Fellow Conservative,

 After passing the $95 billion supplemental foreign aid package last weekend, the House has been out of session for the past week. The Senate quickly followed in passing the legislation early this week and President Biden signed it into law. We’ll break down the consequences of this bill as well as ongoing fights and legislative progress on the state level.

Foreign Aid Package - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Late last Saturday, the House of Representatives used a procedural rule to combine four individual bills (aid for Ukraine, aid for Israel, aid to the Indo-Pacific, and a bill to force TikTok’s CCP controlled parent company to divest, among other things) into one single bill. This created legislation that effectively mirrored the Senate’s version of Biden’s supplemental spending proposal which contained serious flaws.

>>>Click HERE to see how your Representative voted

On Wednesday, the Senate passed this stitched together bill and sent it to President Biden who promptly signed it into law.

The Good

Included in this bill was a version of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521) which takes significant steps to protect Americans from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) digital espionage.

The popular social media app TikTok is owned by ByteDance - a Chinese company answerable by law to the CCP and Chinese intelligence services. This means any data that TikTok collects (which it does on a constant and continuous basis) is subject to seizure by America’s greatest geopolitical rival: China.

This bill would force ByteDance to sell TikTok in order to continue to operate in the United States and sever the CCP’s access to Americans’ data collected by TikTok. This is an important step in the right direction especially as China’s threat to the American people continues to escalate.

The Bad

This bill contained nearly $60 billion of unaccountable foreign aid to Ukraine. From the beginning, conservatives have consistently laid out the criteria for any Ukraine aid:

None of these criteria were met. Yet this portion of the bill was the most expensive, and adds to the already $113 billion that Americans have sent to Ukraine. Americans are already feeling the burden of rising inflation caused by the national debt. Many of our generous dollars to Ukraine have already been lost or stolen, and Congress failed to ensure greater accountability so that our money isn’t wasted.

The Ugly

As mentioned above, this bill was made possible by a rule that allowed individual bills to be combined into one bill after each had already passed the House separately at a lower vote threshold (simple majority) than likely otherwise possible if it had been considered in a package (supermajority).

This Rule fundamentally altered the policy questions it claimed to consider. The vote on and structure of the Rule was not simply a procedural step for beginning debate, rather, it was intended to ensure votes on the individual bills did not jeopardize a predetermined policy outcome.

As a result, Heritage Action issued a Key Vote against the rule and a Key Vote against the Ukraine funding bill in the House.

In the Senate, Heritage Action issued a Key Vote against the combined bills.

>>>Click HERE to see how your Senator voted.

Spying By Any Other Name

Authoritarian Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) that threaten economic autonomy and political liberty are on the rise across the world. And we need to make sure they do not come here to America.

A CBDC is a form of digital money issued by a central bank. It would aim to eventually replace the American dollar with a digital currency capable of monitoring your transactions.

By monitoring your transactions, a CBDC could build a profile of your habits and behaviors. As the issuers of the currency, the central bank could have the power to manipulate that money to:

• Cancel your transactions
• Freeze your bank accounts
• Seize your assets
• Manipulate your credit score
• and so on…

Support for this bill is building fast but it still needs more support.

To see if your Senator has cosponsored this bill, click >>>HERE<<<. To see if your Representative has cosponsored this bill, click >>>HERE<<<.

If you find that your elected representative has not yet added their name as a cosponsor you need to let them know that the American people do not want a CBDC. Cosponsorship helps show crucial public support for a bill.

>>>Call your elected officials and tell them to protect the privacy of all Americans.

Biden's Latest Bailout

Debt is never truly canceled, only transferred. And Biden’s latest regulation would transfer over $150 billion of student loan debt onto the backs of you, the taxpayer.

Around 87% of Americans do not have student loan debt. But Biden is using the Department of Education to “forgive” student loans – which really means that he would shift the burden of debt onto those who never went to college, already paid off their loans, or worked through college to graduate with minimal to no debt.

Biden’s previous attempt to do this was stuck down by the Supreme Court. Undeterred, Biden declared the court’s ruling wouldn’t stop him from trying again.

That means you will be paying for someone else’s expensive decision. But you can fight back.

>>>Stop Biden’s Rule HERE<<<

All regulations must be open to public comments for a period of time before they can be implemented. With enough pushpack, regulations can be seriously delayed or even rescinded.

You have until May 17th to submit your comment. Don’t wait!

>>>Oppose HERE and share this link with five other people.

State Legislation

State legislative sessions are slowly coming to an end, but there is still plenty going on and we will keep you updated with important developments. This week's highlights both include the Sooner State.

Oklahoma

One of the fuels to the illegal immigration crisis is the continued tolerance of sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce federal immigration law or cooperate with federal law enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead of upholding the law, they shield people who broke our laws to be here.

This week, the Oklahoma Legislature passed HB 4156, a bill that combats the border crisis by banning sanctuary cities and makes illegal immigration a crime enforceable by local and state officials. This bill serves as an example of proactive measures that states can take to help protect our country’s borders.

>>>Read our press release HERE<<<

Oklahoma’s legislature also passed HB 3156, a bill that promotes free and fair elections by banning the use of Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV). In a press release, Heritage Action’s Director of State Advocacy, Catherine Gunsalus wrote:

“RCV is nothing more than a gimmick used to confuse voters and advance agendas that are not in Oklahomans’ best interest. By banning the use of RCV in state elections, HB 3156 provides voters with assurance that their elections have the fairest outcomes.”

For more information on Ranked-Choice Voting and what it is, WATCH this brief explainer video. For more information on election integrity and how you can improve your state’s elections, visit SaveOurElections.com

As always, thank you for all that you do.

- Ryan and the Heritage Action team

Join the fight to advance the conservative agenda.