Spectator NZ

Source: United States Senator for New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen

December 14, 2022

(Washington, DC) — U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) helped introduce bipartisan legislation to help families afford cost-reducing, sustainable residential home heating technologies. The BTU Tax Credit Expansion Act incentivizes the purchase of these innovative heating sources by increasing the maximum rebate for biomass stoves and boilers from $2,000 to $8,000. Once purchased, the stoves’ yearly fuel and maintenance costs are significantly lower than other heating options.

“With energy costs straining family budgets this winter, I’m glad to support this bipartisan legislation to help make residential home heating technologies like highly efficient wood boilers, stoves and heaters more affordable,” said Shaheen. “Investing in these cost-effective heating options not only lowers energy bills for Granite State families but also benefits the environment by reducing fossil fuel emissions. I’ll continue working in the Senate to support better utilization of natural resources to meet our energy needs, cut costs for Granite Staters and combat the climate crisis.”

“High home-heating costs are hurting Granite Staters this winter, and we must keep working together to lower energy costs in New Hampshire,” said Hassan. “That’s why I’m helping introduce this bill that leverages new, innovative home heating technologies to help Granite Staters save money, and I will continue working to help lower costs across the board.”

The bill was introduced by Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and cosponsored by Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Senator Shaheen is a leading policymaker on energy efficiency priorities. From her landmark bipartisan legislation to address energy efficiency building codes with Senator Portman (R-OH) to her leadership as a negotiator of the bipartisan infrastructure law and her consistent advocacy to include robust funding for important federal programs in annual government funding legislation, Senator Shaheen has secured significant investments in the energy efficiency sector over the years. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Shaheen has consistently secured federal funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to assist low-income households and seniors on fixed incomes pay their energy bills and stay safe during the winter. Earlier this year, Shaheen joined a bipartisan coalition of senators in a push urging for the swift release of LIHEAP funds. Shaheen also champions the Weatherization Assistance Program and other energy efficiency measures to help Granite Staters keep their energy usage down and lower their monthly bills. She authored an op-ed for the Union Leader, reminding Granite Staters of the resources and opportunities available to help reduce energy costs at home by making important energy efficiency modifications. The op-ed can be read in full here.

Senator Hassan is working across the aisle to bring down energy costs for Granite Staters. During negotiations on the government funding legislation from September, Senator Hassan worked closely with her Democratic and Republican colleagues to successfully secure additional direct heating assistance for families. Senator Hassan also led the New England delegation in calling on President Biden to lower energy costs by releasing oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve. Senator Hassan successfully included in the Inflation Reduction Act her measure with Susan Collins (R-ME) to help lower energy costs for families and reduce carbon emissions by expanding and extending a tax credit for energy efficient home upgrades.

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Source: United States Senator for Vermont Patrick Leahy

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Source: United States Senator for Arkansas Tom Cotton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353
December 13, 2022

Cotton, Van Hollen, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Cut Huawei and Chinese 5G Companies off from U.S. Banks 

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced a bill with Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) to severely sanction Chinese technology company Huawei and other untrustworthy Chinese 5G producers who engage in economic espionage against the United States. This bill would add these entities to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, which would effectively freeze them from accessing the U.S. financial system. Congressman Mike Gallagher (WI-08) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In October, the Department of Justice charged two Chinese intelligence officials for collaborating with Huawei to obstruct the federal government’s investigation of the company. The FBI also recently revealed that Huawei gear was found in cell towers near several U.S. nuclear missile bases and that signals from these towers could interfere with the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Bill text is here.

“We’ve made great strides in recent years at home and abroad in combatting Huawei’s malign attempts to dominate 5G and steal Americans’ data. However, the fight is not finished. Huawei is an arm of Chinese intelligence. We cannot allow Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Americans’ personal data and our country’s most sensitive defense systems. We must address the dire threat these Chinese companies pose to our national security,” said Sen. Cotton.

“Foreign companies that spy on the U.S. and violate our laws should face severe consequences. Huawei is a repeat offender. This bipartisan bill will bolster our national defenses by further sanctioning Huawei and other similar bad actors seeking to undermine our security,” said Sen. Van Hollen.

“I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing the NETWORKS Act which will implement strict sanctions on companies like Huawei that spy on Americans and put our national security at risk. I’ve been very clear about the threat we face from technology companies controlled by Communist China and other enemies that are known for espionage and theft of American technology. For too long, the United States has allowed one of our biggest adversaries into the most sensitive areas of our lives, but that must end. We must pass the NETWORKS Act immediately and hold these companies accountable,” said Sen. Scott.

