Rep. Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) said Congress has much work to be done in the weeks before the August break if it wants to avoid 11th hour budgeting.
Speaking to the Andalusia Rotary Club during Congress’s district work week break, Roby explained that if she and her colleagues don’t work through appropriations bills, Congress keeps government operating with a continuing resolution, which extends and existing budget, or with an omnibus bill that takes all appropriations together.
Budgets are comprised of mandatory spending programs, like Social Security and Medicare, and appropriation spending, she said. Two-thirds of the government’s expenses are for mandatory spending, she said.
Asked specifically if Congress could “defund” an agency or government official with which it wasn’t happy, Roby said it would be difficult because of the way that budgets have been handled in recent years.
“Technically, you could defund that line item, but then you would have to get it passed in the Senate,” she said. “It depends upon whether it is part of the omnibus or continuing resolution or the appropriations process.
“We can, but whether it ends up in what’s put in place at the 11th hour before the government shuts down, it probably is not a reality,” she said.
House members recently “marked up” a proposed reauthorization of the farm bill, she said.
“We defunded the ability that if you qualify for energy assistance, you are not automatically enrolled in food stamps,” she said. “You can still qualify, but it is a separate process. Because we did that, we saved billions of dollars.”
Most of the nutrition programs in the farm bill are mandatory spending, she said, and have nothing to do with farming.
When government is funded with an omnibus bill, she said, “it’s thousands of pages, who knows what’s in it, and it’s just a bad way to do business.”
Roby also:
• Was asked about efforts to secure a government contract for American Apparel, which was underbid by less than one percent recently for a government uniform contract, and subsequently laid off 225 workers in Opp. Roby said ethics rules prevent members of Congress from intervening in the process.
• Asked about gunrights, Roby said, “I am a gun owner and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. ”
Reference the school shootings in Connecticut, she said, “When something like that happens, our instincts tell us to do something. Lawmakers think, ‘we need to go pass a law.’ It’s a reactionary thing.
“I don’t think we need any more laws. We need to deal with enforcing the laws we already have,” she said.
• As chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Roby said she recently sat through five hours of classified briefings on Benghazi.
“Because it is classified, there is only so much I can say,” she said. “But the investigation is ongoing, from the defense standpoint, dealing with the timeline and assets.
“I know that the American lives that were lost is of deep concern to those in this room,” she said. “You have my commitment to get to the bottom of it, and it is a huge responsibility.”
- Andalusia Star News
Do your children love Spiderman, Green Lantern, Batman, Iron Man, Superman or the like?
Next week’s comic art camp may be for them.
Andalusia native Kevin Stokes will take children on an adventure that will include a take-home art kit.
The camp, which is held in partnership with Covington County 4-H, will begin June 3 and end June 7, and will take place from noon until 4 p.m. each day at the Covington County Extension auditorium.
The camp is open for campers ages 9 to 19, and is open to a maximum of 25 students.
Cost is $30 and will include all art supplies, a take-home art kit, and art lessons from Stokes.
4-H will also provide a free lunch each day to participants.
Tanya Bales of Covington County 4-H said she’s been working to get Stokes to Andalusia for the past five years because his mother, Susan Stokes, worked with her at the extension office.
“I have been putting a bug into his mother’s ear for like five years,” she said. “I was so excited that it worked out. With his job, he is often here and there, wherever they need him.”
Stokes is a professional artist whose work is published with Dynamite Publishing.
His expertise is in the area of comic-style art although he has experience in other art styles including caricature portraits.
Stokes has worked with DC and Marvel comics and has worked on projects with Stan Lee.
His work has been featured in episodes of the TV series “Smallville,” which was based on the comic book story of Superman.
For more information or to register for this event, visit the Covington County Extension Office or contact Bales at 222-1125.
- Andalusia Star News
After its official dedication today, the Miracle League playground will be open to any and all, seven days a week, city officials said Wednesday.
“The playground will be open to the public during daylight hours – that’s dawn to dusk – weekdays and weekends,” said ML committee member and city employee Barbara Tyler.
The handicap-accessible playground is outfitted with a special surface and scores of play components.
Today, a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony of the PowerSouth Miracle League Park will be held at 5:30 p.m.
Tyler said there will be guest speakers from local governmental agencies and project supporters, as well as a proclamation dedicated from the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint initiative of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, and a supporter of the project.
The evening will conclude with a baseball game between the Angels and the Braves on the Miracle League field.
Miracle League removes the barriers that keep children with mental and physical disabilities off the baseball field and lets them experience America’s favorite pastime. Children play on custom-designed, rubberized turf fields that accommodate wheelchairs and other assertive devices. The local field is finished, and many youth league baseball teams are already using it as a practice field.
The league uses a “buddy” system, pairing each player with an able-bodied peer. More than 500 potential Miracle League players have been identified in Covington County. Player registration is currently ongoing, and board members will soon announce when play will begin.
Play has been ongoing for weeks, with some 40-plus children taking the field.
- Andalusia Star News
Col. (Ret.) Clyde Northrop called upon Americans to “listen to the voices of the dead” whose voices and experiences encourage the living to “keep the liberties for which we fought and died.”
Northrop was the keynote speaker at Saturday morning’s Memorial Day service held in the Covington Veterans Memorial Park.
Standing before the obelisk that bears the names of the county’s war dead, Northrop said, “Those listed on this monument join a great crowd of witnesses,” he said.
“It will never be enough to lay the wreaths, fire the weapons and play the taps,” Northrop said. “Those whose names are carved in granite speak by their heroic actions and perseverance. Their experience ought never be silenced.
“Hear them as they thunder, ‘Keep the liberties for which we fought and died. Honor our faith by the way you live.’ ”
Northrop recounted his own military experiences around the world.
“When I joined the military in 1954, I was issued an Eisenhower jacket,” he said. “I entered a unit replacing a deactivating unit from Korea.
“Thirty-four years later in Korea, I ministered to soldiers still under nightly live fire,” he said. “Today we face a new generation of the same lying tyrant.”
- Andalusia Star News
Willie Jones puts the finishing touches on a landscaping and pressure washing project at the Andalusia Public Library. A marker recognizing the Andalusia Study Club will be unveiled at 3 p.m. today at the library. The Study Club was formed 100 years ago with the express goal of starting a public library.