{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "is_view": false, "human_description_en": "where party = \"Republican\", state = \"AR\" and year = 2019 sorted by date descending", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1284", "Cotton Statement on Iranian-Backed Attack on U.S. Embassy in Iraq", "2019-12-31", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 31, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after Iran organized an attack on the United States Embassy in Baghdad: \"When an Iran-backed militia killed an American in Iraq last week, it met with a firm response. Now our embassy in Baghdad-sovereign U.S. territory-has been attacked in yet another reckless escalation. As the President notes, Iran must be held responsible.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-iranian-backed-attack-on-us-embassy-in-iraq", "Cotton Statement on Iranian-Backed Attack on U.S. Embassy in Iraq", "2019-12-31", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after Iran organized an attack on the United States Embassy in Baghdad:\n\n\"When an Iran-backed militia killed an American in Iraq last week, it met with a firm response. Now our embassy in Baghdad-sovereign U.S. territory-has been attacked in yet another reckless escalation. As the President notes, Iran must be held responsible.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/serving-arkansans-let-me-help-you", "Serving Arkansans: Let Me Help You", "2019-12-30", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Helping Arkansans with problems they have with federal agencies is a top priority for me. When Natural State residents call for help navigating the federal bureaucracy, my staff and I are here to assist however we can.\r\nIn 2019, my office received more than 2,500 new requests for help with federal agencies, including assisting 44 Arkansans with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 223 problems with veterans' disability claims and 26 issues with the U.S. Postal Service. While the need for help is steady each year, knowing about these problems gives me a better idea of what is working and not working in the federal government.\r\nOver the last 12 months, more constituents asked me for help with military records and medals than any other issue. Although this is usually a top request, it accounted for more than 25 percent of the requests for assistance I received. It is not surprising that veterans and their families need help with these issues. It can be overwhelming to try to track down documents that could be at one of several different repositories or to reconstruct files that were destroyed in a 1970s fire. We also get many last-minute requests from families and funeral homes when they need documents to provide proper honors at a funeral or proof of eligibility for burial in a National Cemetery. This is important work and I am pleased that my office has developed expertise with these issues.\r\nNotable among this year's casework achievements was obtaining the 70-year-old medals of WWII and Korean War veteran Thomas Vaughns. The 99-year-old served with the Tuskegee Airmen and spent his life in service to others, earning several medals for his dedication to our country. I was honored to present these medals to him during a ceremony at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Mr. Vaughns is a tremendous example of the spirit of our Greatest Generation.\r\nOther challenging requests my office received included a number of international and immigration issues. The paperwork and processes involved in immigration, visas and passports often require specialized help. In 2019, we assisted with 99 problems involving U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and 97 with the State Department. These included a Northwest Arkansas woman whose citizenship paperwork was lost in the 1980s and a missionary family whose international adoption was hindered by civil unrest in Haiti. I was pleased that assistance from my office led to immigration officials digging further to finally verify that citizenship and allowed the family to bring their child to the U.S. for the first time.\r\nI often hear from Arkansans who spent considerable time trying to get answers from federal agencies. While I can't make the decisions, we're here to make sure these problems are examined by the right people. I am proud of the work my office does to help Arkansans each day and I look forward to continuing this important mission in 2020.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1283", "Cotton Statement on U.S. Strikes in Iraq and Syria", "2019-12-29", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 29, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after the United States  conducted strikes on five facilities in Iraq and Syria: \"Today's strikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria are a justified response to the killing of an American and the wounding of several American service members and Iraqis. Tehran must stop attacking Americans or else face even graver consequences.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-us-strikes-in-iraq-and-syria", "Cotton Statement on U.S. Strikes in Iraq and Syria", "2019-12-29", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after the United States\n\nconducted strikes on five facilities in Iraq and Syria:\n\n\"Today's strikes against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria are a justified response to the killing of an American and the wounding of several American service members and Iraqis. Tehran must stop attacking Americans or else face even graver consequences.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1282", "Cotton Statement on Rocket Attack on Iraqi Military Base", "2019-12-28", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 28, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 28, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Rocket Attack on Iraqi Military Base\n\nWashington, D.C.Following reports of a rocket attack that killed an American citizen and injured four American troops at a military base in Kirkuk, Iraq, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\n\nIf American blood was shed by an Iran-backed group, Tehran ought to face swift and severe consequences. \n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-rocket-attack-on-iraqi-military-base", "Cotton Statement on Rocket Attack on Iraqi Military Base", "2019-12-28", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 28, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Rocket Attack on Iraqi Military Base\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Following reports of a rocket attack that killed an American citizen and injured four American troops at a military base in Kirkuk, Iraq, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\n\n\u201cIf American blood was shed by an Iran-backed group, Tehran ought to face swift and severe consequences.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/closing-out-2019", "Closing Out 2019", "2019-12-27", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "It's hard to believe 2019 is almost over. This year has been filled from beginning to end with constituent meetings, legislation, House votes, Arkansas business tours and lots of time in the Atlanta airport waiting for my connecting flight to D.C. I think the numbers speak for themselves: in 2019, my office mailed out 212,320 letters to constituents, opened 826 new casework files, held 58 mobile offices around the Fourth District, gave 152 U.S. Capitol tours and visited more than 37 local Arkansas businesses. I also sponsored or cosponsored 140 bills in the House.\nMany of these bill ideas came directly from constituents. Take, for example, the Keeping Our Promises Act and H.R. 2201, inspired by Mr. Bill Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes has consistently run into roadblocks with the VA when trying to get medical benefits for Agent Orange exposure, and these bills would make it easier for Vietnam-era veterans to claim their benefits. The Fair Care Act is another example, written after receiving input from constituents about how unaffordable their health care had become. This legislation would insure more Americans at a lower cost, cover preexisting conditions and include more rural health options.