Congressman Bob Gibbs paid Richland County a visit on Monday morning to discuss important topics in Washington, D.C. including an immigration bill and ObamaCare.
“We’ve been working to bring in important elected officials in local, state, and federal government to speak to our members and today we have Congressman Bob Gibbs,” said Richland Area Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Nestor.
Congressman Bob Gibbs represents U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District. “There is a lot going on in Washington,” said Gibbs. The first issue that the congressman addressed was the immigration bill. The immigration bill dictates a lengthy battle to obtain citizenship for those immigrants who are living in America illegally. The bill also offers difficult and tough measures for a secure border.
The U.S. Senate recently passed the immigration bill, and now it must face the U.S. House of Representatives.”I think that the security of the border is the primary driver in immigration reform. We need to fix the problem, before we can address the problem that is already here,” said Gibbs.
Gibbs also addressed Registered Provisional Immigrants (RPI). RPI is offered to those who are not citizens. It would allow those who were here before or on December 31, 2011 to apply for RPI and would allow them to apply for citizenship, and work and travel in the U.S. RPI can be held for five years and can be extended for five years. After this, the RPI can request and apply for permanent residence based on border control success.
Gibbs expressed his concerns about The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Bill, also known as ObamaCare Bill. Gibbs said, “I think it’s a train wreck coming and a lot of Democrat senators are now talking about the train wreck coming.” A few basic fundamentals behind ObamaCare include no discrimination based on gender, no denying any individual who may suffer from pre-existing conditions, and enabling every American to buy or be provided with healthcare.
Jobs and the economy is another highly debated topic in Washington, D.C. Gibbs said, “There is not a lot of certainty coming out of Washington, D.C. The economy is just kind of staggering along.” Gibbs suggested the reason behind the “staggering economy” is that “a lot of business people like yourselves are not feeling secure. We’re not confident to take on a lot of risk. There is a hesitancy with ObamaCare coming down the road.” Gibbs said, “We need to improve certainty.”
Gibbs had four points that he suggested to restore confidence and certainty. The first point was spending. He said, “We have got to get our spending under control.” The spending must be under control in order to grow the economy. The second point was tax reform. Gibbs said, “We need real tax reform. The third is regulatory reform. Gibbs stated, “We need to have regulatory reforms in the free market economy, but they have to make sense. We need to have real regulatory reforms that doesn’t stifle economic growth.”
The fourth and final point Gibbs addressed is an energy policy. He said, “We have more oil and natural gas in this country than anybody had ever dreamt. We passed a bill in the House to encourage the development of offshore production and oil production and we are going to do it responsibly and protect the environment at the same time.”
Gibbs said, “If you do these four steps and you do them right, then you can provide certainty and confidence.”
After speaking to the Chamber, Gibbs traveled to Shelby to visit North Central State College located at the Kehoe Center and then he paid MTD a visit to take a tour. Mayor Marilyn John also updated Gibbs on the progress of flood control in Shelby.
