Republicans are heading into 2026 with plans to lower the cost of living for Americans, including lowering energy costs, which many lawmakers told the Washington Reporter will be key for unleashing America’s artificial intelligence (AI) and lowering the cost of housing.
The Reporter also asked lawmakers about a potential deal to pass legislation that preempts state AI laws with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Lawmakers were largely supportive, with multiple members expressing support for a package that protects kids while ensuring America’s dominance in the AI race against China.
One House Republican focusing on affordability issues is Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa), who told the Reporter in an interview at a media row organized by House GOP Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) that “we have to embrace all energy; we know nuclear is a part of that.”
“Even in 2021,” Miller-Meeks said, “when I met with Iowans and when I went to COP, people weren’t talking about nuclear. We need any of the above approach like we have in Iowa. Governor Kim Reynolds signed legislation like this. Looking at all energy forms is important, and we need longer term solutions. We know that China has brought on wind, solar, nuclear, coal, natural gas; they have brought on gigawatts more than we have. We need to catch up. Part of that is regulatory and we’ll continue to pass that.”
Miller-Meeks added that part of why energy costs are going up is because “demand is going up.” Some Democrats, she noted, “want to put limits on data centers and AI, but we need to explain why and have any of the above energy policy.” Energy ties directly into the debate over whether the federal government should preempt state regulation on AI. “There needs to be federal preemption, but not because states can’t do it,” she said. “China has no protections because it’s authoritarian.” Part of her solution is the SPY Kids Act, which would ban platforms from market research on kids under 13.
One of Congress’s leading lawmakers when it comes to AI is Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who boasts a suite of tech-related patents himself. Drawing on that background, he explained to the Reporter that “every day, many of the largest organizations in communications self-regulate, and AI has to be the same way.”
“We need to bring together the emerging AI leaders to set standards that they can strive toward and goals that they can achieve in the future,” Issa noted. “It’s not easy to protect children, but AI more and more is able to discern if someone is a child. Those kinds of skillsets have to become part of best practices. For the government to take the role in facilitating through, perhaps, the Department of Commerce, the kind of standard-setting that we’ve seen in other areas, is a balancing act.”
“We don’t have safer electricity because the government mandated it; we have it because the government accepted the standards that were set by the market,” Issa added. “We have to reward them by giving them liability limitation, but most importantly we have to recognize that the difference between us and the Europeans is that they can regulate better than we can, but we can out innovate them.”
A leading third-party voice in the debate over AI is NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, who recently met with lawmakers, a meeting Rep. John McGuire (R., Va.) spoke about with the Reporter. “AI is a big deal,” he said. “I had breakfast with Jensen Huang, and chips are a big deal for him. AI is not a threat, it’s a tool, he told us. You’re buying intelligence, but you need guardrails. AI is here and it’s getting better and better. But human civilization adapts. Backpacks, horses, phones, cars, are all adaptations we’ve made. AI is like that too.”
But AI needs massive amounts of energy; Reps. Rudy Yakym (R., Ind.) and Pat Harrigan (R., N.C.) both detailed some of their legislative efforts to ensure that is possible. “The federal government [has to] out of the way,” Yakym said; however he said that one of his latest bills will help address some of the problems. “I just got a bill passed that reforms NEPA, which has gone way too far. Previously, we were prevented from building pipelines and transmission lines. My bipartisan bill was just voted on last year that will fix that.”
Harrigan, a self-described “nuclear guy,” said that he wants “energy to be produced rapidly in our country.” In the most recent NDAA, he introduced “legislation that allows public-private partnerships that allow for that to be generated on military bases and it allows us to pipe power outside of the military base. This also helps data centers without taking power from current localities.”
Both Yakym and Harrigan sounded willing to consider a potential legislative compromise that would include federal preemption of state-based AI regulations as well as protections for children like what had been in versions of the KOSA.
“When it comes to AI, we are the world’s leader in AI innovation and investment,” Yakym said. “We need to maintain this. We’re in a race against China for leadership in this space. Someone is going to win, and it should be us. We’ve also got to ensure we protect our kids as they go online and make sure that there are some guardrails so you can’t have people committing crimes with AI.”
