WASHINGTON, DC (August 20, 2010) – Congressman Gus Bilirakis (FL-09) on Friday issued the following statement in regards to the ongoing delays and setbacks for St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at the site of the 9/11 attack:

WASHINGTON, DC (August 17, 2010) – Because of his continued support for the nation’s military, veterans and military families, Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.) was honored Tuesday with the L. Mendel Rivers Award of Excellence from the Air Force Sergeants Association.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (2 June) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s Health Subcommittee, today announced a field hearing at New Port Richey City Hall on June 8 to examine the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) efforts to provide recreational therapy to our nation’s wounded warriors. Bilirakis will be joined by fellow Health Subcommittee members  U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.). Veterans, health care professionals from the VA and providers of recreational services will be among the witnesses testifying.

“When our heroes return home from the battlefront, we must use every resource available to help them lead normal and productive lives,” said Bilirakis. “This hearing will allow us to examine one of the many new avenues to accomplish this vitally important goal.” 

Therapeutic recreation focuses on all aspects of improving an individual’s health and functioning and is a vital component of integrated medical care at the VA. James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa is home to a dynamic recreation therapy services program.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (12 May) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District including portions of Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, will be hosting a home foreclosure assistance workshop on Saturday, May 22, 2010.
 
The event will be held at Freedom High School, 17410 Commerce Park Blvd. Tampa, Fla., from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Topics to be discussed at the workshop include: guidance on working with lenders and housing counselors, refinancing and loan modification options and information about HUD's loss mitigation program for FHA mortgages.

"Given the downturn in the Tampa area housing market, many families are concerned about their most important investment," said Bilirakis. “This event will provide families who are concerned about their current housing situation with the chance to sit down with banks and institutions that can help them navigate this uncertain time."

According to the latest report from RealtyTrac, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area ranks 26th in the nation among metropolitan areas for foreclosures, with a rate of one in every 69 housing units.

Representatives from the following organizations will be available to provide counseling free of charge:

• Bank of America
• JP Morgan Chase
• SunTrust
• Fifth Third Bank
• Ocwen Financial
• Wells Fargo
• Wachovia
• HUD
• VA Regional Loan Center
• Bay Area Legal Services
• Florida Department of Financial Services
• Hillsborough County Tax Collector
• Hillsborough County Government-Affordable Housing Unit
• Catholic Charities
• Center of Affordable Homeownership
• Tampa Bay CDC Housing
• St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing
• Consumer Credit Counseling Service
• Housing and Education Alliance

If attendees plan to meet with a financial institution they should bring copies of the following items to the workshop for better assistance:

• Driver’s license
• W-2 for 2008 and 2008 (IRS Wage and Tax Statement)
• Tax returns for the past 2 years
• Past due mortgage bill or any relevant mortgage information
• Pay stubs for the past three months

WASHINGTON (5 May) – On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.) introduced H.R. 5208, the Student Visa Security Improvement Act, which would improve the background checks conducted on student visa applicants from high risk areas and enhance America’s ability to ensure, once in the country, foreign students are abiding by the terms of their visas.

"Everyone understands the important role foreign students play in our society. However, we must remain vigilant both domestically and abroad to ensure that terrorists do not use our student visa process as a back door into our country," said Bilirakis, who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee.  “Over the past several years there have been multiple instances which demonstrate shortcomings in our ability to properly screen and monitor foreign students.”

Earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disrupted student visa fraud schemes where individuals fraudulently obtained or maintained student visas even though the students were not attending class. Additionally, the admitted Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, reportedly first entered the United States on a student visa in 1998, while several 9/11 terrorists had violated the terms of their student visas.

The Student Visa Security Improvement Act would require ICE personnel stationed at high-risk visa issuing posts overseas to review student visa applications and conduct interviews with applicants before they are granted a student or exchange visa. The legislation also calls for more vigilant monitoring of foreign students once they are in the country by ensuring they are active participants in the programs in which they are enrolled and are observed more often than is currently required.

“The legislation I introduced today would more effectively ensure that foreign students are coming to the United States to receive an education and are attending class once here,” Bilirakis added.

WASHINGTON (23 April) – U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, today issued the following statement in response to the analysis of the Democrats’ health care law from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

"This sobering report confirms what many Floridians have known from day one; ObamaCare will cause health care costs to rise while jeopardizing access to care for seniors. According to the analysis, millions of seniors across the country will be forced off their current Medicare coverage and national health care costs will increase by more than $300 billion over the next decade.

“ObamaCare should be replaced with sensible solutions that will bring down health care costs and give Florida’s seniors piece of mind.”

PLANT CITY, Fla. (14 April) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, today announced a field hearing at the City Hall in Plant City on April 19 to examine pipeline security. Bilirakis will be joined by the Chairman of the Subcommittee, U.S. Rep Chris Carney (D-Pa.). Officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Hillsborough County will be among the witnesses testifying.

The Tampa Bay area is home to hundreds of miles of pipelines carrying oil, gas, jet fuel and other chemicals. Over the past several years, there have been multiple instances of individuals rupturing pipelines in the area. In November 2007, a 30-mile-long anhydrous ammonia pipeline in Riverview, Florida, was vandalized which led to the release of a poisonous chemical cloud, forcing hundreds of local residents to evacuate.

Last June, a Bilirakis-authored provision to clarify federal pipeline safety and security procedures and determine whether additional measures are necessary to protect our nation’s critical pipelines passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

WHO:           U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Chris Carney (D-Pa.)
              
WHAT:         Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight field hearing: “Unclogging Pipeline Security: Are the Lines of Responsibility Clear?”  

