Morgan Griffith

Death There’s a saying about not making the perfect the enemy of the good. I thought of that saying recently when I voted for the Senate’s version of “right to try” on May 22. Regular readers of this column know that I am a staunch supporter of the concept of “right to try,” which would allow patients facing life-threatening illnesses to access experimental treatments. Throughout my time in Congress, I have introduced bills to implement it at the federal level. Recently, vocal support from the T... Read more

Improving Care for Veterans One of our highest obligations as a nation is “to care for him who shall have borne the battle,” as Abraham Lincoln eloquently stated in his Second Inaugural Address. The men and women who wear the uniform of the United States military put their lives on the line for our freedoms, and many come home with wounds both seen and unseen. Over the past few years, too many stories have emerged of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failing the brave people it is meant to... Read more

A saying often attributed to the late Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) goes, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.” It’s a warning about how easily government spending can spiral out of control. But through a special procedure called rescission, Congress may soon make targeted cuts here or there that, while modest, amount to real savings. On May 8, President Trump submitted to Congress a rescission package proposing $15.4 billion in targeted cuts to enacted s... Read more

School safety has been on the minds of many recently. As I’ve traveled the Ninth District, constituents have frequently approached me to discuss this topic. For our communities, schools are at the center of their life. Therefore, I believe the most important decisions regarding them should be made by the community. It would be neither appropriate nor helpful for the Federal Government to impose one-size-fits-all solutions from Washington. But there are things Congress can do to be helpful. I’ve ... Read more

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t want clean air and clean water. Protecting our environment is something we all desire. But there are grand ideas about refashioning (but damaging) our economy that offer theoretical benefits we may never see, or there are nuts-and-bolts approaches that can make positive differences in both our environment and our economy. For too long at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there was more of the former and not enough of the latter. Under the Obama Administ... Read more

Perhaps this person is your neighbor or friend. Perhaps you know this person from church or went to school together. Perhaps this person is your brother or sister, your father or mother, your son or daughter. Many of us know someone who has suffered from opioid addiction. It’s an affliction that does not recognize race, sex, class, or party affiliation. And it has taken too many lives before their time. I have personally known people with these stories, and I’ve heard from many of you that have,... Read more

This year’s federal income tax return due date is Tuesday, April 17. It’s the last time you will have to file under the old tax code that was replaced by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will apply to next April’s returns. Although Americans will file under the old, broken tax code this last time, tax reform has already ushered in benefits for taxpayers and workers. I’ve written in this column previously about the benefits of tax reform: many people are already seeing a boost in take-home pay be... Read more

As the House of Representatives considers banking legislation, I find myself thinking about the legacy of Maggie Walker, a great success story from the annals of Virginia. Walker was born in Richmond in 1864 to a former slave who, after the War Between the States, worked as a laundress. She helped her mother with this task as she grew up, then became a teacher, and eventually devoted herself to the Independent Order of St. Luke (IOSL), an African-American fraternal society. One of her ideas for ... Read more

Friday, March 30, marks the concurrence of two of the most significant holidays for two of the most prominent world religions. It is the beginning of Passover, and it is Good Friday. In Judaism, Passover commemorates the events described in the Book of Exodus, the leading of the Israelites out of Egypt. The last of ten plagues meant to convince Egypt’s Pharaoh to let the Israelites go was the death of first-born sons, but households with lamb’s blood marking their doorways would be passed over. ... Read more

You probably hear a lot about the disagreements in Washington, and that’s not surprising. Having two major parties that disagree on some bedrock principles, such as the role of government, means a lot of give and take. But there are some things on which we largely agree. Solving the opioid crisis, which takes the lives of 115 Americans on average per day, is one of them. On March 20th, 21st, and 22nd, the Subcommittees of the Energy and Commerce Committee on which I serve advanced our bipartisan... Read more