In our latest edition, we have interviews with Leader Steve Scalise and Senator Cynthia Lummis, an exclusive poll, and more.
By: Matthew Foldi
Both Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) and President Donald Trump have taken bullets for their party and their country. In 2017, a Bernie Sanders-supporting gunman, asked a group of congress members practicing softball if they were Republicans or Democrats, and then opened fire on the GOP team, firing 60 rounds and wounding Scalise. Now, Scalise is calling on the left to tone down the rhetoric around Trump to prevent future assassination attempts because “this is not a game.”
“I really have gotten vocal lately about the rhetoric from the left,” he told the Washington Reporter in an extensive interview. “It’s no longer just this idea that we all need to dial down the rhetoric, because one side has been ratcheting it up very specifically in ways that have now caused two assassination attempts, and it’s time that we confront that fact.”
Scalise sees the recent attempts on Trump’s life as an outgrowth of Democrats’ demonization of Trump. He’s “specifically called for Kamala Harris and other Democrats to stop using terms like threat to democracy, comparisons to Hitler, [Trump] must be stopped,” he said.
When Scalise isn’t taking physical bullets for his party, he’s dodging metaphorical ones as he and the rest of the House GOP leadership navigate everything from keeping the government open to the divisive Kids Online Safety Act.
Click HERE to read more from Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) about the Kids Online Safety Act, the road to expanding the House majority, and much more.
The House GOP leadership is potentially at odds with the Energy and Commerce Committee’s GOP leadership on the Kids Online Safety Act. What do you make of that potential disconnect between your priorities and their priorities?
Matthew Foldi
Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Reporter
There’s still some real concerns being expressed by a lot of members and others with some of the details of the bill. And of course, the details matter, especially when you’re giving more power to the Biden administration over censorship. We’ve seen in the past, they will use that power not to protect kids online, but to go to conservative organizations, like pro-life groups, and it’s happened before. Why would you give them more unchecked power to go do that again, when they’ve shown that they will use that power? I want to protect kids online. We really worked hard and came together, and I thought Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers did a phenomenal job marshaling the TikTok bill through her committee, which was very hard to get through the process. I brought it to the floor the week after she passed it, because we were working very closely together. And I told her, we don’t want to lose momentum. I brought the bill the next week, and we had an overwhelming vote, which I think shocked a lot of people, and it ultimately got signed into law by Joe Biden, and that’s an example of how we have worked together in the past to protect kids from having their data stolen. Over 100 million people in America, mostly kids, are at jeopardy of having their data stolen by TikTok. We’ve now addressed it. It’s in the courts, and we’re going to win there, but we worked really, really hard to come together and do that. A little more needs to be done to make sure the policy is right on KOSA. Just because a bill has a nice name, that’s great, but ultimately the policy is what matters. And then there’s some work to be done there to make sure it works properly.
Rep. Steve Scalise
House Majority Leader
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By: Matthew Foldi
Michigan is ground zero in the battle over electric vehicle mandates this November, and polling obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter shows that a mandate for consumers to purchase electric vehicles is unpopular among likely general election voters in a House district described by strategists as “pivotal” to both parties’ efforts to win the Great Lakes State’s electoral votes and open Senate race.
When respondents were asked “do you support or oppose the federal government requiring all citizens who operate motor vehicles to purchase electric vehicles,” only 1 percent “strongly support” such a move, and 7 percent would “somewhat support it.” In contrast, 8 percent “somewhat oppose” it, and 77 percent “strongly oppose it.” The poll’s margin of error is 4.9 percent, suggesting that support for the policy could actually be as low as 3 percent.
Click HERE to read more about how the Biden-Harris EV policies are jeopardizing elections across Michigan for Democrats.
By: Matthew Foldi
A group of Senate Republicans walk into a lunch, and decide to publish a book together. What sounds like the introduction to a joke turned serious when Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) and nine of her colleagues authored a new book, We Do Not Consent, which debuted earlier today.
