Last week, I joined Spicer and Co. on Newsmax to discuss how the Biden administration’s energy policies have destroyed American energy independence.

The price of gas has doubled since Biden took office. As we head into the hottest part of the year, South Texas will be paying far more for air conditioning than ever before. Democrats attempt to shift the blame onto Putin even though it is clear that this Administration’s assault on oil and gas has disincentivized expanded production–thereby keeping prices high.

The White House claims to be expanding production, yet they begrudgingly hold lease sales, sluggishly approve pipelines, and encourage lending institutions to restrict investment capital for U.S. energy projects.

Instead of unleashing American oil and gas, this Administration encourages Americans to buy electric cars, pleads with Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, and uses oil from our emergency reserves to slightly offset prices.

Texans stand ready to meet our nation’s energy demands, but the Biden administration would prefer to push their irresponsible "Green Agenda." We must make a return to Trump-era energy policies and regain energy independence.

You can watch my interview with Spicer and Co. HERE.

Democrats continue to try and force a vote on an “assault weapons” ban. I oppose any infringement on the Second Amendment. Gun control policies pull us further away from what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they first drafted our Constitution.

Furthermore, available data from the Crime Research Prevention Center shows that increased gun ownership does not lead to more firearm homicides. In fact, certain countries that have fewer guns than the U.S. per 100 people have higher firearm homicide rates.

A ban on “assault weapons” has been implemented before, resulting in no measurable decrease in violent crime. Additionally, many of the most violent, crime-ridden cities, including Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, have the strictest gun regulations. We would be negligent as lawmakers to — in a well-intentioned desire to just ‘do something’ — force policies on the American people that actually make the situation worse.

Last week, I joined Fox Business to discuss the Biden administration’s fake attempt to solve the massive crime wave our nation faces as a result of the ‘defund the police’ movement. With tanking poll numbers, this is clearly a ploy to convince voters that Leftist Democrats support the police.

Recently, the Biden administration rolled out its “Safer Communities Plan” which would allocate billions of dollars to reduce crime. However, these federal dollars would come with "strings attached," compelling local law enforcement to embrace the Biden administration's woke agenda.

While I am certainly not against increased funding for local police, the federal government should not have power over local police units.

Instead, the local politicians enabling the crime wave must take responsibility and stop demonizing their own police departments. They must support increases to their local police budgets to fight the rising crime we are seeing all across our cities.

Right now, the federal government needs to prioritize our military and border security in terms of national security. Americans should hold their local politicians accountable for how they support their police forces.

You can watch my interview HERE.

Last week, I voted in opposition to a resolution that unreservedly expressed support for Finland and Sweden joining NATO. While there were elements of the resolution I fully supported, such as urging all members to meet their two-percent defense spending pledge, I still have concerns as to what the implications of Finland and Sweden joining NATO could be.

We must remember that NATO is a security pact for which we are obligated to defend any member nation that comes under attack. In other words, for each nation that is added, that is one more nation our young men and women are committed to fight to defend. Until our obligations under NATO are revisited, I could not in good conscience support committing the sons and daughters of our district to the defense of more European nations.

Furthermore, I am concerned that our NATO allies have not invested in NATO’s collective security the way the United States has, allowing these countries to reap the benefits of the U.S. security blanket on the American taxpayers’ dime.

Congress should have taken the time to analyze the implications of this move, and debate whether this is necessary or right for the American people. This is not what happened.

I would have preferred a thoughtful and sober-minded analysis of the consequences of Finland and Sweden’s ascension into NATO which took my concerns into consideration.

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