Washington, DC- As the sub-prime mortgage crisis deepens, Congressman Jon Porter introduced legislation today to implement temporary mortgage financing assistance for families struggling with the current mortgage crisis. Nevada’s third Congressional district is the third fastest growing in the country and has been one of the hardest hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

During 2008, 1.8 million sub-prime borrowers will see their adjustable rate mortgages reset upward, with increases every six months to follow. Nevada has the highest rate of foreclosures in the United States with 1 in 154 homes in foreclosure versus the national average of 1 in 555.

“The sub-prime housing crisis has been a major factor in triggering the economic challenges our country is facing,” Porter said. “Expanding this bonding authority will help ensure that Nevada families keep their homes by offering sustainable refinancing options and bringing greater stability to the market.”

Under current law, state and local governments may issue bonds to finance new mortgage loans for first-time homebuyers. Porter’s legislation would temporarily expand the use of this program to include refinancing of sub-prime loans by temporarily changing Section 143 of the IRS code. The proposal would also allow states to issue up to $15 billion in additional bonds over the next three years, providing homebuyers facing foreclosure the opportunity to refinance at a more reasonable rate. Nationally it is estimated that the proposal would help roughly 80,000 families restructure their loans, according to the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is among five House Republicans scheduled to visit Europe next week to tour energy facilities in three countries.

The nine-day taxpayer-funded trip will include stops at nuclear and oil and gas entities in France, Azerbaijan and Turkey
“The congressman’s constituents demand a more diversified energy portfolio with the price of oil at more than $100 a barrel and nationwide scrutiny of coal-fired power plants,” said Porter spokesman Matt Leffingwell.

The lawmakers plan to depart Sunday from Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and fly to France.
They will tour the Areva nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in La Hague, France and meet with officials of the French ministries of defense and environment who have jurisdiction over fissile material.

A staunch opponent of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Porter wants to learn how France meets 78 percent of its energy needs with nuclear energy, Leffingwell said.

Porter is open to the idea of reprocessing nuclear fuel in the United States to avoid the necessity of nuclear waste storage.
The lawmakers are scheduled to leave France on Wednesday and travel to Azerbaijan, which is bordered by Russia to the north and Iran to the south.

They plan to touring the Sangachal oil and gas terminal, one of the world’s largest fuel processing facilities and a key source of energy for the United States.

Meetings are scheduled with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev; Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov and Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev.

After leaving Azerbaijan on Friday, the congressional delegation plans to visit Adana, Turkey and tour the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline, which stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

Following the tour, the lawmakers plan to travel to Ankara and meet with Ali Babacan, Turkey’s minister of foreign affairs, and members of the Turkish parliament who serve on energy and natural resources committees.

Porter and the other lawmakers — Republicans Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Phil English and Bill Shuster, both of Pennsylvania, and John Sullivan of Oklahoma — are scheduled to return Jan. 15 to Washington.

Washington, D.C. – In an effort to save lives and eliminate adverse medical reactions due to preventable prescription errors Congressman Jon Porter and Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) introduced legislation today encouraging the use of e-prescribing. E-prescribing involves prescriptions being sent electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy, as opposed to the use of paper scripts. The goal of the bill, the E-MEDS Act of 2007, is to eliminate the medical errors, injuries, hospitalizations, and 7,000 deaths annually that can result from illegible prescriptions and bad drug interactions.

A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Kerry (D-Mass.), Ensign (R-Nev.), Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Martinez (R-FL) earlier today.

The bipartisan legislation encourages physicians to use e-prescribing in Medicare by providing a substantial one-time payment bonus to physicians for the initial cost of purchasing e-prescribing technology. The bill also provides an extra 1% percent bonus for the administrative costs attached to every Medicare prescription a doctor writes electronically. In order to ensure widespread adoption of e-prescribing, the bill also establishes financial penalties for Medicare physicians who do not begin using e-prescribing by 2011.

“E-prescribing is a necessary and constructive step to move our health care system into the 21st Century,” Porter said. “With the adoption of e-prescribing technology many lives will be saved, fewer errors will occur and the quality of patients’ care will drastically improve.”

