In This Week's Edition of E-News ...

Concerns Over Illegal Immigration, Prisoner Swap During Tele-Town Hall
Save the Date: Vets Town Hall Meeting in Jeannette
House Takes up Defense Bill, Passes Murphy Amendment on Soldier Suicide Crisis
Western PA Families at the Capitol Supporting Traditional Marriage
Failures Abound in GM in Recall Fiasco

Concerns Over Illegal Immigration, Prisoner Swap During Tele-Town Hall

On Thursday, thousands of 18th congressional district residents joined in a live telephone town hall discussion with Congressman Tim Murphy to talk about latest developments in Southwestern PA and in Congress.

Over 12,000 constituents connected to share their views on issues ranging from energy production and infrastructure spending. Numerous callers also expressed concern over the decision to swap five Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Nearly 80 percent of participants said they opposed the exchange in an instant poll taken during the call. Murphy denounced the prisoner swap, noting that there were other methods to return home the soldier who abandoned his post. Other callers expressed outrage over the President’s DREAM Act regulations that would give amnesty to children from foreign countries, resulting in a surge of South and Central American children illegally crossing the US southern border. The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing entitled “An Administration Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Alien Minors,” on Wednesday about the Administration’s handling of the matter.

One caller asked if Congress would raise the gas tax to which Murphy responded that a gas tax proposal was not on the table and he would not support it if it even if it was. Murphy talked about his bill, the Energy Independence and Infrastructure Jobs Act (HR787), to develop our offshore energy resources and dedicating the federal royalties to rebuilding America’s aging roads, sewers and bridges.

To share your views on topics discussed during the telephone town hall or participate in the next one, please click here.

Save the Date: Vets Town Hall Meeting in Jeannette

Congressman Tim Murphy invites you to participate in a Veterans Town Hall meeting on Saturday, June 28^th, 10AM, at the American Legion hall in Jeannette (109 S. 5^th Street). Rep. Murphy will give an update on his efforts to fix the VA to improve care and delivery of services to veterans. The forum is open to all residents for a discussion on issues like reining in federal spending, shrinking the national debt, securing the border, winning the War on Coal, and growing jobs. For more information or to RSVP, call (724) 850-7312.

House Takes up Defense Bill, Passes Murphy Amendment on Soldier Suicide Crisis

Notwithstanding the might of America’s military, the Armed Forces is in the midst of a mental health crisis: On average, 22 military service members and veterans die each day by their own hands. One in five suicides nationally is a veteran even though veterans make up less than ten percent of the population.

Yet, even with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), advocates, and congressional investigators sounding the alarm on how the nation’s military mental health system has too few qualified professionals, there has been slow movement on bringing on more. As overwhelmed psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers and therapists spend more time on paperwork with staggering patient workload, the impact has had a devastating human toll.

To put an end to this ongoing military mental health crisis, the House adopted language authored by Congressman Tim Murphy providing the Defense Department both the authority and the funding to immediately hire additional mental health professionals. Murphy’s amendment passed unanimously as part of the annual Department of Defense funding bill.

“Service members, those in high-tempo work, active duty, SOCOM [special operations command], and returning from Guard and Reserve duty, tell me they have a very difficult time accessing mental health care. We know that treatment early can be effective but there are just too few providers,” said Murphy, who also serves as a clinical psychologist in the Navy Reserve treating returning service members with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.

“My amendment would provide a surge of providers at a time when it’s needed,” said Murphy, citing a survey by IAVA that showed 30% of service members had considered taking their own life.

“I hear time and time again that someone has sought help off-base only to find counselors who do not understand all the needs of someone in the military.”

To watch debate on Rep. Murphy’s amendment, click here.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) expressed his support for the Murphy amendment and praised Dr. Murphy for his work on behalf of service members.

“I can say and I am sure my colleagues would agree your service in Congress has been enormously beneficial because you have been perhaps one of the strongest advocates on behalf of those with mental illness. And, certainly your service in the Navy Reserve as a psychologist is one of the reasons that when you get up to talk, people listen. So we are accepting of your amendment and acknowledge here your very, very strong and well-reasoned advocacy. Our bill of course does make investments and this will make more investments. And, we look forward to working with you and relying on your expertise and advocacy,” said Frelinghuysen.