\nOf course, all of this would mean nothing without each one of you. I'm constantly receiving encouraging texts, notes and calls from people back home, and it reminds me why I'm here in Washington. I'm humbled and honored to serve you in Congress, and look forward to another exciting year ahead.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6418", "LOST IN TRANSPORTATION: Rep. Hill Awards Golden Fleece to DOT for Losing Nearly $3 Million in Laptops", "2019-12-23", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.  This week, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) named the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for failing to account for an estimated 34.3 percent of laptops purchased between 2013 and 2017. DOT has earned my Golden Fleece this month not only for losing nearly $3 million in taxpayer-purchased equipment, but also for ignoring the standards to prevent this kind of loss in the first place, said Congressman Hill. As recipients of hard-earned taxpayer dollars, our federal agencies should hold themselves to the highest standards of oversight and accountability for tracking inventory. There are many infrastructure projects in central Arkansas that could have put the taxpayer dollars lost by DOT to better use. In a letter to DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, Congressman Hill wrote:  Dear Secretary Chao:  I write today to inform you that your agency is the most recent recipient of my Golden Fleece Award. I am awarding the Golden Fleece to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) because it could not account for an estimated 34.3 percent of laptops purchased between 2013 and 2017. According to a recent DOT Office of Inspector General (OIG) report DOT purchased 5,448 laptops between n FY 2013 to 2017 at a cost of approximately $8.6 million. Further, the OIG report states, \"[the OIG] estimate[s] that DOT could not account for 1,870 or 34.3 percent of the 5,448 laptops in the universe. This represents $2.9 million in funds that could have been put to better use (33.8 percent of the $8.6 million in the universe).\" Our government agencies must ensure proper controls are in place so equipment purchased with taxpayer funds does not go unaccounted for. When our nation is more than $23 trillion in debt, our federal agencies must be good stewards of taxpayers' dollars. Should you require any additional authority from Congress to address these concerns, I urge you to notify us as soon as possible. I thank you for your consideration and look forward to working with you to address this important issue. Sincerely,   \r\nFrench Hill   \r\nMember of Congress\r\nAbout the Golden Fleece Award  \r\nEvery year, Congress appropriates trillions of dollars to fund the federal government, and every year the federal government wastes portions of these funds in unconscionable ways. In an attempt to increase accountability for every single government program, Congressman Hill decided to bring back the Golden Fleece Award. Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers' dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters. In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/commemorating-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-the-bulge", "Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge", "2019-12-23", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "There was little to celebrate at Christmas in 1944 for American soldiers pinned down by the German Army in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg. Instead of a warm meal and time with family, they were facing record-low temperatures and a shortage of food. The men on the frontlines dug into the snow to defend against the enemy at the Battle of the Bulge and ended up dealing a critical blow to the Nazi regime.\r\n100-year-old World War II veteran Bill Strauss of Salem, Arkansas is one of the brave men from the Greatest Generation who won't forget that Christmas. Earlier this year, Strauss shared with me his experiences in one of the deadliest battles in American history. He detailed the bitter cold and dire conditions. With lack of sleep and dwindling supplies, he and his fellow troops endured this extreme test of will and resolve.\r\nOn December 16, 1944, American soldiers were unexpectedly attacked by Germans forces. The six-week battle demonstrated the commitment, courage and resilience of American soldiers. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called it the greatest American battle of the war. It would be the German's last major offensive in Western Europe in World War II, and it came at a considerable cost. More than 89,000 American soldiers were casualties including 19,000 soldiers killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing in action.\r\nI recently led a delegation of senators to events commemorating the 75thanniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. I was honored to visit with American veterans who fought in the battle and were returning to the land they'd defended. There are fewer and fewer who are able to join, but that doesn't diminish what they did there or the steadfast way they fought and sacrificed in the name of freedom.\r\nThe people of Belgium and Luxembourg have a close place in their hearts for American soldiers who sacrificed their lives on foreign soil. Following World War II, the Belgian people raised money to build a memorial to show their appreciation for the selfless sacrifice of American troops. The Mardasson Memorial was dedicated in 1950. The walls of the star-shaped structure commemorate the battle, paying tribute to the units that fought there and representing the states where those woundedor whose lives were lost hailed from.\r\nThis memorial is in need of repairs. That's why I support legislation that would let experts at the American Battle Monuments Commission oversee its restoration. Maintaining this memorial is critical to ensuring it continues to stand as a monument to the sacrifices made by Americans at the Battle of the Bulge.\r\nWe can be proud of the unwavering bravery of the American troops and the Allied Forces whose efforts defeated the German attack and led to the end of the Nazi regime. I was honored to support the Senate-passed resolution recognizing the 75thanniversary of this battle and honoring the heroism of the troops who helped secure this victory. As we reflect on this occasion, let us preserve the legacy of brave individuals like Bill Strauss and countless others whose courage and sacrifice secured peace in Europe.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1281", "Senators Cotton, Shaheen, Second Lady Applaud Law Reforming Occupational Licensing for Military Spouses", "2019-12-21", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 21, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 21, 2019\n\n\nSenators Cotton, Shaheen, Second Lady Applaud Law Reforming Occupational Licensing for Military Spouses \n\nWashington, D.C.Yesterday the president signed into law the Portable Certification of Spouses (PCS) Act, legislation U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) included in the 2020 defense bill and introduced at a press conference with Second Lady Karen Pence in May.\n\nMany military spouses struggle to recertify their occupational licenses as they moveon average every two to three yearsfrom state to state. The Portable Certification of Spouses Act will now allow the Defense Department to fund the creation of interstate compacts that will create common, portable credentials for major professions. The law will also help alleviate the burden military spouses bear when having to re-register a small business in a new state each time a service member gets reassigned to a new military installation.\n\n\"One-in-three military spouses work in a field that requires an occupational license, and too many of them are forced to re-certify every time they move between states. Military families already shoulder heavy loads for our countrythey shouldn't also have to worry about state regulations that prevent wives or husbands from working in their own profession. With our bill now law, those spouses can soon pursue their careers uninterrupted, even while they're moving their family from state to state and base to base, said Cotton.