Amendment expands options for our ports to more efficiently modernize their infrastructure

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States House of Representatives approved Congressman Bill Posey’s (R-Rockledge) amendment to strengthen Section 204 of the Water Resources Development Act and speed-up important port projects that have been authorized by Congress but are awaiting action by the Army Corps of Engineers.

A backlog of Army Corps projects has caused long delays and prevented many ports from modernizing their operations and doing important and needed maintenance.

“After getting their projects authorized, many ports wait far too long to see the first federal construction dollar,” said Posey.

“Under this plan, a port can opt to lead its own construction project and still have access to the expertise of the Army Corps when it’s needed. Doing so reduces the backlog, frees up the Army Corps to lead other projects and keeps our ports competitive.”

Currently, if construction on a project has not begun within seven years, the project falls off the list and needs to be reauthorized by Congress.

Under Posey’s amendment, the port project sponsor can use their own resources rather than federal dollars while still having access to the very specialized services of the Army Corps when needed. Ports will be responsible for reimbursing the costs of the assistance provided by the Army Corps.

Posey said his amendment expands options for our ports to more efficiently modernize their infrastructure in a timelier manner.

The Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce recently elected a new board at its annual meeting at the Vero Beach Heritage Center & Citrus Museum.

President and Executive Director Bob McCabe led the meeting and presented the slate of officers, including Debbie Avery, Jane Burton, Scott Finney, Steve Glaser, Alex McGee, David Moshier, Allan Patterson and McCabe.

The new officers were approved and will take office immediately.

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, left, with Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce President and Executive Director Bob McCabe. (Photo: Debbie Avery/For Luminaries)

After the formal meeting, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey arrived to be the guest speaker. In the audience were Sen. Debbie Mayfield and Vero Beach City Council’s Laura Moss.

For more information on the chamber, visit the new office at 1957 14th Ave. in the Masonic Lodge building, call 772-226-5459, or email info@verochamber.com. Online, go to www.verochamber.com or facebook.com/VeroBeachChamberofCommerce.

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey was the guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce. (Photo: Debbie Avery/For Luminaries)

“SIMPLIFYING THESE FORMS WILL HELP SENIOR CITIZENS SAVE TIME AND MONEY”

This week, Florida Republican Congressman Bill Posey doubled down on his efforts to help streamline federal taxes for senior citizens living on fixed incomes.

Posey spoke to the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday about his “Seniors’ Tax Simplification Act” proposal. The bill mandates the IRS create a new federal tax form for seniors, Form 1040SR which is similar to the current Form 1040EZ with a few additional benefits. Under Posey’s proposal, seniors would be able to file their taxes on the form even if they rely on Social Security, qualified retirement plans, interest, dividends and capital gains.

“Many senior citizens don’t have complicated income streams and it’s just common sense that their tax filing forms reflect that reality,” Posey said this week. “Simplifying these forms will help senior citizens save time and money when it comes time to file their taxes.”

Posey introduced his bill back in May and has reeled in ten cosponsors including fellow Florida Republican Congressman Dan Webster and California Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman. The proposal also has the support of the 60 Plus Association and the AARP.

There’s a similar proposal in the Senate from Florida Republican Marco Rubio which has Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and Utah Republican Mike Lee as cosponsors. The two senators from the Sunshine State have been working together pushing similar proposals since Rubio entered the Senate back in 2011.

“Filing one’s taxes has become a dreaded experience, but this is especially so for seniors whose retirement finances are simple but still have to deal with a complicated filing process,” Rubio said when he first teamed up with Nelson on the issue. “For many seniors, paying taxes can and should be a lot easier than it is, and this new senior tax form will eliminate the hassle by making it easier to report their income each year.”

“Seniors are not alone when it comes to dreading doing their tax returns,” Nelson said. “Almost everybody complains about the hours it takes and seemingly endless complex forms. So this legislation is a good step in the right direction. Hopefully, we’ll be able to simplify the tax code next.”

