Oct 31 2014
October Newsletter
Dear Friend,
Each month, I send out an electronic newsletter – my “Monthly Record – to Nebraskans discussing my work in Nebraska and in the U.S. Senate. It’s a cost effective, efficient way to stay in touch. If you wish to unsubscribe from these emails, you can do so at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of this newsletter.
Creative thinkers across Nebraska and the nation are always coming up with innovations that improve our quality of life in everything from telecommunications to health care. These advances help us to stay connected, conduct business and remain independent. They also create jobs and expand businesses. Unfortunately, federal policies and regulations have not kept pace with modern technology. As a result, practices in Washington that predate the VCR are holding back new growth and innovation.
In October, I outlined a Fresh Technology Agenda for Growth, Innovation, and Opportunity. I believe Washington needs a new approach to tech policy that takes into consideration the modern tech landscape and the new challenges and opportunities it presents. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have worked to improve broadband services in rural areas, reduce onerous federal approval processes for new technologies, and roll back expensive tech product labeling requirements that have become obsolete in the 21st century. I will continue working to give Washington the policy reboot it needs to promote tech advances and economic growth.
Click HERE to read more about my tech agenda.
IN OTHER NEWS
Fighting Ebola
The Ebola outbreak continues to generate a great deal of concern across the country. Despite the excellent care provided to patients at medical facilities like the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the federal government failed to adequately anticipate and communicate an effective response. Earlier this month, I sent a letter to Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressing my concern that the CDC’s efforts so far have not been sufficiently proactive in addressing instances of Ebola in the United States. Full text of the letter can be read here.
Hearing on the “Internet of Things”
The rapidly developing market of health wearables, connected homes, and other novel, Internet-based solutions represents an expanding industry of consumer products. The spread of these products gives rise to a number of policy questions, including security, privacy, manufacturing, regulatory certainty, and public-sector application. I recently joined a bipartisan group of senators in requesting an oversight Commerce Committee hearing on the future of the so-called “Internet of Things” and consumer wearable technologies. Read the letter here.
Letter to EPA on WOTUS
I joined a group of 24 senators in expressing my concern to the Administration regarding its attempt to significantly expand federal control over water through its proposed definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers outlined how the proposed rule displaces state and local officials in their primary role of environmental protection, and imposes restrictions and uncertainty on private property owners. You can read the letter here.
Adoptions in the DRC
Many families in the United States are ready and willing to provide safe and loving homes for children facing strife in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Unfortunately, the DRC has blocked the transfer of adopted children to foreign nations, leaving hundreds of American families, including several in Nebraska, separated from their legally adopted children. This week, I joined 182 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, in calling on our counterparts in the DRC to reform their adoption policies to allow children in need to be united with caring families wherever they may be. You can read the full text of the letter here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Lincoln Journal Star: FISCHER: Nebraska - The new tech frontier
Kearney Hub: FCC won’t answer call to fix rural service
KCSR: Senator Fischer Concerned With Ebola In The U.S.
Nebraska Radio Network: Sen. Fischer says country must upgrade nuclear weapons
Lincoln Journal Star: Fischer proposes federal tech policy change
KCSR: Senator Fischer Accepting Applications For Spring Internship Program
PHOTOS OF THE MONTH
.jpg)
As a part of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Angus King (I-Maine) and I toured our nation’s nuclear weapon facilities in New Mexico and California.
Technology and innovation are very important to me. I recently had the opportunity to visit San Francisco and Silicon Valley to tour technology firms, including Microsoft, and meet with their leadership teams and employees.
