LTE from Representative Nunes (CA-22)

To the people of California’s 22nd district and America,

A lot has occurred in the past weeks here in Congress and I wanted to update you on where I stand and show you how I am working hard on your behalf.

First of all, I am proud to announce that H.R. 87, the Central Valley Drought Relief Act of 2015, passed through the Domestic Policy Committee unanimously last week. This is a major piece of legislation that will not only help the struggling farmers and dairymen in the Central Valley, but it will benefit people across America. California’s Central Valley is the largest agricultural economy in America and the fifth largest agricultural economy in the world. But sadly, because of environmentalists, this flourishing agricultural area is no longer able to produce the crops needed to sustain our great country. By reaching across the aisle, and pointing out the serious mistakes representatives have made before us in not supporting this area, we were able to make a bipartisan decision to pass H.R. 87 unanimously. I now urge the Speaker, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a fellow representative from California’s Central Valley, to bring this bill to the Floor in order to support his own constituents as well as the entirety of America.

The second point I would like to address is the President’s recent veto of H.R. 45, the Restore Second Amendment Rights Act of 2015. I strongly supported this bill, written by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, because I know and understand that my constituents want their second amendment rights protected. Our founding fathers wrote this amendment into the Bill of Rights because they saw it as an important freedom to provide the American people. I understand that the second amendment may have been established a number of years ago, but I strongly believe that it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written. I would like to point out to my constituents that I fought for your second amendment rights and helped to pass this bill in Congress, but it was the President of the United States that stopped it as he is on a mission to take your right to own a gun away from you.

My third and final point is the series of events that occurred on the House Floor today. The Speaker encouraged us to bring H.R. 53 to the Floor through a discharge petition, because it was not able to get through committee. This bill is not the strongest one to address the rapidly growing issue of immigration. We currently have a handful of other bills that actually do something to help the immigration issue in this country. But instead of discussing a bill that initiated action, we were only given the opportunity to discuss a bill that simply reprimanded the President for his executive orders on the subject. I understand that the President is making some pretty big decisions on this issue that I do not agree with, but I believe that telling him he is wrong, through a piece of legislation, is not the best way to go about this. The American people and the media are doing that enough already. It is our responsibility, as your representatives, to protect you, the American people, and, therefore, it would have been best to bring up legislation that did just this. For this reason, I abstained from voting on the movement to bring the petition to the Floor.

Thank you for supporting me as I represent you in Washington D.C. during this Congressional term. It is my privilege to speak on your behalf and fight for your rights and freedoms. God Bless America!

Congressman Devin Nunes