Ending the COVID-19 Emergency |
This week, the House of Representatives voted to immediately end the COVID-19 public health and national emergency declarations. In addition, we also voted to require federal employees to return to the office under the rules that governed them before the pandemic. I voted in support of these measures.
Meanwhile, on Monday, after our legislation was released but before the votes, President Biden extended the national emergency declaration and the public health emergency yet again, but also pledged that on May 11 he will let those both end. Even then, however, the pledge merely said that was his plan “at present.” Enough is enough.
The American people are ready to move forward. They are tired of hearing mixed messages that the pandemic is over but still seeing the adverse consequences of regulations and emergency declarations. These emergency powers have harmed our economy and exacerbated our supply chain problems. Furthermore, now that most of America has returned to the office, it’s past time for taxpayer funded federal employees to show up for those that they serve—the American people.
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- Terminates the National emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic issued on March 13, 2020, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act (NEA).
- Follows President Biden’s September 2022 statement during a “60 Minutes” interview that the “pandemic is over.”
- Requires each Executive agency to reinstate and apply the telework policies it had in place before the COVID-19 pandemic. It further requires each agency to submit to Congress a study of the impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during the pandemic and a plan for the agency's future use of telework and remote work.
- Repeals the Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 and requires the Biden Administration to develop a plan for the end of this order.
- Eliminates the federal vaccine mandate for staff at health care facilities and allows hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers to staff their facilities as each determines necessary to maintain patient and employee safety.
- Removes Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her long history of anti-Semitic statements made while a member of the committee.
- Denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.
- Outlines the failures of socialist systems citing examples in the USSR, China, Cambodia, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
- Highlights the incompatibility of the founding principles of the United States of America with socialist ideologies.
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This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing entitled, “The State of Transportation Infrastructure and Supply Chain Challenges.” I questioned Chris Spear, President of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), about the federal government’s response to COVID-19 as well as the driver shortage and how it is affecting the trucking industry.
Most recently, the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) included a pilot program that allows 18 to 20-year-old drivers who have a Commercial Driver’s License to work across state lines, a provision modeled after a bill, the DRIVE Safe Act, of which I was an original cosponsor. Unfortunately, implementation of this IIJA provision by the Department of Transportation (DOT) has been slower than desired, and DOT has added requirements inconsistent with the text of the law, adding more barriers to get this program up and running.
Read the transcript of the full exchange here, or watch the full Q&A here.
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Fox News
I told Fox News Digital that the recent reports of entities ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party buying American farmland and agriculture companies, validate the need for a more proactive posture on protecting our agriculture sector from foreign threats.
Adversarial nations like China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea should not be given the opportunity to chip away at our economy and harm our agriculture producers who have worked diligently to create the world’s largest, safest, and most abundant food supply. I appreciate colleagues like Rep. Stefanik who are willing to stand up for our farmers and bring real solutions to the table.
Transport Topics
An efficient and safe highway system is critical to America’s competitiveness in the global economy and a vital component of our national security. I look forward to providing vigorous oversight of the recently enacted infrastructure funding laws to ensure that those funds are spent on projects that are priorities for state and local governments.
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Getting a Farm Bill across the finish line has been a challenge since I've been in Congress, but it has never stopped us from completing the job and I don't anticipate that changing this year. I am actively engaging stakeholders and colleagues to listen to their concerns in an effort to build a bipartisan consensus in support of renewing vital farm programs. Maintaining robust domestic production of food and fiber is critical to our economy and national security.
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