Hydropower and veterans get some love from the House this week, while churches get taxpayer money and Federal workers get screwed… again. H.R. 267: Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act * Fast Tracks licensing for hydro-power generation on existing dams. * Passed with 0 No votes. * Only 3% of the 80,000 dams in the U.S. currently generate electricity H.R. 235: Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act Federal grants will be awarded to States to streamline State requirements and procedures for veterans who were military emergency medical technicians while serving in the Armed Forces to meet certification, licensing, and other requirements applicable to becoming an emergency medical technician in their State. The State must show they have a shortage of emergency medical technicians to be eligible for the money. Funding: $1,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2014 through 2018.'' $5,000 per state, per year. Rural Communities and big cities have shortages of emergency medical personnel; in fact, many of our emergency services are volunteer. H.R. 592: Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act (Tax Money to Churches Act) Re-categorizes houses of worship, regardless of which religion, as public buildings on par with community centers, museums, homeless shelters, etc. in order to allow churches, synagogues, and other religious buildings access to cash grants to repair, restore, or rebuild buildings used for a primarily religious purpose. Problems: Direct government funding of religious buildings is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Supreme Court ruling on State grants for maintaining religious schools: "If the State may not erect buildings in which religious activities are to take place, it may not maintain such buildings or renovate them when they fall into disrepair." Religious buildings are not available for use by the general public. Prayer and worship are not essential government functions. Bill never went through committee process. No amendments were allowed. Religious buildings have access to FEMA money and SBA loans Religions don't pay taxes. Passed the House, with 72 voting No. The 72 were an interesting mix of liberal and Tea Party Congressmen. H.R. 273: Eliminate Promised .5% Pay Increase to Federal Workers Eliminates the pay increase that was promised to Federal workers via an Obama Executive order because they have been given no cost of living adjustment in 2 years. Freezes Congressional pay until December, even though it's already frozen through October because of the fiscal cliff bill. They spent two days on this bill even though the sequester takes effect March 1. JIM MCGOVERN (MA) "The Republicans are going to go on vacation tomorrow. We're not going to be back for a week, and then we'll have 4 legislative days left to deal with this thing called ‘‘sequestration.'' On March 1, all of these across-the-board cuts go into play. And guess what? We're going to lose at least 750,000 jobs. That's not my estimate. That's what the head of OMB says. There will be 750,000 Americans unemployed because of their inaction. Guess what? What are these people going to do? They're going to have to look for employment. They're going to be without work. It's going to slow down our economic growth. Give me a break. There should be some urgency here." Job loss estimates range from 750,000 at the low end and over 2 million at the high end. ROB WOODALL (GA) Here we are at midnight on sequestration day, saying, Hey, let's do it. Folks, let's do it. Let's do it. Back in May, we passed a bill here. Let's do it with the bill we passed in August to solve the fiscal cliff. Let's do it with the one we passed in September. Let's do it with the one we passed in December. What did the House's sequester-solving bills do? Reduced food funding Defunded health insurance exchanges Repealed the part of Wall Street reform that provides for the orderly break up of criminal banks Eliminated the program that lets homeown