113th Congress
WASHINGTON D.C. – An effort to fix the out-dated formula used to determine Medicare reimbursement payments that U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) helped lead through the House passed the Senate today as part of H.R. 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, and will now go to the President’s desk to be signed into law. H.R. 4302 passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 64-35.
President Barack Obama signed a bill Tuesday fixing an outdated Medicare payment formula that made it difficult to recruit doctors to Sonoma County and caused many local physicians to shut their doors to new Medicare patients.
The legislation could increase Medicare reimbursements to Sonoma County doctors by up to 9 percent. That, in turn, is expected to boost payments to doctors across the county because private insurance often is tied to Medicare rates.
The last time we checked, generating jobs remained high on the nation's priority list. So is weaning ourselves from traditional greenhouse-gas-producing energy systems.
The latest dire report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows, if anything, greater urgency is needed.
Until earlier this month, Congress hadn’t acted to protect a single new acre of public land as a national park, national conservation area or wilderness area since 2009.
This congressional failure is not for lack of opportunity. A report by the advocacy groups Center for American Progress and Center for Western Priorities highlights 10 high-profile conservation bills, including two on federal public lands in California, that have languished despite strong backing at the local level and from members of Congress.
Gov. Jerry Brown and Rep. Mike Thompson are involved in separate efforts to boost Sonoma County's groundbreaking program to help residents pay for energy-saving improvements to their homes.
The highly touted program, which has funded more than $50 million worth of residential projects since it started in 2009, sustained a major setback in 2010 when federal housing officials said it jeopardized the nation's major source of home mortgages.
Proposals to make financing clean energy production at individual homes and buildings first showed up in 2001 in San Francisco as a voter-approved solar bond program, and in 2005 in the Monterey Bay Regional Energy Plan.
These strategies were seen as a way to help property owners avoid up-front costs to install or retrofit energy-efficient or clean-energy equipment. But a 2010 decision at the federal level has prevented most homeowners from participating.
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) introduced H. RES. 525, a bipartisan resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives honoring March as Women’s History Month. The origins of Women’s History Month begin in Thompson’s district. Until the late 1970’s, women’s history was rarely included in K-12 curriculum and was virtually absent in public awareness. To counter this, the Education Taskforce of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978 centered around International Women’s History Day.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA-5), Pete King (R-NY-2) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY-18) introduced the bipartisan Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Assessment Protection Act of 2014. The legislation, HR 4285, helps spur local job creation and increase energy efficiency by enabling State and local governments to develop and implement PACE programs through local government financing of residential and nonresidential energy efficiency improvements.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson’s (D-CA-5) bipartisan Philippines Charitable Giving Assistance Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously this week.
The legislation, H.R. 3771 provides expedited tax relief for Americans making charitable donations in support of Typhoon Haiyan recovery efforts in the Philippines.
President Barack Obama signed a bill Tuesday that allows taxpayers to get expedited tax credit for donations made to the Philippines typhoon recovery effort, Rep. Mike Thompson's office said.
The bill, initially co-sponsored by Thompson, D-St. Helena, and three other congressmen, allows taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction on their 2013 tax returns for donations made by April 15.
Taxpayers usually must wait until the following year to claim any deduction for charitable donations.