This week we made some GREAT progress in a number of important areas...

• We unanimously passed the Burn Pits Registry Enhancement Act to expand and improve our research on burn pits and ensure we are working to improve the lives of every veteran that was exposed
• I helped introduce the bipartisan KITTEN Act to end the outdated practice of thousands of cats being bred, fed parasite-ridden raw meat and killed despite being perfectly
• President Trump signed a great executive order to create a new task force dedicated to preventing veteran suicide and develop a comprehensive national strategy to end this tragedy.

But, if I’m being honest, it was also an incredibly frustrating week. Actually, that’s probably understating it. I was disgusted by some of the ideas that were being pushed this week.

First was a bill called H.R. 1 that was a very poorly veiled attempt to help advance politicians’ careers and make money for their political consultants. This bill FORCES you to spend your money advocating to elect someone that you don’t support by using taxpayer dollars to pay for attack ads, political mailers and other campaign promotions. Let’s not pretend. We know what the goal of this bill is: to funnel your taxpayer dollars directly into their pockets. It’s the opposite of the service before self mentality that we need from our elected officials. I was a strong ‘no’ vote.

Somehow, though, it gets worse...Nancy Pelosi and her allies refused to bring a bill to the House floor to appropriately condemn the anti-Semitic comments made by a new member of Congress. Instead of immediately passing a bill strongly condemning these statements, a group of seriously misguided Members of Congress successfully pushed to greatly water down the resolution. It was a massive missed opportunity to do the right thing.

And to top it all off, 223 Members of Congress also took a vote this week to oppose freedom of speech. I’m not exaggerating. They voted against a resolution “expressing a sense of Congress that free speech should be protected.” It included statements like “the right to free speech guarantees that the American people can freely speak about their political beliefs.”

So, that’s why I’m frustrated. Once again, Congressional leaders have decided that playing politics was more important than doing the right thing. This is unacceptable and we must do better. Plain and simple. End of story.