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Audio Feature: This week in News for Rep. John Faso: 20170724

Jul 31, 2017 9:56 am
Here's the week in the news for Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook), the District 19 Congressman for the WGXC listening area. Fivethirtyeight.com currently reports Faso votes with Donald Trump's positions 90 percent of his votes. Click here to download or play an audio version of this report.

Congressman John Faso (R-Kinderhook) voted July 25 to strengthen sanctions against Russia in response to the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine the 2016 US presidential election. H.R. 3364 passed 419-to-3 in the House and a similar bill passed 98-to-2 in the Senate. It is unclear if the president will sign the bill, but there are enough votes to override a veto. H.R. 3364, the Russia, Iran, and North Korea Sanctions Act, also penalized Iran and North Korea. “Vladimir Putin’s Russia is no ally of ours. The Kremlin’s efforts to influence the 2016 election cycle prove that its ultimate goal is to destabilize and divide the United States. Today my colleagues and I rebuked these provocative actions by Russia and sent a clear message to others who would attempt to disrupt our democratic process: Americans will always stand united in defense of our values,” said Faso.

Jimmy Vielkind is reporting at Politico New York SEIU 1199, the powerful health care union, has launched radio ads in upstate New York to attack three Republican members of Congress for their efforts to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act. The union has made a "significant buy" at radio stations in Albany, Binghamton, Utica, Poughkeepsie, Watertown and Syracuse. The ads mention U.S. Reps. John Faso of Kinderhook, as well as Claudia Tenney of Utica, and Elise Stefanik of the North Country. All three voted for the House bill. Faso has argued against Obamacare and last year supported the GOP’s platform calling for a repeal of a law they say is broken and has not lowered costs for consumers. Democratic leaders, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have declared their intent to target all three seats in a coordinated campaign next year. Read the full story at Politico New York.

Nick Reisman reports in State of Politics that Emily’s List, a Democratic political action committee said on July 27 plans to target 50 Republican elected officials, including local Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook). Faso and four other New York Republicans are now “on notice” with the group for the 2018 elections. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has also said the state Democratic Committee will do whatever it can to unseat GOP incumbents who backed legislation to cut health care. Read the full story in State of Politics.

• New York's Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both voted against a healthcare repeal bill at 1:30 a.m. July 28 in U.S. Senate. The bill was voted down 49-51, with three Republicans voting against. Local Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook) voted for an earlier version of the bill when it was in committee and in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ariél Zangla reports in The Daily Freeman how local Republican officials reacted to President Donald Trump advising New Yorkers to leave the state. The Republican president told the Wall Street Journal June 25 that upstate New Yorkers needed to move where there are more jobs. “... I’m going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn’t working, like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house,” the president said. State Senator George Amedore said in a prepared statement, “We have a high cost of living and doing business that continues to drive people to leave the state. But we are also fortunate to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful natural resources in the world right here in the Hudson Valley and throughout the state. I have faith that with the proper policies to help relieve the burdens on residents and businesses and create a more favorable climate, we can continue to move our upstate communities in the right direction. What I’d like to hear from the president is how he’s going to work with us to accomplish that.” Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro said, "Yes, Dutchess County experienced in the early ’90s that very crisis. The mass exodus of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.” U.S. Rep. John Faso said, “This is because state leaders like Governor [Andrew] Cuomo are more interested in defending the status quo and paying for light shows on the George Washington Bridge than pursuing reforms to foster economic prosperity for individuals and businesses.” Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.

* Cristina Marcos reports in The Hill that Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook) voted July 27 for spending $1.6 billion on President Donald Trump's proposed border wall. The vote was on a procedural maneuver to add construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall to a government spending bill. Just five Republicans voted against the procedural maneuver. Democrats offered amendments to prohibit any use of funds to build the border wall, but they were voted down. The Senate may or may not approve the spending, and the president is clearly on record supporting funding his main campaign promise. Read the full story in The Hill.