Latest news with #Pocan
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The F-35 stealth fighter just got another noise complaint
A congressional lawmaker sought funding to help constituents battle F-35 noise pollution. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation previously funded $50 million for noise issues but denied requests for additional funding. F-35 jets have caused noise complaints nationwide, with reports of health impacts. The F-35 is a loud aircraft, and the people of Wisconsin are not happy about it. A local congressman is again calling in a noise complaint on the stealth fighter, urging Pentagon officials to visit the state and witness for themselves just how loud the Lockheed Martin fifth-generation fighter jet actually is when it is flying overhead. Rep. Mark Pocan sent a letter to the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, a DC-based agency within the Department of Defense that helps military bases work with their local communities, after the group denied funding for noise mitigation efforts for some Madison citizens, who Pocan says are plagued by the jet's deafening Pratt & Whitney engines. Truax Field Air National Guard Base, which is home to the 115th Fighter Wing and its F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, is located in Madison, Wisconsin. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation has funded DoD noise-mitigation efforts and even has an entire office dedicated to handling community noise issues from military fixed-wing aviation. The office offered Madison residents $50 million in fiscal year 2021, according to Pocan's letter, "to make necessary modifications to their homes to dampen the noise and improve their quality of life." A recent similar request, however, for $18 million for other Madison residents was nixed. Pocan said in his letter that "this effort would have allowed for better insulation in over 160 homes to help cushion the noise, as well as new windows or HVAC systems." A 2012 Vermont Health Department study found that F-35 jets reached a peak noise level of 115 decibels, or approximately the same noise level as a rock concert, louder than the F-16s the 115th Fighter Wing previously flew. "Since the decision to place F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field in 2020, my office has repeatedly been in touch with the Department of Defense to express my concerns about what impact the noise from these jets could have on local residents, their homes, and local businesses," Pocan said. "In the years since, residents have reported consistent and significant concerns with the noise levels to my office, along with fears that prolonged exposure could lead to property damage or negative health impacts," the letter said. The congressman requested that the office send an official out to Madison to explain its rejection to the community in person. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on its planned response to Pocan's letter. It's not the first time that noisy jets have made headlines in Wisconsin, where residents near the Truax Field Air National Guard Base have had to contend with the aircraft regularly since their arrival in 2020. F-35s have also riled up other residents across the country where the advanced fighter jets are housed, disturbing residents in Utah, Arizona and Vermont, where some people have even reported panic attack-like symptoms in response. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Politics
- Business Insider
The F-35 stealth fighter just got another noise complaint
The F-35 is a loud aircraft, and the people of Wisconsin are not happy about it. A local congressman is again calling in a noise complaint on the stealth fighter, urging Pentagon officials to visit the state and witness for themselves just how loud the Lockheed Martin fifth-generation fighter jet actually is when it is flying overhead. Rep. Mark Pocan sent a letter to the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, a DC-based agency within the Department of Defense that helps military bases work with their local communities, after the group denied funding for noise mitigation efforts for some Madison citizens, who Pocan says are plagued by the jet's deafening Pratt & Whitney engines. Truax Field Air National Guard Base, which is home to the 115th Fighter Wing and its F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, is located in Madison, Wisconsin. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation has funded DoD noise-mitigation efforts and even has an entire office dedicated to handling community noise issues from military fixed-wing aviation. The office offered Madison residents $50 million in fiscal year 2021, according to Pocan's letter, "to make necessary modifications to their homes to dampen the noise and improve their quality of life." A recent similar request, however, for $18 million for other Madison residents was nixed. Pocan said in his letter that "this effort would have allowed for better insulation in over 160 homes to help cushion the noise, as well as new windows or HVAC systems." A 2012 Vermont Health Department study found that F-35 jets reached a peak noise level of 115 decibels, or approximately the same noise level as a rock concert, louder than the F-16s the 115th Fighter Wing previously flew. "Since the decision to place F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field in 2020, my office