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News for the Week
Bill aims to add disability-aid limits
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
3/16/2017
Arkansas Congressmen Respond to CBO Report
Talk Business & Politics
3/13/2017
Press Releases
Hill, Boozman Pen Letter to VA Secretary on Continued Solar Panel Failure
March 15, 2017
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) and Senator John Boozman (AR) sent a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin asking him to “swiftly resolve” the ongoing solar panel construction delays at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock.
In April of 2015, local news reports uncovered that VA mishandled $8 million in federal grant money to construct solar panels at the VA hospital in Little Rock, only to have them torn down before they were ever activated because they were not compatible with the local electricity grid.
Hill and Boozman called for Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General (VAIOG) to evaluate the planning process for renewable energy programs, like the solar panels at the Little Rock Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), to ensure these taxpayer-funded projects are able to work once constructed.
The VAOIG report, released last August, revealed that VA’s Green Management Program spent $408 million on solar projects from 2010 through 2015 and highlighted mismanagement and delays in solar projects throughout the country.
The IG report confirmed the construction in Little Rock took four years longer than expected and increased the price tag on the project by $1.5 million. The report anticipated final completion in January of this year but, missing another deadline, VA officials recently indicated April of this year would be the earliest that construction would be finished.
Click here to read the letter.
Hill, Cotton, Lee, and Rubio Introduce Legislation to Save Social Security Disability Insurance from Bankruptcy
March 15, 2017
WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Hill introduced the Return to Work Act of 2017 in the House of Representatives. The bill would reform the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Program by modernizing the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) classification of disability beneficiaries and incentivizing returning to work for beneficiaries who have recovered.
According to the Congressional Research Service, many disability insurance beneficiaries will never re-enter the workforce, and, in 2013, only 0.4 percent of all beneficiaries were removed from disability rolls due to employment. Between 1981 and 2013, the employment rate among working-age individuals with work-limiting disabilities fell nearly in half, from 24.4 percent to 14.4 percent. Senators Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Mike Lee (Utah), and Marco Rubio introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
After introduction of the bill, Rep. Hill released the following statement:
“SSDI was developed to be a safety net for those who suffer from a permanent, debilitating disability and to provide temporary assistance for those with a recoverable illness or disability while they heal, but disincentives to work and delays in continuing disability reviews have resulted in disabled individuals forgoing employment to remain on the program and maintain much needed benefits. In order to ensure that SSDI will continue to aid those who need it most and promote work for those willing and able, SSDI needs to be reformed. This bill is the type of reform that will keep the program solvent by helping those with recoverable illnesses and disabilities live full and independent lives by returning to the workforce. I am pleased to be joined by Senators Cotton, Lee, and Rubio in promoting this smart reform of this crucial program.”
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