September 26, 2024
In this edition
A strong national defense is essential to protecting our American way of life.
Veterans On Duty continues the fight back at home, advocating for military and national security policies that will keep America safe, strong, and free. |
In our latest edition, we have an interview with Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), a scoop on the latest anti-CCP legislation, and op-eds from Reps. Tracey Mann (R., Kan.) and Vince Fong (R., Calif.).
| [1] | Interview: Sen. Eric Schmitt on Attorney General rumors, the Supreme Court’s win for the “little guy,” his “reform agenda” for the Senate, and why Woodrow Wilson is the worst president
By: Matthew Foldi
One of the most significant Supreme Court decisions this term was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned a case — Chevron — that resulted in deference to the administrative state. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), who spent years as Missouri’s attorney general, praised the decision for “turn[ing] the tables in favor of the little guy” in an exclusive interview with the Washington Reporter.
Prior to the Loper Bright decision, the status quo was “Woodrow Wilson’s dream,” and Schmitt views Wilson as “arguably the worst president of all time.” The playing field was “tilted heavily for the so-called experts, these bureaucrats who are hidden in buildings,” he said.
“This behemoth of federal authority has crushed lives and livelihoods and freedoms all along the way,” Schmitt said. “Take COVID, for example. How did OSHA, the agency created to make sure forklifts would beep when they backed up, somehow get the authority to force a medical procedure on 100 million people? Well, the answer is, it didn't. They just wanted to do it, and they were just going to push the envelope, because it's all about ultimate power and control.”
Click HERE to read more from Sen. Eric Schmitt about the Democrats’ “civil religion,” how America’s enemies “fucked around and found out” when Donald Trump was president, and which state has the best barbecue at Senate lunches.
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[2] |
Heard on the Hill
What we're hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!
- Paying tribute: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting with President Donald Trump tonight; the former president has been lining up meetings with world leaders, including the heads of state of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in recent weeks.
- The Unsilent Majority: The Nixon Foundation’s 3rd Annual Grand Strategy Summit saw the Ritz ballroom packed with policymakers, philanthropists, business leaders, 14 ambassadors, and representatives from 41 embassies. Conversations focused on the need for Nixonian strategic thinking on diplomacy, the great power competition, energy and AI, and domestic policy. Discussions were guided by all-star moderators including Katie Pavlich, Eli Lake, Matt Continetti, and Aaron MacLean.
- The best offense is a good defense: The Hudson Institute is hosting a series of talks today about “Defense Innovation and the New Cold War.” Speakers and moderators include Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale and Shyam Sankar, POLARIS National Security’s Morgan Ortagus, Hudson’s Nadia Schadlow and Rebeccah Heinrichs, and more.
- Zealotry of the convert: Former Democratic Party presidential candidates Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are headlining an October 12 fundraiser for Trump in Florida, per an invite obtained by the Reporter.
| | | [3] | Exclusive: Reps. Brett Guthrie, Dan Newhouse, and Russ Fulcher are introducing the Securing America’s Midstream Critical Materials Processing Act
By: Matthew Foldi
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.), a senior member of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee — and a leading candidate to chair the committee next Congress — is rolling out legislation on Friday that creates a national roadmap focused on “reshor[ing] domestic critical material processing facilities away from foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and [on] reduc[ing] unworkable permitting barriers to help secure our supply chains.”
The Securing America’s Midstream Critical Materials Processing Act, first obtained by the Washington Reporter, is co-sponsored with Reps. Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.) and Russ Fulcher (R., Idaho), and has the support of influential groups like the American Critical Minerals Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Mining Association.
Under this legislation, the Department of Energy will survey topics ranging from “the extent to which China and other adversaries employ anti-competitive practices to manipulate critical material markets” to the “permitting challenges facing a domestic critical material processing industry.”
Click HERE to be the first to know more about the Securing America’s Midstream Critical Materials Processing Act, introduced by Reps. Brett Guthrie, Dan Newhouse, and Russ Fulcher.
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[4] |
Scoop: Kamala Harris’s foreign policy is “not only confusing but dangerous,” Ric Grenell cautions
By: Matthew Foldi
Vice President Kamala Harris’s foreign policy instincts are “not only confusing but dangerous,” senior Trump administration officials told the Washington Reporter, adding that Harris’s foreign policy track record suggests recklessness and ignorance.
Ric Grenell, who served in a series of high-ranking foreign policy roles in Trump’s administration, told the Reporter that “Kamala Harris doesn’t know what she’s for and what she’s against.” Harris’s shifting stance on Israel is an example of her inconsistent record, he said. “She says she will follow Joe Biden’s war plans but then says she will tell Israel to stop. The messages are not only confusing but dangerous,” Grenell said.
