Highs and Lows: Funding Law Enforcement

After another busy week in Washington, it’s time to share my highs and lows! My high was participating in several important hearings for the committees I sit on. Here’s a snapshot of what we covered: Foreign Relations : I had the chance to discuss several important national security priorities with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, including how we can best address the CCP’s growing influence around the world. Commerce : We held a hearing on the future of college athletics, where I had the chance to have a bit of banter with the University of Utah football player Lance Holtzclaw and discussed frameworks to help student athletes navigate NIL issues. Environment and Public Works : We talked about how the federal government should consider the rapid growth in states like Utah when allocating resources for infrastructure projects. My low was some of the dysfunction and political games we went through to pass a bill to finally fund our federal law enforcement agencies. To do it, we had to use a process called reconciliation, because unfortunately we couldn’t get enough Democratic support to fund these agencies. Reconciliation is only available for legislation related to the budget, and is unique because it can pass by a simple majority vote. In this case, we didn’t need any Democrats in order to pass the bill, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make the process painful. Senate procedure allows the minority party to put forward numerous amendments to force difficult votes in what we call a “vote-a-rama,” which usually stretches well into the night. This instance was no different, but at least we finally got DHS the funding it needs. I hope you have a great weekend. Read Newsletter