Each month I want to provide you with regular updates about what’s going on in our nation’s capital and throughout the 4th District of Kansas. Here’s what happened in April.
Passing the Buck on Impeachment
In mid-April, continuing our efforts to deliver accountability for the crisis at our border, House Republicans transmitted the articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Senate Majority Leader Schumer. Rather than conduct a full trial, hear the evidence and render a verdict, the Senate quickly moved to dismiss the articles in a historic move that bucks precedent. This was especially disappointing as Customs and Border Protection had just released new statistics showing just how out of control Biden’s border crisis continues to become.
Since President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas took office, there have been 9.2 million encounters nationwide and more than 7.6 million at the southern border alone. While our southern border receives most of the attention, in just two years encounters at the northern border have more than doubled.
H.R. 2, which the House passed nearly a year ago, would bring this chaos under control, but just like the impeachment articles, the Senate has failed to take up this legislation. I’ll keep working with my colleagues in the House to ensure we can secure our borders and our nation and bring accountability to those who have created this crisis.
Balancing Spending and ForeignThreats The world is an increasingly unstable place and President Biden’s failures abroad have only emboldened our enemies. But, considering our country is more than $34.5 trillion in debt, even when it comes to national security and defense, we need to make strategic spending choices that respect taxpayers. When the House considered supplemental aid packages earlier this month, I voted “no” to additional support to Ukraine and “yes” to a bill with limited foreign aid for our key ally Israel and another bill to push back on the threats of the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific region. I’ve previously voted for Russian sanctions as Ukraine faces unprovoked aggression from a tyrant, but the $60.8 billion bill that the House passed was too much for me to support when the United States has already spent more than $100 billion on Ukraine aid. Shortly before we voted on this aid, Israel endured an attack from Iran that was thankfully repelled. This, however, raised the stakes of the current conflict in the Middle East. Israel is our strongest ally in the region and it is necessary, for our security and theirs, that we support them in their fight against Iran, Hamas and other terrorists.
I voted in support of the Indo-Pacific bill because we need to seriously contend with the threat coming from China and the Chinese Communist Party. As with much of his failed foreign policy, President Biden has fallen short in standing up to China in a meaningful way and has failed to reassure our allies in the region of our support. In the absence of executive leadership and strategy, Congress had to step up to ensure that American interests are secure from CCP threats.
Inflation
For the third straight month, inflation came in above expected projections – but every Kansan shopping for groceries or filling up at the pump already knows prices are still rising.
Inflation in Kansas is up 18.9% since Biden took office, costing the average Kansas family $997 more each month. That means each month Kansans are paying $134 more on food, $167 more on shelter, $95 more on energy and $313 more on transportation. Cumulatively, the average Kansas household has spent $23,623 more due to inflation since January 2021. This is simply unsustainable.
I’ve heard from so many of you how challenging it is to make ends meet under these conditions, especially for those living on a fixed income. That’s why I continue to push to rein in unnecessary and wasteful government spending that drives up our national debt, contributing to inflation. I voted against the two recent bloated “minibus” spending bills and helped pass a budget in the Budget Committee that balances in 10 years. I’m also working to advance legislation that helps businesses, job creators and workers so that we can boost our economy and reverse this inflationary trend.
Finally, in order to ease energy prices, I’ve proposed legislation requiring the administration to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Act and support an all-of-the-above energy policy so that we can unlock domestic energy production and bring prices back down for hardworking Kansans. The status quo of Washington spending and bad energy policies just doesn’t work for Kansas families, and I’m working to reverse these entrenched spending habits and detrimental actions.
EPA Oversteps –Again The Environmental Protection Agency recently established two programs that would do considerable damage to Kansas farmers – the Vulnerable Species Pilot Program and the Herbicide Strategy Framework. In response, I joined with several of my colleagues to send a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan to express our concerns regarding these proposals to regulate the use of certain pesticides. These new programs would force producers to restrict their use of essential crop protection tools, some of which have been previously approved for use.
Instead, EPA needs to work with stakeholders and other government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to use unbiased science to evaluate these critical crop protection tools. I will keep working to ensure we find a way forward that does not hurt our hardworking farmers and ranchers.
Connect with Me
Interested in receiving regular updates about what’s going on in Congress? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at estes. house.gov and please don’t hesitate to reach out to my District Office in Wichita at 316-262-8992 if you have questions, concerns or need help with a federal agency.
