Constitution

"I strongly support efforts to protect our system of checks and balances established by our Constitution from encroachments by this President and any and all Presidents to come, and look forward to reviewing this legislation with the intent of supporting it." Read more »

Lack of Oversight at the EPA Those who read this column regularly may remember my bill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Maximum Achievable Contraction of Technocrats (MACT) Act, H.R. 3641, which would reduce the EPA’s workforce by 15 percent within three to four years. I introduced this bill because I believe the EPA has too many people working on new regulations which hurt jobs, as oppo... Read more »

Immigration Reform Update/No Amnesty As I have said many times, I do believe our immigration system is broken. However, my firmly cemented belief is that one of our top priorities ought to be defending America’s borders and enforcing our laws, not bending over backwards to accommodate those who break them. I am of the view that proposals allowing illegal immigrants to simply come into the United S... Read more »

Election year politics can sometimes bring about strange results. Without seeking Congressional approval, President Obama has yet again delayed part of Obamacare’s employer mandate, one of the law’s major provisions. By manipulating its implementation, the Administration is now unilaterally exempting employers with less than 100 employees from the employer mandate until 2016. President Obama is es... Read more »

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier this evening: “President Obama could have used his time tonight laying out his plans to work with Congress to improve our health care system, increase our energy independence, encourage job growth, decrease our debt and deficits, and more. Instead, he told us he is ... Read more »

Higher Energy Prices and You As reported by the New York Times’ Clifford Krauss, “Natural gas prices spiked by nearly 10 percent on Friday to levels not seen since 2010 as another wave of freezing weather brought surges of heating and electricity demand.” Natural gas now tops $5, the highest it has been in three and a half years, which CNBC reports “… has led to concerns about whether there will b... Read more »

2013 In Review and 2014 Congressional Issues Survey It is my privilege to represent and serve you in the House of Representatives, particularly at this critical time. I have traveled thousands of miles throughout Southwest Virginia, Southside Virginia, and the Alleghany Highlands in the last year, attending various meetings or events and speaking with many different people about issues important t... Read more »

The ADAPT Act, Fire Hydrants, and the NSA The ADAPT Act Regular readers of this column are aware of my ongoing efforts to improve the quality and safety of our health care system and increase patient choice and control. We have numerous bills that have been introduced, and that the various committees are working on. Among those committees that are working on improvements to our health care system... Read more »

The House as a Footstool? The President refused to negotiate with any Republican in either the House or the Senate to work out a potential solution to the partial government shutdown until Thursday, October 10, which was the tenth day of the partial shutdown. House discussions with the Obama White House collapsed the next day, however, and Senate leaders took up negotiations over the weekend of O... Read more »

Ongoing Funding Negotiations Congress is embroiled in a fight over the spending of your tax dollars. As I write this, agreement has not yet been reached. At this time, I think it is important to quickly review the role of Congress as envisioned at this country’s founding. The Constitution formed a republic based on democratic principles, with the Republic including a system of checks and balances... Read more »