has repeatedly been in touch with the Department of Defense to express my concerns about what impact the noise from these jets could have on local residents, their homes, and local businesses," Pocan said. "In the years since, residents have reported consistent and significant concerns with the noise levels to my office, along with fears that prolonged exposure could lead to property damage or negative health impacts," the letter said. The congressman requested that the office send an official out to Madison to explain its rejection to the community in person. The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on its planned response to Pocan's letter. It's not the first time that noisy jets have made headlines in Wisconsin, where residents near the Truax Field Air National Guard Base have had to contend with the aircraft regularly since their arrival in 2020. F-35s have also riled up other residents across the country where the advanced fighter jets are housed, disturbing residents in Utah, Arizona and Vermont, where some people have even reported panic attack-like symptoms in response.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pocan holds town hall in Van Orden's district, calls GOP budget the worst he's ever seen
Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan at a town hall meeting in Eau Claire, with a chair for Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden who represents the 3rd Congressional District that includes Eau Claire. The chart behind Pocan shows most of the tax cuts passed by House Republicans go to those in the highest income brackets. | Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner 'Is Derrick here?' asked U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, the Democratic congressman representing Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District, which includes Dane County. Pocan was in Eau Claire, the 3rd Congressional District represented by Derrick Van Orden, a Republican, on Saturday, May 31, at a town hall organized by Opportunity Wisconsin, a coalition of grassroots groups, at the Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire's performing arts center. Van Orden was invited to attend the event but declined. Pocan is one of several congressional Democrats who have begun holding town hall meetings in Republican districts where Republican representatives have been reluctant to meet their constituents who are upset about budget cuts that threaten access to Social Security, Medicaid and federal food assistance. Pocan focused on what President Dondald Trump (R) has called 'the Big Beautiful Bill' that was recently passed by the House of Representatives, and which Pocan called 'the worst bill I've ever seen introduced by anyone, by any political party.' He chided Republican supporters for cutting Medicaid benefits for nearly 14 million Americans, raising the premiums for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and cutting food assistance to 11 million mostly low-income children through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Republican budget reconciliation package also extends tax cuts passed in 2017 for America's top earners, resulting in a nearly $5 trillion national deficit over 10 years. A May 20 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the GOP budget bill projects it would increase the national deficit by $3.8 trillion and decrease Medicaid spending by $698 billion and SNAP spending by $267 billion. A May 22 CBO projection notes the bill would reduce SNAP participation by 'roughly 3.2 million people in an average month over the 2025–2034 period.' There are different projections on how many people would experience a Medicaid cut, with estimates ranging from 7.5 to 10 million. Van Orden sent out a release after Pocan's appearance in Eau Claire: 'What Mr. Pocan is doing is absolutely despicable – continuing to fearmonger our vulnerable populations, including seniors, veterans, hungry children, individuals with disabilities and pregnant women. This bill protects Medicaid and SNAP for those most in need and prevents a 25% tax hike on Wisconsin families. Anyone telling you anything different, including Mr. Pocan, is lying to you.' Van Orden also disputes the CBO's analysis, stating that the CBO has been wrong in the past and tends to be overly critical of Republican-sponsored legislation. 'There are not cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, veteran benefits, SNAP and WIC (Women, Infants and Children program) are not being cut,' Van Orden told a local TV station after the House passed the bill. But Pocan said Van Orden has been corrected even by other Republicans who admit the bill would reduce spending on Medicaid. '83% of the benefit goes to the top 1% of the people,' Pocan said of the tax cuts, 'so they are taking from the pockets of pretty much everyone in this room and putting it into the pockets of Elon Musk and Donald Trumps and others.' Pocan added that only 5% of the tax cuts in the bill will go to working people, including those who won't have to pay taxes on tips, seniors and to offset interest payments on car loans. And, he noted, those cuts will sunset, while the much larger tax cuts for top-earners, which account for 83% of the cost of the bill, are permanent. 'The single largest cut to health care in American history is in this bill, 13.7 million people are estimated would lose access to health care because of the cuts to Medicaid,' Pocan said. 