News Articles
Bipartisan legislation from U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D- St. Helena) to improve health care service and access to Medicare beneficiaries and save tax dollars last week passed the House and now heads to the president to be signed into law, Thompson's office announced.
The Medicare Independence at Home Medical Practice Demonstration Improvement Act of 2015 extends for two years the Independence at Home Medical Practice Demonstration Program — a voluntary, home-based primary care service offered to Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions.
President Barack Obama's announcement last week that he would designate the Berryessa Snow Mountain area a national monument represented another golden moment in the rich history of land preservation in Northern California. The action assures the protection of roughly 350,000 acres of rolling, oak-dotted hills stretching from the shores of Lake Berryessa in the south to Snow Mountain and wilderness areas northwest of Mendocino National Forest.
A Republican-drafted California water bill approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday now faces a serious test in the Senate and beyond.
Loaded with provisions sought by GOP lawmakers and San Joaquin Valley farmers, the 170-page package won approval on a 245-176 vote following roughly two hours of sometimes contentious and often familiar debate.
"This is something we take very seriously," said Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., the bill's lead author. "We're helping deliver real water to the Valley."
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today voted against the House Majority's California water bill, calling it "bad for California, bad for other states, and bad for our environment."
"The legislation would jeopardize jobs in and north of the Delta, undermine existing state law, and override long-standing environmental protections," Thompson told his peers today.
He said the bill was introduced three weeks ago and is being rushed to the House Floor without any public hearings or opportunities for lawmakers to receive input from stakeholders.
The House on Thursday passed GOP-led legislation designed to bring more water to California's farm belt amid a severe and lengthy drought.
Similar efforts have faltered in the last two congressional sessions after initially passing the House, and the White House and Democrats remain opposed.
The four-year California drought has forced communities to cut water use. Some rural areas have been particularly hurt as the state's water distribution systems curtailed the amount of water for agriculture.
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson's (D-CA) bipartisan legislation to improve health care service and access to Medicare beneficiaries, and save tax dollars today passed the House and will go to the President to be signed into law. The legislation, titled the Medicare Independence at Home Medical Practice Demonstration Improvement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2196/S. 971) extends the Independence at Home Medical Practice Demonstration Program (IAH) for two years. IAH is a voluntary, home-based primary care service offered to Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions.
Tourists and nature lovers in California will see more than 330,000 acres set aside for a new monument at Berryessa Snow Mountain.
The area is one of three planned national monuments announced Friday by the White House that together will add protection for mammoth bones, prehistoric rock carvings and more than a million acres of wilderness in northern California, Nevada and Texas.
Three Democratic legislators proposed a bill Thursday that would tighten control over firearm sales to keep guns away from the mentally unstable.
Rep. Mike Thompson, chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., introduced the Safer Communities Act of 2015, which "prohibits the purchase or possession of a firearm by individuals subject to involuntary outpatient commitment" if the courts deem them to "pose a danger to themselves or others."
A choice chunk of Northern California's backcountry is getting the federal attention it needs with President Obama's decision to give enhanced protections for 331,000 acres across five near-Bay Area counties.
It's too early to say how soon the region might feel the effects of the newly created Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, federal official's say. Friday's declaration of the monument status begins a long process of creating a new management plan for the federal lands included it its boundaries.
"You're talking about 330,000 acres," Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Martha Maciel said on Friday. "You're dealing with multiple jurisdictions, multiple cities, multiple counties. You're dealing with two federal agencies, tribal interests."