February 9, 2025

Gosar Introduces Legislation to Halt Online Censorship

This week, I re-introduced H.R. 908, the Stop the Censorship Act, legislation reforming Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to end Big Tech’s broad ability to censor Americans.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1934 deputizes Big Tech companies to censor competition and lawful political speech, even affording immunity from legal challenges against anticompetitive conduct.  It hasn’t been updated in nearly 30 years. 

Big Tech, including social media giant Meta, got caught colluding with the Biden Regime to censor free speech involving explosive information about Hunter Biden’s laptop and content related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted the Biden White House repeatedly pressured Facebook to censor more than 20 million social media posts to stifle and choke out anyone who disagreed with Dr. Fauci, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris.  I wrote about it last September in a newsletter.

Under current law, social media companies are not held liable for restricting free speech online. Countless other examples exist of the government and Big Tech silencing the American people who dare disagree with them all the while promoting propaganda to advance their liberal and woke political causes. 

Americans’ First Amendment right to speak online should not be contingent on whether a social media company agrees with the content. Neither should the government censor lawful speech even if done indirectly.  This is an illegal deprivation of civil rights, yet the overwhelmingly left-leaning Big Tech companies have taken that right away from Americans by silencing online speech they disagree with.  My legislation revokes Big Tech’s Section 230 protections by providing a much-needed update to the Communications Act of 1934.  There should be no more Big Tech immunity for censoring lawful political speech.

Gosar Votes to Crack Down on Fentanyl to Save American Lives

Thanks to Biden’s open border policies of the past four years, fentanyl has poured across our southern border, destroying lives, families, and communities. As a result, the harmful drug is the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old. To put that into perspective, more than 200 people die from fentanyl and opioid-related overdoses every day, and fentanyl overdoses take more lives than heart disease, cancer, suicide, and homicide. In 2022, the DEA seized over 379 million doses of fentanyl – enough to kill every American.

In response, this week I voted for H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act. This bill will authorize the Drug Enforcement Administration to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as a Schedule I narcotic. Schedule I drugs are substances with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, as defined by the Controlled Substances Act.  Inexplicably, the Schedule I designation for fentanyl currently operates on a temporary basis and is set to expire at the end of next month. Making the designation permanent which provides law enforcement agencies the authority they need to keep this evil drug off our streets and out of our communities.

I voted for this same bill last congressional session, but now that people who care about Americans are back in charge in the Senate and White House, this bill may become law.  Incidentally, I have been warning my colleagues and trying to address this problem for years.  I held a roundtable discussion in Goodyear, AZ in 2022 focused exclusively on fentanyl.  I also introduced the Death Penalty for Dealing Fentanyl Act, legislation that would punish a defendant with the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of selling or distributing fentanyl.  Over 500,000 Americans have died since 2020, and fentanyl will kill many more if we don’t take drastic actions.  I won’t stop until this scourge is stopped.

USAID Corruption Exposed

This week, President Trump and his administration provided alarming details of corruption and wasteful spending at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  As Secretary of State Rubio noted, USAID has been completely unaccountable for decades, run by leftist bureaucrats who believed they answered to nobody.  Instead, Democrats and Deep State bureaucrats don’t want Americans to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted abroad on millions of dollars in far-left grants.

Several egregious examples include:

• $15 million for condoms to the Taliban through USAID.
• $446,700 to promote the expansion of atheism in Nepal through the State Department.
• $1 million to boost French-speaking LGBTQ groups in West and Central Africa through the State Department.
• $14 million in cash vouchers for migrants at the southern border through the State Department.
• $20,600 for a drag show in Ecuador through the State Department.
• $47,020 for a transgender opera in Colombia through the State Department.
• $32,000 for an LGBTQ-centered comic book in Peru through the State Department.
• $55,750 for a climate change presentation warning about the impact of climate change in Argentina to be led by female and LGBT journalists through the State Department.
• $3,315,446 for “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean” through USAID.
• $7,071.58 for a BIPOC speaker series in Canada through the State Department.
• $80,000 for an LGBTQ community center in Bratislava, Slovakia through the State Department.
• $3.2 million to help Tunisian migrants readjust to life in Tunisia after deportation through the State Department.
• $16,500 to foster a “united and equal queer-feminist discourse in Albanian society” through the State Department.
• $10,000 to pressure Lithuanian corporations to promote “DEI values” through the State Department.
• $8,000 to promote DEI among LGBTQ groups in Cyprus through the State Department.
• $1.5 million to promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals in Serbia through USAID.
• $70,884 to create a U.S.-Irish musical to promote DEI in Ireland through the State Department.
• $39,652 to host seminars at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on gender identity and racial equality through the State Department.
• $2.5 million to build electric vehicle charging stations in Vietnam’s largest cities through USAID.
• $425,622 to help Indonesian coffee companies become more climate and gender friendly through USAID.