'But what doesn't get as much coverage is they also cut some of the premium assistance for the Affordable Care Act. So it's a $700 billion cut to Medicaid, but also a $300 billion cut to the Affordable Care Act. We don't even have the estimates of the numbers yet, but millions more will pay increased premiums.' Pocan said Republicans have said the Medicaid cuts are really about setting work requirements in exchange for benefits and not a straight cut. 'Two-thirds of the people who get Medicaid are working poor,' Pocan said. While they shouldn't be affected by the new work requirements, the red tape involved in proving their work history will help push people off Medicaid. 'It's not about trying to have any accountability,' he said. 'It's to just make it harder for people to get health care.' Pocan pointed to a state work requirement for Medicaid recipients in Arkansas, where people who lost coverage were actually eligible for care. The work requirements did not boost employment, researchers found and many of those who lost coverage had trouble accessing the online reporting system. Pocan also noted that the projected increase in the deficit under the House proposal would trigger a sequestration requirement, resulting in automatic cuts to Medicare of nearly $500 billion. SNAP cuts would mean a loss of $314 million for Wisconsin. Pocan also criticized Trump's 'on again, off again' practice of announcing tariffs, which had created a climate of uncertainty for businesses. 'Not only did Donald Trump not reduce costs like he promised in November, but the tariffs are actually a tax on all of us,' he said. Pocan criticized Van Orden for not coming to town hall meetings to defend his vote for the Republican budget bill. Van Orden has said he prefers telephone town halls where the meeting isn't dominated by people he describes as leftwing critics, and he also has said that his family has received death threats and is vulnerable in an in-person setting. Pocan acknowledged death threats should be taken seriously, but also stated he and many others in Congress have received death threats, and he criticized Van Orden's telephone town halls for only allowing his supporters to talk. Pocan also criticized Van Orden for going back on his promise never to cut Medicaid or reduce SNAP. Van Orden has claimed the bill doesn't reduce Medicaid and that Medicaid and SNAP payments will continue as usual for recipients if they meet the new work requirements. A registered nurse who attended the town hall in Eau Claire said many of her clients are on Medicaid and Medicare, with several living in nursing homes, and she asked what would happen to them if the House budget bill became law. State Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) who came to the town hall with Pocan, said approximately 55% of people in long-term care in Wisconsin are on Medicaid and if Medicaid funding is cut it will also impact the other 45-50% who have private insurance because facilities will close due to lack of funding. Pocan also responded to questions about cuts to Social Security Administration staff, saying, 'When you cut thousands of people who work for Social Security, you make it harder for people to get access to their money.' Speaking more generally of federal cuts under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, he added, 'They fired the people who worked on avian flu, bird flu, which was affecting us greatly recently, and they had to rehire them at the Department of Health and Human Services.' Pocan said he believed Trump won in November because the cost of living was high and noted that in other countries incumbents also lost because of a backlash caused by global inflation. 'So that was the No. 1 thing going for Donald Trump in November, but today it's the No. 1 thing that's taking him down the polls, because he said he would address it. He's done nothing,' said Pocan. Asked how Democrats could encourage younger people to vote, Pocan said, 'The good news is younger people absolutely agree with more progressive public policy and not conservative policy.' But people 'want to fight back, you want something to happen,' he added. He encouraged Democratic leaders to hold more town hall meetings in Republican districts. 'We should be going into many more Republican districts,' he said. Pocan also encouraged attendees to meet Van Orden whenever he is in Eau Claire and ask to talk to him directly, and invite the press to be there for the interaction. He encouraged the crowd of 100-plus to become active. 'You happen to be in this very unique position of having a member that is in a purple district,' Pocan said of Van Orden, who won in 2024 by one of the smallest majorities for a Republican in Congress. He 'could lose his seat if he doesn't listen to you.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s refusal to 'give advice' on vaccines is in fact dangerous advice
