Column

Remember when Joe Biden ran a presidential campaign on a promise of unity and governing from the middle? He seemed to have forgotten that promise the moment Democrats took control of the Senate, assuring Democrats control of the White House and Congress. In fact, over the past year, the Biden administration has been the most radical we have ever seen.

This month we hit the one-year mark of Joe Biden’s presidency. It would be difficult even for President Biden’s most ardent and well-meaning supporters to claim our nation is better off today than one year ago, although some of them tried (and failed). Let’s talk about what we have seen during the past year. The border crisis, which President Trump had done so much to correct, flared to the worst we’ve seen in a generation. In only twelve months, over 1.8 million illegally crossed our border – an amount equal to nine times the population of Montgomery.

Democrats control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, but they still are unable to pass their unpopular agenda through the legislative. The Build Back Better scheme is on life support, and Congress seems to be incapable of doing much more than going after President Trump, who has not been in office for over a year. But that legislative stalemate hasn’t stopped their power grab. The vaccine mandates being pushed through by the Biden administration are incredibly unpopular and could never pass Congress.

I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas! We received an early Christmas present when Senator Joe Manchin put the nail in the coffin – for now, at least – of President Biden’s troubled multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better plan. This tax-and-spend scheme, which would rely upon the abuse of Congress’s reconciliation powers to pass, would send inflation – already at record levels – to dizzying new heights. Inflation is at 39-year highs, and you don’t have to be an economist to know that trillions more in government spending would make it worse.

Supporting American men and women in uniform is one of the most important responsibilities of Congress, and passing the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is one of our primary tools. But in September when House Democrats brought an NDAA to the floor that did more to turn our military into a woke social experiment than enhance our national security, I couldn’t support it.

I have some rare good news from Washington. The House passed the Colonel John M. McHugh Tuition Fairness for Survivors Act of 2021, a bill that I was fortunate enough to introduce this year with Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. This bipartisan legislation expands Dependents Educational Assistance program benefits, requiring GI Bill eligible schools to extend in-state tuition benefits to program beneficiaries. This change will bring the rules for this program in line with the Post 9/11GI Bill that intended to expand benefits to families of our fallen heroes.

 Each November 11th, Americans come together to honor our nation’s heroes. This year, I had the honor of speaking at Veterans Day events in Prattville and Wetumpka to thank our many veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice. With both Army Fort Rucker and Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, our district benefits from having a high veteran population. As someone fortunate enough to have served our nation in the National Guard, I take a special pride in the number of veteran constituents I serve in Congress.

On his first day in office, President Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline – and the 11,000 American jobs that came with it. Apparently, pipelines – which every American depends on and will for the foreseeable future – are bad to Biden. Yet one of his foreign policy priorities has been greasing the wheels for Russia to build a pipeline of its own!