Representative Turner
Major Votes:
On July 25, Rep. Turner voted to pass the Restoring Access to Medication Act which repeals provisions of the IRS code that limit payments for medications from health savings accounts and other types of accounts.
Rep.Turner also voted to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Turner voted to pass the Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2018, which permanently repeals the excise tax on the sale of medical devices. This tax was part of the funding mechanism for the ACA.
Rep. Turner joined a unanimous House vote to pass the VA Hospitals Establishing Leadership Performance Act, which will require more rigorous standards for hiring certain VA personnel.
Turner also voted to pass the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
On Twitter, Rep. Turner tweeted about his successful effort to secure funding for a new building for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patt and retweeted his statement on Fox News: “[Pres. Trump is] having a very positive impact on the capability and the funding for NATO.”
Senator Portman
Major Votes:
Sen. Portman voted to confirm Robert Wilkie as secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs and announced that funding for Wright-Patterson’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center and other military sites in Ohio has been included in the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
Other Activity
On 7/25 at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Portman
had words of praise for Sec. of State Pompeo related to his support for Ukraine, but encouraged him to use tools such as the Global Engagement Center to more forcefully push back against Russian interference in the elections of other nations and stated his desire that statements regarding Russia “both in public and private [be] clear and consistent”.
On 7/26, Sen. Portman and Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) released a joint statement condemning Russian illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
On Twitter, Sen. Portman stated his support for the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In addition, he is pushing the Protecting Taxpayers Act to “restructure and reform” the IRS to make it “more responsive and more accountable” and the DATA Act which is intended to make publicly available “timely and accurate data on how [federal agencies spend] taxpayer dollars”.