EC from DC - March 15, 2013

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I was honored this week to celebrate the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) with Hope House in Independence. Hope House is the largest domestic services agency in Missouri. The staff there assist more than 10,000 victims of abuse every year. We were joined by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and police officers from Independence, Blue Springs, Sugar Creek, Grandview and Lee's Summit. Everyone came together to recognize the critical importance of protecting those suffering domestic abuse.

VAWA is crafted to protect all women and children, including Native Americans, immigrants, and members of the LGBT community. It provides extended services for survivors, more rape kits, a national registry of forensic evidence from sexual assault cases, domestic violence discussions on college campuses, more temporary housing for victims of domestic abuse, and stronger anti-trafficking statutes. I was proud to cosponsor the House version of the Senate bill that recently passed. The bill was supported by the National Task Force to End Sexual & Domestic Violence Against Women. It is a coalition of more than 1,300 organizations. And this bill incorporates years of analysis of the problem and the solutions that have been proposed by law enforcement, survivors of domestic abuse, and those who work to serve them. And the need is so very great:

• 3 women are murdered by their partners every day.

• 1,871 women are raped every day.

• 3,562 women are physically assaulted by their partner every day

• 1 in 4 women is a victim of domestic violence.

• 1 in 6 women has survived attempted or completed sexual assault.

• 15 million children in this country are exposed to domestic violence every year.

Preventing domestic abuse, assisting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators are not partisan issues - but victories in protecting all women - and all of those who have suffered in silence for too long.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting with Independence Mayor Don Reimal and Lee's Summit Mayor Randy Rhoads, as well as members of their staffs. They visited DC as part of the National League of Cities conference, and we discussed issues facing our shared communities, from supporting the COPS hiring program and protecting municipal bonds, to approaching comprehensive immigration reform and infrastructure spending. As a former mayor myself, I truly enjoyed hearing from these two local leaders.

A strong and vibrant postal service is essential to the fabric of this country and it is enormously important to the economy. Without the United States Postal Service (USPS), rural areas all over this country would be devastated, small businesses would not be able to stay in business, and millions of Americans would lose their jobs. As I have shared with you in the past, and as you surely know, a number of ideas have been proposed that would attempt to improve the USPS's financial condition in the short term so that it might continue as a self-funding government agency.

The USPS directly supports a $1.1 trillion mailing industry that employs over 8 million Americans across the country. These 8 million jobs are in a variety of fields, from direct mailing to catalog publishing to financial services. As Postmaster General Donahoe has testified, "[t]he mailing industry, with the Postal Service at its core, is a major driver of the nation's economic engine." As we continue to recover from the worst recession since the 1930s, it makes no sense to terminate the jobs of more than 200,000 workers – many of whom are veterans.

For these reasons, and after speaking with the folks on the ground and hearing their concerns, I have decided to cosponsor H.R. 630, the Postal Service Protection Act of 2013. This bill would:

• Fix the immediate fiscal problem of the Postal Service by ending the pre-funding mandate and allowing the Postal Service to recover pension overpayments.

• Protect 6-day delivery.

• Ensure the timely delivery of mail and protect mail-processing facilities.

• Protect Rural Post Offices.

• Establish new ways the Postal Service can generate revenue, by ending the prohibition on providing new products and services.

• Provide USPS More Pricing Flexibility in Setting Postal Rates.

While we all understand that USPS is experiencing financial problems today and that changes need to be made as the Postal Service adjusts to a digital world, these issues can be, and should be, dealt with in a way which strengthens the Postal Service, rather than initiating a series of cuts that could eventually lead to a death spiral for the Postal Service.

Last week Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) came to Kansas City to tour the Green Impact Zone and to put the region's new bike trails to the test. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our area. U.S. Representative Blumenauer is a national champion for burning more calories instead of burning fossil fuel, and fights diligently for bicycle and pedestrian issues. He was highly impressed with what is going on here to promote transportation alternatives. The Congressman and I took a short bike ride along the Van Brunt and Brush Creek trails and that experience was captured on video. If you'd like to take a look at it, please visit my website, here.