The bill has widespread support from patient advocates, the medical community, consumer, labor and business groups.

Organizations and businesses that support mandatory e-prescribing:

AARP, Consumers Union, Families USA, National Consumers League, National Partnership for Women & Families, SEIU, AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, HR Policy Association, The ERISA Industry Committee, Aetna, The Corporate Health Care Coalition (CHCC), The National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Pension Plans, Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System, The Public Sector HealthCare RoundtablePacific Business Group on Health, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Walgreens, RxHub, The Coalition for a Competitive Pharmaceutical Market, Apotex, and the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

Bill provisions:
Provide permanent Medicare funding for one-time grants to physicians to help offset the start-up costs to physicians of acquiring and implementing e-prescribing technology.

Provide permanent Medicare funding for payment bonuses to physicians for use of e-prescribing. For every Medicare prescription that is written electronically, physicians will be paid an extra 1% bonus.

Starting on Jan 1, 2011, physicians will be required to write their Medicare outpatient prescriptions electronically. Physicians that continue to write prescriptions by hand will face a per-claim financial penalty.

The Secretary of HHS will be given authority to grant one- or two-year hardship waivers for physicians who face particular difficulties in acquiring and implementing e-prescribing – especially those from rural areas or very small (or solo) practices.

GAO and CMS will be directed to report within two years on the status of e-prescribing adoption within Medicare.

Congressman Jon Porter headlined a caucus-training event for residents of Sun City Anthem Saturday, the Las Vegas area’s second-largest age-restricted community. Porter spoke for about an hour before the training began and used the time to both defend his record and attack the record of “the Pelosi Congress.”

“There’s only eleven percent support for the Nancy Pelosi Congress,” said Porter. “Doesn’t surprise me, when all we’re doing is renaming post offices. What are we accomplishing? Nothing.”

Porter discussed a number of important issues that had come before Congress, including comprehensive immigration reform, which had died in the Senate, a minimum wage increase which Porter said he “voted against the first time” and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP, which Porter had opposed until “significant improvements” were made.

Porter’s biggest complaint against the current Congress was in the area of tax policy, where Porter accused Pelosi of already passing the “largest tax increase in the history of our country.”

“A $300 or $400 billion tax increase was passed in April. I voted against it. I put in amendments to try to save some of the tax incentives, the tax breaks. This Congress today, their goal is take away many of the tax breaks that the Bush administration and the Republican Congress put in place.”

Porter’s speech was at a meeting of the Sun City Anthem Republican Special Interest Group or SIG. Sun City Anthem is an age-restricted retirement community of well over 6,500 households in the southern portion of Porter’s district.

This was the third Republican caucus-training event Porter has attended. After his speech, the congressman was unwilling to estimate Republican turnout for the Jan. 19 caucus, but said he expected it to be “better than average.”

“I think it’s a little bit early to tell,” said Porter. “We’re really organized right now. We were behind the Democrats and I think we’re catching up real fast. By the way, I applaud the Democrats for starting this. It’s been a good thing for Nevada.”

LAS VEGAS - While Gov. Jim Gibbons has committed to protecting Nevada’s child welfare budget from the 8 percent possible cuts faced by other state entities, federal revenue sources are now in doubt.

Nevada may lose its share of Medicaid funding that pays for services to severely emotionally disturbed children, said Nevada Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden. That funding is roughly $8 million. And federal resources that help pay for foster care costs are restricted by rules that block Nevada from recovering all the money it’s eligible to get.

“Without federal Medicaid support, children in high-level care will be difficult to support,” Willden said Monday. “We continue to see a lot of balking over who should be paying for this.”

Funding concerns weighed heavily on participants in a roundtable on child welfare called by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. The meeting was the second one Porter has convened to respond to problems within Clark County Family Services, such as the deaths of children in foster care, the lack of training and sufficient staff within the department, and underreporting of child fatalities that may have been related to abuse or neglect.