\n\nMilitary families make significant sacrifices on behalf of our country, so if we have the opportunity to make things a little easier for them, we need to seize it,said Shaheen. This new law cuts through the red tape hindering military spouses from practicing their professions or restarting their businesses as they move with their families around the country. I'm relieved for military families that this measure is now the law of the land and will work closely with the administration to make sure it is implemented comprehensively. I appreciate the support from members on both sides of the aisle to include this commonsense fix in the defense bill and provide support to military spouses, and I offer my sincerest thanks to our military families for their continued service to our nation.  Military spouse employment is an important aspect of a strong and resilient military family, said Mrs. Pence. Military spouses make countless sacrifices, and it is the right thing for us to come alongside and do everything we can to enable them to work in their chosen field. I am thrilled the PCS Act is now law and I applaud the bipartisan collaboration to address military spouse employment challenges.\n\nThe signing of this legislation into law means that military spouses have one less hurdle to maintain their professional careers as they move following their active duty military spouse from base to base,said Andrea Krull, a small business owner whose husband is in the United States Navy.This law will allow me to establish my business in one state and maintain that status for the duration of my husband's military service. It will allow me the opportunity to spend less time navigating administrative red tape and more time serving my clients, and ultimately providing for my family.\n\nBackground:\n\nOver 34 percent of military spouses work in fields that require a state license in order to practice. These spouses are often required to recertify and pay to recertify this license every time they move between states with their spouse. Re-certification has become too long, expensive, detrimental to the careers of spouses, and prohibitive financially to military families who could benefit from two household incomes instead of one. This process often effects a service member's desire to stay in the military long-term. This law will impact spouses working in fields such as health-related occupations and education. 56 percent of licensed military spouses work in health-related occupations and 29 percent in education respectively. The fields which could may benefit from this law include, but are not limited to, the following: teachers, advance practice nurses, physician's assistants, occupational therapists, dentists, dental hygienists, nutritionists, counselors, social workers, veterinarians, cosmetologists, and realtors.\n\nThe PCS Act was originally introduced in May 2019 as a stand-alone bill before being included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. \n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-cotton-shaheen-second-lady-applaud-law-reforming-occupational-licensing-for-military-spouses", "Senators Cotton, Shaheen, Second Lady Applaud Law Reforming Occupational Licensing for Military Spouses", "2019-12-21", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 21, 2019\n\nSenators Cotton, Shaheen, Second Lady Applaud Law Reforming Occupational Licensing for Military Spouses\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Yesterday the president signed into law the Portable Certification of Spouses (PCS) Act, legislation U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) included in the 2020 defense bill and introduced at a press conference with Second Lady Karen Pence in May.\n\nMany military spouses struggle to recertify their occupational licenses as they move\u2014on average every two to three years\u2014from state to state. The Portable Certification of Spouses Act will now allow the Defense Department to fund the creation of interstate compacts that will create common, portable credentials for major professions. The law will also help alleviate the burden military spouses bear when having to re-register a small business in a new state each time a service member gets reassigned to a new military installation.\n\n\"One-in-three military spouses work in a field that requires an occupational license, and too many of them are forced to re-certify every time they move between states. Military families already shoulder heavy loads for our country\u2014they shouldn't also have to worry about state regulations that prevent wives or husbands from working in their own profession. With our bill now law, those spouses can soon pursue their careers uninterrupted, even while they're moving their family from state to state and base to base,\u201d said Cotton.\n\n\u201cMilitary families make significant sacrifices on behalf of our country, so if we have the opportunity to make things a little easier for them, we need to seize it,\u201d said Shaheen. \u201cThis new law cuts through the red tape hindering military spouses from practicing their professions or restarting their businesses as they move with their families around the country. I\u2019m relieved for military families that this measure is now the law of the land and will work closely with the administration to make sure it is implemented comprehensively. I appreciate the support from members on both sides of the aisle to include this commonsense fix in the defense bill and provide support to military spouses, and I offer my sincerest thanks to our military families for their continued service to our nation.\u201d\n\n\u201cMilitary spouse employment is an important aspect of a strong and resilient military family,\u201d said Mrs. Pence. \u201cMilitary spouses make countless sacrifices, and it is the right thing for us to come alongside and do everything we can to enable them to work in their chosen field. I am thrilled the PCS Act is now law and I applaud the bipartisan collaboration to address military spouse employment challenges.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe signing of this legislation into law means that military spouses have one less hurdle to maintain their professional careers as they move following their active duty military spouse from base to base,\u201d said Andrea Krull, a small business owner whose husband is in the United States Navy. \u201cThis law will allow me to establish my business in one state and maintain that status for the duration of my husband\u2019s military service. It will allow me the opportunity to spend less time navigating administrative red tape and more time serving my clients, and ultimately providing for my family.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nOver 34 percent of military spouses work in fields that require a state license in order to practice. These spouses are often required to recertify and pay to recertify this license every time they move between states with their spouse. Re-certification has become too long, expensive, detrimental to the careers of spouses, and prohibitive financially to military families who could benefit from two household incomes instead of one. This process often effects a service member's desire to stay in the military long-term.\n\nThis law will impact spouses working in fields such as health-related occupations and education. 56 percent of licensed military spouses work in health-related occupations and 29 percent in education respectively. The fields which could may benefit from this law include, but are not limited to, the following: teachers, advance practice nurses, physician's assistants, occupational therapists, dentists, dental hygienists, nutritionists, counselors, social workers, veterinarians, cosmetologists, and realtors.