WHEN:         10 A.M., Monday, April 19
                             
WHERE:       Plant City City Hall, 302 West Reynolds Street, Plant City, FL 33563

WITNESSES:

Panel 1

Jack Fox
General Manager, Pipeline
Transportation Security Administration

 Jeff Wiese
 Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety
 Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
Department of Transportation

Gary L. Forman
Chair
Pipeline Sector Coordinating Council

Paul W. Parfomak
Specialist in Energy and Infrastructure Policy
Congressional Research Service

Panel 2

Larry Gispert
Director
Hillsborough County Emergency Management

Ron Rogers
Assistant Chief - Administration
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue

Ed Duncan
Colonel
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

WASHINGTON (21 March) – This evening U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, issued the following statement after voting against the trillion dollar health care overhaul:

“Today, Congress missed a chance to reform health care in a sensible and equitable way.

"Instead of working to produce real health care reform that would lower costs, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have passed a trillion dollar expansion of the federal government marred with special deals, mandates, tax hikes and Medicare cuts. Simply put, this heavy-handed approach will negatively impact families, seniors, veterans and businesses alike while leading to higher premiums and more government intervention.”

WASHINGTON (16 March) - Today U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, delivered the following remarks after published reports that House Democrats will bend the rules in an effort to ram through the Senate health care bill without a clear recorded vote:

"Madam Speaker, Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution says that in order for a "Bill" to "become a Law," it "shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate."

"Yet, yesterday Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed the so called “Slaughter Rule”, which would merely "deem" that the House has passed the Senate health-care bill and then send it to President Obama to sign without a direct, recorded vote.

"This scheme is misguided, arrogant and fundamentally wrong.

"The Speaker reportedly added: "Nobody wants to vote for the Senate bill." Given the facts that among other things the $1 trillion bill is marred with special deals, mandates, tax hikes and Medicare cuts – It is no wonder they don’t want to vote for it.

"Considering the wide-ranging affects this trillion dollar effort to change health care will have – The American people deserve a clear up or down vote on this bill."

WASHINGTON (11 March) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, today issued the following statement after the House Republican Conference adopted a unilateral moratorium on earmarks:

"Middle-class families and small businesses across Florida are making sacrifices when it comes to their own budgets, yet Washington continues to spend trillions of taxpayer dollars on bailouts and pet projects. This out of control spending is an insult to every hard-working taxpayer, and today I am proud to join with my House Republican colleagues to adopt an immediate ban on all earmarks."

WASHINGTON (25 February) – During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, pressed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to take prompt action to bolster our nation’s visa screening capabilities overseas in order to keep terrorists out of the United States.

WASHINGTON (1 February) – U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, today issued the following statement after the release of the White House’s record $3.8 trillion FY2011 budget proposal:

“I have been encouraged by President Obama’s recent calls for fiscal responsibility, but unfortunately the budget numbers presented today don’t match the rhetoric.

“Under President Obama's new budget, the deficit soars to a record $1.56 trillion and puts the nation on a course to more than double the national debt held by future generations. The proposal is more of the same out-of-control deficit spending and higher taxes that we have seen from this Administration over the past year.

“While I recognize that the burden of fiscal responsibility falls on the shoulders of both parties, the answer isn’t to combat spending and deficits with even greater spending and increased debt. The President is correct that we need to get Washington’s fiscal house in order to achieve sustainable economic growth, but this budget’s trajectory is simply unsustainable and doesn’t put us on a path to achieve that goal.”

View the President’s FY2011 Budget of the U.S. Government at http://www.budget.gov.

WASHINGTON (27 January) – U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, this evening released the following statement on President Barack Obama's first State of the Union Address:

“Tonight President Obama outlined a welcomed, although small step toward fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, I fear that freezing 1/6 of the federal budget after a year of enormous spending increases which have already set us on a course to double the size of the $12 trillion national debt is little more than a political ploy.

"Instead of pushing an agenda that burdens the nation with new taxes and crushing deficits, I believe that the best way to encourage job creation is to allow families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn so they can innovate, grow, and create jobs to turn our economy around.

“As Congress begins anew in 2010, I am hopeful that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats will work to incorporate Republican ideas and put forth proposals that reduce spending and cut taxes to match the President’s lofty rhetoric."

WASHINGTON (21 January) - U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight today, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging prompt action to enhance our nation’s visa screening capabilities overseas to keep terrorists out of the United States.

In the letter, Bilirakis highlighted the need to expand the Visa Security Program, which places highly-trained security officers at overseas posts to thoroughly investigate and scrutinize visa applicants. Currently only 14 of the 220 Department of State posts around the world have Visa Security Units, while 40 have been identified as ‘high priority’.

“I am greatly troubled that expansion of this vital terrorist screening program does not appear to be a priority of the Administration, especially since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly received a visa in London, which does not have a Visa Security Unit,” the letter said. “Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a plan for deploying additional Visa Security Units in the coming years, the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget request only included funding to continue visa security activities at existing high-risk locations, not expand these terrorist detection capabilities.”

In June, Bilirakis sponsored an amendment to H.R. 2892, the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which shifted $1.7 million from administrative functions at the Department to be used solely to open additional Visa Security Units. The House approved this amendment by a vote of 423 to 6 on June 24, 2009. Unfortunately, the final conference agreement on the bill only included $500,000 for this purpose.

“The Visa Security Program is the nation’s first-line of defense against those who want to gain visas to do us harm, and we should be aggressively examining visa applications to identify potential terrorists before they obtain a visa to the United States,” said Bilirakis.

To read the letter in its entirety click here.