Message from Congressman Scott Fitzgerald

Good afternoon, everyone, and happy Monday! 

Congress was in full swing last week post-election and House Republicans were happy to host President-elect Donald Trump at our conference-wide meeting. My congratulations go out to Mr. Trump, I look forward to working with him and his administration during the next Congress.

I joined Matt Kittle, who was filling in for Vicki McKenna, on 1130 WISN to discuss what’s to come in the next Congress, particularly on the Judiciary Committee where I serve as a member.  

You can listen to our conversation here. I discuss how Judiciary needs to hit the ground running to undo the disasters the Biden-Harris administration created in the next Congress.

The most glaring issue is our southern border. We need to pass H.R. 2 in its entirety immediately. Since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office there have been OVER 10.8 MILLION illegal immigrant encounters nationwide and there have been more known gotaways than in the previous decade combined.

H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, will restart construction of the border wall, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and provide bonus pay, end catch and release, and end abuse of executive immigration authority. 

In addition to border security, we also need to get rid of many of the Biden-Harris regulations that harm Americans. In 2021, for example, while Congress passed 143 laws, the Biden-Harris Administration issued more than 3,200 rules.

Taken with rules from previous administrations, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the total annual costs of regulation is almost $2 trillion dollars, or about eight percent of U.S. GDP.

If it were a country, U.S. regulation would be the world’s eighth-largest economy, behind France. 

This is unacceptable and is contributing to our ballooning federal deficit. I look forward to tackling these issues with President-elect Trump’s support from the White House.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated communities across the South, particularly in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Tragically killing at least 250 people and wreaking billions of dollars in damage.

In the aftermath of these devastating storms, I was shocked to learn of reports that a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official directed hurricane relief workers to avoid homes with Donald Trump for President campaign signs as the agency conducted disaster response efforts in Florida. This behavior is unconscionable and denies assistance to residents in critical need.

Such blatant discrimination is a severe breach of FEMA’s duty to serve all Americans impartially, especially in times of disaster when people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.

I joined over 50 of my colleagues in Congress in sending a letter to FEMA to demand swift action and accountability. You can read the full letter here.

Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) released its crime report for 2023. The results? Fentanyl-related drug cases went up. 

This is unsurprising given the historic levels of fentanyl seizures we’ve witnessed at our southern border. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) fentanyl seizures increased 31% nationwide this past August to September, totaling nearly 22,000 pounds of fentanyl seized in FY 2024.

Our fentanyl crisis is directly linked to our border crisis—both of which the Biden-Harris administration has played a significant role in exacerbating. We need to reinstate Trump-era border policies that deterred illegal immigration. Thankfully, next year we can get right to work undoing the damage of the current administration. 

That wraps the updates from last week.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading along!  

-Scott

That's a wrap for this week's eNewsletter! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on my work for the 5th District of Wisconsin.

Sincerely,

Scott Fitzgerald
Member of Congress