TLS EXCLUSIVE-Video Message From US Congressman Chris Smith To TLS Readers

hi my name is chris smith i'm currently serving my 15th term in the u.s house of representatives i first got elected in 1980 i'm a republican married four children and two grandchildren so nice to talk to all of you here today i in congress i serve on a number of um commissions and boards and the foreign affairs committee i work on human rights humanitarian issues uh and i this may be of some interest when it comes to actually writing laws the gov track independent watchdog says that i've actually authored more bills than just about anybody else in the house that has become law i'm a very very aggressive lawmaker i believe if you take an idea you run that idea until it becomes law and i've done a myriad of issues from human trafficking to religious freedom to issues dealing with homelessness a number of health care issues and in congress and this is a direct result of input from people in our district i've actually formed a number of caucuses and authored laws dealing with autism lyme disease and a number of other disabilities developmental and mental disabilities taken right from people who have brought those issues before me lyme disease is one of the biggest issues in central new jersey is third in terms of prevalence in the country and i chair the lyme disease caucus and we're working very hard to increase funding for research and to ensure that people who have chronic lyme are given adequate care especially antibiotic treatment for whom many that has been denied because of lack of insurance payment so i i really believe in in making sure people to the greatest extent possible are served by the federal government so that health care is provided that the opportunities for growth jobs which is now a extremely serious problem with this jobless recovery so i do work on those issues as well i actually got elected the same year reagan got elected and was part of the raven reagan revolution and still believe in believing passionately that appropriate targeted tax cuts limited government when it comes to uh you know trying to stay within our means in terms of spending does lead to a atmosphere that allows jobs to flourish we created 18 million jobs during the reagan revolution through what i thought were very skillful federal skillfully uh crafted federal policies and then frankly you know i work on a lot of other issues like workfare turning welfare into workfare so that you know people who are able-bodied you know can experience work in exchange for their funding so there's a lot of issues like that that i have worked on and will continue to work on uh in congress and finally when it comes to human rights to me if you want peace you work for justice and unfortunately we live in a world that is awash in human rights abuse whether it be torture religious persecution and other issues i actually chaired the human rights committee for eight years in the congress i held approximately 300 hearings on human rights abuse and had the first hearings ever on the global epidemic of anti-semitism had the first hearings ever on human trafficking he then wrote laws on both of those those issues and mattered i even had a hearing the one and only hearing on the pla and its human rights abuses which unfortunately we now know with hamas in charge of the palestinian cause is among the worst abusers ever so to me human rights uh is not an issue over there it's an issue that affects us right here uh and if we want a peaceful world we need to be working for justice everywhere let me just say to the lakewood school readers that my office is here to serve we take very seriously every phone call every letter every email and when somebody calls us we do respond we don't always prevail in working with a federal uh or state or a local government agency but we do become your advocate i believe that case work is the essence of serving in congress yeah i read a lot of laws very often they're a direct result of what i've learned from the case uh but we want to be your advocate and um i mean when somebody i'll never forget we got an email they didn't even call us uh when some little girls were trapped in the republic of georgia after a russian invasion a couple of years ago and they want to know what we could do to help those two little girls get out of that that very dangerous situation i dropped everything and for a week made phone call after phone call and when i realized that our own government was not doing what it ought to do jumped on a plane went to the police then advocated and helped get those girls out and into safety same thing happened when david goldman made an appeal for his son who was kidnapped to to brazil and and for years was running into brick wall after brick wall my wife and i watched him make that appeal because he actually doesn't live in my district and was so moved by that appeal on the two days later i was meeting with him in my wedding office four days after that i was in rio de janeiro and especially in brasilia meeting with government officials to advocate for his son's release and it took a full year full-court press at the end of the day david goldman was reunited with sean uh and now they are a happy family and i know because i talk to him every week sean is doing very well and adjusting and adapting extraordinarily well so what i'm saying is give us a call if you have a need or something where we could be of service and use our offices i have excellent staff people who are empathetic and very professional and and i jump in with both feet roll up my sleeves and we're there to serve the essence of government work is service