America is setting records
Friends,
America is setting records, and I'm not talking about the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Last week, we received alarming data about two of the biggest issues in our country: the border and our economy.
On Wednesday, Border Patrol announced that agents apprehended 180,000 migrants in May. That is the largest monthly total since President Joe Biden took office. In fact, it's the highest figure in 21 years! May was the third straight month of at least 170,0000 apprehensions, and we are on pace to apprehend 1.35 million illegal immigrants this fiscal year. That's the size of the populations of Raleigh and Charlotte combined crossing our border illegally this year!
Vice President Kamala Harris finally hit the road to deal with this issue last week. The only problem: she still refuses to go to our southern border. Instead, she visited Guatemala and Mexico, where leaders explained that Biden administration policies created this crisis.
To be clear, I support Vice President Harris' mission to address root causes of this crisis. However, engaging northern triangle countries is a long-term goal that will require bipartisan action. In the meantime, securing our border needs to happen immediately, and can happen quickly with solutions already proven to work like the remain in Mexico policy.
As the Biden border crisis gets worse, our economy is flashing red flags as well. On Thursday, consumer prices rose 5% from last year, higher than expert predictions and the fastest pace in 13 years.
Amid this rising inflation, President Biden's response has been to propose higher taxes and an additional $6 trillion in government spending. Higher taxes, more debt and more spending will only make matters worse.
That's why, I joined my House Republican colleagues to champion a budget proposal that would secure the border and cut spending. We must do both.
Also last week, our economy reported another record: 9.3 million open jobs. The jobs are there, but unemployment remains stagnant. That's because the government is still paying people to stay home. This is something I hear constantly from small businesses in our community struggling to find workers.
That's why last week, I cosponsored the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act to ensure federal COVID-19 unemployment benefits only go to those who need it, and not to folks who have a job waiting for them. I will continue to advance this legislation and other measures to encourage people to get back to work.
As we continue to look ahead, it's also important to reflect on how we arrived at this point and our nation's overall response to COVID-19. I am proud to be the House Republican leader on pandemic preparedness issues, making sure our country can respond to this pandemic and is prepared for the next one. As part of that mission, last week I introduced two bipartisan bills focused on PPE and vaccines.
The first bill is a bipartisan package that will strengthen our Strategic National Stockpile of PPE and expand American manufacturing of critical medical supplies. The second bill advances collaboration and innovation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I want to address cutting-edge science challenges, including supporting current research and development of COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. This will build on the success of Operation Warp Speed to develop vaccines faster in the future.
I'm proud to work in a bipartisan way with my House colleagues on these two pieces of legislation that will strengthen America's pandemic response.
We have many challenges before us. But I am focused on solutions that will secure our border, improve our economy, and meet our ongoing and future public health crises. By working together on these solutions, I am optimistic that we can overcome any obstacle in our way.
Until next week,
Richard Hudson
Member of Congress