The shortcomings in the system aren’t a secret, said Clark County Director of Family Services Tom Morton. But attempts to address them have been slowed by the budgeting problems at the state level.

Morton had to hold off filling new positions created by legislators to reduce caseloads in child welfare until he was sure the money would be there. The state is in the process of identifying more than $285 million in state spending that can be cut should tax revenues fail to meet projections.

It wasn’t until Nov. 13 that Gibbons exempted child welfare from future cuts. With that assurance, Morton said he is proceeding to fill all of the 58 new positions approved by the state.

Morton also asked Porter to explore possible changes in rules governing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. Now, the state can’t get federal matching funds for services if family members who take in children decline to obtain foster parent licensing.

Morton asked Porter to consider that the cost of supporting families is less than the cost of putting a child in foster care.

Porter said he would discuss the federal funding issues with other members of Nevada’s delegation when he returns to Washington, D.C.

“All of these children belong to all of us,” Porter said. “It’s our responsibility to take care of them.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Jon Porter announced the House of Representatives passed HR 770, a bipartisan resolution designating a week, at the discretion of the Library of Congress, as “National Veterans History Project Week.” The special observance mobilizes America to record the oral history of its wartime veterans.

“The goal is to honor veterans and ensure that their stories are available for future generations,” Porter said. “We owe every freedom we have to the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans. Their experience teaches us about the power of the human spirit and the realities of war. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that their history is honored and preserved.”

The resolution calls upon the people of the U.S. to interview at least one veteran from their families or communities, following guidelines provided by the Veterans History Project.

It encourages local, state, and national organizations along with federal, state, and local governmental institutions to document, preserve, and honor the service of American wartime veterans.

The Veterans History Project relies on the efforts of volunteer interviewers from veterans’ service organizations, libraries, historical societies, museums, retirement communities, professional associations, governmental agencies, universities, high school students, and families to contribute to its collections, which currently number more than 50,000.

Those interested in participating in the “Veterans History Project” can learn more on Porter’s Web site, www.house.gov.porter or visit the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project site at www.loc.gov/ vets and download a VHP Field Kit.

WASHINGTON — Once the lightning rod was taken down, it became that much easier for Nevada lawmakers to earmark a federal grant to the Las Vegas charter school founded by Andre Agassi, budget watchdogs said Thursday.

A 2008 spending bill for labor, education and health programs that Congress is trying to finalize this week or next contains $500,000 for technology curriculum and training at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.

The funding was in question for a few days in July when a cadre of Republican conservatives challenged what then was a $200,000 earmark in an earlier House version of the bill. They charged that Agassi, a Las Vegas philanthropist and former professional tennis star, shouldn’t need a federal handout.

But Nevada Reps. Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter defended the school and fought off an amendment that would have stripped out the money.

Meanwhile, Sen. Harry Reid inserted $500,000 in a corresponding bill in the Senate, and it passed the body without notice. A conference committee harmonizing the House and Senateversions settled on the higher amount.

Nevadans justified the earmark as a deserved federal contribution to a showcase school in which Agassi has donated millions of his own money and continues to subsidize its students. The school, established in 2001 at 1201 W. Lake Mead Blvd., aims to improve education opportunities for at-risk students.

Budget watchdogs said they think they saw another reason why the Las Vegas earmark might have enjoyed smooth sailing once it left the House.

Unlike the House bill, the Senate measure contained no mention of Agassi. Instead, the $500,000 was earmarked “to integrate technology into the curriculum of a charter school in Las Vegas.” That enabled it to blend in among 1,173 line items in a 337-page bill.

“It is what it is,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog organization. “Earmarks are often written in obscure language so people don’t necessarily know everything about it.”

Reid spokesman Jon Summers maintained the project was not disguised to avoid earmark hawks who might have been be looking for targets. The money appropriately was listed as going to the “Charter School Development Fund,” the formal name of the Agassi school’s funding base, he said.

Anyone looking for the line item could have found it, Summers said. “It was not a secret that it was in there,” he said.

