Weekly Columns
The founding principle of the United States is that Americans are guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. House Democrats are stripping America's most vulnerable citizens of the right to life by passing a bill with the erroneous title of the "Women's Health Protection Act." A better name for this legislation is the "Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act."
This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee debated its small portion of the highly partisan $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. The nearly $60 billion bill that we spent 15 hours debating is filled with unnecessary spending on liberal wish-list items that were too far left to make it into the bipartisan infrastructure package negotiated by the Senate and the White House.
President Biden announced drastic new COVID-19 restrictions last week that will affect 100 million Americans. According to his Executive Order, he has directed the Department of Labor to issue a regulation that would require all businesses with over 100 employees to mandate employee vaccinations or provide weekly proof of a negative test result.
In a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas' Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion after six weeks when the unborn child has a detectable heartbeat. This is a big win for the pro-life movement and those who believe that all life is valuable and precious, regardless of status or circumstances.
The coordinated terrorist attacks on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan by ISIS was nothing less than a tragedy. Thirteen servicemen lost their lives in the mission to protect Americans and all human life in the face of true evil. My heart goes out to the families of those who were injured or killed. The nation grieves together with the loved ones of these heroes.
The world has watched in horror as Afghanistan crumbled to the Taliban and thousands of desperate people attempt to flee their brutal regime. The Taliban swept through the Afghan army with little resistance and set up shop in the Presidential Palace, surrounded by the weapons and equipment provided by the U.S.
As summer moves to a close, families and teachers begin to prepare for children to return to the classroom. Hopefully, this school year will look much different than the last.
News on the worsening situation on our southern border continues to break this week. McAllen, Texas, the small town I just recently visited, has declared a local disaster as it struggles to manage the sheer number of COVID-positive migrants flooding into downtown McAllen, where the migrant shelter is 500% overcapacity. Officials report that in just one week, 1,500 COVID-19 positive migrants were released into the community. In the same week, another 7,000 migrants who tested negative for COVID-19 were given plane tickets or bus tickets to wherever they desired to go in the country.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to lead a trip to McCallen, Texas, with several other Congress members to see for ourselves the results of the immigration crisis at our southern border. What we witnessed was shocking. In my position as Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee, in which we oversee nearly all federal lands, I initially went to see the environmental impact of the thousands of people flooding the area. While we did see significant environmental degradation and pollution, the human cost of the emergency was much worse.
For 45 years, Democrats and Republicans have come together to protect the consciences of Americans who believe that unborn children are human beings worthy of life. The Hyde Amendment, which was first introduced by Republican Congressman Henry Hyde in 1976, prevents federal tax dollars from being used to fund abortions within the Medicaid program. Estimates today find this law has saved nearly 2.5 million children from the horrors of abortion.