2024: The Year in Review
It’s Been an Amazing Year. It’s Closing Time…
We are in the final stretch of the 118th Congress and this is my last newsletter of 2024. I share below some highlights, and a couple of lowlights, from the year.
January - 2024 began with the ominous announcement from the United States Treasury that our national debt topped $34 trillion. To put that into perspective, $34 trillion is roughly the value of the economies of China, Germany, Japan, India and the U.K. combined.
- Secretary Mayorkas lied on Fox News while answering questions from a reporter. One such lie was his so-called “admission” that 70% of illegal aliens are being released into our communities. I called Secretary Mayorkas out on this lie by noting “It’s probably much closer to 100%, if truth were to be told.” Mayorkas was forced to admit that the current rate of release for illegal immigrants apprehended at the southern border is "above 85%."
February
- I voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to uphold and execute our immigration laws and repeatedly lying to Congress and the American people. The vote passed 214-213 and marked the first time in 150 years that a cabinet secretary has been impeached.
March - Hunter Biden appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on which I serve to answer questions regarding his knowledge of Joe Biden’s participation in the Biden Family influence peddling scheme.
April - I sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Education demanding an investigation of the fine levied against Grand Canyon University. Joe Biden has waged an all-out assault on GCU seemingly because it is the largest Christian university in the country further demonstrating his administration’s weaponization of the federal government.
- I voted against legislation reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). I also wrote an Op-Ed expressing my concerns about reauthorizing FISA without significant reform. If you missed it, here it is! I could not vote to support the warrantless surveillance of Americans reauthorized under section 702.
- I signed a bipartisan letter to the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies requesting the inclusion of language ensuring adequate care for veterans suffering from deployment-related severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI) who require long-term residential care. Thousands of veterans are diagnosed with severe TBI and the VA needs to do more to address the difficulties meeting veterans’ long-term care needs.
May - I voted for H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act, legislation to add a citizenship question to the next decennial census. The bill addresses the influence of illegal aliens that are unfairly altering representation in the House of Representatives, Electoral College votes, and the billions of American taxpayer dollars awarded to blue states with sanctuary cities. Not a single Democrat voted in favor. Why? Because the surge of illegal aliens will generally benefit blue states and cause Congress to have an artificially high number of Democrat congressional districts.
- The Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a transcript in which the former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collin admitted that the federal government’s guidance to remain six feet apart was completely made up.
- I introduced H.R. 8517, the La Paz County Solar Energy and Job Creation Act, which transfers 3,400 acres of federal land to La Paz County to help maximize additional renewable energy generation and energy storage capabilities, enhance the local tax base for the county, and facilitate transformative economic development opportunities for county residents. This critical legislation builds upon previous legislation I introduced which was enacted into law in 2019 by concentrating on a continued goal of creating and enlarging the job and energy hub in La Paz County.
June - The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on which I serve sent criminal referrals to the Department of Justice recommending Hunter and James Biden be charged with making false statements to Congress about key aspects of the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.
- Interestingly, I was placed on “an enemy of the State of Ukraine” hitlist for repeatedly voting against sending even a penny to fund the proxy war in Ukraine. Click here to see for yourself. I have never voted to send money or weapons to Ukraine, and I never will. These sorts of lists don’t intimidate me. To the contrary, I consider it a badge of honor.
July - President Trump was shot on the side of his head after surviving an assassination attempt by a leftist lunatic in Butler, PA that tragically killed and injured others.
August
- I hosted a roundtable in Lake Havasu City to discuss the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to increase fees for many BLM sites in Arizona. Arizona is blessed with a vast array of tranquil wilderness and beautiful public lands. Our national parks are America’s crown jewels, inspiring awe and wonder. According to the National Park Service Visitor Spending Effects report, nearly 11 million people visit national parks in Arizona each year. With 80 percent of Americans living in congested, urban areas
 , we should make it easier, not more difficult, to enjoy and explore outdoor public lands.
September - The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a troubling report detailing the findings from a three-year-long investigation into the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The report confirmed what I’ve said for three years: the incompetent Biden-Harris administration left billions of dollars in military equipment to our sworn enemies. Worse, Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris knowingly exposed our ground troops to hostile attacks, which led to the tragic killing of 13 American soldiers.
- While on the golf course in Florida, another leftist would-be assassin attempted to murder Donald Trump, the second time in as many months an assassin attempted to kill him.
- I introduced H.R. 9828, the End the Vaccine Carveout Act, legislation that strips away the immunity provisions that are unfairly shielding Big Pharma from the harms caused by their vaccines and allows those injured by vaccines to pursue a civil lawsuit in state or federal court. Big Pharma doesn’t deserve a get-out-of-jail-free card for injuries caused by their harmful vaccines.
October - We remembered the lives that were senselessly lost when one year ago Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and brutally murdered more than 1,200 innocent people, including 40 Americans, and took 250 hostages back to Gaza. Nearly 100 hostages, including Americans, remain held by Hamas. Unprovoked, Hamas started this war, and Israel has every right to defend itself in the face of terrorism.
- The United States House of Representatives’ bipartisan task force investigating the July 13thassassination attempt of Donald Trump in Butler, PA released a troubling interim report that found the attack was “preventable” and was due to “stunning security failures” by the Secret Service and should never have happened.
- I hosted my annual Academy Day to help interested students determine if an Academy or similar education path is something they would want to pursue. Over the years, this forum has become a valuable tool for interested students and their families to learn about service academies and other similar educational opportunities, and a useful first step in the process of obtaining a nomination to a service academy. I am incredibly proud of the fantastic representation from our district at our prestigious military academies.
November - I was honored to have earned another term representing Arizona’s ninth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. In a stunning rebuke of the radical left agenda, President Trump was easily re-elected as the 47th President of the United States. Also on election night, Republicans in the United States Senate flipped several seats and secured the majority in the upper chamber.
December
- Congress released its long-awaited COVID-19 report. The two-year investigation by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concluded that COVID-19 "most likely" originated from a Wuhan lab conducting gain-of-function research paid for, in part, by American taxpayer dollars. The report also revealed that social distancing guidelines “sort of just appeared,” according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, and found no conclusive evidence that masks protected Americans.
- The Senate and House of Representatives passed H.R. 7365, the Veterans Expedited TSA Screening (VETS) Safe Travel Act, bipartisan legislation I introduced that would provide TSA PreCheck to severely injured or disabled veterans free of charge. No American veteran, particularly disabled veterans, should be hassled at our airports. With successful passage in Congress, the VETS Safe Travel Act is one step closer to becoming law. Click here to read more about this important legislation. My bill now awaits Mr. Biden’s signature and enactment.
- The Senate and the House of Representatives also passed the Social Security Fairness Act, legislation that I cosponsored to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset to deliver higher Social Security benefits to millions of public sector retirees, including teachers, police officers and firefighters. This important legislation had been reintroduced each Congress for decades but never received a vote in either chamber until this year. The bill now goes to Joe Biden for his signature.
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Do You Need Assistance with a Federal Agency? - Do you need assistance with a federal agency, have questions about visiting our nation’s capital, or would like information about applying for a federal grant? I am here to serve you! From obtaining or renewing a passport to assisting with casework via a federal agency, here are a few ways I may be able to assist:
- Passport requests or renewals
- Veterans Affairs benefits and claims
- Social Security and Medicaid claims
- Applying for federal grants
- Military Service Academy Nomination
- Purchasing a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol
For more information on ways I can be helpful, please visit my website or call my Goodyear office at (623) 707-0530.
That’s a wrap! It is the greatest honor to represent you in Congress. I look forward to 2025. Happy New Year!
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