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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) voted today to pass H.R. 2029, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill. This measure funds the government for FY 2016.
"This bill is far from perfect but it averts a disastrous government shutdown, makes investments that help working people, and will benefit communities in our district," said Thompson. "Next year we need to build on this compromise and avoid governing from crisis-to-crisis and cliff-to-cliff."
The legislation includes these important measures:
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today voted against H.R. 2029, legislation that extends or makes permanent numerous tax provisions but isn't paid for and would add upwards of $680 billion to the national debt. Those tax provisions made permanent include conservation easements, the research and development tax credit, Section 179 capital expensing for small businesses, and expanded versions of the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit for college expenses.
Despite an epidemic of mass shootings, House and Senate Republicans have kept in place a 17-year-old ban on using any government funds for research into lessening gun violence.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, released the following statement on the Dickey Amendment's, which bans gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), inclusion omnibus bill:
Renewing his call for stricter gun laws on the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, used a tense federal hearing in Sacramento on Monday to advocate for broader background checks and disarming people on a federal no-fly list.
“Rather than take a position of ‘we’ll pass no laws,’ I think it’s time folks took a stand” for tighter gun laws, Thompson said at the outset of a hearing at the Capitol. “If you’re a criminal or you’re dangerously mentally ill,” he added, “I don’t think you should have a gun.”
On Monday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) held a hearing to discuss ways to curb gun violence, including through bolstering mental health care and background checks, the AP/Sacramento Bee reports
California operates a database to cross-reference certain criminal convictions, mental health records and active domestic violence restraining orders when individuals purchase firearms. About one-third of individuals in the database are included for mental health reasons.
A gun club owner and a gun dealer were among those telling a congressman Monday that closing loopholes in federal background checks and increasing mental health help would reduce gun violence.
California U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, chairman of House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, held the hearing less than two weeks after 14 people were fatally shot in San Bernardino.
On the third anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, some gun industry and law enforcement leaders called Monday for the federal government to close a loophole that allows thousands of people to buy firearms each year without background checks.
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) says that although he is a gun owner himself and strongly believes in the Second Amendment, he also believes people on the no-fly list should be barred from purchasing guns.
“I’m a gun owner. I strongly believe in the Second Amendment,” Thompson said during an emotional press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday held by House and Senate Democrats to commemorate the third anniversary of the Newtown, Conn. shootings.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, released the following statement calling on omnibus negotiators to end the 19-year-long ban on federal research into the causes and best ways to prevent gun violence: