Film exec turned House candidate Ryan Millsap makes his case to voters, House Republicans have a Constitutional amendment, why Brendan Carr is right on the law, and more

A few days ago, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr reminded broadcasters that companies that use the public airwaves have an obligation under federal law to operate in the public interest.

The reaction from Democrats and much of the press has been furious. Critics like Sen. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.) are claiming Carr was threatening free speech or trying to intimidate the media. The illustration above, by Javier Muñoz for the Hollywood Reporter, is a good example for how the media has treated Carr. 

But looking at the law and the facts show that. Brendan Carr is right and the left is wrong. Here’s why.

Rep. Laurel Lee (R., Fla.) and several House Republicans are introducing a constitutional amendment that would establish a “clear and permanent requirement that only United States citizens may vote in federal elections.”

The Constitution has 27 Amendments. Lee, along with Reps. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), Mike Haridopolos (R., Fla.), Julia Letlow (R., La.), Russell Fry (R., S.C.), Wesley Hunt (R., Texas), and Lance Gooden (R., Texas) want to add another that will place tighter restrictions on voting laws.

“For generations, Americans have shared a clear and common understanding: voting in federal elections is a right reserved for United States citizens,” Lee said. “While federal law reflects that consensus, the Constitution itself does not explicitly require citizenship for voting in federal elections. This amendment provides the clarity and permanence needed to ensure that this fundamental principle is protected.”

BlackRock’s Infrastructure Summit brought together Cabinet secretaries, Republican and Democratic Senators, and industry heavyweights Wednesday to ask a pointed question: does America still know how to build things?

The answer from the room was “yes” — but not without a serious course correction on energy, permitting, and workforce training.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright called for flexible permitting frameworks and pro-growth energy policies. “One of my missions coming to Washington is to make it easier to build big things again in our country,” Wright said, noting the U.S. had done “precious little of that in the last 20 or 30 years.” The reindustrialization agenda, Wright argued, starts with rethinking energy supply and demand — and data centers are the path to lower electricity prices, higher wages, and expanded tax revenues, not a drain on the grid.

As President Donald Trump pushes wealthy nations to pay more for innovative medicines, congressional aides tell the Washington Reporter that  Japan’s drug pricing policies could soon become a trade flashpoint between Washington and Tokyo.

“Congress is going to be livid if Japan keeps freeloading off American innovation,” a congressional source told the Reporter. “It directly undercuts President Trump’s work to make life more affordable for American families. Japan needs to fix this immediately.”

Former Rep. Michael Burgess (R., Tex.) made the case in the Reporter that the Administration should prioritize drug pricing in its negotiations with Japan: “President Trump has made clear that no American should pay more for a prescription drug than a citizen of any other wealthy country. Prime Minister Takaichi has said she wants to deepen the U.S.-Japan economic partnership. The March 19 summit is a chance to advance both goals at once. Trade talks with Japan have produced agreements on semiconductors, agriculture, and defense. For the benefit of both countries, it is time to add pharmaceuticals to the list.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) is continuing her quest to expose wasteful government spending from her perch on the Small Business Committee.

Ernst unveiled her plans to commemorate Sunshine Week exclusively to the Washington Reporter. At the top of her list is an upcoming hearing that she will host in order to both expose and stop fraud waste and abuse in the federal government.

“As I always say, if you can’t find waste in Washington, there can only be one reason: you didn’t look,” Ernst told the Reporter. “While Washington seems permanently in the dark, I’m putting the spotlight on government spending this Sunshine Week. I’m grateful for folks like White Coat Waste, Open the Books, and the Government Accountability Office, who are dedicated to shining the light on how every single cent of taxpayer dollars is spent. Together, we will hold the government accountable to make all government expenditures public, as required by law, because without transparency, there is no accountability.”

Postmaster General David Steiner indicated new uncertainty around the Postal Service’s controversial USPS Ship program during a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday, telling lawmakers the agency is actively reviewing whether to continue the effort after spending roughly $1.5 billion.

The comments came in response to questioning from House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), who pressed Steiner on why the program remains active despite a scathing recommendation from the USPS Office of Inspector General to shut it down. The OIG concluded the platform duplicates services already offered by the private sector and raised concerns about its cost effectiveness.

Steiner did not defend the program. Instead, he acknowledged the findings and signaled that leadership is reconsidering its future.

The Club for Growth released a new report, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, that makes a compelling case “for educational freedom” as part of the cure to America’s K-12 educational failings.

The report criticizes public schools for “operat[ing] as a government-controlled monopoly, leaving families with limited options for their children’s education and with limited ways to hold school officials accountable for poor outcomes,” and notes that test scores across the country have been “stagnant.”

“The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals declining proficiency rates in key subjects like math and reading, even as states spend billions of dollars on public education each year,” the Club noted. “In many cases, administrative costs are growing faster than teacher salaries, diverting resources away from the classroom and into bloated bureaucracies.”

A House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing turned explosive as members of Congress debated ways to root out fraud, waste, and abuse to make the health care system more affordable. 

Lawmakers discussed a number of President Donald Trump’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) priorities, including health care price transparency and reducing waste through programs that are not delivering on their core missions, like the 340B program that the Washington Reporter has covered extensively.  

