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Dear Friends,
Thank you for the honor of representing you in the United States Senate. I’ve written the following report to provide you with some of my work on your behalf in 2011 and I hope you find it useful.
Today our country faces serious challenges, from an economy still recovering to the ongoing war in Afghanistan, from political instability in the Middle East to economic uncertainty across Europe, from Americans too long out of work to struggles in our culture to promote families and an environmentally sustainable future for all of us.
Even so, too often this year Washington engaged in the politics of obstruction and gridlock. Instead of working together for the good of our country, people fought for political advantage.
Yet despite what I termed a penchant for job-killing gridlock, there were successes for Nebraskans and all Americans, and I was grateful for the opportunity to join in them. I also greatly enjoyed traveling across the state to meet with many of you and reaching out to students and thousands of Nebraskans through social media venues such as Facebook, and via Skype and telephone town halls.
Please take time to review this report. As always, I welcome your views and ideas about my efforts to represent you, and I look forward to serving you in the future.
Sincerely,
Ben Nelson
Cutting Spending, Stabilizing the Economy and Creating Jobs
With the soaring national debt and a still struggling economy, it is clear Washington needs to take real steps to bring down spending and the debt to help lead America back to fiscal health. There’s no better place to start than with the budgets for Congress.
To paraphrase Harry Truman: the buck shrinks here. I’m pleased to report that Congress passed a bipartisan budget I wrote as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch to cut the legislative branch fiscal 2012 budget by 5.2 percent. The reality is the bureaucracy never wants to be cut – and we encountered a lot of opposition – but my bill will cut more than $230 million from budgets for Congress and a about a dozen Capitol Hill agencies.
Nebraskans are justifiably frustrated with Washington’s continued struggles to cut spending. In order to force fiscal discipline, Sen. Mark Udall and I introduced a balanced budget amendment to get Washington to live within a budget, just like every Nebraska family does. Another measure Sen. Johnny Isakson and I introduced would require that unspent money from congressional office accounts be steered to paying down the national debt.
Our growing national debt forced Washington to raise the debt limit with a misguided plan I voted against the debt agreement because, first of all, it cuts Medicare. Further, it created even more uncertainty by setting up a maze of convoluted procedures that only continued the chaos and political games Nebraskans are tired of seeing.
Thankfully, Congress eventually passed the trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Columbia. Nebraska’s agricultural producers and industrial manufacturers have benefitted from free trade for decades, exporting more than $5.8 billion worth of products in 2010. I’m proud to have been Nebraska’s first governor to lead an international trade mission in 1991, and, as senator, one of my policy priorities has been to increase international trade and expand markets for American producers.
The year ended with efforts to extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans – including one million Nebraskans. This should not have been controversial. The payroll tax cut would prevent a tax hike on American families of all income levels, be fully paid for, not add a dime to the deficit, and would not undermine the Social Security Trust Fund.
But Washington’s job-killing partisan gridlock nearly raised the average Nebraska family’s taxes by $1,000 and forced a short-term stop-gap solution. I am optimistic that the payroll tax cut will be extended for a full year shortly after the New Year.
Strengthening Nebraska’s Agricultural Economy
In Nebraska, one in three jobs is tied to agriculture and our rich farming tradition shapes our values and culture. And so, since my days as governor, I’ve been committed to increasing opportunities for farmers and ranchers to earn a living from their land.
Our national agriculture policy must strengthen family farms and rural economies, enhance the nation's renewable fuels sector, safeguard America's food supply, expand and diversify America's agriculture, and preserve our rural habitats for generations to come.
This year began with two important opportunities to grow Nebraska’s agricultural economy: The EPA approved the use of fuel with higher blends of ethanol for a wider variety of cars and trucks, and the Department of Agriculture supported biomass and advanced renewable energy projects in Nebraska.
In 2010, the EPA raised the amount of ethanol that can be blended in fuel from 10 percent, known as E10, to 15 percent, known as E15, for all vehicles built after 2007. In January of 2011, the agency approved E15 for all vehicles built after 2001.
