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Virginia Foxx, who represents Ashe County in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been busy voting for a wide variety of legislation during the last week.

On Friday, July 10, Foxx cast her vote in support of House Resolution 91, also called the Veterans Identification Card Act of 2015.

According to Foxx’s spokeswoman, Sheridan Watson, this legislation will make it easier for veterans to prove their military service without having to produce a service record or other valuable document.

“Many veterans have contacted me over the years expressing their frustration at having to carry official Department of Defense discharge papers to prove their military service,” Foxx said. “This legislation makes it easier for our veterans to access services available to them and better protects them from identify theft.”

H.R. 91 unanimously passed through the U.S. House and Senate and currently awaits the president’s signature before becoming law.

On the same day, Foxx voted for House Resolution 6, also known as the 21st Century Cures Act. H.R. 6 is an attempt to speed up clinical trials for diseases that do not have cures, and hasten the development of new drugs and treatments.

“It currently takes 15 years for a new drug to move from the lab to the local pharmacy. Great strides have been made in research and treatment of many diseases, but there is still much we have to learn,” Foxx said in a news release. “By accelerating the discovery, development and delivery of life- saving and life-improving therapies, we can transform the search for faster cures.”

According to Watson, H.R. 6 would fully pay for new investments in medical research with savings in other areas, which includes permanent entitlement reforms that would save taxpayers an additional $500 million during the next 10 years.

On Thursday, July 9, Foxx voted in favor of legislation addressing the growing concern of wildfires, which can cause environmental and economic damages.

House Resolution 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015, would simplify environmental process requirements and reduce the cost of implementing forest management projects.

A 2012 Forest Service report estimated between 65 million and 85 million acres of forest are facing some level of threat of wildfire and are in need of restoration. Foxx is also a member of the National Parks Caucus.

On Wednesday, July 8, Foxx voted in favor of legislation that would effectively replace the No Child Left Behind Act with new policies. House Resolution 5, the Student Success Act, passed the House by a vote of 218 to 213.

According to Watson, H.R. 5 would protect state and local autonomy over decisions in the classroom. This will be achieved by lessening pressures on states to adopt Common Core standards.

“As a grandmother, educator and former school board member, I know students are best served when those at the local level are the driving force behind improving education. North Carolina teachers, parents and administrators — not Washington bureaucrats — should be in charge of making education decisions in our state,” Foxx said in the news release.

“Currently, states are forced to choose between the fundamentally flawed policies of No Child Left Behind, which doubled down on federal programs, mandates and spending, and the Obama administration’s controversial temporary, conditional waiver scheme, which has imposed the administration’s preferred policies and heightened the level of uncertainty shared by states and school districts. America’s students deserve better,” Foxx said.

According to Watson, the Student Success Act would replace the current national accountability scheme based on high stakes tests with state-led accountability systems.

Watson also said H.R. 5 would eliminate more than 65 programs, consolidating funding into a Local Academic Flexible Grant.

http://ashemountaintimes.com/ashe/foxx-busy-during-last-week/article_21b947a1-9583-5366-aa49-c479d07ba61a.html