Despite some tweaks to the original text produced by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act continues to represent an assault on the Fourth Amendment. The Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of our constitutional republic, and crucial to defending the civil liberties of all American citizens. FISA has caused damage to the Fourth Amendment for years, and now is a critical time to support genuine reform, such as the USA RIGHTS Act. The revised version of the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act remains the exact opposite of reform, and it is worse than current law. The bill would continue the backdoor search, with an utterly meaningless “warrant requirement.” The caveats proposed to this purported “warrant requirement” are an end-run around the Fourth Amendment. The bill provides a path for the National Security Agency (NSA) to restart the practice of “abouts” collection. This means if a U.S. person mentions a potential surveillance target in a communication, the NSA can collect it, regardless of whether or not the U.S. person was communicating with anyone associated with the target.

This vote is for cloture on the Bipartisan Budget Act. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had offered an amendment to restore the original spending caps under the Budget Control Act. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "filled the tree," refusing to allow amendments. A vote for cloture is essentially a vote not to allow amendments.

The Schumer-McConnell spending deal, the Bipartisan Budget Act, is the worst-case scenario for fiscal conservatives under a Democratic president and Democrat-controlled Congress, but it is happening under a Republican president and Republican Congress. This is reckless spending, and a massive tax hike on future generations, made under the guise of “bipartisan negotiations.” This is deceitful, aggressive overspending by those elected to protect taxpayers. Leaving Americans with higher budget deficits likely over $1 trillion, and a national debt that will balloon to over $21 trillion, is no way to govern, and its weight falls squarely on the shoulders of taxpayers. This deal makes clear that Republicans only care about deficits and out-of-control federal spending under a Democratic president. With a Republican president and Republican control of the House and Senate, there is no other conclusion that one can possibly draw.

Russ Vought's nomination had been stalled by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sought to leverage his obstruction of the nomination in exchange for more emergency supplemental funding for his home state. Vought's credentials to serve in this important post, which handles budget and regulatory policy for the White House, were never in question. Democrats opposed Vought's nomination over issues that have nothing to do with his ability to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act instructs the Comptroller General of the United States, who serves as the director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to complete an audit of the Federal Reserve within 12 months of its enactment. A report of the findings of the audit would be required within 90 days of its completion. The bill would require the Federal Reserve to provide information to the GAO, currently excluded from audits under 31 USC 714(b), including discussions between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, as well as transactions with foreign banks. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

The REINS Act would require congressional approval for economically significant rules promulgated by federal regulatory agencies. Under the REINS Act, the House and Senate would have to vote on a proposed rule and the president would have to sign it before enforcement of the rule can begin. The bill would give Congress 70 days to pass a resolution to approve a rule. If a resolution is not passed, the rule cannot take effect. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

The National Right to Work Act amends the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act to ensure that no employees are required to join a union as a condition of their employment. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

The CREATES Act would grant relief in court for generic and biosimilar competitors seeking FDA approval. This would clear the pathway for new drugs to enter the market, drastically reducing prices through increased competition. The cost savings stemming from this legislation could reach between 15 percent and 50 percent of current prices for impacted drugs. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

The CBO Show Your Work Act would require the Congressional Budget Office to make the models and data employed to produce its analyses and cost estimates, as well as any details that were used, available to Congress and on the agency’s website. This much-needed transparency will allow interested parties outside of Congress to hold the CBO accountable. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

SRCA would provide a a comprehensive solution to the myriad of problems marring the federal criminal justice system by offering a three-faceted approach: front-end sentencing reform, back-end corrections reform, and a commission created to study the criminal justice system. These reforms, proven effective at the state level to reducing recidivism, lowering crime, and saving taxpayer dollars can and should be applied to the federal justice system. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

The Earmark Elimination Act would make permanent the temporary moratorium on congressional earmarks put into effect in 2010 by creating a point of order against any provision within a bill that matches the definition of an earmark, and when raised would be stricken absent a two-thirds majority to override. Should Leader McConnell bring this bill to the floor, FreedomWorks will substitute the cosponsor key vote for the roll call vote.

Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act would provide targeted relief in the banking industry from onerous regulatory overreach into the financial sector created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly known as “Dodd-Frank.” Initially passed in response to the recession of 2008, Dodd-Frank created a series of reforms that were supposed to address the issues in the financial sector that had supposedly caused the recession, but instead created a climate of overregulation, authorized the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with little to no oversight, and gave the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) the authority to label financial firms as too big to fail. Dodd-Frank has actually been hurting community banks in favor of larger ones. Forced consolidation under Dodd-Frank has actually caused the number of community banks to shrink by roughly 14 percent between 2010 to 2014 while one in five U.S. banks have gone under (that’s 1,708 overall, or about one per business day) with few, if any, new banks being created since the law’s enactment to 2016. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act is a step in the right direction, addressing many of the issues that Dodd-Frank has created. One such important issue it addresses, although not fully, is the “too big to fail” problem invented by Dodd-Frank. The bill would raise the asset threshold for systemically important financial institution (SIFI) designations from $50 billion to $250 billion. Raising the SIFI designation threshold has the much-needed effect of relieving up to 25 banks from the section of Dodd-Frank that authorizes excessively stringent regulations for those deemed “too big to fail.” Furthermore, the bill would provide relief for institutions with less than $10 billion in assets to be exempt from a number of regulations, including allowing them to waive the ability-to-repay requirements for certain residential-mortgage loans, and to be exempt from the “Volcker Rule” which prohibits banking agencies from engaging in proprietary trading or entering into certain relationships with hedge funds and private-equity funds. It also includes a myriad of other provisions for limited financial sector regulatory relief, such as from specified capital and leverage ratios, certain Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements, licensing process requirements under the SAFE for Mortgage Licensing Act, and certain escrow requirements as well. On the whole, the bill is not perfect and Congress would do themselves well to expand the scope of reform and systematically overhaul the financial regulations on the banking industry entirely. However, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act would provide significant and necessary relief to the financial sector, opening up the market to create new jobs and invite new business.

Altogether, the bill spends nearly $1.3 trillion in discretionary funds – $700 billion for defense, and $591 billion for non-defense – for fiscal year 2018 alone. These appropriations would bring us back to Obama-era trillion-dollar yearly deficits, and balloon our national debt to nearly $22 trillion. This level of spending for a unified Republican government is unacceptable and breaks the promises of every Republican member who ran on a platform of defending taxpayers, spending responsibly, and reigning in the size of government.

Between his time as an aviator in the United States Navy, his firsthand experience serving as the executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, and his work in Congress, Bridenstine is extraordinarily qualified for the role of NASA administrator. In this role at NASA, Bridenstine will have the ability to bring much-needed reform to the agency, implementing the same principles of free markets and government efficiency that he tirelessly fought for in Congress. Serving on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Bridenstine became a champion of issues pertaining to air and space exploration.

The passage of this CRA would do nothing to change the prohibition against discrimination in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that the guidance cites. It would simply roll back the gross regulatory overreach of the CFPB in claiming for itself -- behind closed doors and a screen of smoke -- a power that Congress, in the law that created the CFPB, explicitly banned the CFPB from having. As Sen. Moran said, the CFPB “had to work its magic to find a way to regulate auto dealers.” Good governing is done through accountable and transparent processes, not magic.

S.J.Res. 52 would undo the Restoring Internet Freedom Order and reinstate the Obama administration’s Internet red tape. This will hurt tech companies, as well as consumers. Internet access is becoming vital to commerce, and many Americans still lack connectivity. In order to get service to these most vulnerable parts of the country, we need an Internet free of the meddling hand of government, so it can innovate and expand as it did for so many years before the Obama-era regulations took effect.

S.J.Res. 52 would undo the Restoring Internet Freedom Order and reinstate the Obama administration’s Internet red tape. This will hurt tech companies, as well as consumers. Internet access is becoming vital to commerce, and many Americans still lack connectivity. In order to get service to these most vulnerable parts of the country, we need an Internet free of the meddling hand of government, so it can innovate and expand as it did for so many years before the Obama-era regulations took effect.