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

Dedicated Public Servant Honored at Veterans Day Celebration in Greensburg
Murphy Honored For Steel Caucus Accomplishments
Access to Speech Devices For Severely Disabled to be Restored
Wash County Celebrates Ten Years of Marcellus Shale Exploration
Region’s First New Maternity Unit in 30 Years Opens

Dedicated Public Servant Honored at Veterans Day Celebration in Greensburg

The gymnasium at Amos K. Hutchinson Elementary School in Greensburg was packed to the rafters with students, parents, residents and well-wishers on Friday to pay special tribute to Mr. Louis Lazzaro: a Vietnam Veteran, a longtime distinguished Pennsylvania state trooper, a pillar of the community, and the current Deputy Chief of Staff for Congressman Tim Murphy.

The school honored Mr. Lazzaro, who has spent over three decades in public service including time as the past President of the Pennsylvania Association of State Troopers, with the “Honor to Country and Community Award.”  Friday’s celebration was a true community event, bringing together students, local veterans, and featuring performances by buglers from Seton Hill University and the Greensburg Salem High School Golden Lions Marching Band. Hutchinson Elementary Principal Kevin Bringe served as master of ceremonies for the event and third grade teacher Billie Jo Crouse delivered a speech on the history and traditions of Veterans Day.

In remarks to the schoolchildren, Rep. Murphy said whether it was as a soldier, state trooper, or as a public servant, Lou Lazzaro has always been actively helping people whenever there is a need.

“Many times you think of someone in sports, movies, or music and we mistakenly call them heroes. They are not. They are entertainers,” Murphy told the schoolchildren. “The real heroes are the veterans who were willing to step forward and make every sacrifice to defend our nation and our freedoms. Those are our real heroes — and Lou Lazzaro is my hero.”

Congressman Murphy honored Lazzaro with a Congressional citation, recognizing his receipt of the Honor to Country and Community Award. Representatives from VFW Post 33 in Greensburg, which recently celebrated its 100^th Anniversary, were also on hand and presented Mr. Lazzaro with an American Flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol Building that recognized his service to the country. Fifth grade students from Hutchinson also presented him with commemorative items to mark the momentous occasion, including a symbolic key to the school and city. Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day to mark the end of the First World War, will be celebrated this upcoming Tuesday, November 11^th.

To share your thoughts on Veterans Day, please click here.

Murphy Honored For Steel Caucus Accomplishments

In appreciation of his leadership as Chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, Congressman Tim Murphy was honored Monday night by 170 members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of Iron & Steel Technology and the Association of Women in Metals Industry.

During his tenure, Murphy spearheaded efforts to enforce US trade laws against illegally-traded imports from South Korea, China and Russia.

Industry analysts credited Murphy with getting the Commerce Department to crack down on subsidized steel from Russia last month. And this past August, Murphy organized 155 Republican and Democrat lawmakers in pressuring the Administration to reverse its position on whether South Korea could continue to flood the US market with steel pipe used in oil and gas drilling and pipelines. Cheap illegally-traded imports from South Korean forced US Steel to shutter its McKeesport tube plant (read more in the McKeesport Daily News).

“In my role as Chairman, I want to see trade laws respected and enforced by the Administration. We want open trade with many nations, but when countries cheat, it is up to Congress and the Administration to stop it. That’s why I intend to continue fighting on behalf of the 154,000 American families who depend on steel to make a living.”

Forty years ago, the United States produced and consumed 137 million tons of steel, Murphy noted. This year, domestic steelmakers will churn out just 90 million tons, sacrificing more than a quarter of the market in part because foreign countries like China are not being held accountable for breaking US trade laws.

Congressman Murphy told the audience that American steelmakers have a tremendous opportunity to reduce their costs from massive US coal deposits. However, regulations pushed by the Environmental Protection Agency that make it harder to use coal here will only benefit steelmakers in foreign countries like China that have no clean air and water regulations.

Steelmakers could also benefit from infrastructure investment, he said. The country’s roads and bridges require more than $2.2 trillion in improvements just to be brought into a state of good repair. Murphy is the author of the Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act (H.R. 787), which dramatically expands domestic energy production and dedicates new federal royalty revenue toward paying down the debt and rebuilding America’s aging roads, bridges, locks, and dams. Not only would such a building boom demand massive amounts of steel, but also free the US from having to import foreign oil.

“I would rather see our men in hardhats and tool belts drilling our own oil and gas than see them in helmets with rifles defending an OPEC oil field,” said Murphy.

To share your thoughts on the steel industry, please click here.

Access to Speech Devices For Severely Disabled to be Restored

Just 24 hours after receiving a letter from Oversight Chairman Tim Murphy, the Administration reversed course on a proposal to cut off access to special equipment used by people who cannot speak as a result of debilitating illness and disease.

