Press Releases

Congressman Rick W. Allen (R-GA-12) held a telephone town hall on Monday to answer questions from citizens who live in the 12^th district of Georgia. Congressman Allen released the following statement today:

“On Monday, I was able to connect with thousands of people from across the 12^th district of Georgia on a telephone town hall. It was a pleasure to be able to give them an update on my work in Washington and in the district and to hear their questions. I was also able to ask poll questions to get a pulse of the district, and a snapshot of how people in the 12^th district feel about important issues facing the nation. The feedback is extremely helpful to me and my staff in order to better serve everyone in Georgia-12. Thank you to everyone who participated!”

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

Dale from Augusta asked why the Senate and House don’t want to utilize American capitalism for healthcare:

Congressman Allen: “The only way to bring down prices is competition and you made your point and made it very well. Free market is the way to do that, not only in the delivery of healthcare systems, but also in the insurance industry.  We have very few insurance companies, right now…and we want insurance companies competing for our business. Our legislation we passed back in May provided for that. We also provided for those who have pre-existing conditions, and we were going to provide for a free market solution. We were going to return the relationship back to the doctor and the patient. These are things or initiatives that we must do if we’re going to bring down healthcare costs and healthcare premiums.”

Fred from Statesboro asked why Congress refuses to support Trump:

Congressman Allen: “I have voted 100% with the President’s agenda. Unfortunately, I’ve got some colleagues that don’t see it that way, and it is disappointing. Frankly, I’m probably as angry about it as everybody listening to this call.

“Just keep praying and hopefully my colleagues will get in line. I know I can’t wait for Washington to get these things done, and I, like the President came from the business world, and these are great bills that will work for the American people. Again, I agree with the frustration level. Like I said, nobody is more frustrated than all of us here, and the Congress that is supporting our President and trying to move this country in a different direction.”

David from Evans asked what Congress is doing to stop illegal immigration to get jobs back to Americans:

Congressman Allen: “What we’ve had for the last eight years is open borders.

“We have laws on the books. This Congress and this President are enforcing those laws, but there need to be reforms. If those laws are not working, we need to fix the laws and obey the laws. We need to build the wall. We appropriated 1.6 billion dollars [in the House] to build the wall along the southern border because there are other things along that southern border that are a problem like the drug trade, and again, to stop illegal immigration…”

Gary from Baxley asked Congressman Allen’s thoughts on NAFTA:

Congressman Allen: “The President is intent on getting this fixed. It needs to be fixed worldwide. I agree 100% with you, and, like I said, we’re tackling it, and thank goodness this President is very serious about this. I think he’s going to want to approach this thing from an individual standpoint, rather than a big global standpoint... we would look at doing deals with individual countries where we could benefit not only from our exports, but also from the import side.

“I can assure you that we’re working on it, and we want to get our people in America back to work.”

Paige from Statesboro asked about expanding career and technical education:

Congressman Allen: “We have the greatest economic development opportunity probably in the history of, not only the 12th district of Georgia, but the state of Georgia. In fact, there are those who are moving to our area from Silicon Valley that are saying that we will be the Silicon Valley of the East Coast. Now, the one thing that’s going to prohibit that progress is a skilled workforce, and that’s why I am working so hard on things like authorization of our Career Technical Education Bill to ramp up this process because we have to get folks trained in coding and other things out there as soon as possible.

“Fort Gordon is very involved. Augusta University is very involved. We had a meeting of all of our school superintendents in the district back in August to talk about these and many other opportunities and challenges that we’re going to be faced with on this workforce of the future.

“…we have a great opportunity across this nation to finally grow this economy and get folks back to work. I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the challenges, and I want to thank you for what you’re doing [as a teacher] on behalf of our students. We are seeing some really good things around the district as we visit with our schools, and I’m hopeful that we can step up our game and meet this challenge.”

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, please sign up for his weekly e-newsletter here.

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