Grenell, a potential Secretary of State in a second Trump administration, has been meeting with Arab and Muslim voters across the country, with a special emphasis on communities in Michigan. The Mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, the first Muslim-majority city in America, recently endorsed Trump, calling him “the right choice for this critical time.”
Click HERE to read more about concerns that foreign policy experts have with a potential President Kamala Harris.
| | | [5] | Top House Democratic candidate pays connected Democrats and her husband’s business partners
By: Matthew Foldi
New York Democrat Laura Gillen, freshman Rep. Anthony D’Esposito’s challenger in a tossup House district this November, has a history of hiring family friends or their business partners in her official office and on her congressional campaigns, campaign finance and local government records reviewed by the Washington Reporter reveal.
Previously during Gillen’s tenure as Hempstead Town Supervisor, she staffed her office with many locally-connected Democrats, including Cheryl Rice, the sister-in-law of former Rep. Kathleen Rice (D., N.Y.). Cheryl, who previously served as district director while her sister-in-law was a Congresswoman, also donated to Gillen’s failed 2022 campaign against D’Esposito.
Click HERE to read more about the allegations of patronage roiling a top House race.
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A strong national defense is essential to protecting our American way of life.
Veterans On Duty continues the fight back at home, advocating for military and national security policies that will keep America safe, strong, and free. |
| [6] | Op-ed: Rep. Tracey Mann: It’s time to fire America’s border czar
By: Rep. Tracey Mann
Legend has it that Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We cannot continue to let President Joe Biden and Border Czar Vice President Kamala Harris wreak havoc at America’s southern border while expecting things to get better.
Under their leadership, more than 16 million illegal immigrants have crossed our borders. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents have stopped more than 385 individuals at the border whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist and report nearly 2 million ‘gotaways’ entering the country since January 21, 2021.
Click HERE to read more from Rep. Tracey Mann (R., Kan.), about his work to secure our border, and why Kamala Harris can’t be part of the solution.
| | | | [7] | Op-ed: Rep. Vince Fong: Combatting tranq in America
By: Rep. Vince Fong
Communities across the United States, including my home in the Central Valley, find themselves grappling with a drug crisis that threatens to erode the fabric of our neighborhoods. As addiction and its awful consequences threaten to cripple families and local economies, more must be done at all levels of government to combat illicit drug use. One dangerous drug, xylazine — more commonly known as tranq — has increasingly posed a threat to all Americans in recent years.
Tranq is a powerful sedative that is used to tranquilize horses in a veterinary setting. When used by humans, it can cause severe necrotic wounds, leading to amputation and death. According to data from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2022, 23 percent of seized fentanyl powder also contained tranq, and 2021 saw xylazine-positive overdose deaths increase by an average of 620 percent over the previous year across the country. The combination of these two drugs is especially dangerous because, when the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone is used to reverse a fentanyl overdose, a victim may still unknowingly be suffering from a tranq overdose.
Tranq and fentanyl are flowing across the border into our communities and killing our youth because of the failed border policies of the Biden-Harris administration. This leaves law enforcement agencies striving to address the crisis but lacking critical resources and jurisdiction needed to effectively counter the influx of these drugs. Congress must do everything in our power to ensure that border officials and our federal, state, and local law enforcement officers on the front lines of the fight against illicit drug trafficking have access to every available tool, and that starts with harnessing data to better understand the trafficking and manufacturing patterns of the drugs we are combatting on U.S. soil. That is why I recently introduced the Strengthening Tracking of Poisonous Tranq Requiring Analyzed National Quantification Act of 2024 (STOP TRANQ Act).
Click HERE to read more from Rep. Vince Fong on why he introduced the STOP TRANQ Act, and how it will help communities across America.
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[8] |
Op-ed: Michele Exner: The left is obsessed with anti-parent policies
By: Michele Exner
Students in California have been returning to school and families returning to their busy routines over the past few weeks. But this academic year will be different.
Parents will now have fewer rights and decreased information than they did last year because this summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) passed the so-called Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth, or SAFETY Act — a bill designed to withhold sensitive information from parents.
This isn’t just isolated to California — it is part of a larger trend we have seen in the Democratic Party. Democrats do not think that parents should have a leading role in their children’s education, and they want to see government bureaucrats fill the void.
Click HERE to read more from Parents Defending Education’s Michele Exner about the left’s ongoing war against parental rights. | |
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