With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing two and a half years away, on Monday, the U.S. House passed a proposal from two Florida congressional representatives to introduce a commemorative coin to mark the occasion.

U.S Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., who represents parts of the Space Coast and worked on the Apollo program decades ago, paired up with U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., U.S. Rep. Rod Blum, D-Iowa, U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, to introduce the measure in the summer of 2015 as they prepared for the July 20, 2019 anniversary date.

The measure passed on voice vote on Monday. After the vote, Posey explained why he brought out the bill.

“The United States remains the only country to have ever landed humans on a celestial body off the Earth and brought them home safely,” Posey said. “Passage of this bill honors that great feat and recognizes astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, who made the historic journey. I would like to thank all of our cosponsors who worked to make this possible.”

Part of the proceeds from the sale of the coin will go to college scholarships for students majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields. Proceeds will also go to space exploration education, the Astronauts Monument which honors astronauts killed in the line of duty and the National Air and Space Museum’s “Destination Moon” exhibit.

“I am honored to be a cosponsor of the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. In addition to honoring the Apollo 11 crew members and everyone else who made this historic mission possible, the coins are a testament to America’s innovative spirit,” said Wilson. “More important, proceeds from the sale of the coin will help fund college scholarships for future astronauts, scientists and engineers, ensuring our great nation’s place as a leader of scientific and technological discovery.”

The moon landing was honored on both the Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony dollar coins from the 1970s with the back of them showing the Apollo 11 emblem of an American eagle landing on the moon.

Almost 300 members of Congress joined Posey’s and Wilson’s bill as co-sponsors including every member of the Florida delegation. The bill now heads to the Senate where U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is the sponsor and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is an original co-sponsor.

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey has been a problem-solver for Brevard County and a champion in the House for the U.S. space program.

We don’t agree with some of Posey’s politics. But based on his record and positions on issues that matter most to Space Coast voters, we recommend re-electing the Rockledge Republican to Congress.

Of the three good candidates in the race for House District 8, Posey impressed us as the strongest candidate on space, business growth, fiscal responsibility and homeland security.

For eight years, Posey and his staff have scheduled appointments with House members from across the country to sell NASA, military space and now commercial space missions as worthy of support. In 2015 Posey co-sponsored legislation, signed by the president, that ensures the legal rights of private space exploration companies to own and use minerals discovered on asteroids. Officials at Space Florida praised the act.

On business growth, Posey has hosted entrepreneurship workshops while in Brevard – a nice, practical effort. In Washington, he has been a business-savvy yet aggressive critic of federal banking and securities regulators who failed to act on fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff and who were never disciplined for negligence in the mortgage crisis.

Read the full article on Florida Today

LEFT TO RIGHT: Palm Bay Chamber President Nancy Peltonen, Congressman Bill Posey and Riverview Senior Resort’s Rachel McClain. The chamber hosted a “Meet and Greet with Congressman Posey this week at Riverview Senior Resort, located at 3490 Gran Avenue NE in Palm Bay.(Space Coast Daily image)

BREVARD COUNTY • PALM BAY, FLORIDA – The Greater Palm Bay Chamber hosted a “Meet and Greet with Congressman Bill Posey” this week at Riverview Senior Resort, located at 3490 Gran Avenue NE in Palm Bay.

More than 65 local business leaders were in attendance. The event is part of the Chamber’s “Monday After Hours Mingle” event series.

Congressman Posey was introduced by P.K. Kapur, Board Chair for the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce. He spoke on economic and environmental issues, and the many opportunities ahead for Palm Bay’s economic growth.

“Congressman Posey is a big supporter of small business, which is the backbone of Palm Bay’s economy and community,” said P.K. Kapur, Board Chairman for the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce.

“He’s very down to earth, and gave an excellent talk this evening. He covered a lot of information tonight about the lagoon, about federal regulation, and on how these issues affect local businesses.”