Harrigan said that “if there is a hybridized version that provides reasonable individual liberty protections but also provides certainty to those who are innovating with massive investments but also impact the future of our market economy, that would be interesting. We have to step back and think from a national security standpoint and see that our adversaries are not going to constrain AI. We should offer a limited period of time where we constrain it within limitations; that will help our national security. This is one of the key areas we lead in. I would be okay with that.”
Several lawmakers, including Reps. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), Beth Van Duyne (R., Texas), and Mark Alford (R., Mo.) explained that China is at the forefront of their minds when they contemplate AI legislation.
“When you look at AI, it’s more complicated than it seems,” Hern — the number five House Republican — told the Reporter. “This isn’t something that we’re experimenting with; this is really a national security thing. China is doing AI, and we need to do the same thing. When you look at this issue in classified settings, and you see how AI is being used in propaganda, in misinformation, it’s clear that if we don’t stay the leader, we’ll have a real threat to our national security.”
Van Duyne said that she “would hate for states to regulate our technology out of being competitive. We have to beat China. When you think about AI and the effects it can have in politics, in education, in health care, it is an emerging technology that we want to be able to grow.”
When Alford thinks about AI regulation, he views it from a historical standpoint. “Think about what happened in the explosion of the internet years and those of social media,” he said. “We can use some of those lessons that we learned, about some of the pitfalls of social media and the effect it’s had on our young people. Everything good can be turned bad, and AI is the same way. Are we going to put guardrails to protect young minds without hampering business and without giving advantages to foreign nations like China that want to use AI for evil? Whatever guardrails we can put up, I am for.”
Hern seconded the importance of energy when it comes to AI. “You can’t have AI if you don’t have energy to run the data centers,” he said. “Small modular reactors are huge for AI and for our military bases. We have states that have problems with maintaining consistent power without black outs and brown outs. We need permitting, and we can use them for independent off the grid power for data centers. We’ve taken 300 coal powered plants off the map in the past ten years while China adds them. All of this is permitting in general. You can have power for municipalities for localities and states but if you can’t get them to the entities, that’s a problem. We have to have power for data centers.”
Both Van Duyne and Alford noted that domestically, there have already seen wins on energy prices. “The regulatory pressure on energy producers put on by Biden need to stop, and it is stopping,” she said. “I spent $1.93 on gas at my local Kroger last week. Reducing regulatory burdens, allowing energy to be produced and not threatening an industry is important.”
And Alford, who said that lowering energy costs “was one of my campaign planks from the start,” said that the blame rests with “Joe Biden, via his war on fossil fuels…He aimed at the fossil fuel companies, but he ended up putting the targets on the backs of everyday Americans, including farmers in my district who had to pay increased fuel and fertilizer prices, so that caused prices to rise, and when diesel in particular goes up that affects trucking and supplies.”
Alford’s constituents in particular, he said, “need E-15 year round. People want choice, let’s give them choice. We need certainty in the market. This will give them a boost for the products they’re planting.”
While Congress sounds ready to tackle bipartisan issues like permitting reform as part of its plans to lower energy costs, Issa noted that for many Americans living in blue states, the GOP’s work won’t be enough due to state-based policies of Democrats.
Issa said that federally, America can “deploy[] modular nuclear reactors, but you cannot make the stupidity of Sacramento change.”
“I expect that California will still have artificially high prices,” Issa said. “I’d like to see self-reliance on nuclear be reestablished at Camp Pendleton so it can cut itself off from the grid.”
Below are transcripts of our interviews with eight House Republicans, lightly edited for clarity.