Keep in mind that USAID money (your money) was used to fund the coup in Ukraine in 2014 where we overthrew a popular and democratically elected government to install a dictatorship, aka the Zelensky regime.  Remember, Biden’s Ukraine scandal started with Joe Biden threatening to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine (of ...you guessed it USAID money) unless the Ukrainian government fired a prosecutor that was investigating Biden’s corruption in Ukraine.  No wonder the radical left is fighting tooth and nail to protect this rotten agency – it’s the ATM fueling their sinister progressive agenda.  I strongly support President Donald Trump’s commitment to rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the federal government. Incidentally, USAID is but a window into the vast abuse of our federal government’s might, wealth, and influence at home and abroad.  The government has, through USAID and similar programs, been draining the pockets of taxpayers while compromising our national security, threatening trade interests, and compromising America’s moral authority abroad.  It has been said that “if exposing a crime is itself illegal, then you are being ruled by criminals.”  Donald Trump, by opening the blinds to let some light in, has proven this adage true.

If we are to truly make America great again, there is much unraveling of the old, bloated, totalitarian regime still ahead of us.  I look forward to working with President Trump to shrink the scope of government, hold unelected bureaucrats accountable for their abuse of public funds, and restore efficiency.  These are critical stops on the road to ensuring that the effects of these four Trump years are felt long after the President leaves office.  Government of, by, and for the people is not a bumper sticker nor a pipe dream; it is imperative, and we will make it a reality.

Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Men from Women’s Sports 

This week, President Trump issued an Executive Order banning males from participating in women's and girls' sporting events, fulfilling a campaign promise to keep men out of women's sports.  The order mandates that federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, must interpret Title IX regulations as banning boys and men from participating in female sports.  Noncompliant organizations risk losing federal funding and facing legal action.

Commonsense tells you that men should not be competing in women’s athletics.  In fact, a recent Ipsos poll taken by the New York Times from January 2 to 11, shows that nearly 80% of Americans do not want transgender men in women’s sports.  Yet, on his first day in office, Joe Biden signed an Executive Order calling on schools across the country to allow students to compete in the sport of their “gender identity.” Then, on the 50^th anniversary of Title IX, Biden’s Department of Education “issued a new rule” which redefined the word “women.” 

This move “opened sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms and single-sex admissions programs to anyone who identifies as a woman” and removed “commonsense” student protections in “campus sexual assault and harassment proceedings.”

In advance of President Trump’s Executive Order, you may recall a few weeks ago I shared in my newsletter that I voted for H.R. 28, The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, legislation requiring all schools receiving federal funds to uphold the original meaning of Title IX and keep biological men out of women’s sports.  As I noted then, it is amazing to see how far, and how fast, culture has declined.  For our entire lives, women competed against women and men against men.  Fast forward to today and we have men across the country putting on a dress and claiming they are women.  All to be winners in a sport they were poor to mediocre in when competing against their own gender.  All that is coming to an end.  Trump’s Executive Order upholds the promise of Title IX and ends the dangerous and unfair participation of men in women’s sports.  As President Trump stated during the signing ceremony: it’s hard to believe this is even an issue.  Don’t Democrats care about women at all?

It’s Mail Time!

I receive thousands of letters each week and I appreciate hearing from everyone. Here are a few letters I received this week:

Adriana M. from Goodyear, AZ writes:

As your constituent, I stand with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in urging your office to publicly oppose President Donald Trump’s internationally illegal proposal to authorize the use of U.S. troops to forcibly occupy, “take over,” or “own” the Gaza Strip.  I respectfully request that you release a clear and strong statement rejecting any plan involving ethnic cleansing or permanent subjugation of Palestinians, whether by the U.S. military or by Israel.Your voice is critical in ensuring that the United States does not become complicit in this injustice.

Adriana, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, expecting a different result. Peace, truly lasting peace, is the ultimate goal.  Unfortunately, the same solution over and over again isn’t working for the people of Gaza.  President Trump’s strategy represents a new way of thinking that will achieve results for the people of Gaza.

Trump has seen no viable long-term solution or cooperation to bring stability from Middle Eastern allies, so he’s telling them: “This is MY plan, come up with a better one if you don’t like it.” His bold and unwavering pursuit for peace continues with a humanitarian’s heart. The killing must stop, the war must end, and we must realize lasting peace.  That’s why the United States will work with Israel to secure Gaza and find a lasting home for the Palestinian people.

Gaza is uninhabitable. It’s a demolition zone and there are 1.8 million Gazans who deserve a better life. President Trump is demanding contributions from neighboring countries.  De-facto Iranian ownership of Gaza hasn’t worked.  It resulted in the October 7^th terror attack on Israel and it has resulted in the constant suffering of the people of Gaza.

