TikTok Ban This week, Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, called for the U.S. government to take action to ban TikTok. The Council on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) is currently negotiating with the company about how to protect U.S. national security interests and Americans’ privacy, given the control the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship has over all companies in China. I have been calling for a TikTok ban since June of 2020. Additionally, that month I joined 24 of my colleagues in supporting the Trump Administration’s efforts to restrict TikTok from accessing the U.S. market. Just last week, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) admitted: “This is not something you would normally hear me say, but Donald Trump was right on TikTok years ago.” Democrats, who had resisted President Donald Trump’s move to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s potential use of TikTok to compromise our national security – either due to their animus for President Trump or their conciliatory approach to the Chinese regime – are now coming around to Trump’s, and my, position. Just last month, I reiterated the need for a TikTok ban or its sale to a U.S. company. We live in a free and open society fueled by free markets. One hundred million Americans enjoy and choose to use the TikTok app. Lawmakers must tread very carefully, and with great and sober restraint, when we consider using the awesome power of the federal government to override the freedom of the market and intrude on our citizens’ commercial choices. There are no conditions our government could put on TikTok that would adequately protect our national security and the privacy of the American people from the prying eyes of the Xi regime in China. It poses an unacceptable risk to our national, economic, and personal security to put this body of information of about one-third of Americans potentially in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

No votes this week. The House will be in session on November 14, 2022.

This week, I traveled to Marianna to meet with the Lee County School District Superintendent to discuss COVID funding and school safety measures.

While I was in Marianna, I stopped by the groundbreaking of the Lee County Cooperative Clinic. Community health centers have been critical to expanding healthcare access in Arkansas, and I am grateful to Kellee Farris and her entire staff for the work they are doing in Marianna and Lee County. While I was there, I was surprised to be presented with the 2022 Distinguished Community Health Center Advocate Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Daily Wire GOP House Members Investigate Following Report of Amtrak's 'Lavish' Bonuses Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Ranking Member Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) sent a letter to Amtrak’s Chairman Anthony Coscia on Thursday to address the concerning information. “Payment of lavish executive bonuses when Amtrak services and revenues remain below pre-pandemic levels, and financial losses appear permanent, seems inappropriate, wasteful and disrespectful to Amtrak’s non-executive front-line employees and taxpayers,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. Politico New transportation policy, same transportation faces TIME TO WIND DOWN COVID RULES? Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), the top Republican on the railroads subcommittee, and 55 other House Republicans sent a letter Friday asking the Biden administration to end vaccination requirements between the U.S. and Canada. Canada ended its vaccination and testing requirements earlier this month. The lawmakers pointed to labor shortages and supply chain constraints as a reason to lift the restrictions. “These regulations put more strain on our supply chain by hindering the trucking industry’s ability to move these essential goods quickly,” they wrote, echoing the position of the trucking industry after Canada revoked its Covid rules.