Rep. Rudy Yakym (R., Ind.):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
I want him to start by acknowledging all the successes from 2025; we delivered on his agenda with the largest tax cut in American history, we increased the child tax credit, and we enacted the largest spending cut in American history. He should talk about how he secured the southern border on day one and stopped the record flow of illegal immigrants. Then he should lay out a vision for what we all hope to do this year.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
When it comes to AI, we are the world’s leader in AI innovation and investment. We need to maintain this. We’re in a race against China for leadership in this space. Someone is going to win, and it should be us. We’ve also got to ensure we protect our kids as they go online and make sure that there are some guardrails so you can’t have people committing crimes with AI.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
What I hear back home in Indiana is that the biggest issues are quality and access of rural health care; that’s why we put billions of dollars in the One Big, Beautiful Bill. Indiana just received the first tranche of that. We have to focus on lowering costs of health care for all Americans.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
When I think about health care reform, I think about what it’ll do to the cost, quality, and access of health care. Every policy I look at here deals with those.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
We’ll see what the package looks like. Any reform has to be viewed in the entirety.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
Additional energy exploration — but we also have to get the federal government out of the way. I just got a bill passed that reforms NEPA, which has gone way too far. Previously, we were prevented from building pipelines and transmission lines. My bipartisan bill was just voted on last year that will fix that.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
We’re going to take a look at it. We’re starting conversations right now on what that might look like.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
Bigger paychecks for Hoosiers.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Rudy Yakym:
A, clearly.
Rep. John McGuire (R., Va):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. John McGuire:
The American Dream. Twenty percent of home ownership in America used to be people under 32, now it’s closer to 1 percent. It’s hard being a socialist if you own property. I’m about to drop the American Dream Act. If you are 65 or over and you sell to a first time buyer, there would be a five year moratorium on capital gains in that bill. So how’d that bill come about? Well, I spent three months going around, and every time I ran into a young person in my district, I asked them if they or their friends owned a house, and none of them did. How can you have the American Dream if it’s out of reach? I met a 72 year old guy and he has 55 rental properties and he wants to get rid of that stress, and he doesn’t want to pay capital gains, but you can’t sell it to Blackrock or anything under my bill. We’ve had more success in one year than most presidents have had in four years. The One Big, Beautiful Bill added jet fuel to our economy. But sometimes you have to tell people something ten times in ten different ways to get the message across. In Roanoke last month, gas was the lowest it’s ever been. This year, cost of living is going to be a big issue, like law and order. Murder rates, especially here, are way lower. And look abroad. By going after Maduro, the world is safer. Fairness is important, we’re going to go after that big time this year. We’ve identified $9 billion in fraud in Minnesota; there’s a lot more to do.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. John McGuire:
AI is a big deal. I had breakfast with Jensen Huang, and chips are a big deal for him. AI is not a threat, it’s a tool, he told us. You’re buying intelligence, but you need guardrails. AI is here and it’s getting better and better. But human civilization adapts. Backpacks, horses, phones, cars, are all adaptations we’ve made. AI is like that too.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. John McGuire:
We need to do it, because insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. The ACA benefitted the insurance companies; it gave them a 600 percent pay raise, and the health care was crap. What we need is free market competition, because that stimulates creative ideas and drives down prices.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. John McGuire:
He’s a man who means what he says and says what he means. Every president in my lifetime said they want peace in the Middle East, he got two deals done. He moved our embassy to Jerusalem. Biden said we need legislation to secure the border, but that was wrong; we just needed a new president. Americans are safer, murder rates are down, we’re recovering from the damage of NAFTA, hope for the future is up, and we’re creating peace. I give him a high grade.
Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R., Texas):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
Pricing and how energy prices are at some of the lowest we’ve seen in years. There are huge wins with lower rental rates and how successful immigration has been. They’ve had 2.6 million folks who have deported. We’ve seen five straight months of rent rates going down because there is so much more availability. There are also regulatory reforms, and he should talk about how that’s having a direct impact on businesses. He’s going to talk about trade deals he’s made that make American businesses more competitive, his tariff strategy, and address his critics of that strategy to show how it’s boosted our GDP growth. He should also talk about the effects of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, and how working families are experiencing a massive tax rebate because of his agenda.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
All those things are important. I would hate for states to regulate our technology out of being competitive. We have to beat China. When you think about AI and the effects it can have in politics, in education, in health care, it is an emerging technology that we want to be able to grow.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
I don’t think we’ll have a choice. You have the outrageous amounts that people are paying in premiums. There are record profits for health insurance companies while they are declining claims and experiencing record profits; we are going to have to have a health care bill. There are lots of bills that would make a tremendous difference. I like Rand Paul’s legislation that would allow people to go to Costco and buy their own plans. That’s more accessibility, and that is important. It would put people in power of their own health care choices.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
Increasing competition, making doctors and patients have a relationship again. The premiums in Obamacare have had direct negative impacts in our health care system. We also need to create accountability at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
Yes. I would have loved for it to have been done last year. We have tremendous reforms that were kicked out because people thought it was too long. Sometimes a bill needs to be long, especially to tackle complicated issues.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
The regulatory pressure on energy producers put on by Biden need to stop, and it is stopping. I spent $1.93 on gas at my local Kroger last week. Reducing regulatory burdens, allowing energy to be produced and not threatening an industry is important.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
There’s a chance; we have a lot more narrow majority than we did in the beginning of the year. My heart goes out to Doug LaMalfa’s family, but we still have to move forward. I think it will be tougher, but you had a number of bills that were in the first package that received overwhelming support from the GOP conference that got kicked out of the last bill that we could continue. If we’re serious about health care and making it affordable, we are going to have to recognize that we can’t just continue to subsidize insurance companies. We need to give choices.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
Health care reforms. Regulatory reforms. More bills that would allow people to keep more of what they make. Tax cuts, tax rebates, opening up our markets.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Beth Van Duyne:
I’d give him an A. Not an A+, because I think we can all do a better job of communicating a strong Republican message, and sometimes I think we trip over our own feet. But he’s been able to get bills across the floor that people thought we could never pass. Look at his trade deals. Some folks are having difficulty seeing the forest through the trees on these trade deals.
Rep. Pat Harrigan (R., N.C.):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
I want him to spend a lot of time addressing the wins we got in 2025. The One Big, Beautiful Bill transformed the economy for the middle class. It said the government reaching into their pockets went too far. It was the largest spending cut, the largest tax cut in history, and simultaneously we achieved so many of Trump’s campaign promises. No taxes on tips, Social Security, and overtime, we firmed up funding for our southern border, and we created an environment where we could do peace through strength as we saw with Venezuela. He should spend a healthy amount of time looking backwards talking about how transformational these wins are, and also how that policy is built on great principle, and how that yields great outcomes, and we’re starting to see those outcomes trickle in. Four-point-six percent GDP growth last quarter, prices are down. The American people will see these wins when they file their taxes.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
If there is a hybridized version that provides reasonable individual liberty protections but also provides certainty to those who are innovating with massive investments but also impact the future of our market economy, that would be interesting. We have to step back and think from a national security standpoint and see that our adversaries are not going to constrain AI. We should offer a limited period of time where we constrain it within limitations; that will help our national security. This is one of the key areas we lead in. I would be okay with that.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
It’s likely for two reasons: the American people are demanding it. And, if we don’t do it, we’ll be held accountable next year. I am hopeful that we will deliver on free market principles that will help solve the problem rather than continue putting bandaids on Obamacare.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
Choice accounts and certificates of need across the country go away. When you pair that with the lack of price transparency, you yield a market where people don’t know what they’re going to pay until they can’t afford it.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
We need PBM reform. The marketplace is already a controlled environment and they’re price fixing because of it. President Trump has done a lot to reduce drug pricing on his own, but we need to help him.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
We need to allow energy to be produced rapidly in our country. I’m a nuclear guy. Regulation is too heavy there. I introduced NDAA legislation that allows public-private partnerships that allow for that to be generated on military bases and it allows us to pipe power outside of the military base. This also helps data centers without taking power from current localities.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
Pretty good, because the scope would be more limited. The first one dealt with things that had never been done. The lift here would be lighter from a structural standpoint.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
