Congressman Fred Upton is spending his final week touring around the Sixth District before the U.S. House gets back to work next week. He tells WSJM News a major priority will be budgets for the federal government before the September 30 deadline.
“We’re going to be looking at each of the appropriations bills,” Upton said. “Of course in the House, we passed most of them. W did get a two year budget agreement, but they’re now going to have to come back and look within the spending caps for all of those bills and be able to get them to the president where he can sign them into law. So I think you’re goin to see us package a number of the bills together.”
Upton also expects there to be talks on gun control on the House Judiciary Committee. He says the committee was supposed to discuss the issue this week.
“As it turns out, those hearings were cancelled over the weekend in large part because of the hurricane. A good number of the Judiciary Committee on both the Republican and Democratic side hail from Florida.”
So the gun discussions are put off until next week. Upton says they’re looking at incentives for states to implement red flag laws, which allow police to temporarily take someone’s guns if that person is thought to be a danger. He also says the border crisis remains top of mind after he and other members of the Problem Solvers Caucus went to the southern border in July. He says they are committed to finding a solution to the overburdened immigration system.
