Update

This week President Trump gave his first official State of the Union address. He laid out a bold agenda for American prosperity and security at home and abroad. Building on the economic success of the first year of the Trump administration, the President spoke about the steps necessary to ensure expanded opportunity and hope for all Americans. He showed resolve in confronting and defeating America’s enemies with a resounding commitment to securing our borders, rebuilding our military, ending sequestration, and maintaining armed forces that are second to none. The President’s speech was an impressive and inspiring call to action.

This week we also passed the FY2018 defense appropriations act in the House.  I managed the Rule debate for this crucial bill.   For over 120 days, we have now forced the Department of Defense to operate under a continuing resolution.  For a portion of those days, the government was completely shutdown as the Democrats put politics ahead of our national security.

Watch my floor speech after the shutdown:

The 2018 Department of Defense Appropriations Act is a clean bill that is void of partisan politics and provides for the common defense of our nation. The funding of our men and women in uniform is the most important and sacred responsibility we have in Congress. The Obama Administration pursued policies that aided our adversaries and harmed our national interests. Congress must put an end to the budget dysfunction that has lasted nearly a decade, repeal the Budget Control Act, and begin providing the resources our military needs to continue being the strongest and greatest force of good the world has ever known. The Budget Control Act handcuffed our military during a time of war by imposing arbitrary spending caps on domestic and defense discretional spending. It’s key the Budget Control Act is repealed in an increasingly complex and global threat environment when our adversaries are gaining strength, readiness, and capabilities every day. Every day we fail to do our duty in this body of government our adversaries close the capability gap. The 60 vote thresholds to pass any legislation in the Senate gives the far left and their leader Senator Chuck Schumer the ability to obstruct crucial legislation. Those who vote no on this bill will have no place to hide when history comes to ask why they failed to do their duty.

Watch my floor speech here:

Rules Committee

I managed the rule on the House floor for consideration of H.R. 4712, the Born-alive Survivors Protection Act, a bill that ensures medical and legal care protections for babies born alive during an abortion. This legislation also protects mothers from prosecution and holds abortions providers accountable. The bill, which I voted in support of, passed the House.

Watch below:

I voted in favor of and the House passed two finance bills, H.R. 3326, the World Bank Accountability Act of 2017 and H.R. 2954, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act.

The World Bank Accountability Act of 2017 withholds 30% of future funds for the World Bank’s International Development Association until the Secretary of the Treasury reports that the bank has taken steps to put a stop to corruption, shown an increase of accountability, and improved management. This legislation holds corrupt regimes accountable for taking advantage of the poor, emphasizes free enterprise, and eliminates incentives that prioritizes handing out money instead of delivering results.

H.R. 2954, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act (HMDA) amends a 2014 Dodd-Frank Act that directed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to expand HMDA data reporting that left small local banks unable to provide customers with the products and services they need and want. This legislation rolls back the red tape for community financial institutions that have decreased in number while the large banking competitors have gotten bigger.

Armed Services Committee

I’m proud to announce that Rep. Peter Roskam and I introduced The Iran Freedom Policy and Sanctions Act. The Iran Nuclear deal brokered by President Obama is the most damaging agreement our country has entered into and President Trump was right to decertify the deal. To truly prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, an agreement would have to, at a minimum, include anywhere, anytime inspections including inspections of military facilities; disclosure of all past and present, military and civilian nuclear activity; a ban on weapons-grade enrichment; and a restriction on ballistic missile development.

Read my full statement here.

I participated in an Armed Services hearing to review the reports stemming from the recent naval collisions involving the USS John S. McCain and the USS Fitzgerald and discussed the current readiness of our Navy with Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson. The death of our sailors in these and other accidents is tragic and unacceptable. I appreciate the candid conversation with the Secretary and Admiral Richardson on how to better prevent these accidents in the future. The hearing made it abundantly clear that two of the major issues degrading the readiness of our Navy and the military in general are budget caps that artificially limit funding for the military and the dysfunctional budget process in Congress over the past decade that has forced the military to regularly operate under continuing resolutions. I assured the Secretary and Admiral Richardson that I will continue fighting to restore the critical funding needed to rebuild the readiness of our force.

Natural Resources Committee

The House Natural Resources Committee held several mark-ups on legislation that I voted in support of and passed the Natural Resources Committee, including H.R. 443 the James K. Polk Presidential Home Study Act, H.R. 553, and H.R. 2987 the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act of 2017.

Visits

I was honored to meet with St. James Catholic Church members from Douglas about the annual March for Life that will took place in Washington D.C. I want to thank everyone who came to discuss such an important issue, especially during a week when the House passed H.R. 4712, the Born-alive Surviors Protection Act.

I met with the Uranium Producers of America this week to discuss operations that include areas Wyoming. I want to thank Executive Vice President of ISR Operations at Energy Fuels Paul Goranson, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Ur-Energy John Cash, CEO of Strata Ralph Knode, Jon Indall, Butch Powell, and Mark Pelizza for an informative and productive meeting.

Caspers’ Jon Nicolaysen from Big Muddy Operations stopped by my office this week to talk about conventional oil and gas development and potential future projects in Wyoming.

It’s always a pleasure to meet with Superintendent of Yellowstone Dan Wenk and National Park Service Grace Stephens to keep myself and the members of our National Parks’ up to date.

On Tuesday, I met with the America Outdoors Association. I want to thank Taylor Engum and Aaron Bannon for stopping by to discuss topics including the Go Act, Forest Service, BLM, NPS, and other land managing agencies.

I want to thank the Wyoming President of the National Federation of the Blind Janet Smith and Secretary of the Wyoming Affiliate of the NFB Janet Dunihoo for meeting with me this week. We got a chance to talk about the NFB’s top priorities that include legislation to promote education, economic opportunities, and civil rights for individuals who are blind.

This week I had a meeting with Major General Allvin and Chief of House Congressional Affairs Lt. Colonel Jason Greenleaf. We were able to discuss a wide range of issues affecting our national security, particularly as it relates to NATO and activities in Europe.

Newsworthy

I encourage everyone to read this article from Axios about The Iran Freedom Policy and Sanctions Act that Rep. Peter Roskam and I introduced.

“Last Friday, President Trump waived sanctions on Iran for what he said was the last time. He said it was a “last chance” for Congress and the Europeans to fix the deal. Trump wants a tougher international inspection regime, an end to Iranian ballistic missile research and development and a permanent nuclear ban to replace the current temporary deal that expires within a decade.”

Read the full article here: https://goo.gl/iGgCdc

Please read the Washington Examiner’s article about the House passing the 2018 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill.

“‘The fiscal year is over 30 percent done and we have been unable to appropriate the funds our military needs to defend the nation,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a House Armed Services Committee member, who spoke on the floor in favor of the budget bill.

Cheney said the military has been strangled over the past decade by stopgap budgets passed by Congress. She called the appropriations bill a crucial step to reverse the trend.”

Read the full article here: https://goo.gl/THq8e3