Andy Barr: Amid accomplishments, I’m most proud of work helping people through pandemic

In the nearly eight years serving the people of Central and Eastern Kentucky in Congress, I am proud of our office’s many accomplishments. As a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, I currently serve as the top Republican on the oversight subcommittee and, in the last Congress, I served as chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Federal Reserve system and our nation’s monetary policy.

To promote economic prosperity, I authored and passed multiple bills to increase Americans’ access to capital and expand affordable housing. I voted for historic tax cuts, which included bills I introduced to boost Kentucky’s bourbon and horse industries, reduced the tax burden for the average median income family in the Sixth District by over $2,000, and led to the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years.

On national security, I coauthored critical improvements to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to block malign investment in U.S. companies and stop the theft of intellectual property and critical technology by Chinese state-owned enterprises. I authored and helped pass into law the nation’s toughest economic sanctions ever directed at North Korea.

As a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, I helped pass and am overseeing implementation of the VA Mission Act, the most transformational reform of the Veterans Administration health system in history, and my bipartisan legislation to enhance STEM scholarships under the Forever G.I. Bill was recently signed into law.

Through our Sixth District Veterans Coalition, I passed legislation renaming the two VA medical center campuses in Lexington in honor of Kentucky World War II heroes Franklin Sousley and Troy Bowling, and I succeeded in petitioning the Trump Administration to designate Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park in Jessamine County as Kentucky’s first and only National Monument.

I established the Sixth District Drug Abuse Task Force to assist local addiction recovery organizations apply for and receive federal assistance, and I passed legislation to support transitional housing for addiction recovery. As Co-Chairman of the bipartisan congressional horse caucus, I continue to lead legislation to establish national uniform medication standards to enhance the safety and integrity of our signature thoroughbred racing industry.

But beyond these successes, I am perhaps most proud of the work my office has put in over the last three months responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to voting for key legislation to aggressively respond to the public health emergency and related economic crisis, my office has been on the front lines fighting for our constituents.

As the top Republican with oversight over the U.S. Department of Treasury, I helped craft, improve and implement several crucial Main Street business lending programs that saved jobs, kept workers on the payroll and gave small businesses and their workers a crucial lifeline during the pandemic-related shutdown. I established a small business response team to work with both community-based lenders and small businesses to deliver emergency cash flow and save local jobs.

In addition to securing delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Strategic National Stockpile, I collaborated with local epidemiologists to advocate for and secure clarity from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to approve in-hospital, same-location telehealth services, bringing the most innovative and modern technology to the fight against COVID-19, protecting healthcare workers and conserving scarce PPE.

My office responded to a desperate request from a constituent-employee of an American pharmaceutical company that manufactures an anesthetic in critical short-supply used to sedate intubated COVID-19 patients. I personally appealed to Admiral John Polowczyk, head of the FEMA Supply Chain Task Force, and the U.S. State Department to successfully negotiate the release of a large shipment of the drug seized by a foreign government that resulted in a one month replenishment of the anesthetic used to treat critically ill COVID 19 patients in the United States.

Last but not least, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently appointed me to serve on a select China Task Force to investigate the origins of and the Chinese Communist Party’s mishandling and cover up of the novel coronavirus outbreak. In addition to investigating COVID-19, this 15-member panel will be making critical recommendations to prepare the United States for the coming multi-decade strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China.

Every election season, I am often asked how I am preparing for my next set of opponents or how I intend to wage my next political campaign. My response has always been the same: If I work hard to do the job I was elected to do, the politics will take of itself. That work continues.

Andy Barr represents the Sixth District in the U.S. House and is running for re-election. The Herald-Leader permits candidates in key races to submit one Op-Ed per election. Kentucky’s primary election is June 23, with mail-in voting now underway.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 5:07 PM.