Rep. Kat Cammack lays out her app store fix, Tim Scott rebukes the EU’s sustainability measures, and more
An Independent Senate candidate’s ties to Democrats run deep, Rep. French Hill takes on excessive regulations, and more!
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December 12th, 2025
Let’s dive in.
INTERVIEW: Rep. Kat Cammack pitches her App Store Freedom Act
Heard on the Hill
EDITORIAL: Republicans should focus on our wins, not waste time on the Democrats’ best issue
EXCLUSIVE: Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott rebukes the EU’s sustainability mandates
EXCLUSIVE: Washington Reporter launches new feature: Off the Hill Leaders
EXCLUSIVE: Dan Osborn’s extensive ties to Democrats grow, complicating independent Senate bid
SCOOP: RNC blasts The Bulwark for “actively laundering DNC talking points and calling it news”
SCOOP: Chairman French Hill on how the European Union’s “CSDD undermines U.S. jurisdictional sovereignty”
OPINIONATED: Marisela Ramirez on how President Trump saved the Kennedy Center
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INTERVIEW: Rep. Kat Cammack pitches her App Store Freedom Act
by Matthew Foldi
Rep. Kat Cammack (R., Fla.) is ending 2025 leading one of Congress’s final legislative fights — over if and to what extent Congress should regulate app stores.
Cammack, a new mother, spoke with the Washington Reporter about her App Store Freedom Act, which she bills as legislation needed to tackle a “monopoly” between Apple and Google, whose App Store and Google Play store control app access for most Americans.
“Basically everybody is living on their phones today, and if I want to download an app store, I buy the phone, and I can’t delete certain apps,” she said. “One of the most frustrating things is when you get a brand new iPhone, which I just did, and you go to try to delete certain apps because you prefer this company over another. You can’t! If I want to download a Kindle book, I have to go to the browser because I can’t make the purchase through the app. You start asking questions like why is this? That sets you down this path of fact finding. And then you start uncovering layer after layer after layer.”
“First thing you realize,” she added, “is I really can’t put the apps that I want on my phone because they’re direct competitors to an Apple product; that’s annoying, but it’s not the end of the world. You can’t manage your subscriptions in certain apps because this company isn’t willing to pay the 30 percent tax to Apple, and so you gotta go on a desktop. Then you start digging into the reasons why all this exists. And then you hear the first thing, which is that it’s a security thing. They can spare me on any security argument, because when you, as a company, are hosting Chinese military-developed VPNs, 60 plus of them, on your platform, in your app store, and you continue to let them exist, you can’t sit there and say that you’re doing this for security purposes.”
Heard on the Hill
YOU’RE INVITED: The Washington Reporter is excited to partner once again with Americans for Tax Reform for our Christmas party. We will host it next Tuesday; RSVP here — we guarantee you it will sell out quickly!
HUD REPORT RELEASED: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a report which found that “between 2021 and 2024, the foreign-born population in our country increased by six million people – the largest such influx over such a short period in American history. We cannot forego the thought that because a record number of illegal aliens came to our country under Biden, prices have risen and supply has been squeezed. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working very hard to help bring down costs and raise supply,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner explained.
NEW YORK ON NOTICE: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a bombshell finding, that over 50 percent of New York’s non-domiciled trucking licenses were issued illegally. The Washington Reporter was on site and spoke with Duffy about his move; his department is moving to withhold $73 million in federal funding if New York fails to follow the law and revoke every illegally issued license. Stay tuned for further coverage!
OPEN BANKING HAPPY HOUR: Save our States is hosting a happy hour on Monday at Hawk N Dove on Monday from 6-8 about open banking. Washington Reporter readers are invited!
CCP CARS: The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party held a hearing on Thursday on the threat of China dominating the automotive market, a topic the Washington Reporter has covered. Hill sources tell us to expect more of a focus on this in 2026. China expert Jeremy Hunt from Veterans on Duty and the Hudson Institute published a piece urging action that made the rounds on the Hill.
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EDITORIAL: Republicans should focus on our wins, not waste time on the Democrats’ best issue
by the Washington Reporter
Republicans in Congress should focus on our substantial wins for the American people, instead of falling into Democrats’ trap by making healthcare a prominent issue leading into the 2026 midterms.
Every Republican who has been around politics has seen the polling showing that healthcare as an issue is popular for the Democrats and unpopular for Republicans. This is not new.
But now Republicans in the House and Senate are concluding that, because we are seeing alarming polls about healthcare, Republicans should introduce sweeping healthcare legislation to remake the system.
There are legitimate concerns about premium spikes for a small group of Americans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. These increases are by big insurers — some of which are top Democrat donors — and a broken system designed to fail.
However, as senior Republican operatives and as former Hill staffers, our advice is simple: do not interpret weak polling as a mandate to introduce sweeping healthcare legislation. The instinct to respond is understandable. It is also politically dangerous.
