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“We will never accept political gridlock as our fate.” 2020 Democratic Party Platform Last Saturday the House of Representatives met to pass a bill blocking the reform of our troubled Postal Service, reform which is desperately needed for a failing agency hemorrhaging billions of dollars each year. It was just a political show as the Democrats knew it was going nowhere, although I don’t know who in America wasted their Saturday afternoon to bother watching another display of blathering hypocrisy. Mark Meadows, President Trump’s Chief of Staf...
Apparently, I and the rest of the House of Representatives are being called back to Washington for a series of votes this Saturday. Has Speaker Pelosi finally reached an agreement with President Trump and Senator McConnell on the next phase of coronavirus legislation? No, her intransigence killed those negotiations and President Trump was left having to take unilateral action in executive orders issued last week. Has she reached an agreement on funding the government for the next fiscal year which starts in six weeks? No, there are no talks...
On August 18, the U.S. will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to our Constitution which guaranteed women’s right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement in our country began in the 1840s as women abolitionists saw the parallels between the effort to free enslaved Americans and their own desire to vote. A convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 which produced an organized group led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, among others. The two movements worked together until wom...
Last week I had a virtual conference with the leaders of the local school systems in our district. Starting a new school year is a difficult task in the best of times. Doing so in the middle of a pandemic with the disease spreading as it is now makes this normally difficult job truly daunting. I greatly appreciate what these leaders and their staffs are going through. Over $500 million of the CARES Act money Congress sent to Alabama will be used to help schools deal with COVID-19, and the purpose of our call was to bring them up to speed on...
The day I was sworn into Congress, a man I had never met before but had heard a lot about and admired approached me to introduce himself and welcome me to the House. His name was John Lewis. He told me he was born and raised in Troy, Alabama, and though he lived and represented a district in Georgia, he still felt a strong connection to our state. He offered to help me if he could. He was a big help to me because he was a moral inspiration, a priceless gift in this day and time. If you have never heard of John Lewis, look him up. His story is...
When the House returns to business next Monday, we will take up the National Defense Authorization Act I wrote about last week. Then we will take up appropriations bills for next fiscal year, which begins October 1, and likely another Coronavirus bill. This spring I voted for both of the CARES Acts, which together spent $3 trillion. That was on top of this year’s projected total federal spending of $4.8 trillion, which was already going to add $1 trillion to our national debt. With the CARES Act spending, however, the total deficit for this f...
Last week, the House Armed Services Committee, which I’m proud to be a member of, passed and sent to the full House the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. This is the 60th year in a row that we have passed this act out of Committee, and since we passed it unanimously, we are optimistic it will pass the full House later this month. This year’s version is named after a longtime member of the Committee and former Chairman, Mac Thornberry of Texas. Mac led the charge to increase defense funding whe...
This weekend America will celebrate its 244th birthday. Unfortunately, we do so in a time of a pandemic, a struggling economy, and violent protests. But, it’s still our birthday and we should both commemorate and celebrate it. We usually do a good job in our celebration, although this year will be different since social distancing means we’ll be in smaller groups and public fireworks displays have been cancelled. I suspect most of us will find a way to gather with family and close friends to cook out and show the red, white, and blue. But, a c...
Our brilliant Founders built our democracy upon two different but complimentary pillars. The first and more obvious pillar is our constitutional system itself, what the writers of the Federalist Papers called the “new science of politics.” Our representative democracy would not be possible without our revolutionary constitution and the laws that uphold it, separation and enumeration of powers, and effective checks and balances. The second pillar is more difficult to define but just as essential – nationally shared values and a common morality....
These last few weeks have riveted the country’s attention on police brutality. The murder of George Floyd was an atrocity, and unfortunately it’s not the first one. As we have so often in our history, it’s time for America to respond with appropriate and reasonable reform. It’s not time to lose our heads, however. The “defund the police” movement is not the answer. My colleagues Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, all members of the Congres...
First it was the public health experts whose projections were wrong about COVID-19. They predicted far more spread of the disease, and death from it, than we have actually experienced. They also predicted that those states which opened up before others would have a widespread breakout and a spike of hospitalization, and that hasn’t happened either. Then, on Friday, the unemployment numbers for May were released by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists predicted that the report would show another 7 million people lost their jobs i...
I was a young teenager in the late 1960s, but I remember the riots and violence that occurred around the country, and especially in the large cities. I was concerned that we were headed down that road again with racial violence around the country in the summer of 2016, President Obama’s last year in office. Over the previous several years we had become an extremely divided country, a clear failure of our national leaders. That seemed ironic inasmuch as President Obama’s election eight years earlier was supposed to have ushered in a new gol...
This year, during the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Memorial Day provided an even more unique opportunity to reflect upon what makes our nation great and the shared values we hold as a people. Though our celebrations may have been scaled down, the greatness of our country is, in many ways, more apparent in challenging times like these. The struggles we are going through together as a nation are real and impactful. The coronavirus overwhelmingly targets seniors and those with preexisting conditions. As a result, nursing homes and long-term...
