Dr. Joe Heck is running to replace Senator Harry Reid because he claims to want to represent Nevadans but we have yet to see any actual evidence of that claim.
As an example, last week, as the House of Representatives was voting on a bill to ensure all telephone calls, text messages and communications received by the veterans’ crisis hotline are answered, in a timely manner by a trained professional, Rep. Heck was attending a fundraiser for his campaign in New Jersey. In February, Congressman Heck skipped a vote to toughen sanctions on North Korea and instead attended a fundraiser thousands of miles away.
No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act
This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop:
- a quality assurance document for carrying out the toll-free Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), including at backup call centers; and
- a plan to ensure that each telephone call, text message, and other communications received by the VCL, including at backup call centers, is answered in a timely manner by a person, consistent with the guidance established by the American Association of Suicidology.
“Congressman Heck has said veterans’ mental health is a priority, but when he has the opportunity to help veterans calling a crisis hotline, he put his political ambitions above our veterans,” said Mairead Lynn, spokesperson for the Nevada Democratic Party. “This fits a pattern for Congressman Heck – he says what he thinks Nevadans want to hear, but when push comes to shove, he cares more about furthering his political career than doing his job and showing up to work. Suicide prevention for the men and women who served our country should be a no-brainer, but apparently it’s not an important enough issue for Congressman Heck to show up to work.”
If you’re not a veteran and that doesn’t ring your chimes, do you earn a paycheck? Do you get or are you denied overtime pay? Think Rep. Heck has you back on that? Think again! HR 6094, Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act, just came up in the House for a vote last week and Rep. Heck, along with Rep. Amodei and Rep. Hardy, all voted FOR passage. If you hadn’t read what the bill does you might think “regulatory relief” was a good thing. It’s all perspective. If you’re an employer, passage would be a great thing. If you’re an employee, on the other hand, you get stiffed:
Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act
This bill postpones from December 1, 2016, until June 1, 2017, the effective date of a final rule of the Department of Labor (81 Fed. Reg. 32552 [May 23, 2016]) revising income thresholds for determining overtime pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer (“white collar”) employees exempt from regular minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
The Department of Labor updated the “threshold rules” for determining which employees and when those employees become eligible for overtime, making more employees eligible. Those rules would have become effective 12/1/2016. Your Nevada Republican representation in the U.S. House of Representatives all voted to delay that effective date by 6 months, giving them time to repeal those rules and deny you access to any overtime under that change of rules should they be able to hold both Houses of Congress and take the Presidency.