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R., Va.), the Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, summed up a key issues, noting that when it comes to programs like 340B, “visibility has become limited into how the program’s generated discounts are used and whether those savings are reaching the patients that they were meant to reach.”

CoreWeave’s multibillion-dollar push into central Pennsylvania is becoming a case study for how the AI economy is reshaping how data centers get built in the United States, a topic of immense interest to both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The Reporter has covered how companies are working with local communities to navigate concerns around the rapid expansion of data centers. Retired Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.), a featured columnist for the Reporter, published an op-ed making the case that data centers can be net benefits for communities. 

The company is investing roughly $6 billion to convert former industrial space into high-capacity data center infrastructure, part of a broader race to secure power and real estate to support artificial intelligence workloads. Local officials and executives discussed the project at a recent economic development meeting, emphasizing Lancaster’s access to large-scale power and existing industrial facilities. Of note, local officials showed significant for the project which will include millions in community investments, scholarship, and jobs for locals. 

The focus on lowering electricity costs  has drawn scrutiny from Congress and the Trump administration. President Trump signed an executive order that requires private developers to bear the costs of new power demand. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for legislation to lower electricity costs that come with increased demand from data centers. 

Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.) made international history a few weeks ago as part of the first-ever Kigali Security Summit, which was a trilateral dialogue featuring American, Rwandan, and Israeli leaders that dealt with security, innovation, and shared values. That conference highlighted what Rwandan leaders in particular views as roles the country can play that deserve more attention from Washington.

The summit brought together representatives from ten African nations, Israeli stakeholders, and influential pro-Israel advocates from the United States, including AIPAC’s President Emeritus Lee Rosenberg. Cruz and Rosen both addressed the summit, as did President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien. 

The bipartisan message from Washington was unmistakable: Rwanda is not a peripheral interest. It is a strategic asset.

One year ago, at the Trump EPA, we announced 31 historic actions in the largest ever day of deregulation, to unleash the potential of the American economy, advance President Donald Trump’s Day One executive orders, and Power the Great American Comeback. That meant the reconsideration of many suffocating rules that were restricting many sectors of our economy and costing Americans trillions of dollars — raising the cost of living in every aspect of life.     

One year later, we have made significant strides to undo the failures of prior administrations and bring down costs for American families. 

Among the most consequential of the actions was the reconsideration of the 2009 Obama-era Endangerment Finding and all vehicle regulations that relied on it.  

I’ve known Markwayne Mullin for more than a decade.

I met him when he was first thinking about running for office, long before the national spotlight. What stood out then still defines him today. He’s real.

In a town where most elected officials hide behind staff and schedules, Markwayne is the most accessible leader I’ve ever met. You call him, he answers. No layers. No act. Just Markwayne.

71 percent of Americans support securing our elections by passing the SAVE America Act. At a time of declining trust in our institutions, the clearest way for Congress to restore confidence is to ensure our elections are free and fair.

Unfortunately, banning non-citizens from voting is on the fast track to an easy death in the U.S. Senate. This comes despite the fact that the House of Representatives has approved most of this policy three times, and that President Donald Trump recently declared the SAVE America Act to be his top legislative priority. 

Regardless of Democratic talking points, election security is urgent.

On March 19, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrives in Washington for her first official visit to the White House. The agenda will be inclusive, covering everything from defense spending, semiconductor investment, rare earths, to agriculture. That breadth reflects a deep reality — that Japan is one of America’s most important partners, a cornerstone of Indo-Pacific security, and a major investor in American communities. 

As the two allies look to strengthen their economic partnership, one issue deserves far more attention than it typically gets — the price Japan pays for American-made prescription drugs.

For decades, Japan has been one of the world’s most aggressively underpriced markets for innovative pharmaceuticals. According to RAND Corporation data, Japan’s drug prices are roughly 25 percent of what Americans pay for the same brand-name medicines. Japan’s Ministry of Health mandates biennial price cuts, imposes “market expansion repricing” that slashes prices when drugs succeed, and critically has planned the extension and tightening of the drug assessment regime that punishes pharmaceutical companies for developing new treatments patients need. 

Agriculture is the cornerstone of Wisconsin and the backbone of our nation. Our farmers don’t just feed our state, they keep America running. When agriculture succeeds in Wisconsin, families across our country benefit. We are the Dairy State, and here, agriculture isn’t just an industry — it’s a way of life.

For generations, Wisconsin farmers have built more than businesses — they’ve built legacies. Family farms are defined by a commitment to passing something better on to the next generation. But for years, the death tax has put that legacy at risk.

The value of family farms is tied up in land, equipment, and livestock. When a large tax bill comes due, families shouldn’t be forced to sell off acres, take on massive debt, or dismantle their operation just to keep up with Washington.

President Donald Trump and MAGA allies around the nation are hell-bent on strong-arming Senate Republicans into passing the SAVE America Act — even if it means torching Senate rules to do it.

But with Senate Majority Leader John Thune making it clear he doesn’t have the votes, the party needs to ask itself: At what point is the circular firing squad strategy counterproductive?

Even many Hill Republicans supportive of the legislation say we hit that wall a while ago. The past two weeks of GOP-on-GOP warfare over SAVE have distracted from the entire purpose of this exercise, which is to put Democrats on record blocking an 80-20 issue.