This week, I was appointed to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. This is in addition to my continuing seat on Energy and Commerce, where I will serve on the Health Subcommittee, the Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Minerals Subcommittee, and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Between these committees, I will be front and center in the fight over every major policy debate for the next two years: national security, energy independence, trade, big tech, healthcare, and much more.

Anti-gun government bureaucrats shouldn’t block law-abiding Americans from exercising their fundamental rights, and the overzealous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has done exactly that. Their most recent unconstitutional regulatory overreach is a new rule banning the use of pistol braces, an attachment that allows users to safely fire a gun with one hand.

The ATF has a pathological obsession with pistol braces. Why? Who knows. They feel like it’s “cheating” and that makes them upset. But there aren’t any substantive arguments against pistol braces. Many disabled gun owners use them, for instance. It doesn’t make a gun any more “lethal.” In fact you might argue it makes it safer because you increase stability and accuracy.

On Wednesday I dropped the ATF Accountability Act, a bill I originally introduced in the last Congress which the Democrats blocked. This bill would allow small business owners to appeal ATF's haphazard rulings and creates an avenue to have their appeals heard in front of an administrative law judge. Most other federal regulatory bodies have similar appeals processes to keep them accountable and answerable to the public. The ATF should be treated no different, especially when it has authority to regulate a fundamental right of law-abiding Americans.

It's no surprise that Border Patrol is having trouble hiring. CBP agents have to deal everyday with thousands of new migrant crossings, an administration that refuses to enforce our immigration laws, and heavily armed cartels.

But the recruitment process for CBP is also creating an unnecessary hurdle for qualified candidates by requiring a polygraph examination. The bill I re-introduced this week would eliminate that requirement for some candidates with law enforcement or military credentials.

Polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable and easy to manipulate. Beyond serving as an interrogation tool for intelligence officers when vetting an asset, they have almost no useful purpose. They aren't useful legally and get thrown out as evidence in court all the time. Overly aggressive and unaccountable polygraph testers are causing failure rates of around 50% according to the National Border Patrol Council.

To be honest, polygraph testing should be eliminated for all CBP applicants. Hopefully with Pelosi's iron fist no longer controlling Congress, we can get enough bipartisan support to at least end the polygraph requirement for law enforcement and military credentialed applicants. If your congressman is a Democrat, please call their office and demand they support this bill.

The Biden Administration has a habit of draining our resources.

The latest example: drawing down more than 250 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in less than 2 years—dropping it to the lowest levels since 1984. Luckily, Republicans (once again) have a plan to fix their mistakes: the Strategic Production Response Act. We passed it out of the House today.

Unsurprisingly, the Biden Administration is threatening to veto it, and promoting lies about what the bill actually does. Let’s talk facts.

Last spring, Biden announced that he would be draining 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—the largest number ever—to “lower gas prices.” There’s no proof that the SPR releases had any significant impact on gas prices.

This threatened national and economic security. You can’t drain a reserve—intended for real emergencies—and not replenish it, without making us a target. And right now the U.S. is producing well-below its peak production of 13M barrels a day in 2019, at about 11.7M barrels per day.

Why is it down? This admin’s quiet war on fossil fuels—be it through EPA overreach, delaying the nation’s offshore leasing plan, or SEC climate disclosure rules—affects investment sentiment. Why deploy capital towards these projects if the government is working against your bottom line? You don’t, which is why there is underinvestment in the sector to the tune of $400 billion+.

If the President wanted to drain the SPR for a non-emergency reason, then Energy Secretary Granholm would have to create plans to increase domestic energy production. This should be a no-brainer. That’s the framework which the Strategic Production Response Act creates.

The solution is simple: unleash America’s full energy potential. Restore and replenish our SPR. Stop the war on American oil and gas.

BJØRN LOMBORG: Partisan ‘Fact Checkers’ Spread Climate-Change Misinformation

FOX NEWS: Texas Republicans demand Biden reimburse state for border efforts, seek meeting on ending crisis

NATIONAL REVIEW: BLM's Bloody Bill Comes Due

If you like my message and want to help me grow our conservative movement, please consider chipping in any amount you can afford. None of this is possible without your support. I won't let you down.

Dan Crenshaw

If you'd prefer to donate by check, please make your check payable and mail to: Dan Crenshaw for Congress, 5900 Memorial Drive, Suite 215, Houston, TX 77007.

Any questions, comments, or concerns? Simply reply to this email or give Team Crenshaw a call at 281-888-4016.