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Gus Bilirakis: Student visas and the domestic terror threat

Across the United States, nearly 58,000 foreign students have outstayed their student visas in just the past year alone. Of those 58,000, over 6,000 are now unaccounted for by the Department of Homeland Security.

These gaps in the student visa system pose serious security threats to the United States and exploit the laws that allow for legitimate academic and cultural visitors, which I support.

"In my Congressional district, Pasco County had dozens of oxycodone-caused deaths – some of the highest rates in Florida. Although serious strides have been made over the past few years, we still have a lot of work to do. I advocated for Pasco County to be a part of the HIDTA program, and I am happy to announce its inclusion," said Bilirakis. "We have fantastic local law enforcement in Pasco County. Being a part of the HIDTA means more money and resources for them to combat prescription drug abuse and drug trafficking.

"I have continuously heard from working families about how rising gas prices were negatively impacting their household budgets. This bill is a substantive step towards more affordable energy prices and job creation across the country. In addition to higher costs at the pump, rising fuel prices have led to increases in groceries and utilities. Domestic energy production helps middle class Americans with these everyday costs," Bilirakis said. "I want affordable energy prices and good-paying jobs for my constituents and Americans across the country.

"Five years ago, the President spoke before Congress about his health care law and said ‘under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.' Like so many other things in the President's health care law, it turns out this statement is just another broken promise. Republicans and Democrats have come together for years, believing that taxpayer dollars should not fund elective abortion.

"Healthcare costs will increase if the FDA imposes an additional layer of regulations on laboratories developing diagnostic tests. We should be working to encourage innovation in diagnostic testing, rather than adding more regulations which will impose additional burdens and slow improvement of lab-developed tests. Better diagnosis means preventing or treating diseases sooner, while delivering higher quality health care at lower costs. The FDA's regulations will achieve the opposite. More regulations will not benefit the patient."

"When the President said, ‘if you like your plan, you can keep it,' that was deemed PolitiFact's Lie of the Year. Then, millions of Americans across the country in the individual market received cancellation notices; they felt the impacts of the broken promises of the President's health care law," Bilirakis said.

"Healthcare.gov has been plagued with errors since day one. Unfortunately, it is no surprise Healthcare.gov was hacked which potentially jeopardizes the personally identifiable information of Americans. I saw this coming, which is why I introduced H.R. 3795, the One Hour Notification (OH No) Act, in December of 2013," Bilirakis said.