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January 30,
2015
This week the Senate passed, 62-36,
the Keystone XL pipeline legislation. I am proud that this
job-creating legislation passed the Senate in a bipartisan manner
that allowed for lengthy debate and votes on many amendments.
This is how the Senate should run. It is my hope that the
President does not ignore the wishes of the majority of Americans
and signs this bill into law when it reaches his desk.
During the amendment process, I
introduced
an amendment to permanently fund the Land and
Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which I mentioned in
last week’s newsletter. On Tuesday evening, I took to the
floor to talk about the importance of LWCF. You can watch my
remarks
here or below.
Yesterday, the Senate voted on my
amendment and it received 59 votes, sending a clear signal that the
Senate supports a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water
Conservation Fund (LWCF). While the amendment needed 60 votes in
order to meet a procedural hurdle, it proved that a bipartisan
majority of the Senate supports the LWCF.
My colleagues and I have all seen
LWCF protect iconic sites in our states, and I believe most of us
can agree that the LWCF is the best dollar-for-dollar conservation
program this body has ever created. I will continue to
champion this worthy program.
Thursday, Senator Alexander and I
released a report on the challenges to getting safe treatments,
devices, and cures to patients more quickly and effectively,
examining what is working, and what isn’t, at the Food and Drug
Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
For decades, our nation has led the
world in medical innovation, but the challenges of maintaining this
edge have never been greater. Our report, “Innovation for Healthier
Americans,” asks a simple but critical question – how can we do it
better? We are in an exciting era of medicine that holds
tremendous potential to improve treatments and outcomes for
patients. But to realize this potential, we must ensure that
our nation’s discovery and development processes are working as
well as possible. I am committed to working with my
colleagues to ensure that the work of North Carolina’s researchers
and innovators is reaching America’s patients in as timely a manner
as possible, so that patients across our nation are able to benefit
from cutting-edge medical products. Read more about the “Innovation
for Healthier Americans” report
here.
Finally, on Tuesday the HELP
committee held a hearing on fixing No Child Left Behind. During the
hearing, I had a chance to hear from and question educators,
administrators, and experts in the education field. You can watch
the questioning period
here or below and the full hearing
here.
Sincerely,
Richard
Burr
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