Health care, no question about it. It’s got to be built around health care.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Pat Harrigan:
I’d give him an A+. I had to think about an A or an A+, but he has done everything he said he was going to do and more.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
For him to remind the nation of what we have done with the One Big, Beautiful Bill to help lower costs for everyone, what we’re doing to lower health care costs and also to increase economic growth.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
I have the SPY Kids Act that will help protect kids online. There needs to be federal preemption, but not because states can’t do it. China has no protections because it’s authoritarian. Part of this is also energy. Energy has gone up high, rates are going up because demand is going up. They want to put limits on data centers and AI, but we need to explain why and have an any of the above energy policy.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
I’m hoping that we will do a reconciliation package because the ACA, which we now know should be called the Unaffordable Care Act, which is why Democrats tried to hide that premiums have gone up. Since Obamacare was passed via reconciliation, passing any meaningful reform to lower premiums will have to come under reconciliation. In 2023, we passed legislation, and several of our provisions are ones that Democrats have passed in the past. Unlike just extending subsidies, this bill would get to some of the problem of high health care costs. This will take reconciliation to do. Brett Guthrie, Speaker Mike Johnson, and I have talked about this already.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
I think it will get done this year. It’s one of those components of high health care costs. This is a bipartisan issue. When I passed my first PBM reform in the Iowa state Senate, I had to convince a lot of people. I don’t remember how many Democrats we had on the bill, but this can really help drive costs down for everyone in contrast with the Democrats’ IRA. We can and should tackle vertical integration.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
We have to embrace all energy; we know nuclear is a part of that. Even in 2021, when I met with Iowans and when I went to COP, people weren’t talking about nuclear. We need any of the above approach like we have in Iowa. Governor Kim Reynolds signed legislation like this. Looking at all energy forms is important, and we need longer term solutions. We know that China has brought on wind, solar, nuclear, coal, natural gas; they have brought on gigawatts more than we have. We need to catch up. Part of that is regulatory and we’ll continue to pass that.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
53 percent.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
Health care reform. We need to bring health care costs down for everyone. We need to support physician providers. Big picture, I’d say energy and health care are my top priorities.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks:
I give him an A.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
The State of the Union is good and it is good because of the work he has done already. I want him to take that vision and expand it. Before he came back, we hadn’t focused on the fact that there’s a deal to be had on Joint Operation Greenland. There’s a real opportunity now to follow through on decapitating the drug trade that has been a menace to this country. That includes letting Colombia and Mexico know they need to change their behavior. But most importantly I want him to take a victory lap and say what we can do better. Inflation is down but it is still too high. Productivity and wages are outpacing inflation, and 4.3 percent GDP growth is remarkable, but we can do better. What he says is what happens, a little like when Babe Ruth points at the outfield and predicts that he’s going to score a home run.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
Every day, many of the largest organizations in communications self-regulate, and AI has to be the same way. We need to bring together the emerging AI leaders to set standards that they can strive toward and goals that they can achieve in the future. It’s not easy to protect children, but AI more and more is able to discern if someone is a child. Those kinds of skillsets have to become part of best practices. For the government to take the role in facilitating through, perhaps, the Department of Commerce, the kind of standard-setting that we’ve seen in other areas, is a balancing act. We don’t have safer electricity because the government mandated it; we have it because the government accepted the standards that were set by the market. We have to reward them by giving them liability limitation, but most importantly we have to recognize that the difference between us and the Europeans is that they can regulate better than we can, but we can out innovate them.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
If by meaningful you mean effective, the odds are close to zero. The answers to health care reform lie in tort reform and in increasing educational opportunities so we can have more doctors. That is what is critical, but that’s not technically health care reform, but it’ll drive costs down. The FDA could role back the billions needed after you know a drug works to prove it sufficiently to get it to market. We need to drive acquisition costs down. I want RFK Jr. to do his job and live up to the president’s vision of lowering costs through executive action. For us, we want to do tort reform to help that.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
A good example would be in Canada; if you take a government approved drug and later you find out there’s a side effect, you can’t get any punitive damages. Those don’t exist because the government takes on responsibility that they approved it, not the company that you can sue. That alone would drive down costs.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
We are putting more layers between the patient and the doctor. We’ve even detached the insurance companies from this, and it hasn’t worked. We need to streamline with transparency in pricing. Look at states here; Oklahoma is one that’s started offering someone the lowest price that anyone gets after all the rebates if they simply pay the bill.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
Many things federally, including deploying modular nuclear reactors; but, you cannot make the stupidity of Sacramento change. I expect that California will still have artificially high prices. I’d like to see self-reliance on nuclear be reestablished at Camp Pendleton so it can cut itself off from the grid.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Darrell Issa:
In the words of the movie Dumb and Dumber, “you’ve got a chance.”
