1. President Biden's State of the Union Address.
2. Spending Bill.
3. Menasha Celebrates 150 Years.
4. Weekly Round Up.
5. My Contact Information.

On Thursday night, President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address to

Congress. Despite the President saying in his 2021 inauguration speech that he would unify the country, I am disappointed that he continues to vilify Republicans and blame others for actions he has taken to implement open border policies that have accelerated illegal migration by leaps and bounds since he took office.

In December 2023, we saw an all-time high in illegal border crossings—302,000 in just one month. By comparison, In December 2019 we saw 60,000 and December of 2020 just 40,000. President Biden claims that statistics like this, as well as the fact that we have had over 7 million illegal encounters at our border during his Presidency, are because of inaction by Congress.

Here’s the truth. On January 20, 2021, his first day in office, President Biden eliminated an existing Executive Order numbered 13768 titled Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States. This rolled back enforcement of large parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act and paved the way for the President to then eliminate the Remain in Mexico Policy, which was a proven success in slowing the flow of illegal migrants and punishing the drug cartels.

President Biden also boasted about his administration's handling of inflation, but failed to acknowledge that it has been fueled by increased government spending that he

authorized. Instead of addressing this issue, he outlined several new spending initiatives, exacerbating concerns about debt, rising prices, and climbing interest rates. Consequently, housing affordability is becoming increasingly out of reach for the middle class. 

Finally, it was very concerning that President Biden repeated the myth that the Republican platform is to cut Social Security. Be assured that Republican leadership in the House has no plans to bring up legislation that will cut this vital program and I will never vote to make cuts to Social Security.

Over the past several months, Congress has been debating funding levels for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. This week, the House passed a bipartisan package to fund parts of the government and I am happy to let you know that it contained many key conservative policy victories and provided a real decrease in spending. Here are a few of the wins we secured:

• Reforms the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), right-sizing the program to reflect the end of COVID-related benefits as well as a decrease in participation rates.
• Cuts the Administration’s divisive Environmental Justice Budget Request by $275 million.
• Cuts the VA’s bloated administrative budget and directs that funding to grants for state veterans’ homes, veterans medical research, and VA facilities.
• Safeguards energy and technology assets from being used by foreign adversaries, such as Russia and China.
• Pulls back funding that could have furthered political targeting by the Department of Justice.
• Directs the FBI to allocate the maximum amount of resources to support efforts to combat fentanyl.
• Cuts $3.245 billion of waste from Department of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant programs.
• Prohibits access to U.S. nuclear weapons production facilities by citizens of China and Russia.

On Tuesday, Menasha celebrated its 150th anniversary as a city in our beautiful state. I had the honor of submitting a Congressional Record Insert to commemorate this special occasion at this week’s community birthday celebration. While I was in Washington during the celebration, my staff member, Chris, attended the ceremony and presented the Congressional Record Insert on my behalf. Congratulations again to the city of Menasha!

I had a productive meeting with the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police to discuss their key priorities, including strengthening local and state law enforcement to combat the national epidemic of violent crime.

The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and I met in my office this week to discuss

industry priorities, like protecting access to AM radio. It is always a pleasure to engage with media groups from my home state.

Several members of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin met with me to discuss ways to ensure safety and better equip our local heroes to carry out their duty. Great discussion!