Boozman Bulletin

My efforts to protect veterans resources from being used to fix the crisis at the southern border have been successful. This week Biden administration officials backed away from further discussions of deploying veterans resources to the southern border to address the expected surge of migrants once Title 42 is lifted.

Why it matters: The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) persistent staffing shortages and retention challenges have an impact on the care and services it provides to veterans. It would be absurd to take away the already strapped resources to manage the preventable and foreseeable crisis at the border when the president rescinds Title 42.
 
I pressed VA Secretary Denis McDonough for his commitment to protect veteran resources in a hearing Wednesday.

This followed testimony earlier in the day from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirming the VA “will not be allocating resources to the border.”

Here’s what I did: I introduced legislation to block the administration from moving veterans resources to the southern border and previously led a group of my colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden laying out the current staffing shortfalls in the VA health system and demanding he commit to preventing VA personnel from being utilized to confront the expected surge at the southern border as a result of ending Title 42.

I’ve spoken out publicly calling on President Biden to rule out such a move and wrote about its implications in a piece for the Washington Examiner.

Securing Improvements to Strengthen Arkansas Water Resources  

I secured priorities to improve and strengthen Arkansas water resources in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). This legislation was unanimously passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday.

The bill strengthens our state’s waterways and ensures we have safe and reliable sources of drinking water while promoting transportation, job creation and commerce. I’m proud to create and advance policies to ensure water infrastructure meets the evolving needs of Arkansans.

Defending Freedom of Speech

This week I joined with my colleague Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) to fight the Biden administration’s attempts to censor Americans for their political views by introducing legislation to block federal funds from being used to establish a Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security.

This is an outrageous attack on freedom of speech by the Biden administration that should raise alarms for all Americans. Policing and controlling what we say is un-American and unconstitutional. Blocking taxpayer dollars from being used to develop this Big Brother censorship tool is common sense and imperative.

⇒⇒⇒ Stay up-to-date with what I’m doing for Arkansans via social media. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If this was forwarded to you sign up for my e-newsletter.