\n\nThe PCS Act was originally introduced in May 2019 as a stand-alone bill before being included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/why-i-voted-against-impeachment", "Why I Voted Against Impeachment", "2019-12-20", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "I voted against the impeachment of President Donald Trump. I believe impeachment is one of the most serious votes Congress can use  second only to declaring war  and unfortunately this whole process has been a sham from beginning to end.\nIn fact, it began before President Trump was even sworn into office. On Inauguration Day 2017, the Washington Post ran a story titled, The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib declared right after she was elected, We're going to impeach the [expletive]. Texas Rep. Al Green said in May of this year, I'm concerned that if we don't impeach this president, he will get re-elected. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in November, This is about preventing a potentially disastrous outcome from occurring next year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just a week ago that Democrats' impeachment efforts have been ongoing for two and a half years. Democrats have shown their true colors over and over again: impeachment isn't about finding the truth, it's about removing a president they despise from office.\nIn the past few months, the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees completely neglected legislative work and instead spent taxpayer dollars subpoenaing witnesses and hearing testimony. Adam Schiff's closed-door hearings allowed him to selectively leak information that fit his narrative. Judiciary Committee's only witnesses were law school professors and congressional staff. Democrats' original claims of bribery and quid pro quo didn't even make it into the final articles of impeachment. It's been an ever-changing narrative, dictated by primetime ratings and whatever happened to be polling well that day.\nFor these and many other reasons, I voted against impeachment. In my lifetime, I've already seen three presidential impeachments, and we cannot allow this to become our new normal. Congress must get back to the business of legislating for the American people, addressing top priorities like prescription drug costs and health care reform.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/crawford-county-mobile-office", "Crawford County Mobile Office", "2019-12-20", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Members of my staff host Mobile Office events across the state year-around. These events allow my staff to be available at the walk-in events to help Arkansans who are having problems involving the federal government or who want to share their thoughts about legislative issues.\nBelow is a complete listing of upcoming (denoted by red push pin) and past (denoted by blue push pin) mobile offices:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/senate-hunger-caucus-concludes-inaugural-food-drive", "Senate Hunger Caucus Concludes Inaugural Food Drive", "2019-12-20", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONMembers of the Senate community came together to help those in need this holiday season by donating canned and packaged food to the Senate Hunger Caucus' first-ever food drive. motivation\r\nCaucus co-chairs Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) spearheaded the initiative by securing Senate approval of a resolution to permit the collection of food for charitable purposes in the Senate office buildings.\r\nCollection boxes were distributed throughout the Russell, Dirksen and Hart Senate office buildings for drop-off of food donations in a drive that ran from November 18-December 9, 2019.\r\nDonations collected during the drive were presented to the Capital Area Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in the Washington, D.C. metro area.\r\n\r\nSenate Hunger Caucus co-chairs Sens. Boozman, Brown, Casey and Moran present donations collected at the caucus's inaugural holiday food drive to Radha Muthiah, President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6414", "Rep. Hill Cheers House Passage of USMCA", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after voting in support of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), replacing the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Today's passage of USMCA means more than 100,000 Arkansas farmers, ranchers, and manufacturerscan celebrate this holiday season knowing that increased exports, more jobs, and rising wages are coming in 2020 and beyond. From day one, this renegotiation of NAFTA was focused on building growth in a 21st century economy and creating a level playing field for American workers.USMCAsets thestage for billions more in U.S. economic activity andstrengthens our hand as we negotiate new trade deals with China, the United Kingdom, and other global partners. I've been on the front lines of this hard-negotiated trade deal for the past three years because it has the greatest potential to directly improve the lives of central Arkansas families. USMCA was one of President Trump's top priorities for the American people, and I want to congratulate him, U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, and my House colleagues on this historic achievement. Background:\r\nCongressman Hill is a member of the USMCA Republican House Whip Team and has extensive international experience working on trade. In 1989, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance, where one of his key assignments was representing the United States as a negotiator in the historic bilateral talks with Japan known as the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII).While serving in President Bush's White House as Executive Secretary of the President's Economic Policy Council (EPC), he chaired the weekly interagency Trade Policy Review Group.\r\nIn Arkansas, USMCA will:\r\n \r\n    Support the $2.1 billion in exports shipped from Arkansas to Canada and Mexico every year.\r\n    Open Canada's market to sell dairy, wheat, chicken, eggs, and turkey from Arkansas farmers.\r\n    Modernize intellectual property (IP) protections allowing Arkansas's growing technology industry to continue driving new innovation and job creation.\r\n    Ensure tariff-free trade for Arkansas manufacturers which could have faced up to $225 million in extra taxes without USMCA.\r\n \r\nThis year, Congressman Hill has been a leading voice onchampioning America's trade priorities and advocating for passage of USMCA. This May, Congressman HilljoinedMSNBC's Morning Joeto talk about the latest developments on USMCA trade talks. ClickHEREor on the picture below to watch the full interview with Congressman Hill on Morning Joe.  \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn November, Congressman Hill joinedKARK's Capitol Viewto discussthe positive impact that USMCA will have on Arkansas's 100,000 farmers and producers who will benefit from the new trade deal.ClickHEREon the video below to watch his remarks.  \r\n\r\n\r\n This past May, theArkansas Democrat-Gazettepublished an op-ed by Congressman Hill highlighting the importance of finalizing USMCA in order to open trade markets for Arkansas exportsincluding services, agricultural, manufacturing, and energy. That op-ed can be readHERE.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \"On balance, the USMCA is a successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is superior to the existing arrangement and is a far better proposal than the alternative of scrapping NAFTA and returning to World Trade Organization rules. This agreement is good for American workers, taxpayers, businesses, and consumers and will keep the United States and our North American markets competitive for decades to come.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-gallagher-burchett-braun-introduce-bicameral-prescription", "Westerman, Gallagher, Burchett, Braun Introduce Bicameral Prescription Drug Legislation", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Sen .Mike Braun (R-Ind.) introduced the bicameral Conditional Approval Act, which would establish a pathway in the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase access and lower costs of prescription drugs.