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
I’d like us to codify a version of the president’s Gold Card; that would lead to changes in immigration that both raise revenue and bring the best and brightest to America first.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Darrell Issa:
To give him an A+ or a 5.0 on a 4.0 scale might sound ridiculous, but I’ve been here for a long time and I’ve never seen a president hit the ground running with as much energy as what he’s done.
Rep. Mark Alford (R., Mo.):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Mark Alford:
I’d like for him to talk about the big wins in the most historic year of a president in the history of America. The biggest wins for the American people to secure our economy, border, nation, deporting illegal aliens, it’s the whole kit and kaboodle. He’s restored our place as the prominent world power. Maybe I’ll help him write it, although I don’t know how much of it he’d read.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Mark Alford:
Think about what happened in the explosion of the internet years and those of social media; we can use some of those lessons that we learned, about some of the pitfalls of social media and the effect it’s had on our young people. Everything good can be turned bad, and AI is the same way. Are we going to put guardrails to protect young minds without hampering business and without giving advantages to foreign nations like China that want to use AI for evil? Whatever guardrails we can put up, I am for.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Mark Alford:
Health care is one of the preeminent issues right now. I’ve only been here for three years. I wish we had a plan that we can use to assure the American people that health care is in our interests and in their interests. Should we have socialized medicine? No. Should we have single payer? No. But it needs to work for the average American. There are some things being talked about for a second reconciliation that would help in that avenue. We all know that Obamacare was designed to fail to get us into single payer, and that’s where Democrats want to take us. We need transparency in pricing. We need insurance to be able to go across state lines, but we need to get money in the pockets of the consumer, the patient, rather than in the pockets of the insurance companies.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Mark Alford:
Price transparency. When I got to Congress, I gave up a really good health care plan being in the media with Nextstar; we had a great plan and I had to give that up. My wife worked at the Federal Reserve but then she got laid off so we had to get on the congressional plan. Everyone says ‘you’re on this Cadillac plan, that’s Obamacare,’ but the reality is that it just wasn’t working for us. Now we’re on a Medi-Share type program called Samaritan’s Ministry and it’s been working for us. We use our own dollars to negotiate prices, but in order to make that work, and even if we used HSAs, you’ve got to have transparency in prices. I don’t need a new hip, but if I did, I’d want to go to hospitals and compare how much it would cost and shop around for that hip and for that doctor. Put the power with the people.
Washington Reporter:
Do you want PBM reform to get done this year?
