Setting the Agenda for 2025

The 119th Congress is officially underway and we have a big agenda to tackle to help Arkansas and the rest of our country succeed.

In the U.S. Senate, new Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has laid out an ambitious schedule, at a swift pace, to accomplish what the American people expected when they handed Republicans the majority last November. He plans to hold the chamber in session for 173 days in 2025, nearly an entire month more than the average of the last two years, beginning with 10 straight weeks that will feature a flurry of work to confirm presidential nominees and move significant legislation through committees and the floor.

This is a meaningful step to turn the page on the Biden administration and get the nation back on the right track.

The economy, border security, energy independence and tax relief are all major issues that require the policy solutions my Senate Republican colleagues and I have repeatedly touted. We will work hard to enact them now that voters have given us the opportunity.

As we all know, inflation raged in the Biden economy and his policies only poured more gasoline on the fire. The cumulative inflation rate for his presidency was a crushing 20.6 percent. During that time, a typical American family has paid over $13,000 more per year to enjoy the same standard of living they knew in January 2021. The tax-and-spending spree championed by the other side of the aisle, and their refusal to ease burdensome regulations that stifled growth, were incredibly costly.

Fortunately, those days are over.

Now we are poised to bring relief to the country, not just through a new agenda. We also have a runway to advance the successful tax policies from the first Trump administration that are set to expire this year. By doing so, we can prevent the largest tax hike on Americans in our history: over $1,300 for the typical American family, according to a 2024 Tax Foundation report.

Securing our border is also a top priority after radical, far-left policies allowed for 10.5 million migrant encounters along the southwest border, including almost 2 million known got-aways and hundreds of encounters with individuals on the terror watchlist. The crisis and chaos of this open-border scheme were entirely predictable, and Republicans will work with the Trump administration to reverse it and protect our communities.

Delivering energy dominance is another important objective for this Congress. The last administration made it a mission to obstruct domestic energy production – canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, banning drilling in ANWR, reviving the so-called clean power plan and pausing permits for liquefied natural gas export facilities. The results were higher energy prices, including nearly 30 percent higher costs for gasoline and electricity that squeezed everyday Americans and our businesses.

These and other significant items like passing a new five-year Farm Bill to support our farmers, ranchers and rural communities, and bolstering our national defense are key pillars that Senate Republicans will pursue in the days ahead.

It is time to get to work, pursuing bipartisan solutions whenever possible or delivering relief in spite of obstruction when necessary.

I look forward to getting these tasks done on behalf of Arkansans who expect and deserve it.