With President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration Monday, Republicans in Congress have a golden opportunity to pass a slate of policies that would improve the lives of everyday Americans. As always, however, Washington is hung up on the details instead of the outcomes, with members currently arguing whether to deliver on the president-elect’s policy mandate with one bill or two bills.
The truth is that after four years of Democratic incompetence, Americans don’t care what legislative form or bill relief comes in. They simply need it delivered quickly and in full. To that end, lawmakers on Capitol Hill should start focusing all their energy on getting results as fast as possible in these three policy areas: securing the border, unleashing American businesses, and supporting growing families.
First, we have to secure the border. Since President Joe Biden took office, the Border Patrol has encountered nearly 11 million inadmissible immigrants, seized almost 10,000 pounds of fentanyl, arrested more than 55,000 immigrants with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants, and apprehended 385 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watch list between ports of entry. And that only accounts for the illegal immigrants that we know about. In other words, our system has been overwhelmed, and countless Americans have suffered as a result, including many who have lost their lives, such as Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and Jocelyn Nungaray.
Congress can stop the bleeding this year by enacting a bill that would secure the border, finish the wall, require employers to verify that their workers have proper documentation, and put asylum claims under greater scrutiny. The 118th Congress’s work on H.R. 2 would be a great place to start, but the 119th Congress should go further and also enact strict interior immigration enforcement that would forcibly prevent sanctuary jurisdictions from shielding illegal immigrants.
Moreover, to empower Americans and undermine Democrats’ efforts to achieve a permanent electoral majority by importing millions of illegal immigrants, Republicans in Congress should pass legislation that would require voters to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote. They should also pass a bill that places a citizenship question on the decennial census and ensure that the apportionment of the House is based solely on the citizen population.
Congress should then turn its attention to helping American businesses boom again and lowering costs for all Americans. The best place to start is the United States’s powerful energy sector. To unleash America’s energy industry, Congress should act quickly to cut these regulations and pass reforms to the permitting and environmental review process so it is easier for companies to build oil drills, power plants, mines, ports, highways, and other invaluable economic infrastructure. Likewise, members should look to roll back IRA tax credits for climate-related schemes, such as subsidies for ineffective wind and solar projects or ridiculous rebates for Americans to remove their gas stoves and replace them with inefficient induction stoves. Those savings could then be used to cut the deficit, pay for pro-growth tax reform, or fund important priorities such as border enforcement.
Finally, Republicans in Congress must use their hard-won majority to help the hardworking American families that voted for them. To help parents make ends meet, for example, legislators should pass a family tax credit that would eliminate marriage penalties, encourage work, and support “baby bonuses for a new baby boom,” as advocated by Trump on the campaign trail.
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Defending families means entering the cultural realm, too. Indeed, for the millions of Americans whose children face an onslaught of radical wokeism each time they step into a public school classroom, few actions would be more helpful than advancing a comprehensive bill to eliminate the Department of Education or, at the very least, remove its cabinet-level status. The same can be said for legislation such as the Defining Sex Act, which would establish a clear and consistent biological definition of male and female in federal law.
At the end of the day, Americans are looking for Congress to act immediately, not deliberate endlessly behind closed doors. In November, they voted overwhelmingly for Republican politicians because four years of incompetent Democratic governance has made it harder to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table. With their new majorities, it is now incumbent upon Republicans in Congress, especially Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), to deliver results so that in three months, when families gather around the table again for Easter, they can be confident that change is coming.
Kevin Roberts is the president of Heritage Action for America, and Ryan Walker is the executive vice president of Heritage Action for America.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
