We have the best health care system in the world. That is a statement you won’t often hear, but it’s true. For years we have listened to calls for Medicare for all and that the federal government should scrap our broken system. The list goes on and on. Yet these calls have been strangely silent […]

Over the last two weeks, violence between Israel and Palestinian terror factions in Gaza spiked following disturbances in the Old City of Jerusalem. With congruent Israeli and Islamic holidays underway, clashes and riots broke out culminating with Israeli security services conducting a raid at al Aqsa Mosque. In response, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched […]

In Congress, I sit on the House Armed Services Committee. I’m proud to support our men and women in uniform, while working to further strengthen our military and defense footprint in Alabama. Our military is the strongest and most capable in the world because of our unmatched technology and the unwavering dedication of our service […]

Always the catch-all political crime, an accusation of treason is used to punish rivals and remove them from civic engagement. Autocrats use the insinuation of treason with brutal efficiency to banish, if not execute, a political problem or inconvenient idea. While treason is bandied about to characterize someone with whose political beliefs we disagree, our […]

The 2021 Alabama Legislative Session has now officially come to an end, and I couldn’t be prouder of the way the Senate has operated since the session started in early February. Due to the coronavirus outbreak cutting the 2020 session short last year, we had a backlog of important priorities that needed to be addressed, […]

The federal government has issued three rounds of COVID “stimulus” checks and boosted unemployment benefits, first by $600 and now $300 per month. Is this the piecemeal start of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)? Under a UBI (also called a basic income guarantee), the government pays all Americans every month, say $1,000. Many would more […]

Scholarships. Funding for rural health care. New roads and bridges. These are just a few examples of what revenue from gaming and a state lottery could provide to Alabama. Like so many of our fellow Alabamians, we had great hopes that in this legislative session, elected leaders would have both the will and a way […]

In recent days, local friends and acquaintances have understandably reached out to me asking variations of the same question: what is going on in the Middle East? The conventional wisdom is that there is no easy answer. But there is: the free and democratic nation of Israel was attacked by the terrorist group Hamas, and […]

Over the course of the past few days, Hamas has fired several thousand rockets at Israelis – both Jews and Arabs alike. Hamas has long been Iran’s proxy in the region, promoting conflict, hatred and violence in deliberate attempts to kill Israeli civilians. Let’s be clear – Israel absolutely has a right to defend itself […]

President Joe Biden is a gaffe machine. He said so himself. More often than not, he’ll say the wrong thing, the right thing the wrong way or simply let his thoughts trail off and not even finish the sentence. Usually, these misspeaks and verbal fumbles make great comedy, except now we aren’t the only ones […]

Washington borrowed $4 trillion in 2021 and national debt as a percentage of GDP is higher than at the end of World War II. And the Biden administration is proposing spending trillions on infrastructure and families bills. Are our politicians bankrupting America? Economists Jason Furman and Lawrence Summers argue no. These prominent economists – Summers […]

With the passage of the Connect Alabama Act, the Alabama Legislature has effectively made the single most important investment in positioning Alabama to succeed in the 21st century. The Act will assist in expanding affordable, high-speed broadband internet access across the state to the benefit of all Alabamians. Serving as executive director of the Economic […]

Recently, North Carolina became the seventh state in the country to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory, following in the footsteps of states such as Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and Arkansas. Opponents have described Critical Race Theory as racist, divisive and left-wing ideology masqueraded as so-called education. And truth be told, those opponents […]

Several colleagues and I visited the U.S.-Mexico border to see firsthand the situation at the border. For many months, I’ve seen and heard countless reports about how bad the situation is, but I did not even come close to realizing the full extent of the crisis until I saw it with my own eyes. On […]

Occupational licensing involves government-imposed requirements for practitioners in different professions, or what critics call government permission slips to work. Despite a lack of evidence of benefits to consumers, licensing has been proliferating across Alabama and America, with the percentage of workers covered rising from 5% to over 20%. A new report from the Alabama Policy […]

MONTGOMERY, AL – This is National Drinking Water Week, a week in which we highlight the essential role of drinking water in our society and economy. Given the pandemic we have experienced and are rapidly overcoming, the reliability of our public water supply is probably more appreciated than in years past. But how did we […]

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education are unparalleled in American history. Projected learning loss, particularly for our most at-risk students, may be irreversible if we do not maximize the utility of each dollar Alabama receives for the pandemic recovery. Alabama’s students are already near last on the National Assessment on Educational Progress (NAEP), […]

Alabama is blessed with many natural resources. Water is one of the most important because it is so vital to Alabama’s environment, economy, recreation, biodiversity and quality of life. In fact, Alabama has 132,000 miles of rivers and streams as well as large groundwater supplies available for our personal use and recreational enjoyment, for keeping […]

The Alabama Legislature on Thursday gave its final approval to legislation that would allow wineries anywhere in the country to ship limited quantities of wine directly to Alabama consumers. The bill, HB437, will become law if signed by Gov. Kay Ivey. This follows a bill, SB126, passed earlier by the Legislature and signed into law […]

Despite the best efforts of parents and educators across our state, over the past year, social isolation, hunger and lost instructional time have hit our students hard. According to VOICES for Alabama’s Children, Alabama ranks 47th in the nation for child well-being and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the challenges faced by children and families.  As […]

A bipartisan bill in Washington could bring a welcome influx of cash and resources to South Alabama’s shipbuilding industry. Senators and representatives from Mississippi, Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire and Wisconsin have introduced the Supplying Help to Infrastructure in Ports, Yards, and America’s Repair Docks (SHIPYARD) Act, which would appropriate $25 billion toward shipyard infrastructure improvements […]

When President Biden ran for office, he promised to work in a bipartisan manner for the betterment of all Americans. In an attempt to build goodwill, several colleagues and I sent President Biden a letter on his first day in office letting him know we would like a seat at the table on specific issues […]

In President Biden’s first address to Congress Wednesday night, he talked about showing that American government can work. He believes that only government can lead the way and only government can solve our big problems. (A far cry from when President Reagan told us the truth, that government isn’t the answer to our problems, it […]

Like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, the proposed lottery for Alabama is back from the dead. By the time you read this, however, Alabama’s Jason might have been killed again. If so, I suspect he will return for another sequel soon. A bill allowing a lottery, casinos and sports betting failed in March […]