In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would no longer cover certain speech generating devices (SGDs), which are used by the severely disabled to communicate with a loved one or caregiver when a disease like Lou Gehrig’s Disease takes away their ability to talk. Medicare decided to prohibit patients from spending their own money to modify their speech generating device so it could also be used to electronically open and close doors or control the thermostat in their house.

Rep. Murphy stepped in and sent a letter on Tuesday to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner calling on her to reconsider this new policy.

“These patients…must have speech generating devices so they can communicate with their loved ones and caregivers,” Murphy stated in the letter. “To take away this tool at a moment when these individuals are already suffering would be cruel and uncompassionate.”

Last month, Murphy met with local patient advocates and employees of Semantic Compaction Systems, a Castle Shannon-based software firm that makes SGDs for the severely disabled. Read more about Murphy’s work on this issue in Kaiser Health News.

In addition to rescinding its proposal, the agency also announced at Congressman Murphy’s insistence that CMS will take into account feedback from the disability rights community before issuing any new proposals related to speech generating devices.

To share your thoughts on this issue, please click here.

Wash County Celebrates Ten Years of Marcellus Shale Exploration

In just ten years’ time, the Marcellus Shale has transformed Southwestern Pennsylvania, and Washington County in particular, into an energy and economic juggernaut.

On Wednesday, Murphy commemorated the decade anniversary of the first successful shale well at an event at Southpointe entitled “The Energy Capital Celebration:  Ten Years of Marcellus Shale Success!”

In October 2004, when Range Resources drilled at the Renz site in Mt. Pleasant Township, it was the first time horizontal drilling techniques were successfully employed in the Marcellus shale.

“The Marcellus has the potential to erase our trade deficit with OPEC, save hundreds of billions in military costs, and reverse the losses of our manufacturing strength. But, beyond the domestic benefit of natural gas, there is a unique opportunity to aid our allies abroad and advance peace through the strength found in energy independence,” Murphy told the crowd of business leaders, community stakeholders, and local elected officials.

Russia routinely cuts off natural gas supplies from American allies like Ukraine and Poland as a tool to extort and exert control in global political affairs, said Murphy. And as a result, countries look to the U.S. and specifically to Southwestern Pennsylvania for a model of safe and responsible natural gas development.

Rep. Murphy discussed this issue last week with a delegation of German elected officials and policymakers who visited the region at the Congressman’s invitation to get a first-hand understanding of how hydraulic fracturing can be safely employed to extract clean-burning natural gas. Germany has supplies of natural gas but has been reluctant to allow hydraulic fracturing due to myths and misinformation, much of which is propagated by the Russian oil monopoly Gazprom. Russia supplies more than a third of Germany’s natural gas consumption.

“With the Marcellus Shale and other deep rock formations containing vast amounts of clean-burning natural gas, the United States is presented with a unique opportunity to finally become energy independent by advancing policies that expand the use of natural gas in sectors like manufacturing and transportation. But we must do it right, with a dedicated focus on responsible exploration and development of this resource,” Murphy told the group. “In the 18th Congressional District and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we have no higher priority than to maintain our clean drinking water sources, especially for the residents who get their drinking water from private wells. This balanced focused can serve as a model worldwide.”

Rep. Murphy recounted the discussions held during a recent congressional delegation visit to Germany as well as his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During their meeting, Murphy extended to Chancellor Merkel an open invitation to travel to SWPA and see for herself the benefits of safe natural gas exploration. Last summer, the daily German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel published an article by Rep. Murphy on the potential for safe exploration of natural gas to contribute to global peace and prosperity.

To share your thoughts on natural gas development, please click here.

Region’s First New Maternity Unit in 30 Years Opens

For the first time in over 30 years, expecting mothers and families in the South Hills and Mon Valley have a new state-of-the-art facility where they can welcome the newest additions to their families. On Wednesday, Congressman Murphy and the greater Jefferson Hills community gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 23,000-square-foot unit, which includes eight full-service delivery rooms, two dedicated cesarean section operating rooms, and a child-focused family playroom named in honor of Penguin legend Mario Lemieux’s son, Austin, who spent over 70 days in a hospital after being born prematurely.

In recent years the closure of obstetrics units at Monongahela Valley Hospital and UPMC McKeesport required expecting mothers to travel to Pittsburgh in order to receive maternity care. At the ceremony, Congressman Murphy thanked all those whose efforts contributed to the opening of the new unit at Jefferson, which will enable South Hills residents to remain close to home while still being able to receive high quality care. The new obstetrics and newborn unit at Jefferson Hospital will formally begin accepting new patients on Monday.