Laser Focused
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
BIG Update
For 11 years, schools across America have been prohibited from serving 2% or whole milk to students. The prohibition began when the Obama Administration imposed ill-informed school lunch regulations. Without a variety of milk options, students have turned to drinks with high caffeine and sugar.
This week, House Republicans passed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act to restore the option for schools to serve 2% and whole milk. I drink milk every day for lunch. It’s filled with essential nutrients that help kids succeed in school. Whole milk is healthy. I’m glad I got to help lead this bill and give students a drink option that helps them grow and thrive.
BIG Idea
During the Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit hearing this week, I talked to leaders in the Department of Transportation about a threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. infrastructure.
LiDAR, Light Detection and Ranging, is a sensor technology that uses laser lights to map the surrounding environment and is used across our transportation industry, like at intersections, airports, ports, or in autonomous vehicles. Concerns have been raised of China targeting critical U.S. infrastructure for the use of this technology, potentially giving our foreign adversary 3-D images of our infrastructure and the ability to determine precise coordinates and dimensions of the surroundings.
Our investments in infrastructure should not empower our foreign adversaries. While the federal government should deploy this important technology, Congress should take steps to ensure we are not purchasing LiDAR from our adversaries. That would create vulnerabilities in our transportation industry for bad actors like China to exploit.
BIG News
This week, the Select Committee on China (SCC) released its report addressing America’s economic and technological competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The report included my bill, the PRC Accountability and Divestment Act, that I introduced a couple of weeks ago.
The SCC’s report detailed ways to:
RESET: Reset the terms of our economic relationship with the People’s Republic of China
PREVENT: Stem the flow of U.S. capital and technology fueling the People’s Republic of China’s military modernization and human rights abuses
BUILD: Invest in technological leadership and build collective economic resilience in concert with allies
We must be careful with how we interact with China financially. We cannot bankroll the CCP regime, yet blindly decoupling could cause economic chaos and downturn in America. I’m glad the SCC’s report focused on thoughtful and targeted ways to change course to promote our national security. I look forward to the committee’s proposals being heard in Congress next year.
It’s Time to Get the Border Under Control
By Sen. John Thune
Every year of the Biden administration, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border has set a new record. Lately, the problem has grown worse. In recent weeks, 10,000-12,000 illegal immigrants per day have been caught trying to enter the United States illegally. Without significant policy changes, this concerning trend is likely to continue.
Jeh Johnson, who led the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Obama, once said that 1,000 immigrants per day would overwhelm the system. We’re now seeing as much as 10 times as many border crossings per day on a regular basis. That means in a year we could see as many as 4 million people trying to cross the border – more than four times as many people who live in South Dakota. Johnson said he couldn’t imagine what 4,000 per day would look like, but described it as “truly in a crisis.” If 4,000 is a crisis, how do we describe a situation that’s now up to three times worse?
The number of individuals trying to enter the country is not only overwhelming Customs and Border Protection. DHS has also warned that the increased number of migrants could facilitate terrorists and criminals entering the United States. In October alone, Border Patrol caught more than 1,500 criminals trying to cross the border – 93 of them had outstanding warrants. Fifty gang members and 12 individuals on the terrorist watch list were also caught. And these are only the individuals being caught. Also in October, an average of 1,000 people per day entered the country without being apprehended.
The border crisis is a national security crisis, which is why my Senate Republican colleagues and I have insisted that substantial border policy changes be included in any national security supplemental spending package. We can’t seriously say we are defending our national security interests while allowing the status quo at the border to continue. We have to slow the flow of migrants, and that requires meaningful policy changes. We need to allow Border Patrol to reclaim control of the border, and the federal government must remove incentives that are encouraging high numbers of migrants from around the world to make a dangerous journey to our southern border.
To put it as plainly as possible, this crisis is the result of policy choices made by the Biden administration. It’s the predictable result of President Biden choosing to end the policies of his predecessor. As this crisis has grown worse for close to three years, the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have demonstrated little interest in changing course. My Republican colleagues and I have been sounding the alarm for years about it, and it’s long past time to enact meaningful policies – not window dressing – that address this crisis. As recent events have shown, the world is an increasingly dangerous place, and we can’t wait any longer to get the southern border under control.
FBI Director Christopher Wray recently said, “I’ve never seen a time when all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated at exactly the same time.” Amid such dire warnings, the crisis at the southern border is beyond unacceptable. We need to secure the border, slow the flow of migrants, and keep bad actors from taking advantage of the border crisis to get into our country and possibly do Americans harm. My Republican colleagues and I are committed to these goals, and I hope we will soon secure the policy changes that will achieve them.
