Senator Ricketts’ Weekly Column: One Year Fighting for Nebraska in the U.S. Senate

January 26, 2024

Nebraska is what America is supposed to be. When I was Governor, we spent eight years delivering on excellence. We put taxpayers first. We respected individual freedoms and limited our spending, ran government well, and kept people safe. I wanted to serve in the U.S. Senate because I knew Washington was failing to do the same.

One year ago, I was sworn into the U.S. Senate and took on the mission to fight back on behalf of Nebraska – just like I did as Governor. Joe Biden’s trillions of dollars in reckless spending continues to drive inflation and cost Americans. The typical American household is spending an additional $11,434 a year to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed before Biden took office. Since Biden became President, gas prices are up 34%, electricity prices are up 24%, and grocery prices are up 20%. I’m working to rein in the federal spending that caused this stubbornly high inflation without hurting service to taxpayers.

I know it’s possible because we did it in Nebraska. We cut the growth of state spending by more than half while improving customer service. The federal government needs to follow our example. That’s why I passed legislation to improve customer service at the Passport Office after historic backlogs. I introduced my Proven Nebraska Solutions to make government work better and put taxpayers first. My SNAP Next Step Act would help workers on SNAP get better paying jobs and get off welfare. I introduced bills to bring tax relief to veterans and seniors like we did in Nebraska. My Flex Fuel Fairness Act would fight Biden’s dumb electric vehicle mandate. It also supports American biofuels that save consumers money at the pump, clean our environment, and promote energy independence.

Biden is also failing to keep Americans safe. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe the humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border is getting worse. They’re right. Biden’s failed border policies have made every state a border state, including Nebraska. Last week, News Channel Nebraska reported on an illegal alien from Mexico who was convicted & sentenced for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Police found the 43-year-old with almost $15,000 in cash and 11.5 pounds of meth. It turns out, he had previously been deported for prior drug offenses. Stories like this are the consequence of Biden’s open borders policies.

That’s just one example. There have been over 8.8 million border encounters since Joe Biden took office – more than the Trump and Obama’s presidencies combined. The number of encounters with individuals on the terror watch list went from single digits a few years ago to 169 last year. During Obama and Trump’s presidencies, an average of 5,600 people crossing our border illegally were paroled into this country. Last year, President Biden paroled 1.2 million people into our country who had crossed the border illegally. That’s two-thirds of Nebraska’s population released into our country in one year!

We need a change in leadership in the White House, but until then I’m working with my colleagues to attack Biden’s border security failures head on in the U.S. Senate. I’m supporting legislation that would end Biden’s abuse of parole, fix our broken asylum process, build the wall, and go after drug cartels.

President Biden’s appeasement-first foreign policy has also left us weakened in a dangerous world. The president’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan emboldened dangerous dictators like Putin in Russia, Xi in China, and Khomeini in Iran. Biden gave Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror over $50 billion in sanctions relief. It put our vessels in the Red Sea at risk. Biden gave U.S. tax dollars to an organization in Gaza that sheltered Hamas terror weapons and preached antisemitism. His weakness encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine and the Chinese Communist Party to increase its threats against Taiwan. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, we’re fighting to hold Biden’s disastrous appointees accountable for all these terrible policies.

Wrapping up this first year, it’s clear there’s still a lot Washington can learn from a state like Nebraska. I won’t stop until Republicans secure the changes we need to get our country back on track. I will continue to fight the Washington overregulation and overspending that’s hurting American families. I will continue to push for Proven Nebraska Solutions to give tax relief to veterans and seniors, get people into better jobs, and protect your freedoms. I will continue to fight Biden’s dangerous open borders and appeasement-first foreign policy.

My team and I are here to serve you. Contact us anytime by phone at 202-224-4224 or on my website at www.ricketts.senate.gov/contact.

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