This is View from the Hill's roundup of the most interesting news from Capitol Hill pertaining to North Carolina and higher education.
Congressional lawmakers were home this week for district work as they round out the five-week August recess — and North Carolina’s delegation was active across the state.
U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., was campaigning for reelection, culminating in a debate with Republican challenger Thom Tillis. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., took most of the week off from congressional work, scheduling no official events open to the public.
As the midterm elections draw closer, members of the House delegation — including Renee Ellmers, David Price, Mark Meadows and Robert Pittenger — were particularly active.
Hagan focuses on campaign season
Hagan, facing a re-election bid with high stakes for the Democrats’ majority in the Senate, focused on rallying her base across the state during the August recess. On Wednesday in Durham, she and Thom Tillis squared off in the first of three debates this fall. During the tense, hour-long exchange, the candidates took swings at each other on the biggest issues this cycle, including education.
Hagan attacked Tillis on his performance in the state legislature, saying that the average 7 percent teacher pay raise enacted by lawmakers this summer does little to aid senior teachers and won’t stem the tide of teachers leaving the state. She also criticized Tillis for cuts to the UNC system, and touted her own record as a state lawmaker, claiming that North Carolina teacher pay increased by 21 percent during her tenure.
Tillis fired back by trying to tie Hagan to President Barack Obama and his declining popularity nationwide, and to the Affordable Care Act, which Tillis has consistently said he would work to repeal if elected.
The minimum wage was another contentious topic addressed during the debate, and Hagan continued to push for a wage increase in the event’s aftermath. Hagan’s Twitter account posted: “Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, would give 1.1 million North Carolinians a raise.”
Hagan also took to Twitter to advocate that women should be allowed to chose their own birth control regardless of what their employer believes.
North Carolina House members take their message home
This week, Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., attended the swearing in of N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin as the culmination of her activities throughout the August recess. Ellmers has been promoting her bipartisan bill, HR 3556, to allow rescued primates to come to the country, a practice banned by most states. Ellmers’ bill has been endorsed by the Humane Society of the United States.
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., was in his district, which includes Chapel Hill, to meet with constituents and interest groups. Price spoke on Tuesday to a group of faculty and students at the Research Triangle Park headquarters about cuts to federal funding for science research, and also headed south for Fayetteville State University’s convocation, where he outlined his support for student interests in Washington. Price then met with first responders from across the district to host a roundtable discussion.
Mark Meadows, R-N.C., wrote an opinion piece in the Asheville Citizen-Times decrying the effects of the Affordable Care Act. In his column, Meadows emphasized that the ACA is hurting students across the country.
Restrictions in the law are causing universities to under-employ students who work on campus so that they will not have to provide them health insurance, Meadows wrote. He added that the ACA makes universities pay for more for students than they should and that it will continue to hurt schools across the nation, including the UNC system.
“In the UNC system alone there are 3,900 students workers who would fall under the Employer Mandate, costing the universities about $21 million,” Meadows wrote.
Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., has been holding town hall meetings across his district to interact with constituents - he adopted the idea of one of his constituents, Garland Denny, to create a stamp that would help fund veterans' services.
Pittenger unveiled legislation to establish the stamp this past week, saying, “Mr. Denny is a true and distinguished patriot who recognized a need and has dedicated his time and resources to meeting that need. Mr. Denny thought outside-the-box and developed a solution that will increase funding for veteran services without increasing federal spending or the tax burden. We are honored to work with Mr. Denny on this important project.”
state@dailytarheel.com
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