NRA donations given to gun control groups
Rep. TimRyan is giving the campaign money—$20,000 — he’s received from the National Rifle Association to gun control groups.
Ryan, D-Niles, who began his career in Congress with an “A” rating from the NRA, decided to donate his NRA moneyto SandyHook Promise, Americans for Responsible Solutions and Everytown for Gun Safety.
The announcement came after a similar one from fellowDemocratRep. TimWalz of Minnesota, who said he would donate $18,950 of his pastNRAcontributions tothe Intrepid FallenHeroes Fund.
Ryan, said a spokesman, “has no interest in taking guns from law-abiding citizens.” He has signed onto a House bill that would ban bump stocks, a device the LasVegas shooter is believed to have used to make his semi-automaticweapons fire at an automatic rate.
“We applaud Congressman Ryan for his leadership and urge other Ohio state and federal representatives to follow suit and reject the NRA’s dangerous agenda,” said MichelleMueller, a volunteer with the Ohio Chapter ofMoms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
CHIP reauthorization moves forward
A key Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that re-authorizes a federal children’s health program for the next years, a measure backed by Sen. SherrodBrown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
If the full Senate approves the billandit winsHouse passage, the Children’s Health Insurance Program would continuehealthcoveragetoat least 210,000 Ohio children.
In Ohio, the federal governmentwould continue to pay for most of the program until 2019.
The share paid by the federal governmentwould drop from97percent to85percent in 2020, and then drop to 74 percent in 2021 and 2022, according to the program.
Hearing loss bill advances
The House Tuesday approved its version of a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to continue research on hearing loss in newborns and infants.
Themeasure passed inthe Senate in September.
“Early hearing detection is critical,” said Portman in a statement. “Children with hearing loss often fall behind their peers in speech development, cognitive skills, and social skills.”
The bill allows the government to award taxpayer money for statewide screening programs to detect hearing loss in children and hire staffqualified toaddress their needs.
Themeasure nowgoes to President Donald Trump for his signature.
Letter urges ‘terrorist’ label for North Korea
Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown joined 10 other senatorsWednesday to urge theTrumpadministration to label North Korea as a state sponsor of international terrorism.
In a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the six Democrats and six Republicans wrote that since former PresidentGeorgeW. Bush in 2008 dropped North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the Pyongyang regime has continued to develop its nuclearweapons programalong with the missiles to deliver a nuclear warhead.
“Over the past nine years, the NorthKorean regime has consistently shown a disregard for international norms and agreements, re-energizing its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them,” the senators wrote.
In a clear reference to OttoWarmbier, the Cincinnati-area student who was jailed in North Korea and died in the United States this summershortly after his release, the senators cited Pyongyang’s “detainment, detention and treatment of American citizens.”
If the Trump administration designates North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, the administration could impose additional sanctions on the heavily sanctioned regime, including financial restrictions.