Murphy concluded, “What we also have to make sure is for so many others who come back— whether they have been in a combat mission or even a training mission that can have its own stresses associated with that — we want to prevent these cases from accelerating to the level to where later on they need VA services and before their family life may deteriorate.”

Murphy is also the author of the bipartisan Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which has been described as the most comprehensive overhaul of the mental health system since the Kennedy Administration. Nationwide support for the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act has come from newspaper editors, physicians, and parents of children with mental illness.

Other noteworthy issues taken up during debate of the defense funding bill which Murphy supported were amendments prohibiting funds in the bill from going to Syrian rebels, Hamas and Iran, transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, and the expensive “Green Navy” bio-fuels program.

To share your thoughts on military mental health needs, please click here.

Western PA Families at the Capitol Supporting Traditional Marriage

Families from Mt. Pleasant, Greensburg, and Donegal and other Western Pennsylvania communities joined hundreds of Americans this week in Washington, DC for the national “March for Marriage” rally supporting traditional marriage. The participants, seeking tolerance for those with deeply held religious convictions on the institution of marriage, invited Congressman Murphy to speak to the group and share his views. Murphy thanked participants for taking time to get involved and show lawmakers how important the institution of traditional marriage is in our society. The group, which included 40 participants from Westmoreland, Armstrong, and Fayette Counties, was organized in conjunction with the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Murphy was in Donegal to tour the Champion Christian school with founder and CEO, Merle Skinner. The school is part of the Christian Family and Children’s Center, which provides Christian education, counseling, and pregnancy resources to families as part of its ministry and mission work.

Murphy recently hosted a briefing with Mr. Skinner in Washington DC on the benefits of high-speed Internet for schoolchildren in rural communities. The North Campus includes preschool and grades 7-12 (grades K-6 are location in Indian Head).

During the school year, the Donegal Christian School gives rural and underserved students quality education rooted in values of obedience, self-sacrifice, devotion, and service to God. This summer, as part of its community outreach mission, the school provides free and reduced lunches for low-income children and will also hosting a Christian music festival in Donegal titled “Alloutpraise!” from July 17-19.

Failures Abound in GM in Recall Fiasco

The probe of General Motors’ decision to wait nearly ten years before issuing a recall of the defective Chevy Cobalt continued this week when Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) grilled CEO Mary Barra at a hearing on Wednesday.

Murphy focused on a GM-commissioned report that largely absolved managers and senior leadership from blame, but still revealed the staggering apathy and dismissal of warning signs that jeopardized public safety, laying the blame on just one engineer and a culture of “incompetence and neglect.”

However, an investigative article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek showed GM employees who did speak out with safety concerns were reassigned or transferred.

Rep. Murphy asked Ms. Barra why whistleblowers were ignored. He cited the case of a GM Cobalt quality manager who told investigators he was “reluctant to push hard on safety issues because of his perception that his predecessor had been pushed out of his job for doing just that.”

The GM internal report and the Committee investigation has also revealed that company attorneys knew, yet ignored, the link between Cobalt airbag/ignition-switch defects and car crash fatalities.

“I remain unconvinced there wasn't an effort to 'cover up' bad decisions to avoid liability," said Murphy (read more in the Wall Street Journal).

“The failures at GM were also ones of accountability and culture. If employees do not have the moral fiber to do the right thing, and do not have the awareness to recognize when mistakes are being made, then the answer must be to change the people or change the culture,” said Rep. Murphy, who elaborated on his concerns in today’s Wall Street Journal.

During questioning, Murphy asked Barra, “How does someone who has spent an entire career within the culture of GM change the culture of GM? I believe there are 210,000 employees or so at GM, and you mentioned 15 were fired, that’s 99.999 percent of the people that are the same. If you haven’t changed the people, how do you change the culture?” Murphy raised this issue to CNBC Squawk Box, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business’ Geri Willis on Thursday.

Murphy said the probe will continue forward and federal safety regulators could be called upon to answer more questions. Watch the full hearing online here.

To share your thoughts on the GM recall, please click here.