This past winter brought a great deal of snow, sleet and ice to Arkansas and along with it, all the dangers that come along with these types of severe weather. Now that spring is upon us, we have a different form of extreme weather to deal with—tornadoes.

Tornadoes are among the most violent weather conditions we face. While weather patterns that may produce tornadoes are unpredictable, there are still steps we can take to protect our families and help our communities before the sirens sound.

The Red Cross provides a good resource. As one of the nation’s best known humanitarian organizations, the Red Cross has been helping families and communities recover from disasters for over 130 years. The organization has an excellent online education program dubbed “Red Cross Ready.”

There are three keys to being “Red Cross Ready”—get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

• Get a Kit: At a minimum, have basic supplies together and at hand to evacuate and survive. These include water, non-perishable food, first aid kit, flashlights, battery-charged radio, extra batteries, cell phone charger and cash, among other items. Ensure everyone in your household knows where to find this kit in the event of an emergency.
  
  
• Make a Plan: In the event you need to evacuate immediately, the Red Cross encourages you to identify two ways to escape from every room in the home, practice your escape plan at least twice a year and select a safe location away from the home where your family can meet after escaping.
  
  
• Be Informed: Know what actions to take to protect yourself and your family from the various disasters that could strike your community. Identify how local authorities will notify you and know the differences between various weather alerts.

Along with helping you and your family prepare, the Red Cross has opportunities to help your community in advance of a disaster as well.

The organization’s #BeAHero campaign recognizes “Everyday Heroes” who in some way help their individual community by giving of themselves and encourages others to #BeAHero too.

Here’s how the Red Cross says you can #BeAHero too:

• Give Blood: One pint of blood can save up to three lives. Learn about the donation process, eligibility requirements and where to give blood.
   
• Take a Red Cross Class on First Aid and CPR: Each year, an average of more than 9 million people gain the skills they need to prepare for and respond to emergencies through American Red Cross training classes. This includes First Aid and CPR training. You can join their ranks by getting certified through Red Cross.
  
  
• Download Free Red Cross Preparedness Apps: When disaster strikes, there is an app to help you locate Red Cross shelters. There are emergency-specific apps including one to get your family and home ready in the event of a flood and another to teach everything you need to know prepare for a tornado. There’s even an app to help protect your family pet.

Since 1943, the President of the United States has proclaimed March as “Red Cross Month.” It is still as necessary today. Being prepared and helping our neighbors in a time of crisis are everlasting needs. I encourage you to take the time now to be prepared should disaster strike your community.

We had a busy week in Washington that included fairness and relief for all Americans suffering under Obamacare, fighting for military families, recognition for supporting free market efforts to improve our economy and much more in this edition of the “Week in Review.”

• Obamacare Delay: I remain committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare but until then Americans deserve to be treated fairly under this law. That means delaying the individual mandate penalty as long as the employer mandate is waived.
• The ENFORCE Act: The House of Representatives took a step toward reining in Presidential abuses of power by passing the ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014, which makes it easier for Congress, as part of its oversight powers, to sue the executive branch for failing to enforce the law. We have a companion bill in the Senate and I am working to help get it passed. 

• Uphold the Religious Freedom Restoration Act: Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) and I authored a piece for National Review on the opportunity the Supreme Court has later this month to reconsider the Obamacare mandate that forces employers to offer contraceptive and sterilization services that violate their religious beliefs. Read it here. 

• Fighting for Military Families: The defense budget proposes to slash even more benefits our military families need. On Thursday I delivered a speech on the Senate floor saying "cuts on our military families are unacceptable and I will fight to preserve the benefits our military families were promised." 

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce Recognition: I was honored to receive the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s prestigious “Spirit of Enterprise” award for supporting free market efforts to improve our economy during the first session of the 113^th Congress. 

• ICD-10: The healthcare community is forced to comply with a government mandate to update a new generation of diagnosis codes. This includes codes for such strange injuries like spending too much time in a deep-freeze refrigerator or a large toe that has gone unexpectedly missing. This sounds crazy, but it’s true. Read more about our efforts to stop the adoption of these codes. 

• Supporting Small Aircraft Pilots: We are leading efforts to exempt pilots flying a broader range of aircraft eligible for third class medical exemption which expands sport pilot medical standards with the introduction of the General Aviation Pilot Protection, Act. 

• Arkansas U.S. Senate Youth Program Delegates: We were pleased to welcome Abhilasha Gokulan of Little Rock and Adam Williams of Jonesboro to Washington. The students are Arkansas’s delegates to the United States Senate Youth Program and participating in the program’s 52nd annual Washington Week.

Before serving in Congress I worked as an optometrist in an eye clinic that my brother and I started in Rogers, Arkansas which helps me understand the challenges small business and health care providers face when having to comply with a new regulation. It’s about to get a lot worse. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recently announced that hospitals and physicians have to adopt a new generation of diagnosis codes. 

The Weekly Standard recently published “Code Chaos” that discusses the new process called ICD-10 and the problems that health experts are expecting. 

 “Virtually everyone agrees that the transition will mean decreased productivity and lost revenue, at least for a time. Some experts, dismissed as alarmists by ICD-10 enthusiasts, are predicting widespread chaos in a sector of the economy that can little afford it,” the article reads. 

ICD-10 is a very convoluted process that increases the number of codes by more than 120,000. This includes codes for some bizarre and rare injuries like this Washington Post story points to which includes spending too much time in a deep-freeze refrigerator or a large toe that has gone unexpectedly missing. This sounds made-up. Unfortunately, it’s all too true. This is why I joined with senate doctors to introduce the Cutting Costly Codes Act, S. 972, which would stop the adoption of ICD-10 codes. 

The sponsors of the legislation recently sent the letter attached below to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner questioning CMS’ plan to perform front-end testing of the ICD-10 billing code system during the first week of March. 

“Given the size and scope of the potential transition to ICD-10, the brevity and limited scope of this test is worrisome. This change will impact millions of physicians and patients, and hundreds of billions of dollars in payments that flow through Medicare and Medicaid. Other major federal IT projects--such as the implementation of Healthcare.gov--have demonstrated the importance of thorough pre-testing every aspect of new systems, both the front-end and back-end components. System-wide errors and delay could adversely impact both patients’ own pocketbooks and provider cash flows,” we wrote in the letter.

This week KFFB has been airing our discussion with station General Manager and owner Bob Connell. We were happy to meet with Bob in our Washington office last week as a representative of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. We talked about issues important to the industry and later we talked about some other issues important to Arkansans. If you missed it you can listen to our interview on the following topics: Obamacare, proposed cuts to the military, the Farm Bill and energy including the propane shortage.