President Trump is breaking the status quo and is calling for rethinking the Middle East - that’s uncomfortable for people. This solution will deliver a better life for all Gazans and deliver a greater peace and prosperity for the Middle East.

Gary Fox from Kingman, AZ shares:

I think the majority of Americans are pretty much fit to be tied due to despicable Joe Biden giving the Medal of Freedom to George Soros. Joe Biden is now the worst president that this great country has ever seen. It was Jimmy Carter, but Joe Biden has even outdone his horrible record. I pray and I know a lot of other people are praying that we never see anyone like Joe Biden ever again as president.

Gary, a recent New York Post notes that Biden’s term in office will go down as “a brief and unfortunate interruption of the truly historic presidency of the man he tried to destroy … Joe’s legacy is to be sandwiched by Trump in history.”  Biden’s four years must be studied for the unprecedented damage that his administration was able to rain down over such a short period of time.

Under the Biden-Harris administration—which was run not even by giggly and conniving Border Czar Kamala Harris but by a cadre of aides, per the Daily Caller—our border was porous.  Our communities were decimated by unmitigated and unvetted mass migration, driven by the reversal of President Trump’s sensible “Remain in Mexico Policy.”  Illegal aliens were allowed to be caught and released; hundreds of thousands of children were trafficked across the border and lost; fentanyl seeped into our towns.  Construction of the border wall was not simply halted.  Its parts were sold for pennies on the dollar out of spite for the American People and their right to feel secure in their own country.  The CBP-One app and CHNV (Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans) parole program loosed violent migrants into our northernmost states, terrifying citizens in Ohio and Montana.  It goes without saying that Montana and Ohio should not be ports of entry for Haitians or Venezuelans; they are land-locked states!  But the Biden-Harris administration used your tax dollars to fly them into the heart of the U.S. all the same.

Let’s not forget that Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice prosecuted its political opponents.  Traditional Catholic prayer groups were targeted by the FBI for suspected “domestic terrorism”; pro-life protesters were sent to prison; President Trump’s home was raided with the authorization to use deadly force; and peaceful protesters were locked up in a D.C. jail to await trial for years without due process.

Under Biden, America not only bungled its foreign policy but danced on the precipice of war.  Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan left vast sums of military equipment, which has now fallen into the hands of our enemies, on the tarmac in open view.  Instead of taking our trucks and guns back home, the Biden-Harris administration flew planes full of military-aged Afghans into our country, compromising our national security.  Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Kamala Harris taunted Russia with the prospect of NATO involvement in Ukraine, an action posited by some as an inciting incident in the conflict.  Biden’s authorization not only of provides scores of foreign aid packages to Ukraine but also the commitment of U.S. personnel and eventually ATACMS, targeted missiles that only Americans were equipped to program and aim, brought us within spitting distance of hot war with Russia.  War was never declared, but the “President” nearly got us into one.

Joe Biden will go down as the worst president in American history and flagrant abuses and the corruption perpetrated by his administration against the American People must never be forgotten.

Tweet of the Week:

Photo of the Week:

📸 Leslie James from Eagar shares this photo of some cool ice formations recently taken on the Little Colorado River.  Thanks for picture, Leslie!

Do you want the chance for your photograph to be featured as our "Picture of the Week?"   If so, send your best shots along with a brief description to Anthony.foti@mail.house.gov.  Remember to include your name and where you live. 

Gosar in the News and Other Must-Read Stories:

🗞Cactus Politics: Gosar Reintroduces Bill Fighting Big Tech Censorship

📰 Washington Free Beacon: Biden Quietly Funneled $3 Mil to Palestinian Government 'Security Forces' for Weapons Training—After Its Members Carried Out Attacks on Israelis

🗞 Fox News: Army recruiting shatters records after President Trump election win

📰 Daily Signal: NEWS ‘The War on Women’s Sports is Over’: Trump Bans Males in Female Athletics

🗞 New York Post: Dems wallow in denial and do the dumbest stuff – proving they haven’t learned a thing from Trump’s win

📰Newsmax: 77 Percent Say Photo ID 'Reasonable' to Vote

⚠ Warning!!  The Gosar Weekly Newsletter is meant for discerning readers with above average intelligence.  We link to interesting stories.  We get stories a couple different ways: Google alerts, a third-party aggregator and sometimes readers send stuff.  We don’t vouch for every publication or every author.  If we link to a story, it is because of that story. The views expressed in any of the publications do not represent any promotion, endorsement or reflection of Congressman Gosar’s views.  While we try our best, we cannot guarantee every news organization spouting hatred, animosity or divisiveness will be filtered from appearing in the Gosar Weekly Newsletter.  We will endeavor to prevent that from happening by never linking to Fake News organizations including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Rolling Stone, the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Mirror, Media Matters or the New Republic.