\n\n\"Americans face the highest prescription drug costs of any modernized country,\" Westerman said. \"This is unacceptable. Congress needs to enact legislation that lowers costs and gives patients access to new, innovative cures. This bill gives small pharmaceuticals and startup biotechnology companies the opportunity to bring their drugs to market faster, allowing them to compete against monopolistic pharmaceutical companies and giving patients access to lifesaving treatments. I'm grateful for my colleagues in both the House and Senate who have come together on this bill and will continue working with stakeholders to get a conditional approval pathway passed.\"\n\n\"If we have the opportunity to improve patients' access to potentially lifesaving medicine, we should do it,\" Gallagher said. \"This bill is a no brainer. It helps level the playing field for small pharmaceutical companies and expedites the process by which critical medicine hits the market. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this across the finish line, and hope we can all come together to find a solution on conditional approval pathways.\"\n\n\"The cost of critical drugs relied upon by Americans needs to be lower, and the best way to do that is through innovative, free market solutions,\" Burchett said. \"Our country is home to some of the brightest folks when it comes to developing new medicines, but sometimes these medicines are backlogged in a bureaucratic, expensive FDA process that delays them from coming to market faster. I am proud to support this common sense bill that rolls back these burdensome FDA regulations and allows new life-saving medicines to reach consumers who desperately need them.\"\n\n\"Patients with fatal diseases are fighting for their lives every day while real, meaningful, life-extending treatments sit on the shelf just beyond their reach,\" Braun said. \"For those who are so courageously battling terrible diseases, the least we can do is not stand in their way.\"\n\nBackground\n\nThe FDA refers to the clinical trial process for prescription drugs in phases, i.e. Phase I, II and III. Early clinical trials (Phases I and II) establish and confirm safety while providing a considerable amount of data, often enough to statistically predict successful confirmatory trials. Confirmatory trials (Phase III) further test effectiveness and are the last step to a drug entering the market for patients' use under a New Drug Application or Biologics License Application approval.\n\nHowever, Phase III trials are extremely time-consuming and expensive, in some cases costing billions of dollars. If the FDA determines a drug doesn't meet its standards of safety or effectiveness, small pharmaceuticals attempting to bring innovative drugs to market and compete with large drug companies can go bankrupt during Phase III trials.\n\nThe Conditional Approval Act would allow pharmaceutical companies to petition the FDA for conditional approval if the drug has cleared early stage clinical trials, already having proven safety and showing significant evidence of effectiveness. The company could then sell their drug at a market acceptable rate, give patients access to innovative treatments and compete with large, monopolistic pharmaceuticals to lower consumer cost.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-gallagher-burchett-braun-introduce-bicameral-prescription-drug", "Westerman, Gallagher, Burchett, Braun Introduce Bicameral Prescription Drug Legislation", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON  Today, U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Sen .Mike Braun (R-Ind.) introduced the bicameral Conditional Approval Act, which would establish a pathway in the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase access and lower costs of prescription drugs.\nAmericans face the highest prescription drug costs of any modernized country, Westerman said. This is unacceptable. Congress needs to enact legislation that lowers costs and gives patients access to new, innovative cures. This bill gives small pharmaceuticals and startup biotechnology companies the opportunity to bring their drugs to market faster, allowing them to compete against monopolistic pharmaceutical companies and giving patients access to lifesaving treatments. I'm grateful for my colleagues in both the House and Senate who have come together on this bill and will continue working with stakeholders to get a conditional approval pathway passed.\nIf we have the opportunity to improve patients' access to potentially lifesaving medicine, we should do it, Gallagher said. This bill is a no brainer. It helps level the playing field for small pharmaceutical companies and expedites the process by which critical medicine hits the market. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this across the finish line, and hope we can all come together to find a solution on conditional approval pathways.\nThe cost of critical drugs relied upon by Americans needs to be lower, and the best way to do that is through innovative, free market solutions, Burchett said. Our country is home to some of the brightest folks when it comes to developing new medicines, but sometimes these medicines are backlogged in a bureaucratic, expensive FDA process that delays them from coming to market faster. I am proud to support this common sense bill that rolls back these burdensome FDA regulations and allows new life-saving medicines to reach consumers who desperately need them.\nPatients with fatal diseases are fighting for their lives every day while real, meaningful, life-extending treatments sit on the shelf just beyond their reach, Braun said. For those who are so courageously battling terrible diseases, the least we can do is not stand in their way.\nBackground\n\nThe FDA refers to the clinical trial process for prescription drugs in phases, i.e. Phase I, II and III.Early clinical trials (Phases I and II) establish and confirm safety while providing a considerable amount of data, often enough to statistically predict successful confirmatory trials. Confirmatory trials (Phase III) further test effectiveness and are the last step to a drug entering the market for patients' use under a New Drug Application or Biologics License Application approval.\nHowever, Phase III trials are extremely time-consuming and expensive, in some cases costing billions of dollars. If the FDA determines a drug doesn't meet its standards of safety or effectiveness, small pharmaceuticals attempting to bring innovative drugs to market and compete with large drug companies can go bankrupt during Phase III trials.\nThe Conditional Approval Act would allow pharmaceutical companies to petition the FDA for conditional approval if the drug has cleared early stage clinical trials, already having proven safety and showing significant evidence of effectiveness. The company could then sell their drug at a market acceptable rate, give patients access to innovative treatments and compete with large, monopolistic pharmaceuticals to lower consumer cost.\nTo read the full text of the Conditional Approval Act, click here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403774", "ICYMI: Arkansas Priorities Included in Appropriations Packages", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "ICYMI: Arkansas Priorities Included in Appropriations Packages \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        Washington,\r\n        December 19, 2019\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      Washington, DCDecember 19, 2019....With appropriations packages passed in the House earlier this week, Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) announced several key victories for the Third District and Arkansas. The following provisions were included in the two Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations packages that fully fund the government through September 30th, 2020:\r\n \r\n    Arkansas Military: Supports Arkansas National Guard priorities, including funding for the Razorback Range mission in Fort Smith and C-130 modernization at the Little Rock Air Force Base. Enhances resources for military tools (missiles, rockets, and other components) developed in Arkansas. Examples include Tomahawk components built throughout Northwest Arkansas and high-tech military materials built in Fayetteville. It also institutes a 3.1% pay raise for our troops  the largest increase in a decade.