law last year to deal with some of those supply chain issues.

To participate in future telephone town halls, visit www.allen.house.gov/live or click here to sign up.

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