By Rep. Ron Estes
Kansas’ 4th Congressional District
Special to the Tribune
Each month I want to provide you with regular updates about what’s going on in our nation’s capital and throughout the 4th District of Kansas. Here’s what happened in June.
Defender of Limited Government
The limited government principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution have guided our nation since its founding and have helped our country and citizens to flourish. As the representative of the 4th District in our nation’s capital, I strive to uphold these principles whenever I write, analyze or vote on legislation. In June, I was honored to be recognized by the Institute for Legislative Analysis as a Defender of Limited Government. I will continue to be a voice for Kansans from the 4th District in Washington, working to represent your best interests and to keep our federal government small as our founders intended.
President Biden’s Border Optics
For three and a half years President Biden has let chaos unfold on our southern border. Under his watch there have been 9.2 million encounters nationwide and more than 7.6 million encounters at the southern border. That doesn’t include the more than 1.8 million known gotaways – to say nothing of the ones we don’t know about. This is a result of Biden’s day one policy to relax and eliminate effective Trump-era border policies. But roughly five months from the election, the president is trying to look tough on an issue he knows the American people care deeply about. It is too little, too late. Too many lives have been lost due to increased amounts of fentanyl coming across the border or from violence perpetrated by illegal immigrants. Border towns have been overrun and their budgets strained to excess. And, with migrants now fanning out throughout the country, every town has become a border town. The border crossing executive order issued by the president will do nothing to fix our open border, which is already at crisis levels. It is merely election-year gimmicks. Rather than try to score points on optics, the president should work with Congress and encourage action on the only bill that’s passed one chamber and provides the strongest border protection in a generation. For more than a year, the House-passed H.R. 2 has been sitting in the Senate. While provisions in this legislation would secure our border, it’s not the only thing that could fix the crisis. Biden’s executive actions led to this problem, so he already has the authority he needs to enforce the laws on the books and secure our borders.
Cosponsoring the SAVE Act Election integrity is important to me and from my conversations with Kansans throughout the 4th District, important to so many of you as well. Our elections should be free and fair and decided by Americans. But since Joe Biden took office, his administration has released millions of illegal migrants into the country, plus the 1.8 million known gotaways. In many states, these illegal migrants are eligible for driver’s licenses and other benefits, providing ample opportunities to illegally register to vote in federal elections when they sign up for these documents. While it is true that federal law makes it illegal for a non-citizen to vote in federal elections, it also makes it nearly impossible for states to determine the citizenship status of an individual registering to vote or to identify and remove non-citizens from their voter rolls. That is why I am proud to cosponsor Rep. Chip Roy’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and would direct states to remove non-citizens from voter rolls. To help states achieve this, the SAVE Act would give states no-cost access to Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases to be able to cross-check their voter rolls and would empower citizens to bring civil suits against election officials that fail to uphold proof of citizenship requirements for federal elections. In this election year, I hope more of my colleagues join me in supporting this legislation that protects one of our most precious rights as American citizens.
NDAA Advances
In June, the House passed H.R. 8070, Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 – a key first step in moving this critical piece of legislation forward. This bill will equip our military with the tools and support they need to defend our nation and deter our enemies while improving our service members’ quality of life. The FY25 NDAA strengthens our military’s defense and deterrence capabilities in order to deter our adversaries, restore lethality, defend Israel, crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse, and secure the U.S. border. The bill will also improve the daily lives of our military service members and families by significantly boosting compensation, improving housing and benefits, ensuring access to quality medical care, enhancing support for military spouses and increasing access to childcare. Our men and women in uniform and their families, including many right here in the 4th District surrounding McConnell Air Force Base, sacrifice so much to protect and defend our nation. I look forward to seeing the FY25 NDAA move forward in the Senate so we can enhance support for our military and ensure the defense of our country.
Holding Garland in Contempt
I joined my colleagues in the House of Representatives in voting to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas. The Justice Department’s failure to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena flies in the face of the Constitution and the institutional power of the House of Representatives.
The Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability issued subpoenas to Attorney General Merrick Garland compelling him to produce documents and materials relating to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation, including the audio recordings of Special Counsel Hur’s interviews with President Biden and ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. The Attorney General has refused to produce the audio recordings and the resolution the House voted on upholds the institutional power of the House by recommending that the House find Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the Committees’ subpoenas. In a recent op-ed, Attorney General Garland wrote, “Our democracy cannot survive without a justice system that ensures the equal protection of law for all its citizens,” and this is precisely why the Judiciary Committee has requested the audio recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden. Withholding these recordings and failing to comply with the subpoena thwarts the Committee’s legislative oversight work to determine if, in fact, the Justice Department is applying the law fairly and impartially. Rather than bemoan threats to democracy, AG Garland can engage in the democratic process by responding to the subpoena and coming before Congress.
Holding Universities Accountable for Antisemitic Activity There is no place for antisemitism in our communities, much less in our schools that should be havens for learning and truth-seeking. Unfortunately, since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, colleges and universities have become a flashpoint for antisemitic rhetoric and behavior by disruptive and unruly students, faculty and provocateurs. Many of these same universities receive generous federal funding and preferential tax treatment, but our tax code and its treatment of college endowments shouldn’t help foster the antisemitic activities we’ve seen in recent months. As I discussed in a recent Ways and Means hearing, universities need new accountability structures, including reforms to the endowment tax, because the existing structures have proven to be inadequate and have only allowed antisemitic activity to run rampant on college campuses.
Working to Preserve Social Security Many Kansans depend on Social Security and, contrary to inflated election-year rhetoric you might hear, neither Republicans nor Democrats want to do away with it. The House Budget Committee is working to ensure that the threats of Social Security and Medicare insolvency are addressed with bipartisan, proactive solutions. Our Fiscal Year 2025 Budget makes no changes to Social Security or Medicare benefits while supporting the creation of a fiscal commission to help Congress and the president save and strengthen these programs for today and tomorrow’s beneficiaries. But, as I discussed in a recent Budget Committee hearing, Social Security has to contend with a math problem – the amount of money going in has to be equal or greater to the amount of money going out – impacted by the number of workers, number of retirees and life expectancy. All of these factors have changed greatly in recent decades, contributing to the Social Security Board of Trustees current projection that the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will become insolvent in 2033. So somebody who’s currently getting a $1,000 check a month is going to have their check cut to $790 if nothing changes between now and then. Our Committee is working to ensure this problem is addressed and this outcome avoided.
To contact Rep. Estes, call his District Office in Wichita at 316-262-8992.