\r\n \r\n \r\n    University of Arkansas: Funds important agriculture and education grants, the National Agriculture Library in Fayetteville, and the National Clean Plant Network program. Additionally, the bill supports NASA research and projects to address solutions and responses to Chronic Wasting Disease, which has severely impacted the Northwest Arkansas deer population.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Law Enforcement: Supports the Department of Justice's Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) program, which is used by the Rogers Police Department and other Third District law enforcement departments and agencies to share information and support services to combat crime.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Fire Departments: Includes resources for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, which directly help fire departments, like the Springdale Fire Department, and volunteer firefighter organizationsto increase or maintain the number of trained firefighters available in communities.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Economic Development: Enhances economic development programs through the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which have supported local programs and projects in the past. The EDA helped move forward the Career Technology Center in Fort Smith, Industrial Park in Berryville, and the expansion of Goblin Drive in Harrison this past year.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Small Business: Provides funding for small business programs, including SBA disaster loans and the SBA Regional Innovation Clusters, to support continued economic growth and opportunity. Local businesses like Startup Junkie in Fayetteville have benefited from these resources.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Infrastructure: Includes $1 billion for BUILD grants, with a requirement that 50% of the money goes to rural communities. An example of a local BUILD grant funded project includes a $25 million grant for the I-49 Bella Vista Bypass. Additionally, the legislation includes funding for programs to modernize and invest in small and rural airports.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Medical Research: Enhances resources for medical research through the National Institutes of Health for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, as well as local initiatives to address obesity and the opioid epidemic.\r\n \r\n \r\n    Army Corps: Strengthens funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to help support navigation and flood control improvements locally and nationwide.\r\n \r\n \r\n    National Parks: Increases investment to address the U.S. National Park Service maintenance backlog.\r\n \r\nThe appropriations bills, which Congressman Womack supported, were passed in the House earlier this week and are expected to be voted on in the Senate today.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###\r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403775", "Womack Supports Arkansas Trade, Votes for Critical USMCA", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 19, 2019.Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) today voted to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This critical trade deal, which was secured by President Trump and the Administration, modernizes U.S. trade policies with Canada and Mexico, which are Arkansas's two top trading partners. The legislation provides a strong framework that will support economic growth, enhance market access, create jobs, and unleash new sources of opportunity.\r\nCongressman Womack said, The USMCA exemplifies a new standard of strength and brings our trade policies into the 21st century. This agreement will boost our economy and support Arkansas's farmers, ranchers, producers, workers, and manufacturers. The Natural State is open for business, and greater market access with two of our top trading partners will further unleash opportunity and success across all sectors. Although this deal should have been ratified long ago, I am pleased that we are finally one step closer to delivering this win to hardworking Arkansans. By putting America first, we are renewing our trade relationships in a way that will build a more prosperous economy in our state and nation.\r\nMelvin Torres, Director of Western Hemisphere Trade at the World Trade Center Arkansas, said, After years of consistent growth in exports from Arkansas to Canada and Mexico, long-term data has shown that a more modern trade agreement will exceedingly propel the state's economy. Likewise, Arkansas is in a unique position, as it exports more than it imports to both countries combined over the past years. The World Trade Center Arkansas has worked diligently with small businesses, farmers, state and federal officials like Congressman Steve Womack, to listen and communicate the factual data showing the economic impact of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.\r\nAmong key wins in this trade deal, the USMCA will: \r\n \r\n    Increase market access for Arkansas products in Mexico and Canada; \r\n    Give Arkansas poultry producers new export access to Canada for chicken and eggs;\r\n    Expand the ability of Arkansas producers to sell turkey abroad; \r\n    Support more than 120,000 jobs in the Natural State; \r\n    Assist American innovators by creating a new chapter dedicated to digital trade;\r\n    Create hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide; and \r\n    Bolster American auto production and automotive jobs.\r\n \r\nTrade is vitally important to Arkansas, with Canada and Mexico accounting for one-third of our state's exports. Arecent reportfrom the World Trade Center Arkansas found that, in 2018, exports to Canada amounted to $1.2 billion and exports to Mexico totaled $870 million. Each country buys millions of dollars' worth of Arkansas eggs, poultry, rice, and other products each year. Overall exports to these two countries also support more than 12 million American jobs, including 120,000 jobs in the Natural State. The ITC predicts that the USMCA will help raise GDP, and the CBO reports that the deal will generate $3 billion in additional revenue for the country. Congressman Womack has continuously called for Congress to pass the USMCA. He also highlighted the importance of this agreement to the Third District during alocal trade tour earlier this year.\r\nThe bill will now head to the Senate, where it is expected to be voted on next year.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-votes-in-support-of-government-funding-bills", "Boozman Supports Critical Funding Bills", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) applauded Senate passage of Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations bills to fund the government and provide critical federal resources for Arkansans.\r\nFunding the government is a basic responsibility of Congress that provides accountability and transparency to the American people. Passage of these pieces of legislation creates certainty for the military and federal agencies as they plan for the future and fund their current priorities,Boozman said.\r\nAs Chairman of the Senate Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Appropriations Subcommittee, Boozman authored a portion of the funding package that includes full funding of theVA MISSION Actand supports the newly enactedBlue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act.\r\nI'm pleased we were able to fund these critical programs and support the needs of our veterans by increasing resources toprevent veteran suicide, improve community care for those who served in uniform and help women veterans get the health services they deserve,Boozman said.