Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

An Open Border Impacts Every State

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On June 28th, Breitbart reported that the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina, will be leased to the U. S. Health and Human Services (HHS) to resettle and house UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Children) arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The article reports:

The contract will begin housing UACs early next month and about 800 staff will be hired to provide educational courses, translation services, recreational activities, medical care, counseling, and security.

“The school will be leased to the federal government for a period of five years for this use only, continuing the original American Hebrew Academy mission of educating children and preparing them for their future,” the school’s announcement states.

The American Hebrew Academy, which closed in 2019 but reopened last year, is a private boarding school for the nation’s wealthiest households. Tuition costs up to $42,000 a school year. The campus includes 31 buildings, 35 student apartments, an $18 million athletic center, and a 22-acre private lake.

This infuriates me. We have homeless veterans living on the streets of America and families that can barely afford a place to live, and we are housing children who are here illegally in luxury.

The article continues:

The contract with the American Hebrew Academy speaks to the volume and rate at which the Biden administration is releasing UACs into American communities. As Breitbart News recently reported, the number of UACs arriving at the border continues to rise.

In May, alone, nearly 15,000 UACs were apprehended at the border — nearly all of which will be turned over to HHS and resettled across the U.S. In a single month, the Biden administration released about 8,000 UACs into the U.S. interior.

The overwhelming majority of UACs arriving at the border are teen boys. The latest federal data shows that 72 percent of all UACs are over 14-years-old and 66 percent are boys.

I am not convinced that housing teenage boys until they reach 18 and then turning them loose in America will in any way contribute to the well-being of America. We need to stop EVERYONE at the border and only allow people into America who have the legal right to come here. The first thing we are currently doing is to teach those flowing across our southern border not to respect our laws. That does not bode well for our future.

 

Standing Up For Those Who Helped In A Crisis

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When the nightmare of lockdowns, masks, and hand sanitizer began in February, some of the small breweries stepped up and stopped making alcohol to drink and made hand sanitizer instead. Unfortunately, those who wrote the stimulus bill for Congress were ungrateful.

Today The Federalist is reporting the following:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is overriding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which made a surprise announcement Tuesday that any distillery that switched to producing hand sanitizer this year during the pandemic will owe thousands of dollars in fees and could be charged twice if they do not cease production immediately.

HHS Chief of Staff Brian Harrison announced Thursday: “Small businesses who stepped up to fight COVID-19 should be applauded by their government, not taxed for doing so. I’m pleased to announce we have directed FDA to cease enforcement of these arbitrary, surprise user fees. Happy New Year, distilleries, and cheers to you for helping keep us safe!”

The article explains the history of the fees:

The early and uncertain days of the pandemic created a high demand for hand sanitizer. Many craft-brewing distilleries, which found their regular operations at a standstill due to COVID shutdowns, pivoted to making sanitizer to stay financially afloat and help with the sudden shortage. More than 800 distilleries shifted from spirits to sanitizer, offering it for sale and even donating it to their communities.

How were the distilleries rewarded for their swift, resourceful, and admirable actions? The FDA slapped them with a notice that they owed an unexpected fee to the government of more than $14,000. Any facility described as an “over-the-counter drug monograph” facility would be subject to a $14,060 Monograph Drug Facility Fee.

The CARES Act, passed into law earlier this year as an initial round of COVID-19 spending defined all distilleries producing hand sanitizer as such facilities. Under the now-voided rule, distilleries would have been forced to shut down production of hand sanitizer and notify the federal government of their change in status in order to avoid having to pay the same fee in 2022.

For the blindsided distilleries, the unexpected fee would have been devastating in an already financially difficult year.

This is another example of things hidden in bills passed by Congress that hurt American businesses. It is time we limit Congressional bills to five pages and require that they deal with one subject only. Right now the lobbyists are writing the bills and hiding things in them that hurt Americans. It’s time to make some changes in the way Congress operates.