Austin Scott Visits Jasper County
Newly elected Republican Congressman Austin Scott began his day early Tuesday by meeting with Jasper School Superintendent Mike Newton and educators at Jasper County High School.
Following this the congressman conducted a telephone interview with the Washington Post, a live interview with The News, conducted a question and answer session with approximately 130 students at the high school, before he continued on to Macon for an interview with Farm Bureau.
Mr. Scott began his political career when he was elected to the Ga. House of Representatives in 1996 when he was 26 years old. Since then he has served seven terms in the Ga. House (14 years), during which time he represented Tift, Turner, Worth and Colquitt Counties, and served on the Ways and Means, Appropriations and Rules Committees, and was chairman of the Government Affairs Committee.
Before running for his current office, Mr. Scott took a shot at running for governor during which time he literally walked around the state talking to citizens. During a 64 day period he walked 1,068 miles, and his longest day included 31 miles. Since that time he campaigned and ran for the office of the U.S. 8th Congressional District, and defeated incumbent Democrat Jim Marshall last November. Once arriving in Washington, D.C. he was elected president of the class of 87 freshmen Republican Congressmen.
Concerning education, Mr. Scott said the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind is in this calendar year. “The president’s proposal, Reach to The Top, is somewhat different in that it has performance based pay for educators as an alternative to No Child Left Behind. My primary concerns with educational legislation at the federal level is a shift of control from the local class room to Washington, where the person making the decisions, in many cases, has never been in a class room.
“I am opposing both of these and I hope whatever final bill emerges restores more local control. The Department of Education employees 5,000 people. I would like to see this department shrunk and turn more of the responsibility of running our schools to the local level, because I don’t think people in Washington know what our children need at the local level.”
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Just this past Monday, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled in favor of the 26 states which had filed a lawsuit that Congress violated the Constitution by requiring Americans to buy insurance as part of the health overhaul passed last year.
Mr. Scott said he expects the case to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before the year is over. “The decision concerning the Constitutional issue needs to be resolved sooner rather than later. I believe the judge was correct in his ruling, and the fact that Congress intentionally removed a clause from the bill means that if one provision of it is unconstitutional then all of it is unconstitutional.
“The House recently voted to repeal the bill and the vote was a bipartisan one. Right now the committee has been instructed to put together a piece of legislation that addresses things such as preexisting conditions, and increasing competition in the health care market.
“As far as what the U.S. Senate will do, I think it’s up to the public to press the Senate to make sure it is addressed. If the American public continues to press, then I would think the Senate couldn’t ignore the issue. Just as the local teacher is being told what they can and can’t do in the class room by a federal bureaucracy, applying that same level of logic to the health care system is not going to help the patient.”
On the situation in the Middle East, concerning the unrest in Egypt, Mr. Scott said, “Egypt caught our intelligence agency by surprise. But in the end it seems to be a peaceful protest, and all we can do presently is see how it plays out.”
Mr. Scott also met with FBLA members (left to right) A.J. Thomas, Brady McMichael, Congressmen Scott, India Appling and Lauren Johnson. The local FBLA chapter will earn points toward the Georgia Chapter of the Year competition for participating in an activity with a US legislator.