\r\nThe bills include several Arkansas-related priorities:\r\n \r\n$47 million for a C-130H/J Fuselage Trainer facility at Little Rock Air Force Base;\r\n$1.1 million for Army National Guard range expansion to improve the multi-purpose machine gun range for mounted unit training at Fort Chaffee;\r\nOver $20 million for munitions manufacturing at Pine Bluff Arsenal;\r\nOver $525 million for Army, Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps rockets produced in Arkansas;\r\nFunding to support the implementation of theBlue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act;\r\n$9.4 billion for veterans mental health services, including $222 million for suicide prevention;\r\n$585 million for health care services specifically for female veterans;\r\n$66.7 million to support the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) research to promote and protect public health conducted at the National Center for Toxicological Research. This facility is located in Jefferson, Arkansas near Pine Bluff;\r\n$5 million to help meet underserved or unmet water infrastructure needs and support the program Boozman authored to create an innovative approach to modernizing critical water infrastructure;\r\nFunding for Community Health Centers (CHC).In Arkansas, there are more than 130 CHC facilities that help nearly 200,000 people get the medical, dental, vision and behavioral health care services they need.\r\n$30 million for the Delta Regional Authority which provides grants to the Delta region and funding forbasic public infrastructure development and transportation improvements.\r\nIncreasesin funding forresearch in which Arkansas schools and companies are engaged:\r\n\r\nMore than $15 million forsilicon carbide research to make smaller components for more sophisticated, modern weapons;\r\n$3.5 million for synthetic medical training.\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\nFor additional Arkansas-specific programs that received fundingclick here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1280", "Cotton, Hyde-Smith Introduce Bill to Protect Moms and Babies Through Control of Chemical Abortion Pills", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 19, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) along with Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), this week introduced legislation to protect women by controlling the distribution of chemical abortion drugs, which have high complication rates for incomplete abortions, infections, severe bleeding, and death. The Support and Value Expectant (SAVE) Moms and Babies Act would prevent labeling changes for already-approved abortion drugs; prevent providers from dispensing these drugs remotely, by mail, or via tele-medicine; and prevent the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from approving new chemical abortion drugs. \"The abortion pill can do serious harm to pregnant women, and making it more available would be deadly. Our bill would protect women and their babies from reckless campaigns to push the abortion pill  by codifying important FDA regulations of this dangerous drug,\" Cotton said. \"Although abortion rates are declining nationwide, rates of chemical abortion are increasing dramatically.  Increased use of abortion pills may give the impression that these procedures are safe, when in fact they are quite dangerous.  Making chemical abortion pills more broadly available without proper medical oversight would endanger the lives of women.  I am introducing this bill to codify the important FDA policy that protects women from dangers inherent in mail-order or do-it-yourself chemical abortions,\" Hyde-Smith said. In addition to restricting the availability of chemical abortion drugs, the measure would also retain the FDA-imposed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) currently applied to these drugs due to known or potential serious risk associated with the medication.  It would also require medical practitioners to report to the FDA adverse events experienced by patients using an abortion drug, In 2017, chemical abortions made up 39 percent of abortions reported by the 32 states that require reporting on specific abortion methods, up from 5.5 percent in 2001. Original cosponsors include Senators Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas). Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), March for Life Action, National Right to Life, Family Research Council, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are among the groups that support the bill. \"We are grateful to Senator Hyde-Smith for championing legislation to fight the reckless expansion of chemical abortion,\" said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. \"The abortion lobby has attempted to interfere with protective FDA regulations and flood the U.S. market with dangerous abortion drugs from overseas, threatening the health and safety of vulnerable women. On the heels of an abandoned study designed to discredit pro-life abortion pill reversal, which only proved the serious and potentially deadly risks inherent to abortion pills, the need for this bill could not be more pressing. We strongly support the SAVE Moms & Babies Act and urge Congress to pass it swiftly.\" A summary of the SAVE Moms and Babies Act is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-hyde-smith-introduce-bill-to-protect-moms-and-babies-through-control-of-chemical-abortion-pills", "Cotton, Hyde-Smith Introduce Bill to Protect Moms and Babies Through Control of Chemical Abortion Pills", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) along with Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), this week introduced legislation to protect women by controlling the distribution of chemical abortion drugs, which have high complication rates for incomplete abortions, infections, severe bleeding, and death.\n\nThe Support and Value Expectant (SAVE) Moms and Babies Act would prevent labeling changes for already-approved abortion drugs; prevent providers from dispensing these drugs remotely, by mail, or via tele-medicine; and prevent the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from approving new chemical abortion drugs.\n\n\"The abortion pill can do serious harm to pregnant women, and making it more available would be deadly. Our bill would protect women and their babies from reckless campaigns to push the abortion pill by codifying important FDA regulations of this dangerous drug,\" Cotton said.\n\n\"Although abortion rates are declining nationwide, rates of chemical abortion are increasing dramatically. Increased use of abortion pills may give the impression that these procedures are safe, when in fact they are quite dangerous. Making chemical abortion pills more broadly available without proper medical oversight would endanger the lives of women. I am introducing this bill to codify the important FDA policy that protects women from dangers inherent in mail-order or do-it-yourself chemical abortions,\" Hyde-Smith said.\n\nIn addition to restricting the availability of chemical abortion drugs, the measure would also retain the FDA-imposed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) currently applied to these drugs due to known or potential serious risk associated with the medication. It would also require medical practitioners to report to the FDA adverse events experienced by patients using an abortion drug,\n\nIn 2017, chemical abortions made up 39 percent of abortions reported by the 32 states that require reporting on specific abortion methods, up from 5.5 percent in 2001.\n\nOriginal cosponsors include Senators Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), Rick Scott (R-Florida), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas).\n\nSusan B. Anthony List (SBA List), March for Life Action, National Right to Life, Family Research Council, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are among the groups that support the bill.\n\n\"We are grateful to Senator Hyde-Smith for championing legislation to fight the reckless expansion of chemical abortion,\" said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. \"The abortion lobby has attempted to interfere with protective FDA regulations and flood the U.S. market with dangerous abortion drugs from overseas, threatening the health and safety of vulnerable women. On the heels of an abandoned study designed to discredit pro-life abortion pill reversal, which only proved the serious and potentially deadly risks inherent to abortion pills, the need for this bill could not be more pressing. We strongly support the SAVE Moms & Babies Act and urge Congress to pass it swiftly.