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March 1 - March 5, 2021

This week, the Senate is considering the Administration's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 plan, which would waste hundreds of billions of dollars, do nothing meaningful to get kids back to school, and enact policies that work against job creation. During several committee hearings this week, Senator Romney pressed witnesses from the Administration on the excessive spending levels proposed, especially when that spending will be added to an already out-of-control level of national debt. He also filed several amendments to the bill aimed at ensuring state and local assistance goes only to jurisdictions with a proven need, and promoting the safe and immediate reopening of schools. The Senator also continued advocating for his minimum wage and E-Verify proposal as a realistic alternative to Democrats' $15/hour proposal. Keep scrolling for a brief recap of the week:

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The Administration’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill is full of wasteful spending on items unrelated to urgent pandemic needs. Senator Romney filed several amendments to the COVID-19 relief legislation currently being considered on the Senate floor. His amendments would ensure state and local assistance goes only to jurisdictions with a proven need, promote the safe and immediate reopening of schools, and prevent funding from going to U.S. school districts that partner with Chinese Communist Party-backed entities.

During a marathon series of votes on amendments to the bill, this morning Senator Romney offered his proposal that would change the state and local funding formula to become “needs-based only,” limiting funds to states with revenue losses and unreimbursed COVID-19 expenses. 

“There was an assumption states had massive revenue losses associated with the COVID experience, but the data that has come out since then shows many states did not. Twenty-one states are seeing a rise in revenue. States like Florida don’t need more money. Oklahoma doesn’t need more money. My state of Utah doesn’t need more money. California has record surpluses, billions of dollars in surplus. And yet under this bill, California itself at the state level gets $26 billion more, and in total with its localities, it gets $41 billion. This is on top of their already surplus year. Think about that. We’re going to be asking the American people to allow us to borrow money from China and others, pass that on to our kids and grandkids, so that we can send money to states like California and mine that don’t need the money. That doesn’t make any sense at all.”


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Full story by Dennis Romboy here.



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Senators Collins (R-ME), Capito (R-WV), and Portman (R-OH) signed on to co-sponsor the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, legislation which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $10 and mandate E-Verify to ensure the wage increase only goes to legal workers. Policy leaders and writers also expressed support for Senator Romney's legislation with Senator Cotton (R-AR), saying:

“The proposal links a gradual increase in the minimum wage with the mandatory use of E-Verify, the government database system that checks an employee’s ability to work legally in the United States…Combining the two ideas is a political masterstroke. Together, they show a commitment that all American jobs pay a decent wage while ensuring that the benefits go to legal workers…This is a healthy nationalist and populist proposal that can help the GOP become the multiracial working-class party many envision.”Henry Olsen, Washington Post

“Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is making a credible bid to be the most significant policy entrepreneur of the Biden era… Democrats could benefit from embracing the principle that immigration should operate through legal channels and not outside them…”Noah Millman, The Week


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Full opinion by Senators Romney and Cotton here.



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Addressing the threat China poses to the free world continues to be one of Senator Romney's top priorities in Congress. This week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced that Senator Romney will serve as Ranking Member of the subcommittee dealing with China and cybersecurity, while also serving on the subcommittees dealing with Europe and the Middle East. Upon the announcement, Senator Romney said the following:
                               
“We must link arms with our friends and allies to confront China, to push the Chinese Communist Party to abandon its predatory policies and demand that China abide by the norms and rules which the rest of us follow. We must enact policies which support the cause of freedom around the world, which includes holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the atrocities they commit against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities. I look forward to serving as the lead Republican on the subcommittee which deals with all of these matters and working to develop an effective strategy to countering China.”



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Iran is ramping up already consistent aggressive behavior to target U.S. assets, troops, and regional partners. During a Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Senator Romney pressed the nominee for Deputy Secretary of State about the Administration's plan to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon and assure them—and any other nation even thinking about going nuclear—that the price they will pay for developing a nuclear weapon will be intolerably high.

This week, the Administration announced sanctions on several officials of another malign actor, Russia, in response to the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny. Senator Romney applauded the Administration for its actions to hold bad actors in Russia responsible for their malign efforts to crush dissent, saying: “New sanctions against those accountable for the horrific poisoning and unjust detention of Alexei Navalny send a strong message that the United States will not tolerate the Putin regime’s corruption and lawlessness.”


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The U.S. is over $28 trillion dollars in debt. The interest alone cost us $390 billion last year. Additionally, our federal trust funds are facing impending insolvency. During a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Senator Romney expressed the need for the U.S. to get its fiscal house in order. He also pressed the director of the Government Accountability Office about finding bipartisan solutions to help rescue our federal trust funds—a process like the Senator's bipartisan TRUST Act, which 71 senators supported a few weeks ago.


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