Congresswoman Karen Bass met face-to-face with over 100 of her constituents on Wednesday afternoon to share what she had been up to during her first year in Congress representing the 33rd District. The event, which lasted about three hours, was held at the Holman United Methodist Church on West Adams Blvd.
Congresswoman Bass started the meeting by blasting Republicans for lack of action on the unemployment and tax cut bill that would benefit Americans, and for essentially wasting people’s time. She pointed out how she flew back to Washington, D.C. on Monday to be present to vote on the matter, but that rather than focus on important issues, Republicans misused the time to vote on pointless things.
“We spent time voting on moving a statue from one room to another!” Bass exclaimed in disbelief. She chastised Republicans for trying to sneak in other items on a bill that should be straightforward. “They want to extend the tax cut for a year, but they want to include in the bill cuts in unemployment and require drug testing and GED in order to get unemployment benefits,” she said.
“You fight, but you don’t take it personally. As bad as I talked about Republicans just now, I can work well with them. I’ve worked in bipartisan legislation with them,” Bass points out. She specifically referred to the passing of HR2883, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on September 30.
This legislation extends and improves child welfare programs, providing approximately $700 million per year to fund child protective services, child abuse prevention activities, initiatives to support at-risk families, and adoption promotion. Rep. Bass supported the bill and successfully included a provision that encourages states to study and improve their recruitment and retention of foster parents.
These are some of the bills Rep. Bass introduced in 2011 and that she talked about during the meeting:
H.R. 2012 – Foster Care Mentoring Act: it would establish grants for mentorship programs to connect children in foster care with responsible, caring adults. The bill also provides student loan forgiveness to help recruit mentors.
H.R. 3486 – Speak Out to Stop (SOS) Child Abuse Act: introduced in response to the Penn State case. The bill would impose a criminal penalty on any person who fails to report witnessing the sexual abuse of a child to law enforcement or their state’s child protective service agency. The bill mirrors the California law, Sherrice Iverson Good Samaritan Law. The bill has bipartisan support.
H.R. 2730 – Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Human Trafficking Act: provides national tools and training to child welfare employees to help prevent foster youth from becoming human trafficking victims while enhancing the capacity of case workers to appropriately address the needs of youth in their care who have been trafficked. Provisions of the bill are included in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Reauthorization expected next year.
Home Ownership Preservation Education (HOPE) Act: Provides a 0.25 percent reduction on the upfront mortgage insurance premium for first-time homebuyers who complete a HUD-approved housing counseling program. For example, on a $200,000 FHA loan, the discount would equal $500 less on the upfront mortgage insurance premium collected at closing or paid through the life of the loan. The bill has yet to be introduced. This bill will be introduced shortly.
Rep. Bass also talked about health care reform. “What people don’t realize is that health care reform is actually a jobs bill. If we’re going to expand medical coverage, we’re going to need more nurses, doctors and health care professionals. That means more jobs.”
After giving her year-end report, Bass answered questions from the crowd and listened to their concerns. Schools, teacher layoffs and funding was a hot topic.
 Recently laid off teacher Cynthia Norman asks Rep. Bass where school funding is going. |
Recently laid off teacher Cynthia Norman asked where the funding was going for preschool programs, while another parent complained about the recently approved California truancy law which can penalize parents with fines of up to $2,000, jailtime for up to one year, or both, if students are chronically absent from school.
Another teacher begged the Congresswoman to do more to move comprehensive immigration reform forward, saying fear of their parent’s deportation was affecting the academic achievement of immigrant students.
“Sadly, I don’t think we’re going to see immigration reform.” Bass, who’s a fierce foster care advocate, even pointed out how current immigration policies are affecting the system: “the whole secure communities program has been a disaster. There have been so many deportations… and a lot of kids have been put in foster care.”
She promised all those present that she would look into their concerns. In the meantime, she said: “We have to work together… to get the tea partiers out and to re-elect President Obama.”
Among Bass’ plans for 2012: focusing on job creation and finding student loan debt management and repayment solutions. “The debt students are left with now is what used to be a mortgage. We want to figure out how to solve this.”
Rep. Bass believes in communicating with her constituents. She often sends email news and alerts about her activities. On Monday, she held a “virtual town hall” – using phone and live video online to give an update about negotiations to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.
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