Lummis’s book is about pushing back on a broad swath of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies, which she said in an interview with the Washington Reporter are both “bad for the country, and they’re outside the realm of the statutory design of the Founding Fathers, where the Congress legislates, the executive branch implements, and the judiciary interprets.”
“It’s going to be a national bestseller,” Lummis said. “We’re going to sell out. We might have to publish another round of books because it’s going to be such a significant bestseller that everyone will want to read.”
All proceeds from We Do Not Consent will be donated to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), “because we wanted to push back against a Biden or a Harris presidency,” Lummis said. She ran the idea by Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.), who chairs the committee — and not only did he green light the idea, but he green-lighted the NRSC to sell the book on its website.
Click HERE to read more about why Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) and her Senate GOP colleagues decided to become published authors — and buy your copy here today.
By: Matthew Foldi
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.), one of the top contenders to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next Congress, introduced a provision on Wednesday to overturn a recent “nonsensical” decision taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which would punish companies that provably lower their emissions. His measure was first reported by the Washington Reporter.
Guthrie took aim at the EPA’s controversial “Once In, Always In” policy, which “reinstates unnecessary environmental bureaucracy,” he said. His Congressional Review Act resolution would eliminate the regulation; cosponsors included Republican Reps. John Joyce (Pa.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Randy Weber (Texas), Troy Balderson (Ohio), Dan Crenshaw (Texas), and Greg Pence (Ind.), who are all members of theEnergy and Commerce Committee.
Click HERE to read more about the work Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.) is doing to push back on regulations from the Biden-Harris administration.
By: Matthew Foldi
With only seven weeks to go until Election Day, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is rolling out its latest round of independent expenditure ads, several of which were first previewed by the Washington Reporter.
The most consequential ad of this round is a first-of-its-kind one in Alaska, where Republican nominee Nick Begich did not run an ad during this cycle’s primary. This ad, which is paid for by both the committee and Begich’s campaign, goes after incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D., Alaska) for “voting like she lives in San Francisco, not out here.”
Will Reinert, the NRCC’s national press secretary, told the Reporter that their ads are focusing on the “extreme Democrats [who] locked arms with the radical left to make families’ lives more expensive and less safe,” adding that “Americans cannot afford to double down on Democrats’ dangerous plans for the country.”
Click HERE to watch the latest ads the NRCC is buying from coast to coast.
By: Rep. Buddy Carter
If Vice President Kamala Harris has her way, cancer and chronic disease patients will have to wait decades for their cures — if they come at all — and seniors’ health care will be less affordable than ever before.
In 2023, biopharmaceutical company Seagen ended a promising clinical trial for a potentially life-saving cancer treatment because of federal drug pricing controls in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This drug isn’t the first, and will not be the last, to disappear because of heavy-handed government interference.
Click HERE to read more of Rep. Buddy Carter’s (R., Ga.) prescription for our health care system.
By: Rep. Bob Goodlatte
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering whether to advance two pieces of patent-related legislation. Both will significantly alter the U.S. intellectual property landscape. As standalone proposals, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) and the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act are deeply flawed policies. In combination, they are an even more destructive cocktail that will slow innovation, increase confusion and waste, and drive up costs for businesses and consumers.
Click HERE to read more from Rep. Bob Goodlatte about his concerns with the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) and the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act.
By: Jeff Bartos
In the world of geopolitics, few contrasts are as stark as the one between Vice President Kamala Harris and the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump — especially when it comes to their records on Israel, the Middle East, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The difference in their approaches also underscores a broader divide in American politics.
President Trump’s vision is peace through strength and his policies embrace a robust defense of the national interests of the United States and our allies. Vice President Harris’s vision is a continuation of the Obama and Biden policies of scolding and lecturing our allies and appeasing our adversaries.
Click HERE to read more from Jeff Bartos about the contrasting foreign policies of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
