Vote Notes on Legislation
While I favor sanctions against Russia for its war on Ukraine, this bill also gives the President new authority to levy tariffs on products from five of our biggest trading partners who trade with Russia. While I am not going to interfere with the existing tariffs while the President is using them to negotiate freer bilateral trade agreements, I am not willing to cede new tariff authority to the President, which is a congressional prerogative under the Constitution.
The high cost of housing is the product of bad public policy that has imposed expensive mandates on construction, limited the permits that can be issued, restricted the land available for housing, and flooded the market with subsidies that force up prices for all while hiding it for the subsidized. The pressure by adding more than 10 million illegal aliens to the market hasn’t helped either.
HR 7567 – Farm Bill: Yes. There is much to dislike in this Farm Bill, including the fraud-ridden SNAP program and subsidies that ultimately inflate the costs of everything from commodities to insurance (while hiding them for the recipients of these subsidies). However, I consider as a very high priority for the people of the Sierra Nevada to restore sound forest management to our federal lands. This includes two of my bills: HR 178 and 179. HR 178 cuts the red tape that is preventi
S Con Res 33 -- BUDGET RESOLUTION: Yes. The Budget Resolution is the first part of the annual budget process that is supposed to set limits on federal spending and conform our appropriations and mandatory spending programs to these limits. Sadly, it has not been used in the manner established by law in many decades. This resolution continues this abuse, but is necessary because of the dire situation caused by Congressional Democrats who have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security until we stop enforcing o
FISA Extension: S 1318 – Yes. I have consistently voted against FISA 702 reauthorizations without a warrant requirement for querying information involving U.S.
If we don’t enforce our immigration laws, we have no immigration laws. If we have no immigration laws, we have no border. And if we have no border, we have no country.
Yet that is the clear objective of congressional Democrats. They propose to completely defund the agencies that enforce our immigration laws. That’s right there in the Senate bill: zero dollars to ICE and CBP.
Vote Note: H Res 707 goes beyond the prerogative of the majority to decide what bills are taken to the floor. This resolution amends existing law to extend the authority of the President to impose tariffs until March 30. That makes this a substantive question of policy and the responsibility of individual members to pass judgment. Under the Constitution, the power to impose tariffs is a congressional power and needs to be restored to Congress.
- Nearly a billion dollars in congressional earmarks that bypass the competitive process that awards funding based on merit and not political deals.
- Billions of dollars taken from taxpayers of one community to pay for local water projects that exclusively benefit some other community (in effect robbing St. Petersburg to pay St. Paul.)