ICYMI: KETV Exclusive Recapping Ricketts’ First Year in the U.S. Senate

January 22, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of the one-year anniversary since his swearing into the U.S. Senate tomorrow, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) joined KETV for an exclusive interview to recap his first year fighting for Nebraska in Washington. Ricketts discussed a wide range of issues including border security, the need to rein in federal spending, his opposition to President Biden’s failed policies, and his fight against Washington dysfunction.

Ricketts on Government Spending

“Well, the big problem we have in D.C. is the system is very broken and that includes our appropriation process. We’re supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills to fund government every year in both the House and the Senate. And frankly, Chuck Schumer has just dragged his feet. We’ve only passed three of those bills in the Senate. So, what I would like to see is that we actually get back to doing the business for the people, which is pass these appropriations bills, allow us to offer amendments on them, get them to both the House and the Senate and send it to the president’s desk for signature… If we want to get a hold of spending – and we need to. If you look between 2019 and 2023, spending at the federal government is up 40%. The spending is out of control. The way we start addressing that is having a regular appropriations process where senators can start offering amendments on how we start controlling that spending.”

Ricketts on the Border Crisis

“Well, the biggest issue is that Joe Biden has broadcast to the entire world our southern border is open and refuses to take any steps to try to control it or even enforce the law. I’ll give you one example. Parole is something that the executive branch can do in cases of extreme humanitarian need or the best interest of the country. If you look under Obama and Trump, on average, it was about 5,600 people a year got parole. In the last year, Joe Biden has paroled 1.2 million people. He’s absolutely abusing the process to basically let 85% of the people who cross that border just release into our country.”