Last Friday the House of Representatives took a truly unprecedented step. The Democrat majority voted to change our rules and allow members to vote online in committee action on bills, and to vote by proxy on passage of bills and resolutions. That’s right, members of Congress can now vote from the comfort of our homes and not set a foot in Washington. We no longer have to show up for work, like millions of Americans do every day, even during this pandemic. Article One, Section 5 of the Constitution clearly requires a majority of members to b...
Last week Governor Ivey issued orders allowing Alabama’s restaurants, hair salons, barbers, and other personal service businesses to reopen Monday under social distancing guidelines. This is an important step towards safely reopening our state’s economy and ending extreme measures put in place to flatten the curve and limit the spread of the virus. While Alabama – and our district – continue to see cases and sadly some deaths, we have been successful in preventing our hospitals and ICU units from being overwhelmed by Covid-19 cases—the original...
Closing down the American economy has a real and enormous effect on the lives of countless Americans. Layoffs and job losses are devastating for individuals, families, and communities. In good times, it generally takes three to six months for someone to find a job after a layoff. Of course, these are not good times. Moreover, closures and layoffs go deeper than this. Large unemployment numbers can also make it much harder for areas to move into economic recovery when a crisis is over. Certainly, the government’s coronavirus response has not b...
Alabama reached and passed the peak of COVID-19 new cases during the week of April 12. As I have written previously, this doesn’t mean we haven’t seen new cases since then because we have. Nor does it mean we won’t see new cases in the future because we will. It does mean that the number of new cases per day is beginning to gradually come down. This is the flattening of the curve you have heard so much about. We have been successful in achieving what we set out to do with state-ordered extreme social distancing. Indeed, we have avoided the w...
Passover and Easter came and went with all of us still in extreme social distancing. There were online Seders. Many of us missed being in church on Easter Day for the first time in our lives. Easter egg hunts and parties were cancelled, and parents conducted their own hunts with just their children. The big Easter brunches and dinners which have been the tradition for so many were forgone, postponed, or just very small. And too many of us were literally alone, all alone. The experts tell us our peak for the disease in Alabama is about a week...
Like many of you I “attended” Palm Sunday worship online. It was strange not to be there at St. James Fairhope physically for the Liturgy of the Palms to gather outside for prayers and walk into the church together with our palms singing “All Glory, Laud and Honor.” I heard the words of the Passion according to St. Matthew but wasn’t there to see the faces and expressions of the readers. We said prayers for those afflicted by the disease and those caring for them. We also said the right words for the Offering, the Eucharist, and the Peace, but...
In Genesis 2, God says “It is not good that the man should be alone.” He made us for Himself, but he also made us for one another. Separation is painful for us all. This fight against the coronavirus called COVID-19 is hard. We are forced to separate from one another. Our economy is sorely wounded. Worse, our neighbors are infected with this disease, some fighting for their lives, some tragically losing that fight. We are better, stronger than this disease. All of us have a role to play, to responsibly social distance from one another, to pra...
As the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to change the way we live our daily lives, its important to take note of the ways this challenging time has brought our communities together. It has been reassuring to see stories of neighbors helping neighbors in communities in Southwest Alabama and beyond. As we continue to treat this unprecedented challenge with the seriousness it deserves, let’s not forget to help our neighbors as best we can. Whether dropping off supplies to senior citizens or supporting local businesses, we all can do something for o...
I wanted to update you on the latest COVID-19 coronavirus developments. While the situation remains serious, the risk to most Americans remains low. It is important that we stay calm and do not panic unnecessarily. The federal government continues its aggressive response to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, secure access to testing for those who need it, and ensure those who have contracted the disease receive the treatment they need. Vice President Pence and his coronavirus response team have been outstanding and have held regular press c...
Although the COVID-19 coronavirus is dominating the news, it’s important to know the facts about the virus and the ongoing work to prevent its spread. I’d also like to dispel some misinformation regarding your government’s actions to fight it. Despite what some fearmongers have said, the federal government has been preparing for a public health challenge such as this. In fact, according to the 2019 Global Health Security Index, the United States ranks number one in a “comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related...
I can think of no fight more noble or important than defending unborn children. The Scriptures make clear that God makes every person in his image, so this issue is very near to my heart. I am proud to be a leader in the fight to end abortion. With the election of President Trump, we have never been closer. Just last week, two very important pro-life bills received a majority vote in the Senate! The first was the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act. This bill is common sense. It just requires abortionists to provide the same medical care to a...
The Second Amendment is under attack like never before in our nation’s history, but I am leading the fight to preserve your constitutional rights. Last year, just weeks after taking power, House Democrats passed a bill to limit the constitutional right to own guns. Their misguided legislation would do nothing to address the underlying problem behind actions of mass violence. That bill, H.R. 8, would prevent lawful gun owners from selling their guns to other law-abiding Americans. If that bill became law, anytime a gun owner like me wanted to t...