David Williams, policy director of Citizens Against Government Waste, said if researchers really wanted to find the earmark “we probably could have. But it would have been difficult.”

“In this case, it was probably done to hide it,” Williams said.

Williams explained that researchers sift through bills looking for “lightning rods” they can spotlight to further their arguments that earmarked spending is wasteful. Agassi, who is world-renowned, was a lightning rod, he said.

“No disrespect to Andre Agassi, but if you don’t see that name, you just go on to the next one (line item),” Williams said.

Washington, DC – The Department of Veterans’ Affairs issued a memo this week to all cemetery directors in the National Cemetery Administration that states the 13-fold flag recitation will be allowed at military funerals. Employees and volunteers will be able to recite the ceremony if requested by the family.

“I commend the VA for their reversal on their previous 13-fold flag policy,” Porter said who, along with 126 Members of Congress, sent a letter to the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs demanding a reversal of the policy disallowing the 13-fold flag recitation. “This is a victory for military families and veterans who should not have their funeral decisions dictated by Washington bureaucrats.”

In addition to the letter Porter co-signed to the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, he was a co-sponsor of H. Res. 783, that expresses the Sense of Congress that the Veteran’s Affairs National Cemetery Administration employees, volunteers, and veterans’ service organizations that perform funeral honors and memorial honor details should be permitted to recite the 13 steps to fold an American flag at any national cemetery if requested by the family of the deceased (attached). To date H. Res. 783 has 57 cosponsors.

The issue over the recitation, which includes references to Judaism and Christianity, was prompted by one complaint to the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. Press Enterprise (www.pe.com) reported that since the complaint, federal workers and volunteers have been instructed not to perform the recitation even if requested by the family. According to Veterans’ Affairs, the decision to disallow the recitation was made to provide uniformity in the funeral ceremony.

Washington, DC - Today, Congressman Porter introduced the Mesquite Lands Act of 2007, H.R. 4018, to authorize the City of Mesquite, state of Nevada and the Virgin Valley Water District to acquire parcels of public land to provide for continued urban and economic growth. This legislation will amend existing federal law and allow for the continued expansion and prosperity of the community.

The Mesquite Lands Act of 2007 authorizes the City of Mesquite to acquire approximately 4900 acres of BLM land that surrounds the proposed Mesquite Airport for industrial development. The City will be permitted to purchase the property at fair market value. This method of sale will ensure that the City has control over any future development that occurs adjacent to the airport.

“This land transfer reflects Mesquite’s interest in diversifying their economic base,” Porter said. “Their leaders are forward-thinking in anticipating the need to have a variety of opportunities to sustain the community’s success.”

For the last decade, Mesquite has experienced phenomenal growth. Because of the rapid growth, there are ongoing challenges to keep pace with infrastructure demands. This legislation will grant permanent ownership of approximately 300 additional acres to the Virgin Valley Water District which will allow it to upgrade its’ facilities preventing disruption of water services and enable the district to better serve its customers.

“I am pleased that, through this legislation, we are able to give Mesquite the land it needs to provide the quality of life that the community demands,” Porter said.

Washington, DC - Congressman Jon Porter testified before the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands today regarding the Orchard Basin Flood Control Act, H.R. 816, which Porter introduced earlier this year.

The Orchard Basin Flood Control Act would transfer 65 acres of land in the Sunrise Mountain Instant Study Area to Clark County for the construction of a regional flood control project known as the Orchard Detention Basin and Collection System. The land is strategically located at a central point for flood control efforts. In addition, the basin is a vital part of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District’s master plan to protect the rapidly growing Las Vegas Valley from flooding. This project is designed to shield 1,200 acres of urban land from flash floods and help mitigate the potential risks to residential communities, homes, schools and businesses.

Congressman Porter called for the swift passage of this legislation, which would allow for construction to begin immediately on the Orchard Detention Basin Project. “Southern Nevada has, too often, lost lives and property to the flash flooding we experience every year,” Porter said, “Immediate passage of this legislation will allow Clark County to enhance flood control efforts which saves lives every year in my district.”