In The News
Southern California Democrats Rep. Raul Ruiz and Rep. Juan Vargas introduced a new bill on Thursday that would force the federal government to take a more active role in funding and managing Salton Sea habitat restoration and dust suppression.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Throughout his tenure in Congress, Rep. Raul Ruiz, CA-36, has been a champion of all veterans, particularly wounded and disabled veterans.
Several members of Congress called for a detention facility in Georgia to be shut down pending investigation after women detainees told them of being forced into unnecessary gynecological procedures with dirty equipment that left serious infections amid conditions so unsanitary that some begged to be deported.
The first congressional hearing was held on the Salton Sea since 1997, it was done virtually because of the pandemic.
Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D., (D) 36th Dist, has been pressing for this meeting to bring federal support to the ailing, accidental sea for years.
In a congressional hearing Thursday that starkly illuminated partisan divides, California Democrats called on the federal government to provide greater assistance in remedying environmental and public health crises at the Salton Sea. All but one GOP members were absent, and the one who did attend criticized the organizers for holding the hearing.
The United States is approaching nearly 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror and 30 years since the Gulf War. But the Department of Veterans Affairs is still denying close to 80% of all burn pit related claims veterans file.
A congressional hearing today about burn pits went up in flames for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A large portion of the VA’s argument was clearly aimed at stonewalling efforts to pass new health care. Additionally, they claimed there was not enough science to link specific health issues to toxic exposure.
I am cautiously optimistic at the current pace of COVID-19 vaccine development and encouraged that a number of drug companies are seeing promising results. Current projections show that we may begin vaccinating the public by the end of this year or early 2021, but it will take hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to effectively curb this virus.