Rep. Mark Alford:
Yes. That was the first issue I heard about when I was seen as a serious contender for Congress. A pharmacist in Billy Long’s old district called me out of the blue and says ‘if you get to Congress I want you to work on PBM reform.’ I still have my notes on this, and I realized this is a serious issue. After I got into office, I got invited out to St. Louis to a PBM and it’s a beautiful facility but there are a lot of issues affecting small businesses in America and driving them out of America. I’m out of the Small Business Committee; I want to retain small businesses, and PBM reform is a way to do that.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Mark Alford:
That was one of my campaign planks from the start. We have to lower energy costs. Joe Biden, via his war on fossil fuels, upended our economy. He aimed at the fossil fuel companies, but he ended up putting the targets on the backs of everyday Americans, including farmers in my district who had to pay increased fuel and fertilizer prices, so that caused prices to rise, and when diesel in particular goes up that affects trucking and supplies. We don’t want prices too low because that will affect the oil industry in Texas and elsewhere, and that’s going to depress the oil. We need to use all available sources of fuel. We need E-15 year round. People want choice, let’s give them choice. We need certainty in the market. This will give them a boost for the products they’re planting.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Mark Alford:
65 percent.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Mark Alford:
Health care.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Mark Alford:
I give him an A+.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.):
Washington Reporter:
What do you want to see President Trump address in his State of the Union next month?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
It’s important to talk about where he came from in the first year; it hasn’t even been a year yet and yet look at where we’re going to go. He should talk about why it’s so important to keep the House and Senate Republican. Look at border policy, look at the U.S. military. Look at Venezuela and Greenland, how we’re combatting Russia and China. All these things really matter. I know the American people don’t see these as important, but if we don’t have national security, then we don’t have a nation. We’ve been ruled against by the CBO on a lot of policies, and yet we’re seeing wage growth outpace inflation. Inflation is declining in spire of all the Ivy League experts. I’m sure he’ll have some comedic relief as he always does, and he’ll make sure the Democrats will show how crazy they are.
Washington Reporter:
On AI, would you support a bill that preempts states from regulating AI if it included protection for kids, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
When you look at AI, it’s more complicated than it seems. This isn’t something that we’re experimenting with; this is really a national security thing. China is doing AI, and we need to do the same thing. When you look at this issue in classified settings, and you see how AI is being used in propaganda, in misinformation, it’s clear that if we don’t stay the leader, we’ll have a real threat to our national security.
Washington Reporter:
How likely is it that Congress will pass meaningful healthcare reform this year?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
That’s always challenging, especially when you can only lose one vote on the House GOP side, and you need to keep the Senate in order. We need to lower health care costs for all Americans, not just the few, unlike the Democrats who want to spend $40 billion a year just for the few. When you look at all those we are going to keep pushing until the last minute. It’s time for Republicans to own the narrative of lower health care costs. The Democrats have had 15 years, and it’s a failure. We need to keep the parts of the system we have, but we need a complete overhaul.
Washington Reporter:
What would your top priority be in a healthcare bill?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
The CHOICE Arrangement Act is important. We need to prioritize Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or ICHRAs. With these, companies pay individuals to lower their premiums, and build a health care plan that works for them specifically. I also want us to continue to expand HSAs and FSAs so you can shop for your own health care. We need to move the patient back to the center of the system.
Washington Reporter:
What is your top priority for lowering energy costs? Is there anything Congress can do?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
You can’t have AI if you don’t have energy to run the data centers. Small modular reactors are huge for AI and for our military bases. We have states that have problems with maintaining consistent power without black outs and brown outs. We need permitting, and we can use them for independent off the grid power for data centers. We’ve taken 300 coal powered plants off the map in the past ten years while China adds them. All of this is permitting in general. You can have power for municipalities for localities and states but if you can’t get them to the entities, that’s a problem. We have to have power for data centers.
Washington Reporter:
Give me betting odds that a second reconciliation passes.
Rep. Kevin Hern:
It’s important that we put forward a plan and then see where the votes are. We have to see how many votes you net lose, and we can only lose one. We will have to continue to push individual bills. If we get serious about reconciliation 2.0 it’ll be all hands on deck and it’ll consume all of our legislative time between now and September. We’d need to commit to it early. Otherwise we’ll do individual bills and hope the Senate can package it together.
Washington Reporter:
If it does pass, what is your number one priority to include?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
Several; we’ve got a lot of health care things, the CHOICE Arrangement Act being one of them. Site neutrality in hospitals would save billions in our health care system. We’re going to have to look at where the waste is. There was a big brouhaha from Democrats in July when they claimed that there isn’t waste in our health care system, but we’re seeing waste in Minnesota, Illinois, and Mississippi.
Washington Reporter:
What grade do you give President Trump’s first year of his second term?
Rep. Kevin Hern:
A+. That’s a shocker, I know.