LEFT TO RIGHT: Palm Bay Chamber Board Chair P.K. Kapur, Chamber President Nancy Peltonen and Congressman Bill Posey.

Riverview Senior Resort had management staff and a full culinary team on hand.

“Riverview is pleased to have a fabulous relationship with the Greater Palm Bay Chamber and with our elected officials,” said said Rachel McLain, Community Relations Manager for Riverview Senior Resort.

“The staff and the residents of Riverview thank Congressman Posey for his presentation, and we look forward to hosting future chamber events.”

For more information about the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce, call 321-951-9998 or visit Greaterpalmbaychamber.com

SEC should be watchdogging Wall Street, not imposing climate-change reporting rules on publicly traded companies

There are perhaps few words as politically charged as “climate change.” Taken at face value, the words simply mean that the climate of the earth changes over time. This is observably the case with seasonal changes, but also over greater spans of time. We were taught in school about the Ice Age, and our scientists believe there were multiple ice ages. Obviously, there are long-term fluctuations in the climate or there would have been one continuous ice age.

In Washington, however, climate change means something different. It’s a political agenda with its supporters lobbying on behalf of special interest groups to set policies that include more unnecessary red tape for American businesses, higher taxes, fees and other actions that have stifled competition and hindered job creation.

Just look at the workforce participation rate, it’s at a 40-year low. This economy is not growing like it should. Climate change is publicly acknowledged as a core agenda for the Obama Administration. And it’s everywhere, occupying the time and taxpayer resources of federal agencies – even those you might least expect.

This Administration directed our military and intelligence agencies to evaluate climate change. How they have the resources to do this when ISIS is on the march and Russia and China are flexing their muscles on the world stage is beyond me.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, mired in scandals denying care to those who served, prioritized costly installation of solar panels in its facilities while claiming it needed more resources to serve veterans, costing taxpayers over $400 million. At NASA, space exploration programs face stiff competition for funding from the climate change agenda even though we have many other agencies specifically tasked with studying the environment, but only one charged with space exploration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also has aligned with the climate change agenda. The SEC was established to protect investors, facilitate capital formation, and ensuring fair, efficient, and orderly markets. Staying focused on this mission is critical.

For more than a decade, the SEC ignored overwhelming evidence that now convicted investor Bernie Madoff was running history’s largest ponzi scheme – approximately $65 billion. It’s still unclear as to why the SEC didn’t move years earlier to investigate Madoff after having all of the evidence handed to them by investigator Harry Markopolos. It wasn’t until everything came crashing down that Madoff was turned in, charged and convicted despite evidence that private investors were suspicious as early as 1991 of Madoff’s methods.

For 12 years, the SEC failed to seriously investigate the Stanford ponzi scheme, which grew from approximately $500 million in investments in 1997 to $7.2 billion in 2009. In 2010, the SEC Inspector General revealed the SEC was aware as early as 1997 that Stanford investors’ funds were in jeopardy of being stolen. It was not until 2004 – seven years after the SEC first became aware of the problems at Stanford – that an official investigation was opened. By the time the SEC took action, it was too late for the Stanford victims, they lost everything.

In 2010, the SEC decided to move forward with requiring guidance for climate change on disclosures filed with the commission. Whatever one’s views on climate change may be, the complicated and interdisciplinary subject of climate change hardly falls under the commission’s areas of expertise.

SEC attorneys and investigators specialized in complex financial products and markets would be tasked with vetting risks affiliated with climate change. Outside Washington the word “guidance” may sound innocuous, but experience shows that regulatory guidance can have the same force of law in shaping behavior.

Furthermore, implementing the SEC’s guidance on climate change is far from straightforward. The future is uncertain in any field, but imagine attempting to put in writing any prognosis on the effects of climate change on your industry or business on a long-term time horizon. Now attempt to do this knowing Washington bureaucrats will review your statements and people may take action against you if they don’t like what you report. This requirement is highly speculative and offers little concrete information to investors.