As a result of this approval, the ethanol is playing a larger role in helping us meet a requirement that the nation use 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. This will create more choice at the fuel pump for consumers and open the door to further development of ethanol from new domestic sources. As we do so, America will drive further along the road toward energy independence.
From my time as governor when I co-founded a national governor’s ethanol coalition, I’ve been a forceful advocate for expanding the ethanol industry in Nebraska and growing the market for ethanol across the country. Nebraska is the nation’s second largest producer of ethanol with 24 active ethanol production plants. More than 4,300 Nebraskans are employed directly or indirectly in ethanol production.
The Department of Agriculture’s support for Nebraska’s biomass and biogas and renewable energy projects was another important victory for Nebraska’s agricultural producers.
Nebraska has been a national leader in developing ethanol, wind, and the conversion of animal waste into clean-burning fuel. USDA’s announcement recognizes this leadership and is helping these Nebraska businesses and entrepreneurs further develop these technologies – resulting in greater energy independence, while creating jobs and economic growth in Nebraska.
In February, USDA responded to my request and allowed the planting of Roundup Ready sugar beets, which provided needed stability for Nebraska’s sugar beet growers. Roundup Ready sugar beets represent about 95 percent of the sugar beets planted in the United States, and Nebraska is the sixth largest beet producing state, growing more than one million tons of beets every year.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack made the right decision, particularly for the Panhandle, where sugar beet production supports hundreds of jobs and contributes more than $130 million annually to Nebraska's economy.
As I mentioned earlier, Nebraska’s agricultural producers won an important victory in October, as the Senate passed trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Columbia.
Both our agricultural producers and industrial manufacturers have benefitted from free trade for decades, exporting more than $5.8 billion worth of products in 2010. These new trade bills will help open new markets for Nebraskans, providing jobs and more growth for our state’s economy.
Some trading partners put up barriers, however, which prevent American producers from competing on a level playing field. In June, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and I urged U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to pressure Russia to end its unfair treatment of American pork producers. In December, I spoke at the U.S.-Russia Business Council’s Agribusiness Forum in Omaha and made clear that this issue must be cleared up before Russia gains membership in the World Trade Organization.
In addition to standing up to foreign countries for their unfair treatment of American agricultural producers, I’ve also stood up to the Washington bureaucracy. In October, Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas and I built support to delay a proposed Department of Labor rule that could change the structure of family farms and have a negative impact on the education of the next generation of farmers.
We sought to make sure the voices of farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers were heard about a rule that would, among other things, prohibit children younger than 16 from working on a farm or ranch that is not directly owned by their parents. After having time to review the proposed rule, in December we followed up by asking Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to withdraw the rule.
The Department of Labor should kill this rule before it undermines important traditions in rural America and hurts the farm economy. We need to increase opportunities for our family farmers and ranchers to strengthen our rural economies, not threaten them with new, unneeded regulations.
Enhancing Our National Security
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I strive to make sure our armed services and military personnel are prepared to fulfill America’s national security goals, and meet the strategic challenges of our ever-changing world.
In 2009, I became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces with jurisdiction over America’s strategic forces, nuclear weapons, national defense and nuclear deterrence, space programs and ballistic defense, which includes U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
After several years of working with the Pentagon, STRATCOM officials and the Omaha and Bellevue communities, I’m pleased to report that a new headquarters for STRATCOM won final approval in December. This marked a victory for both Nebraska’s economy and America’s national security.
Top Air Force officials, including STRATCOM commander General C. Robert Kehler, testified a number of times before Congress to explain that a new headquarters is needed for STRATCOM to fulfill its expanded missions, including protecting cyberspace, global strike and deterrence, space defenses, and combating weapons of mass destruction. General Kehler brought the importance of a 21st Century facility literally home when he testified before my subcommittee at a congressional field hearing in Bellevue in June.