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Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

Washington (December 13, 2022) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), author of the Opioid Treatment Access Act, issued the following statement today after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update opioid use disorder treatment policies to break down barriers and support Americans on their path to recovery. This proposal would expand access to treatment for Americans with opioid use disorder by creating additional flexibilities for Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) to give people take home doses of methadone medication, provide services through mobile units and telehealth services, and allow more practitioners within OTPs to prescribe the medication. The proposal is also consistent with the Senator’s oversight and legislative efforts to increase access to affective treatments and combat the nation’s opioid epidemic, included as key provisions within his Opioid Treatment Access Act.

“We are in an overdose crisis, and today’s announcement from SAMHSA is an important step on our nation’s road to recovery. I commend HHS and SAMHSA for taking this critical step toward expanding treatment for the many Americans who live with opioid use disorder and who deserve accessible medical care. This proposed change in federal rules would save countless lives by heeding the advice of medical providers and breaking down needless barriers to treatment.

“But Congress must do more. For many, the passage of the Opioid Treatment Access Act is the difference between life and death. This legislation will enable SAMHSA to do even more to reduce barriers, cut costs, and save lives. Opioid misuse impacts Americans from every background, every political party, in every state across the country, so I am calling on every one of my colleagues in Congress to step up and pass this bill to prevent overdoses and allow doctors to use their expertise in prescribing methadone to be picked up at a pharmacy.”

Introduced by Senators Markey and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Representative Donald Norcross (NJ-01), the Opioid Treatment Access Act would modernize and improve the process of obtaining methadone for opioid use disorder treatment by building on SAMHSA’s COVID-19 exemptions that allow patients to receive longer take-home supplies of methadone, allowing physicians outside of OTPs to prescribe methadone, allowing pharmacies to dispense methadone to OTP patients, rather than requiring patients to travel to clinics, and codifying regulations that allow OTPs to operate mobile medication components without separate DEA registrations. This legislation would go beyond the proposed rules by allowing physicians specialized in addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry to prescribe methadone for opioid use disorder that could be picked up at a pharmacy.

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Source: United States Senator for Texas John Cornyn

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) met today with Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) President Russell Boening to discuss the organization’s priorities for the 118^th Congress including the farm bill, disaster assistance, trade, labor, and other issues important to Texas agriculture. See photo attached and below.

This image is in the public domain, but those wishing to do so may credit the Office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.

Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Lankford

12.13.22

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on Rumble. 

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today stood up for Oklahoma’s parents and students and pushed his colleagues to support a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) for a new rule that penalizes some public schools over others because they are considered public charter schools.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education announced new rules overhauling the 28-year-old, bipartisan Charter School Program (CSP). The changes would place federal, one-size-fits-all requirements on charter schools, making it difficult—if not impossible—for many of these high-quality public schools to receive funding. Despite substantial bipartisan backlash, the administration is moving ahead with its plans, which will strip families of education choice and give more power to big labor unions and bureaucrats in DC. Lankford joined Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and 20 colleagues in introducing Congressional Review Act (CRA) legislation to nullify the Biden Administration’s new rules adding burdensome requirements to charter schools seeking funding.

Lankford remains a strong school-choice and parental rights advocate that puts parents at the helm of their kids’ education. When these new rules were under consideration, he urged the Department of Education to reconsider proposed rules redefining the Charter School Program. He stood firmly for parental rights and school choice when he called for the Senate to immediately pass his resolution to support parents having the freedom to choose the best educational environment for their kids and remain in control of whether or not they want their children exposed to “woke” ideologies at school, including Critical Race Theory and others. Democrats blocked the Senate from unanimously standing up for American parents. Lankford introduced the resolution to recognize the need to stand up for parents’ choices in their children’s education during National School Choice Week earlier this year. 

Lankford introduced a resolution supporting parents’ rights after the Biden Administration politicized and weaponized the Justice Department by threatening to use federal law enforcement resources to intimidate and silence parents who speak out to protect their children from harmful curricula like Critical Race Theory being pushed by Biden and the far left. Lankford joined his colleagues to send a letter demanding answers from US Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on reports that he played a key role in orchestrating a letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) that called concerned parents “domestic terrorists.” Lankford led a letter to the Department of Justice demanding that the Attorney General rescind the memorandum that weaponized federal law enforcement against concerned parents.

