Floor Statements
President Obama signed legislation Tuesday renaming the Yountville Veterans Home Post Office the “Private First Class Alejandro R. Ruiz Post Office Building,” said Rep. Mike Thompson who had sponsored the name change.
Thompson introduced this legislation in November to honor Alejandro R. Ruiz Sr., a Medal of Honor winner who spent his career in the U.S. Army and served in World War II. After retirement, Ruiz lived at the Yountville Veterans Home until he died in 2009 at the age 85.
It seems the Coliseum's rowdy section during Raiders games is not the only "black hole" in Oakland. The regional office of the Veterans Affairs has earned that moniker from California veterans who must deal with it.
To hear them tell it, the office is where valid benefits claims go to die, or at least to languish.
Congressman Mike Thompson hosted local veterans leaders and Department of Veterans Affairs officials at a Monday roundtable in an effort to find out how the agency can be improved to better serve its veteran clients, including the thousands of veterans who reside in Lake County.
The meeting took place on the same day that Thompson's office announced that he had secured commitments from the VA that it will make improvements at the VA Oakland Regional Office, one of the slowest regional offices in the nation for claims processing.
The Port of West Sacramento said it has been awarded a grant of more than $960,000 from the Federal Railroad Administration for construction of a rail loop track that will increase freight capacity and handling efficiency.
The port is one of 12 recipients that will share $16.9 million in funding to relocate, replace and improve railroad track segments under the FRA's Rail Line Relocation and Improvement grant program.
"With this grant, the port will be able to handle more business, more efficiently," said U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena.
California members of Congress have stepped up their demands for help for homeowners amid the continuing national foreclosure crisis that has impacted millions of Americans.
A unilateral decision by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to block all forms of principal writedown for loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has prevented the housing market from recovering more quickly, said U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-Martinez) and Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), who on Monday ramped up pressure on the FHFA to reverse the decision that has stymied a more buoyant housing recovery.
While there is much talk about the lack of bipartisanship in Congress, legislation is pending that both sides of the House agree upon. Congressman Mike Thompson, a California Democrat, and Congressman Jim Gerlach, a Pennsylvania Republican, have authored legislation that garnered 300 House co-sponsors, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans, to restore policies that support land conservation.
The previous speaker was eloquent in his discussion about the bald eagle. Let's think about what would have happened had this measure been law 44 years ago. The American bald eagle, our national bird and symbol, would be gone.