We all celebrated our military’s most dramatic accomplishment of the year: bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. It took nearly a decade, but I hope Bin Laden's death brought a measure of justice to the families of those who lost loved ones in the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
Other highlights of the year included hearings I convened on implementing the New START treaty with Russia and the importance of our military space programs, the confirmation of Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense, elevating the head of the National Guard to membership in the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and authorizing important benchmarks to measure our progress towards a successful transition to the Afghan government leading all military operations in that country.
Protecting our national security also means keeping promises to the men and women who have volunteered to serve in the military. That’s why I urged Defense Secretary Panetta to reject a plan to scrap the military retirement program and sharply reduce benefits. Cutting retirement benefits to those now serving is patently unfair to our military members and their families, and puts in jeopardy the recruitment and retention of our nation’s future all-volunteer force.
In August, I hosted a rural veterans’ roundtable in Omaha for Nebraska veterans, Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki and regional VA officials. In addition to hearing the concerns of local veterans, we toured the Omaha VA Hospital, which is slated for a major overhaul, and discussed a plan I co-sponsored to help ensure our veterans receive the training, job counseling and education they need to transition out of the military and into productive lives as civilians.
Helping Nebraskans Recover from the Flood of 2011
The Flood of 2011 had a major impact across our state as record amounts of water flowed through the Platte and Missouri River systems. My staff and I monitored the situation closely and worked with federal officials to help them coordinate with Nebraska authorities and quickly help those affected by the flooding get their lives back to normal. I toured the flooded areas and met with officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers right away.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack came with me to view the flood damage firsthand in northeast Nebraska, and to give Nebraskans an opportunity to communicate directly with him. I urged the Administration to quickly approve disaster aid for Nebraska and appreciated its swift response in ordering federal aid to supplement the state and local response.
I heard from many Nebraskans who wanted a thorough accounting of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers management of the Missouri River, and I called for congressional hearing to investigate, and an outside report on the Corps procedures to see how this year’s flood damage could be prevented in the future. As the summer went on, I traveled to different parts of Nebraska to meet with local officials, farmers, small business owners and other individuals who suffered flood damage to make sure their voices were heard in Washington when it came time to repair and recover from this year’s historic floods.
To help speed our recovery, I introduced legislation to exempt roads, highways, or bridges damaged by a natural disaster from cumbersome environmental reviews when reconstruction is only to put them back to pre-flood conditions. The goal of my common-sense solution is to avoid delays and get flood-damaged roads, bridges and highways back in shape as soon as possible, so Nebraskans can again use them for travel or business and get back to life as normal. The Senate passed my plan in November.
Working to Improve Health Care
For more than a decade, Americans’ health care costs have been rising every year far faster than the rate of inflation, putting increasing pressure on Nebraska families and pushing more people out of health coverage. The Affordable Care Act Congress passed in 2010 takes steps to address the rising costs and availability of health care. I very much appreciate the views, stories and information I’ve received from health care professionals and Nebraskans about the law because they’ve helped shaped my views.
While some Members of Congress pursue repeal of the law, I will continue to support improvements. I do not support repeal because the consequences for Nebraskans would be significant. Repeal would impose a $57-billion hidden tax on insured Americans who pay for the health care of the uninsured. Further, repeal would again allow tens of thousands of Nebraska children with pre-existing medical conditions to be denied health coverage. More than 5,800 young adults would lose the ability to stay on their parents’ health plans until they turn 26. And 23,000 Nebraska seniors wouldn’t be able to buy prescriptions they now can purchase.
I have led and supported efforts to make common sense changes to the law, such as bipartisan legislation to eliminate the law’s misguided IRS Form 1099 requirements. They would have imposed a heavy burden on our agricultural producers, hospitals, restaurant owners and many Nebraska small businesses, and I’m glad we finally repealed it this year.
Another measure I introduced would save $13 billion and commit the savings to paying down the debt by making sure only truly lower-income Americans receive Medicaid.
There’s been much discussion about the individual mandate requiring Americans to obtain health insurance, the constitutionality of which will be considered next year by the United States Supreme Court. I asked the Government Accountability Office to lay out possible alternatives that Congress might consider if the individual mandate does not stand, and released their report on those options.
