The day President Donald Trump was sworn
into office on January 20, 2017, the Washington
Post ran the headline,
"The campaign to impeach President Trump has
begun.”
This was over two years ago. Since then, we
have been bombarded with even more headlines
and stories as Washington Democrats continue
their partisan efforts to impeach President
Trump. Earlier this month, I wrote a letter
to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and I’d like to
share some of it with you: “Our
Founding Fathers warned of the impeachment
process being abused for partisan purposes. In
the Federalist
Papers No. 65,
Alexander Hamilton warned ‘there will always
be the greatest danger that the decision
will be regulated more by the comparative
strength of parties, than by the real
demonstration of innocence or guilt.’ Last
week when the House of Representatives voted
on the impeachment resolution, H.Res. 660,
there was only partisan support for it to
move forward, while opposition was
bipartisan. Despite
the clear message sent by this vote, the
majority party continues to push forward
with this political farce.”
Unfortunately, important work Congress must
get done has been completely sidelined. Last
week, Speaker Pelosi suddenly recessed the
House so Democrats could focus exclusively
on their partisan impeachment scam. That’s
unacceptable and you deserve better. Instead
of working in a bipartisan way to address
the most pressing issues facing our nation,
they have continued the witch hunt that
began on Inauguration Day and continues to
waste time.
For starters, we should be working on
funding for our government – which is set to
run out this week. Absent
of a deal to fund government programs for
fiscal year 2020, Congress will have to pass
a continuing resolution which will kick the
can further down the road or the government
will shut down.
Under a continuing resolution the government
will be hamstrung by the previous year’s
appropriations. This
will be particularly felt by our nation’s
military – it would prevent the Army from
building 4,400 new homes and would delay the
repairs to 269 other units. Families
in our district know the state of housing on
military installations and the massive
effort that has begun to get back on the
right path. Because of partisan impeachment
efforts, our military families will suffer.
The House of Representatives should also
pass the National Defense Authorization Act. This
bill contains important measures like a pay
raise for our troops, improvements to family
housing, authorizations for innovative new
programs, and critical training resources
our troops need. Because of partisan
impeachment efforts, our troops will not
have the support and resources they need to
keep our country safe.
Another priority of mine is lowering
prescription drug costs and I’ve worked with
my colleagues on bipartisan legislation that
would make good progress. Speaker
Pelosi refuses to bring this bipartisan
legislation up for a vote or even continue
the discussion due to her “other
priorities.” Because
of partisan impeachment efforts, our friends
and neighbors will continue to pay
outrageous prices and run the risk of not
getting the medicine they need.
Unfortunately, this is just a small taste of
the priorities we should be working on right
now. Rest assured, I’m focused on your
priorities and I will always work on behalf
of our district.