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In the Headlines

  • It's Time to Put People First

    Mon, Sep 30, 2013

    By Ami Bera, MD

    On Tuesday, if the United States Congress fails to pass a temporary funding bill called a continuing resolution, the federal government will shut down. While essential services like air traffic control, and homeland security will continue to function, many employees, including our military serving overseas, will report to work, but not receive pay. Many federal services will also cease: our National Parks will close, visa and passport applications will come to a halt, and the Centers for Disease Control will close. A shutdown will affect millions of Americans, and could also impact our slowly recovering economy.

    How did we get to this point of impasse and what can Congress do to begin functioning in some sort of regular process?

  • Lawmakers Try to Break Gridlock on Capitol Hill

    Thu, Jul 18, 2013

    Rep. Ami Bera, an Elk Grove, Calif., Democrat who is pushing a measure to consolidate electronic medical records of the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department, acknowledged that the nine bills wouldn’t tackle the difficult, high-profile issues that have helped create gridlock in Washington.

    Bera, though, said Republicans and Democrats can work together on more modest measures to build trust and establish common ground that would make it easier to deal with tougher problems such as immigration legislation, gun control and spending limits.

    “First we demonstrate to America how Congress can work, then hopefully we gain some momentum and start tackling more divisive issues,” Bera said.

  • Bera Introduces Women's Health Bill

    Sat, Jun 29, 2013

    Rep. Dr. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove) earlier this month introduced the Women’s Preventive Health Awareness Campaign Act, a bill aimed at raising awareness about the importance of women’s wellness visits.

    “As a doctor, I’ve always made patients’ health my top priority,” he said after introducing the bill on June 20. “Encouraging women to meet regularly with their doctors for wellness visits is essential to keeping our wives, mothers, and daughters healthy.”

  • Bera Says Republican Abortion Bill is "Not Going to Go Anywhere"

    Thu, Jun 20, 2013

    Rep. Ami Bera, a doctor who was elected to Congress last year, questioned Tuesday why his Republican colleagues brought a bill to the floor to restrict abortions beyond 20 weeks when they knew it had no chance of becoming law.

    "Why aren't we talking about the things the public wants us to talk about?" the Elk Grove Democrat asked in an interview after he cast a no vote.

  • Congress' Problem Solvers Say It's Time to Compromise

    Fri, Feb 08, 2013

    “We’re meeting on a regular basis, Democrats and Republicans just talking about areas where we think we can work together in a bipartisan way,” said Rep. Ami Bera, a California Democrat who defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Lungren in November.

    “The idea is we’ve got to move past being only Democrat or Republican,” Bera said in an interview. “It’s very evident in my freshman class. All of us got elected knowing there was an expectation that we would work together.”

    Bera and his fellow Problem Solvers scored a major victory last week when Congress passed and Obama signed the No Budget No Pay Act. It raises the federal debt ceiling through May 18 while blocking lawmakers’ salaries if they fail to pass a budget for fiscal 2014, which starts Oct. 1.

    Bera made the bill a central plank of his campaign against Lungren last year. While Bera preferred a tougher measure than the one that eventually passed – it holds lawmakers’ pay in escrow instead of eliminating it – the new Sacramento-area lawmaker voted for it in the spirit of compromise that he thinks is so important.

    “Passing a budget is our core job,” Bera said. “It lets the public know what our priorities are and how we’re going to spend our resources.”

  • A New Doctor in the House

    Tue, Jan 29, 2013

    Last week, a political maneuver by House Republicans to include a "no budget, no pay" provision in legislation to temporarily suspend the federal debt ceiling gave Bera the chance to act on one of his key campaign pledges.

    The House bill included language to withhold pay for members if their chamber doesn't pass a budget plan. The move was seen as a political poke at the Senate, which hasn't adopted a full budget resolution in years.

    Bera made his pledge to support a slightly different version of the act a central theme of his successful campaign to oust former U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren, attacking Lungren in ads and press releases for failing to green-light the legislation as chair of the House Administration Committee.

    Though the provision that passed lacked some of the bite of the original bill, Bera's office said he saw the language as a step in the right direction. And the vote presented the first-term congressman with his first opportunity to give remarks on the House floor