Sen. Lee Celebrates 1000th Mobile Office Visit
SALT LAKE CITY – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) will join his staff at Taylorsville City Hall today, to celebrate the 1000th Mobile Office visit made available to the people of Utah.
“I want my office to be open and available to all Utahns as often as possible,” Sen. Lee said. “The best way to achieve that is by going directly to them. Utahns deal with a range of federal issues – from Social Security to veterans benefits to navigating the bureaucracy of the federal government – and I want my staff to be there to help them get answers.”
Sen. Lee's Mobile Office visits are a resource for constituents across Utah who might not otherwise be able to meet with casework officers or other staff at Sen. Lee’s permanent offices in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and St. George. These office hours provide Utahns with an opportunity to speak with members of Sen. Lee’s staff face-to-face about specific constituent service needs or more general federal government issues – and to do so in the convenience of their own community.
Since 2011, Sen. Lee’s staff has met with over 12,000 Utahns at over 1,000 Mobile Office visits throughout Utah’s 29 counties. We’ve been from Snowville to Montezuma Creek, from Wendover to Ballard, and all over the Wasatch Front to every corner of Utah. Over 100 of these visits were targeted senior assistance visits to senior centers and retirement communities.
What: Mobile Office Visit to Taylorsville
When: Friday, February 1, 2019 between 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Where: Taylorsville City Hall, 2600 W Taylorsville Blvd, Taylorsville, UT 84129
An online version of this release can be found here.
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Sen. Lee Introduces the Federal Courts Access Act
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement after introducing the Federal Courts Access Act of 2019, Thursday.
“For too long, trial lawyers have been able to manipulate the diversity jurisdiction rules to deny litigants their day in federal court,” Sen. Lee said. “By creating a minimal diversity requirement consistent with the vision of the very first Congress, this bill increases out-of-state litigants’ access to the federal courts for major controversies. By returning to first principles, we can increase both fairness and efficiency in the civil litigation system.”
The framers of the Constitution were well aware of the dangers state court bias posed to national commerce. That is why from the beginning they created “diversity” jurisdiction, thus allowing litigants from out of state access to federal courts.
But thanks to an 1806 Supreme Court case, plaintiffs now only need to identify one in-state defendant to defeat diversity jurisdiction. This bill fixes that problem by allowing access to federal court for any case where at least one defendant is from out of state.
You can find the full text of the Federal Courts Access Act of 2019 here.
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Sen. Lee Reintroduces “CBO Show Your Work” Bill
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced the “CBO Show Your Work” Act Wednesday, legislation designed to improve the legislative process by making the Congressional Budget Office more transparent and accountable.
“Congress does need a scorekeeper to provide budgetary estimates for the policy changes it considers,” Sen. Lee said. “But at a bare minimum, that scorekeeper should be forced to show how its models work. Currently the CBO doesn’t have to do that.”
“That is why I have reintroduced the CBO Show Your Work Act of 2019,” Lee continued. “This bill would require the CBO to publish its data, models, and all details of computation used in its cost analysis and scoring. CBO would keep its role as official scorekeeper of congressional budget proposals – but now the American people and the economic community would be able to see what’s going on in all those spreadsheets and algorithms.”
You can find the full text of the CBO Show Your Work Act of 2019 here.
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Bishop Invites Mrs. Jennie Taylor to State of the Union
WASHINGTON – Mrs. Jennie Taylor has accepted an invitation by Rep. Rob Bishop (UT-01) to attend the 2019 State of the Union address as Bishop’s guest. Mrs. Taylor is the widow of Major Brent Russell Taylor. Maj. Taylor served as a member of the Utah Army National Guard and was killed in Afghanistan in November of 2018.
Bishop will host a reception honoring Mrs. Taylor and the late Major Brent Taylor. The Reception will be held in the Longworth House Office Building Room 1334 and is to commence at 1:30 PM ET on February 6th.
