Seniors

Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, released the following statement in advance of today’s House Oversight hearing on “H.R. 51: Making D.C. the 51st State.” Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding today’s hearing on H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. As a longtime supporter of D.C. statehood, I commend Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for introducing this bill and for her tireless efforts to fight for the rights of District residents. Today’s ... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Chairman of the House Government Operations subcommittee, released the following statement on today’s Supreme Court census decision: “Shortly before the Administration announced its plan to add a citizenship question to the decennial census, I spoke personally with Secretary Wilbur Ross to share my deep concerns about the harm such a question would do to the integrity and accuracy of the Census. What was clear at the time of the phone call, and has now been con... Read more

On Thursday, June 20, 2019, Rep. Gerry Connolly, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, will hold a hearing to examine longstanding critical deficiencies at the Washington, D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DC VAMC). WHERE: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building WHEN: Thursday, June 20, 2019 TIME: 2:00 p.m. EST The hearing will be broadcast here. PURPOSE • The Subcommittee will probe the VA’s efforts to address longstanding problems that cause extreme risks to veterans’ healt... Read more

Joe Davidson Key members of Congress want the Trump administration to address charges of a “secret” Veterans Affairs wait list that has a higher number of patients seeking medical care than information publicly available. Allegations about significantly different data regarding veterans awaiting treatment on internal and public records were made by Jereme P. Whiteman, VA’s national director of clinic practice management, in a Washington Post Federal Insider column published online Monday . The ... Read more

Earlier this week, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Paul Mitchell (R-MI), Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced H.R. 2847, the No Passport Fees for Heroes’ Families Act, which waives passport fees for family members obtaining a passport to visit an injured servicemember overseas. It mirrors a provision in existing law that waives passport fees for family members attending an overseas funeral or memorial service for a fallen servicemember. “No family should have... Read more

Mark Rockwell Even though the six-week partial government shutdown ended in February, its impact is still being felt, contractors told a congressional panel on May 6. Several federal contractors at a field hearing convened by the House Oversight and Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Government Operations testified their operations and employees faced extreme difficulties during the 35-day partial federal shutdown. Vendors told panel Chairman Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) that contractor employee... Read more

Nick Iannelli About three months after the longest government shutdown in history came to an end, leaders of companies and unions representing federal contract workers are speaking out, asking for legislative changes to ensure that their employees are guaranteed back pay if another shutdown occurs. “We should harness the pain of this most recent event and learn from it,” said Leidos CEO Roger Krone. Krone was among a handful of witnesses who testified Monday in front of the House Subcommittee o... Read more

Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, led House Democrats in sending a letter urging the House Committee on Appropriations to deny funds for the implementation of President Trump’s government reorganization plan and the proposed merger of Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA). “We have grave concerns about the Admini... Read more

Eric Yoder Federal employees would pay more toward their retirement benefits from salaries that generally would be frozen, under the Trump administration’s budget proposal released Monday. The budget plan repeats numerous ideas from President Trump’s prior two budget proposals that failed to gain enactment even with Congress fully under Republican control. With Democrats now in charge of the House, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) called it a “nonstarter” that “once again attacks our hard... Read more

Today, Representatives Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA) and James Langevin (D-RI) reintroduced the FAST Voting Act. The legislation aims to enhance voting system security, improve voter participation, and encourage automatic voter registration. Modeled after the Department of Education’s successful Race to the Top program, the FAST Voting Act would allow states to apply for funding to implement innovative policy changes designed to increase voter access and voting system security. Rather than prescribe... Read more