Contributed photo
Contributed photo
Time to kick off the week! Here’s what you need to know from last week:
Military Family Month
November is Military Family Month.
I began my military career straight out of college back in ’81 where I commissioned as a lieutenant into the Armor Branch. I served for 27 years in the Army Reserve and I served in a number of assignments including Battalion Commander. Serving in the Army Reserve gave me a unique perspective into the military experience, a perspective that involved military families.
When troops from Wisconsin were sent into battle, I was responsible for helping the families left behind with various hardships, both logistically and emotionally, that come along with deployments. This allowed me to understand in a meaningful way the trials and tribulations military families encounter and work through. It’s an experience that has stuck with me beyond my career in the military and it is why I decided to join the Military Family Caucus here in Congress so I could keep a pulse on this important facet of the military experience.
I know how important it is to support the families of those who serve. They sacrifice a great deal, so I invite everyone to join me in recognizing their strength and resilience.
Meet and Greet with Service Academy Applicants
Over the weekend, the Service Academy Selection Process began with 16 outstanding applicants in Wisconsin's Fifth Congressional District.
I had an opportunity to meet with some of the applicants to learn more about them and thank them for taking an enormous step in their journey to serve our country. The Service Academy is an application process like no other, so to make it this far in the process is an accomplishment in and of itself for these young men and women.
No matter the outcome of this process, I know each and every one of the applicants will go on to serve this great country in some capacity. I was glad to learn more about them and it's clear to me they all have a lot to be proud of!
Democrats’ Out-of-Control Spending
Speaker Pelosi and her party are in disarray yet again. After trying to rally her party together for weeks and spending the entire day last Friday strong-arming her caucus, Democrats voted to take the first step in passing their multi-trillion-dollar budget reconciliation and passed their partisan infrastructure bill—which spends only a fraction of funds on fixing roads, bridges, and major projects that the American people generally consider infrastructure.
Members of Congress received over 2,000 pages of legislative text for the multi-trillion-dollar budget reconciliation less than 48 hours before being forced to take a vote. There is no Congressional Budget Office estimate to indicate the cost of this legislation, making it impossible to know exactly how much money this will cost taxpayers. Speaker Pelosi advocated for her caucus to pass the bill before they could even find out what’s all in it.
It is unconscionable how little regard Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have for taxpayer dollars. If we thought inflation was bad now, then we better buckle up because it’s about to get a lot worse. The Democrat party needs to reign in their out-of-control spending, the American people cannot afford the debt of their Big Government, socialist agenda.
WATCH
Click here to watch my remarks on the House floor about President Biden and Democrats' plan to nationalize and radicalize our nation’s education system in the multi-trillion-dollar budget reconciliation plan.
Click here to watch me speak on the House floor about the severe challenges and costs Main Street will incur under the Democrats' multi-trillion-dollar budget reconciliation. This includes an increase in local business taxes and regulations, and a reduced workforce.
Cosponsored a Bill to Halt $1 Billion Payout for Illegal Immigrants
If you follow my weekly eNewsletter, then you already know that a couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal exposed the Biden Administration’s plan to handout as much as $1 billion to illegal immigrants who broke our laws and crossed into the country illegally.
In response to these reports, I joined over 140 of my Republican colleagues to introduce the Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act of 2021. This bill would stop the Biden Administration’s plan by preventing the Attorney General from making settlement payments to individuals and families who entered the United States illegally.
This plan is insane. Rewarding those who break our laws with a $1 billion payout lacks as much logic as it does sensitivity to the needs of the American people. I cannot comprehend how President Biden could weigh this as an option or consider this a sound idea.
For context, this payout would give illegal immigrants more money than gold star families and some families of 9/11 victims. This is an insult to hardworking, taxpaying Americans and the plan must be stopped dead in its tracks.
Taking Action to Address Trucking Industry Shortage
Americans depend on the trucking industry to get things where they need to be, but we desperately need more drivers. In an effort to improve the truck driver shortage, I joined 85 of my colleagues in a bipartisan letter sent to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Buttigieg urging a reimplementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Under-21 Commercial Driver Pilot Program. The trucking industry is short nearly 80,000 drivers, and this Trump-era pilot program has been stalled by the Biden DOT for nearly a year amid ongoing supply chain delays.
The Biden Administration must tear down the red tape and expand the age eligibility to become a truck driver.
Read the full letter here.
That’s a wrap for this week’s eNewsletter! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on my work for the 5th District of Wisconsin.
Sincerely,
Scott Fitzgerald
Member of Congress
1507 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5101 Brookfield District Office
120 Bishop Way #154
Brookfield, WI 53005
Phone: (262) 784-1111
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