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. escalated his anti-vaxxer agenda at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, peddling the line that 'my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant' to the American public and claiming nobody should 'take advice' from him on whether to get one — despite the fact that his role as HHS secretary entails just that, upholding standards for public health guidance. And Kennedy's seemingly self-effacing posture is in and of itself a position on vaccines: It implicitly encourages people who are hesitant toward or skeptical of vaccines to shun evidence-based guidance on their effectiveness and safety. That in turn could accelerate the dangerous decline in vaccination rates. During a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., asked Kennedy whether, if he had a young child today, he would vaccinate the child for measles. 'For measles? Um, probably for measles,' Kennedy replied, with hesitation. Then he went on to say: What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I have directed [the director of the National Institutes of Health] Jay Bhattacharya to do the science so that everyone can make that decision. I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me. If I answer that question directly that will seem like I'm giving advice to other people and I don't wanna be doing that.' When Pocan responded, 'That's kind of your jurisdiction, because the CDC does give advice,' Kennedy replied, 'What we're gonna try to do is lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, accurately as we understand them, with replicable studies.' Pocan then asked Kennedy whether he'd vaccinate a young child against chicken pox or polio, and in both instances Kennedy declined to answer one way or another, saying again that he didn't want to 'give advice.' Kennedy's position is a shocking dereliction of duty. He is one of the most influential public health officials in the federal government, and vaccinations are certainly under his purview. (Marissa Levine, a professor of public health practice at the University of South Florida, has likened Kennedy's refusal to give advice on vaccines to a transportation secretary refusing 'to answer a question about whether he would fly.') And Kennedy must know that his refusal to 'give advice' and affirm long-held childhood vaccination health guidance backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is itself a kind of directive to the public. Coming from a champion of the anti-vaxxer movement which has long pushed false claims about the effectiveness and dangers of vaccines, Kennedy's comment insinuates that vaccines are risky enough that the federal government ought to stop recommending them. And his language suggesting that standard, demonstrably safe vaccines require new studies — such as his new initiative to study the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism — implicitly casts doubt on the vast bodies of evidence on how well they work and the systems of ongoing monitoring of vaccines that are already in place to guard against hazards. Kennedy had his now-adult children vaccinated in the past, but he has also claimed he regretted doing so. Kennedy knows it's his job to advise the public on vaccines. His refusal to offer any guidance on them reduces the credibility of the government as an authority on vaccines, and encourages a mode of conspiracy-fueled health libertarianism at odds with the premise of public health thinking. Similarly to his advice for Americans to 'do your own research' on vaccines, the effect is to sow mistrust in credentialed institutions, and compel people to turn instead to self-declared experts on the internet and pray for the best. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.: 'I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me'
WASHINGTON - Skirting a question on an issue that has gained him support and stoked opponents, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan during a hearing before a House committee he thinks Americans should not be taking medical advice from him. The issue? Vaccines. Pocan asked Kennedy, 'If you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child for measles?' 'Probably for measles,' Kennedy said, before backpedaling. 'What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.' 'I don't want to seem like I am being evasive but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me,' he added, reiterating his stance when pressed further by Pocan. For years, Kennedy has questioned the effectiveness of vaccines and promoted debunked claims that certain vaccines are linked to autism. Just last month, Kennedy claimed that measles vaccines are 'leaky' because their effectiveness wanes over time – an argument disputed by medical experts. 'That's kind of your jurisdiction because CDC does give advice,' Pocan replied, to which Kennedy said, 'What we're trying to do is to lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits accurately as we understand them, with replicable studies.' When pressed on whether he would vaccinate his children for chickenpox and polio, Kennedy once again said he didn't want to be giving advice. Kennedy made headlines in December last year when it was reported that one of his allies, Aaron Siri, filed a petition in 2022 on behalf of an activist group asking the Food and Drug Administration to suspend or withdraw approval of a polio vaccine for children. Kennedy told senators at the time he was 'all for' the polio vaccine. What the secretary might do and what he has done in his personal life may differ. When questioned during his confirmation hearing about vaccinating his children on Jan. 29 before the Senate Finance Committee, he answered straightforwardly: "All of my kids are vaccinated." Contributing: Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. skirts divisive question before Congress