To inject some common sense into this situation, the House passed my Amendment to stop the SEC from implementing this disclosure requirement. Companies remain free to voluntarily disclose any information concerning weather or climate that they see fit to share with investors. The issue here is keeping the SEC focused on its core mission of protecting investors and to stop the SEC from emerging as a political cudgel in the ongoing climate change debate.

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, represents House District 8, which includes Brevard and Indian River counties.

Congressman Bill Posey (R, FL8) is one of the rare incumbents to receive the endorsement of A People’s and Citizens’ Congress [APaCC]. He has earned it because of his campaign towards “Reforming Congress”, including support for “No Budget/No Pay”, ending congressional pay raises, opposition to congressional pay increases and death benefits, and cutting his own congressional office budget.

Bill is one of the less than 1% of candidates by APaCC nationwide. This sets him clearly apart at all levels: Locally and most directly – vs. his opponent; as one of only 4 such candidates statewide, and one of only 66 such candidates nationwide.

APaCC’s prime criteria for endorsement are twofold: (i) Some recognition that Congress-as-an-institution is badly in need of at least one of the 3R’s: reform, revamp or repair, and (ii) Some efforts (if an incumbent) or pledges of efforts (if a non-incumbent candidate) to effect specific reforms [e.g., term-limits, no budget/no pay, moving power and money out of Washington]. Other initiatives such as campaign finance reform only count if there is evidence of (i) and (ii).

Devotion to the FIX CONGRESS! goal truly separates congressional sheep from the goats. For the first time, voters are now enabled to tell which candidates have been or are likely to be “captured” by the go-along/get-along, giant re-election machine that Washington has become. Those who ignore the need to FIX CONGRESS! are happy to go to Washington to pursue congressional business-as-usual. Bill Posey is not one of these. Nor is he a candidate who is NOT listening to his constituents. Nearly 100% of the thousands met during APaCC’s 2015-16 national tour said: “Yea, Congress is broke and must be fixed.” Congressman Posey has heard many such voices in his district, and he is prepared to act on their behalf.

Voters now have a basis for doing what so many have been saying they’d like to do: “Throw the bums out.” Just ask any candidate: “What are you going to do to FIX CONGRESS!” Bill is one of the rare few with an answer.

APaCC is a 3-year old 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to generating a Congress that both better represents and empowers “We the People.” Thus, we aim to FIX CONGRESS! while recognizing that there is no quick fix. Congress has proven unable to fix itself; thus, it’s up to us, the American people.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives passed important legislation, with the support of Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge), to help citrus growers replant trees destroyed by disease. Citrus greening has affected nearly every grower in the state of Florida, making it difficult for many to front the cost of replanting diseased trees.

“Florida has always been known for our world class citrus,” said Congressman Bill Posey. “I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation that will protect countless jobs and provide Florida’s citrus growers with the tools they need to continue to produce the high quality citrus we are known for.”

The Emergency Citrus Disease Response Act (H.R. 3957) will help growers replant by allowing a tax deduction to replant diseased trees even if an investor helps cover part of the cost. The grower must still maintain fifty percent ownership in the grove.

Captives who were once held for more than five years by FARC, a designated terrorist organization in Colombia, may be a step closer to collecting a 2010 federal judgement that said they were entitled to a share of $300 million seized assets.

The U.S. House of representatives on Wednesday passed the Captive Act HR 3394, a bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Bill Posey which ensured that American victims of terrorism can collect the blocked assets derived from drug proceeds as compensation awarded through court judgments.

On Feb. 13, 2003, FARC or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, captured four Americans; Tom Janis, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Tom Howes, of Brevard. Janis, the pilot was executed at the crash site, and the others were held captive for five and a half years. The men had been on a counter narcotics mission.

The Senate companion bill has been introduced by Senators Bill Nelson ad Marco Rubio.

The bill would allow funds seized from terrorist drug operations to be used to satisfy judgments. The money is in accounts of FARC agents that have been blocked under the Kingpin Act.