To help people obtain health coverage, the health care law provides funding to states so they can set up state-based health insurance exchanges, which are marketplaces for people to buy the best private insurance to fit their needs. The state of Nebraska accepted a federal grant of $1 million to get started and this year received another $5.4 million to work on establishing an exchange.
Given that the Governor opposes implementing a state exchange in Nebraska, I wrote to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to insist that federal dollars being used by state governments to create exchanges don’t go to waste if a state doesn’t establish one.
To help consumers save more money on medications, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas and I introduced legislation to change the law so that people who use Flexible Spending Arrangements or Health Savings Accounts won’t have to get prescription from their doctor to buy over-the-counter medications such as aspirin or antacids.
Throughout the year, I fought efforts to undermine Medicare, the health care safety net we’ve promised to America’s seniors for more than four decades. I heard a lot of concern from Nebraska seniors in particular about the Ryan budget plan that proposes to end Medicare and give seniors a voucher to buy insurance coverage. Medicare was set up because seniors couldn’t afford health coverage and, thus, the Ryan plan would balance the budget on the backs of seniors.
To improve Medicare, I joined a bipartisan group of senators introducing the SMART Act to make Medicare reimbursements more efficient. I’d heard about a Nebraska couple, the Allgoods, who were involved in an auto accident and nearly two years later were still caught in a battle with Medicare for reimbursement for medical care.
This year, I also was pleased that the Federal Communications Commission decided to maintain funding that was jeopardized for telehealth services at 235 rural hospitals nationwide, including those in Kearney, Grand Island, Fremont and Norfolk. I had written to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski urging the agency to continue federal support for tele-health to rural hospitals because Nebraskans shouldn’t have to drive very long distances to receive specialized care that telehealth provides.
On the topic of Nebraska’s rural health care system, the Nebraska State Office of Rural Health estimated that 94 health professionals in Nebraska received more than $1.5 million in loan repayment in 2011 through the Nebraska program for workforce shortage areas. The Health Professionals State Loan Repayment Tax Relief Act, which I passed in 2010, made sure that these professionals did not pay taxes on these loans, saving a collective $530,000. In total, from 2009 through 2011, 300 loan repayment recipients in Nebraska have saved more than $1.5 million from tax relief due to my legislation.
Promoting Nebraska’s Rural Communities
One of my top priorities has always been to make sure Nebraska’s rural communities remain vital places to live and work. As a native of McCook, it’s clear to me that our rural communities play critical roles in shaping what we call the good life in Nebraska and, at times, we have to go to bat to make sure we receive equal treatment with the nation’s big cities. The bureaucracy in Washington also requires vigilance so it doesn’t shortchange rural Nebraskans.
As we have done in previous years, a group of rural-state senators joined together opposing efforts by big-state senators to end federal support for the Essential Air Service program under the guise of saving money. The savings from ending this critical economic development tool pale compared to jobs created and preserved, the businesses supported and the connections maintained for rural residents with the outside world from this program.
Congress worked on a Federal Aviation Authorization bill, which included a provision pushed by me, the Small Airports Relief Act, giving leniency from federal enplanement requirements so they can continue receiving federal Airport Improvement Program funding for airport safety, repair and upgrades.
The provision would help the Western Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff and the North Platte Regional Airport. The bill had other measures that affected the Essential Air Service program which we worked on to promote so that our rural airports remain the vital links and economic engines our rural communities depend on.
In our post-9/11 world, we’ve all had to adjust to TSA screenings every time we board airplanes. While this security precaution is necessary so an images being released to the public, I cosponsored legislation that won congressional approval to make it a federal crime to record or distribute images produced by body scanners at U.S. airports or federal buildings.
Given the $14 trillion national debt, it is clear Washington needs to reduce spending and manage the government in a fiscally responsible way. In one case, though it seemed that plans announced this year by the U.S. Postal Service to close 3,700 mainly rural post offices and processing centers was hastily made.