Transcrip 

I want to tell a little bit of a story. There’s some great schools and great teachers in Oklahoma. They do an incredible job, and they serve our families every day, doing remarkable work walking alongside so many kids that struggle in their educational environment, that struggle to be able to learn, but that excel. And I’m grateful to these teachers across our state.

Those teachers that are in our public schools, both our public traditional schools and our public charter schools, deserve to be applauded and encouraged for the work they do every day, and I’m proud to know many of them as friends and as neighbors.

But what’s interesting to me right now is there’s a push that’s happening from the Biden Administration to divide teachers. Teachers that are in public school education, that there are some that are like the good public school teachers and there are apparently some that you’re the bad teachers. It’s not based on the ratings for their students or the quality, it’s about which public school they choose to serve in. 

You see the Biden Administration has put out a new policy to try to crush public charter schools 

How are they doing it? They’re saying if there are open desks in other public schools, then the public charter school can’t prove a need for them to exist at all, and they want to just be able to wipe them out.

Stop. Let me just set this in context for you. In Oklahoma there’s a school called Harding Charter Preparatory High School. Make you wouldn’t know it but US News & world report, they know it. US News & world report, they actually rank—we have 18,000 schools in America. They rank the 18,000 schools in America, and US News & world report ranked Harding Charter Preparatory School in Oklahoma City 115th out of 18,000 schools. 

In fact, in Oklahoma Harding Charter Preparatory High School was ranked number one. Number one school in the state is this public charter school. Now, it happens to be in an area where there are open desks in other schools around it. So it won’t meet the need requirement that the Biden Administration is putting out to say you can’t prove a need for your existence.

So the number one school in our state could be wiped out because those public school teachers are teaching at the ‘wrong’ public school.

What else can I tell you about Harding? Harding, 100 percent of the students at Harding school go to AP classes—100 percent of them. What else can I tell you about Harding? Seventy-two percent of the students at Harding Preparatory School are minorities—72 percent. And it’s the number-one school in our state 

What’s different about a public charter school and a traditional public school? Well, the rules for the kids are exactly the same. Same testing requirements, same state requirements, same federal requirements for the kids. The rules are exactly the same for the kids. But they are different for the grownups. The grownups have a different set of rules. They have a different set of accountability in the charter schools.

And what’s the result that they’re getting? The number one school in our state is a charter school. The 115th school in the country is this charter school. Yet now the Biden Administration is saying you’re going to have to prove a need for it. 

Can I tell you, the parents and families in Oklahoma have already proven a need for it. 

I got an e-mail in from one of those students who said I was not getting access to these AP classes in the public school they were in before. They had no shot of really getting into the change they wanted to be able to get into until they got into Harding Charter Preparatory school, a public charter school. And now they’ve got a shot.

I have to tell you I don’t understand the battle with choice that’s happening with parents in the country. I don’t understand. Why suddenly so many government officials want to be able to say to parents you go to that school, the school we choose. You can’t move. You’ve got to stay right there, why that is suddenly the trend in America. This growing push across our country for public charter schools, for parents to be more involved in their child’s education, for parents to have new options in education, for parents to be able to have a choice and some freedom, why is that so bad, That so many kids get a shot?

Can I tell you, I have two daughters. They’re not the same. They have different preferences. They have different ideas. They’re both beautiful and amazing girls. But for some reason the folks in the Biden Administration and the Education Department are saying all kids are the same. And we’re going to require them to do it the way we want all kids to do it rather than allowing parents like me and parents like others to be able to say this child’s best education environment is in that location in that public school or another child has a better educational environment in a different charter public school 

And don’t lose track of this. They’re both public schools. They both have requirements for the students exactly the same. But the rules for the grownups are different. And some in the teachers union do not like that. So this plan is to shut down this type of school like Harding.

I say, let’s stand with those parents and with those students. With that charter school and a multitude of others across my state where parents are engaged in their child’s education and administrators in those schools have to work twice as hard because they don’t get the same level of funding as other public schools.

Let’s support them, not try to diminish them.

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Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released a highlight video of his three-hour roundtable discussion, COVID-19 Vaccines: What they Are, How They Work, and Possible Causes of Injuries, with experts and medical professionals to shed light on the current state of knowledge surrounding the vaccine and explore the path forward. The 30-minute video features the most important discoveries shared by the experts and emphasizes the failed pandemic response.

Watch the recap video here.

Read more about the roundtable and Sen. Ron Johnson’s advocacy for the vaccine injured, early treatment and healthcare freedom here.

Watch the entire, three-hour discussion here.

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