Weekly Wrap-Up with Congressman Byron Donalds

March 13, 2023

Throughout the past two weeks, your House Republican majority was hard at work delivering legislative wins on behalf of the American people. We passed S. 619 to declassify all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology & COVID-19's origins. Under this bill, the ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) must submit an unclassified report to Congress with all such information & redactions only as necessary to protect sources & methods. We also passed H.R. 140, which prohibits federal employees from censoring the speech of others while acting in an official capacity. This shouldn't even be a question. I'm proud to stand with my colleagues to defend core American freedoms from federal overreach. H.R.347 and H.J. Res. 30 were passed by the House Republican majority as well. H.R. 347 will require the Biden administration to provide an inflation estimate for each of President Biden's Executive Orders that is projected to cause an annual gross budgetary effect of at least $1 Billion. H.J. Res 30 on the other hand, nullifies Department of Labor rules for fiduciaries to consider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors, when making investments and when exercising shareholder rights, including on shareholder resolutions and board nominations. The H.J. Res 30, ESG resolution is an important step in getting politics out of our financial system and putting money back into the pockets of the American people. Simply put, retirement accounts are in place to utilize the stock market to make the account holder as much money as possible to retire comfortably. There is no place for mandating investments in companies that mirror the far-left agenda of woke progressives. With ESG rules, these woke progressives in Washington are stealing from your retirement accounts, in order to virtue signal with many lesser successful stocks that happen to fit their political narrative. Frankly, they have no business mandating who you can invest in. All Americans deserve a happy, healthy and relaxing retirement without the heavy hand of government regulation manipulating your financial investments for political gain. The United States Senate agreed with us and passed H.J. Res 30. They also passed the House's H.J. Res. 26 to disapprove of the Washington D.C., City Council's revised, pro-crime Criminal Code, which if implemented would reduce legal penalties for criminals, reduce sentencing for criminals & grant misdemeanor cases a jury trial. With sexual abuse up 117%, carjackings up 86%, property crime up 26% and homicides up 20%, it was evident that the last thing that DC needed was a laxxed criminal code. President Biden, 33 Senate Democrats and even the DC City Council agreed to change their positions on the bill after the House Republican majority stated our convincing case for safer communities, but 173 House Democrats (over 80% of the House Democratic Caucus) once again stood on the side of anti-police anarchy. For the side that glorified anarchist rioters, looters and criminals during the Summer of 2020, called openly to defund the police, bailed out violent criminals and called for the elimination of cash bail, this is sadly nothing new in a long line of anti-police transgressions against the American people. Because the Senate agreed to these two bills, they were sent back to the House to be signed by Speaker McCarthy and sent to President Biden's desk. I proudly joined House Leadership at the signing ceremony for H.J. Res. 30. Also, I participated in various committee hearings. Between my assignments on the Financial Services and Oversight & Accountability Committees I gave remarks at five separate hearings on wide ranging topics such as the mismanagement of CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), US energy independence, US energy security and even oversight of federal hiring at OPM (the Office of Personnel Management for the federal government.) Last week, RSW Airport was named the best airport in America, and I gave a speech on the floor of the House to honor this incredible achievement. I also participated in the House Freedom Caucus's Debt Ceiling Press Conference where we made clear that our budget should go back to 2019, pre-COVID spending levels. Weeks like these exemplify the best of our House Republican majority and are a precursor to the future wins that we will secure throughout the next two years. As your Congressman, you have my commitment to work on your behalf and restore order and proper governance to The People's House.