In his year-end recap on Monday, U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) championed upstate priorities and said that strides have been made over the last year to protect American citizens and create jobs.
“I care about ensuring we have an effective and responsive government that protects the rights of individuals, helps create the quality, family sustaining jobs of today and tomorrow, and protects our seniors, veterans, and those within the disability community,” Reed said. “We have fought for those initiatives throughout the year and have seen strong improvements on each and I am looking forward to doing even more in 2016.”
Among the year’s successes highlighted by Reed was a $610 million investment in Western New York to study photonics – the science of light. The investment is expected to lead to the creation of numerous jobs and innovative technologies that could result in telecommunication, manufacturing, medicine and defense breakthroughs.
The recent adoption of reforms to the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which are working to ensure the solvency of the program through its initial bankruptcy date of 2016, was also highlighted. The reforms modernize reporting requirements while creating a glide path that would allow disability insurance program recipients to earn more money from working while only seeing a gradual reduction of benefits instead of an immediate elimination.
“It’s been a busy year but we have done a lot of good for the people around the 23rd Congressional District and the country,” Reed said. “From the mortgage forgiveness deduction tax credit, which helps middle income families who are struggling to save their homes, to making sure seniors have access to the resources they need, and even making sure countries like China have to play by the rules and not unfairly undercut American workers, we have really fought to do a lot of good.”