I pressed the Postal Service to reconsider, in part out of concern for the 90 post offices and several processing centers that were on the chopping block in Nebraska and the impact on this lifeline in our rural communities. As a result, 11 Senate colleagues and I were pleased with the Postal Service’s announcement this December to delay closures until next May, with the hope reforms can be put in place by then.
Maintaining a Strong U.S. District Court
Changes are coming to the federal courts in Nebraska with U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf transitioning senior status. I was honored earlier in the year to recommend an outstanding Nebraskan to succeed him on the federal bench, and joined Nebraskans welcoming the news when the Administration nominated Nebraska Supreme Court Justice John Gerrard for the U.S. District Court of Nebraska.
At Justice Gerrard’s Senate confirmation hearing in September, I noted that I’d known him for nearly 20 years, having appointed him to the state Supreme Court during my term as governor. Gerrard has the experience, temperament and intellect to excel as a federal judge and has consistently received the top ratings by the Nebraska Bar Association. As of this writing, the Senate is scheduled to vote on his confirmation in late January 2012 and my expectation is he will be confirmed.
Ensuring State Acts on its Legal Authority for TransCanada XL Pipeline
All year, one of the biggest issues at home has been the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline that would be built through Nebraska. Since the spring of 2010, I’ve pushed to make sure Nebraskans’ voices and opinions, as well as those of the State, are considered in the U.S. State Department’s evaluation of TransCanada’s request for a permit to build the pipeline.
It was heartening to see the State Department conduct a number of public hearings this year in Nebraska and Washington. Hundreds of Nebraskans attended and expressed support or opposition to the plan. In November I commended the Nebraska Legislature for stepping forward to assert the state’s rights by passing legislation in its special session that resulted in TransCanada agreeing to re-route the pipeline away from the Sand Hills and the state establishing an environmental review process for the new route.
Enhancing Education for Our Children’s Future
The bureaucracy in Washington too often overreaches in the area of education policy, the vast majority of which should be handled by the states and local communities, in my view. I support legislation that gives states and local communities the resources and flexibility they need to achieve their goals. That’s why I introduced the Full Service Community Schools Act, to help improve student achievement by helping schools use resources more efficiently, and improving the coordination of services for children and their families.
I have fought to make sure that the needs of Nebraska’s students and teachers are recognized and respected by the federal bureaucracy in Washington. For example, the U.S. Department of Education this fall proposed to preempt the onerous unfunded mandates of the No Child Left Behind law, by granting state waivers containing more federal requirements. I have and will continue to oppose proposals that simply place replace old federal education burdens on states with new ones, especially when they fall hardest on rural states such as Nebraska.
I also weighed in on burdensome regulation the U.S. Department of Education proposed for higher education and called on the agency to abandon its enforcement of a new rule because it would jeopardize distance learning programs for students. The flawed regulation was set to negatively impact the University of Nebraska, which offers 80 bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree programs to more than 20,000 students in the U.S. and abroad.
Valuing the Contributions of Family
One of the greatest joys in life arises from our families, and being an adoptive parent has further enriched my experiences in my own family. Promoting sound adoption policies at the federal level has been a way for me to help other adoptive families who are doing such important work in our society by providing nurturing family life to children who otherwise may not experience that special bond.
I had the honor this year to nominate Robert and JoAnn Golden of Mitchell for the Angels in Adoption Program. This remarkable couple have provided a home for 18 foster children in the last decade and adopted six of them, demonstrating their commitment to providing stability and a loving home for needy children.
I’ve been a strong supporter of the Federal Adoption Tax Credit in existence since 1997 that was set to expire in 2010. I worked to make sure it was included in the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law. The tax credit encourages adoption by easing the financial challenges adoptive families face when they expand their household to include an adopted child.
On behalf of these thousands of wonderful parents, I accepted an award from Voice for Adoption, a national adoption advocacy organization as their Legislator of the Year. Roughly 100,000 families have been able to benefit from the federal adoption tax credit this year. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 75 percent of all Nebraska families who adopted in 2010 received the credit.