EXCLUSIVE: Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott rebukes the EU’s sustainability mandates
by Holly Spear
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) is urging U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and the Trump administration to take a hard line against sweeping European Union (EU) “sustainability” mandates that Republicans say amount to backdoor regulation of American businesses by foreign bureaucrats.
“Europe’s latest sustainability mandates may be drafted in Brussels, but they land on Main Street in South Carolina and across America,” Scott said. “When the EU’s ideologically driven regulatory experiments reach our supply chains and impose requirements on our businesses, that’s a direct challenge to American workers and our sovereignty. That’s why the EU should indefinitely pause these rules, to prevent burdensome foreign regulations from being imposed on American businesses.”
In a letter, Scott called on the administration to push the EU to indefinitely pause its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), warning that the rules operate as non-tariff trade barriers that undermine U.S. economic competitiveness and national sovereignty.
SPECIAL EDITION: Washington Reporter launches new feature: Off the Hill Leaders
by the Washington Reporter
The Washington Reporter has launched Off the Hill Leaders, a recurring feature spotlighting former Capitol Hill staffers who now hold senior roles in advocacy and public affairs.
Each profile will examine the leader’s trajectory from the Hill to the private sector and the policy work they are focused on today, as well as practical advice they offer to current Hill aides.
Off the Hill Leaders will include an interview between the featured executive and the Reporter team and will cover pressing policy issues.
EXCLUSIVE: Dan Osborn’s extensive ties to Democrats grow, complicating independent Senate bid
by Matthew Foldi
Nebraska’s Dan Osborn is mounting an independent campaign for Senate after losing a close bid in 2024.
During Osborn’s recent failed campaign, Republicans compared him to national Democrats, as the Washington Reporter repeatedly covered during the campaign. But Osborn’s ties to Democrats from across the country go further than when a Bernie Sanders supporter helped launch “Conservatives for Dan [Osborn]” and he hired an anti-cop staffer who attended an anti-police rally that featured severed pig heads.
Osborn’s wife is being paid by both Osborn’s campaign and by that of a Democratic Senate candidate in Iowa, campaign finance records obtained by the Reporter show. Osborn’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
FEC records show that Nathan Sage, a Democrat running for Senate in Iowa, paid Osborn’s wife’s company over $10,000. Republicans are using the finance revelations to tie Dan Osborn to Democrats from across the country.
SCOOP: RNC blasts The Bulwark for “actively laundering DNC talking points and calling it news”
by Matthew Foldi
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is pushing back against the Bulwark, claiming that it selectively quoted the GOP’s chairman, Joe Gruters.
“The Bulwark is actively laundering DNC talking points and calling it news,” Kiersten Pels, the GOP’s national press secretary, told the Washington Reporter. “They did not reach out for comment and instead manipulated a transcript to remove the line: ‘I like our chances in the midterms’ in order to orchestrate this sloppy hit piece against Chairman Gruters.”
At issue is a story in the Bulwark which quoted Gruters as saying “we are facing almost certain defeat” in 2026. While Gruters said that, the Bulwark piece omits the critical context that Gruters said that, thanks to President Donald Trump, he “like[s]” his party’s chances next year.
Pels added that “the Bulwark is nothing more than a bunch of shameless hacks pretending to be journalists. The Bulwark is laundering false smears on behalf of the DNC by deliberately lying about Chairman Joe Gruters’ remarks.”
SCOOP: Chairman French Hill on how the European Union’s “CSDD undermines U.S. jurisdictional sovereignty”
by Holly Spear
House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R., Ark.) is urging the Trump administration to push back against sweeping European Union (EU) “sustainability” mandates that he warns would impose foreign regulatory control over American businesses.
Hill called for an indefinite pause to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, arguing that they function as non-tariff trade barriers that threaten U.S. competitiveness and sovereignty.
Hill said the directives’ expansive reporting demands, requiring companies to compile more than 1,200 environmental, climate, and social data points, would drive up compliance costs for thousands of American firms, including private companies with only limited European operations. Industry leaders share those concerns.
The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Charles Crain previously told the Reporter the rules “would impose new compliance costs throughout U.S. supply chains,” potentially totaling up to $1 trillion.
OPINIONATED
Op-Ed: Marisela Ramirez: As America’s Contractor in Chief, President Trump saved the Kennedy Center
by Marisela Ramirez
Back in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term, the COVID pandemic shook the world and Washington D.C. to their core. The arts and cultural heritage sectors took a brunt of the impact as restaurants and live performance venues were forced to shut their doors.
During the pandemic, I would frequently pace along the scenic Potomac River walkway in Georgetown and make a pit-stop at the Kennedy Center’s REACH building; its doors were open and its bathrooms were scarce. At that time, the REACH had just opened and served as the perfect outdoor space for performances when the 6-feet rule disrupted societal norms like sitting side-by-side inside a theater.
Upon entering the Kennedy Center, the grand marble halls were empty but the air of reverence remained as dust collected on the infamous red carpets. The venue endured COVID slowly decaying, as anything beautiful does when it’s neglected.