\"\n\nA summary of the SAVE Moms and Babies Act is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6413", "Rep. French Hill: Why I voted NO on impeaching the president", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.Today, Congressmen French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after voting against two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump:I know that there are some Americans who disagree with the presidentsome on style, some on substance, and for some, both. With that said, as in any human endeavor, over the course of two centuries a terrific number of American citizens have voiced their vigorous opposition and protested many of our nation's chief executives.\r\n However, the power of impeachment is a solemn one. This power is vested in the legislative branch to remove the nationally elected leader of our beloved country for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. This power is not to be used simply as a tool to harass a president of the opposite party. Unfortunately, history tells us that down through the years,it has. New York Timesreporter Peter Baker provides an important historical context of the many attempts to impeach past American presidentsHERE. Baker documents thatone out of every four occupants of the White Househas faced formal accusations of high crimes and misdemeanors from lawmakers in Congress. Today's impeachment vote in the House is the latest effortto remove President Trump from office and smear his candidacy in 2020. Before the July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky ever took place,103out of 233 House Democrats had alreadyvoted to impeach President Trumpfor everything from criticizing NFL players to criticizing members of \"the Squad.\" Likewise,17 of the 24 Democratson the House Judiciary Committee voted for at least one of three House impeachment Resolutions brought to the floorby Texas Democrat Congressman Al Green, since President Trump was first elected to office. In the end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has violated the well-stated criteria she, herself, established this past March for impeachment:\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path because it divides the country.\r\n            - Speaker Pelosi,Washington Post,March 11, 2019\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n  \r\nThe case for impeachment that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has concocted is not overwhelming and not supported by even the selected leaks and one-sided testimony.Chairman Schiff argues that in the July 25th phone call with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, President Trump abused his power by interfering in the 2020 election and then obstructed Congress during its impeachment inquiry. As background, I've read the public testimony, I've read the Schiff report, and I've read the Republican minority rebuttal. I've also read the Support the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act signed into law in 2014 by President Obama, which ordered the Secretary of State and the Attorney General to identify, secure, and recover assets linked to acts of corruption by Victor Yanukovych, members of his family, orother former or current officialsof the government of Ukraine or their accomplices.\"\r\n I reviewed the articles of impeachment for both President Nixon and President Clinton and reviewed the Congressional process, under which both inquiries were pursued. In addition to unsubstantiated charges brought by Chairman Schiff and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, Speaker Pelosi has presided over an unfair process.\r\nAt the conclusion of the House Judiciary Committee's debate regarding the articles of impeachment, the Congress concluded where we began in September:\r\n1.)The House majority so disagrees with President Trump that they have convinced themselves that only impeachment is the proper punishmentdespite failing the Pelosi Test she established in March.\r\n2.)The following facts remain regarding the congratulatory phone call between President Trump and the recently elected Ukrainian reformer, President Zelensky, on July 25th:\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                The July 25 call summarythe best evidence of the conversationshows no conditionality or evidence of pressure.\r\n                President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call.\r\n                The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25th phone call.\r\n                President Trump met with President Zelensky and U.S. security assistance was delivered to Ukraine in September 2019without Ukraine investigating President Trump's political rivals.\r\n            \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n  \r\nI believe that reasonable people can disagree. In my view, Speaker Pelosi should have directed the House Foreign Affairs Committee to conduct vigorous oversight hearings on the Trump Administration's foreign policy towards Ukraine. This would have been the better course of action to explore partisan policy disagreements as well as those voiced by career State Department officials.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-statement-impeachment-vote", "Westerman Statement on Impeachment Vote", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, the United States House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement:\n\n\"This is the day Democrats have been planning since the American people duly elected President Trump. Over the past few months, the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have neglected legislative work and instead spent taxpayer dollars handpicking witnesses and hearing secondhand testimony. Adam Schiff's closed-door hearings allowed him to selectively leak information that fit his narrative. Judiciary Committee's only witnesses were law school professors and congressional staff. Democrats' original claims of bribery didn't even make it into the final articles of impeachment.\n\n\"Over and over, House Democrats have proved this is a sham process. It's been an ever-changing narrative, dictated by primetime ratings and whatever happened to be polling well that day. For these and many other reasons, I voted against the articles of impeachment. This is one of the most serious and divisive tools Congress can use, and every other presidential impeachment had bipartisan support throughout. In this case, the only bipartisan votes have been cast against impeachment proceedings.\n\n\"Alexander Hamilton said it best in 1788, when writing Federalist No. 65: \u2018In many cases it [impeachment] will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.' We should all be concerned about the damage these antics do to our Republic.\n\n\"I hope now that this vote is behind us Congress can focus on working for the people, and take up initiatives like fixing our health care, reforming forest management and lowering prescription drug costs.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403773", "Womack Statement on Impeachment Vote", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 18, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) released the below statement on tonight's upcoming vote on articles of impeachment. Womack, who just spoke on the House floor regarding this issue, will be voting against these partisan proceedings, which seek to remove a duly-elected President:\r\nToday is a sad day for our country and the people's House. Instead of fighting for priorities that will make a difference in the lives of American families, House Democrats have focused a majority of their agenda on this impeachment moment. It has consumed them since the hour they learned the results of the 2016 election. It's exactly why we witnessed an inquiry driven by politics, hearsay, and a pre-determined outcome  not one rooted in fairness or facts. And, for the first time in history, impeachment is expected to move forward with a party-line vote. Although this process is likely to end in the Senate, some Democrats have already stated that it won't stop their work to remove a duly-elected President. It's yet another signal that the intent has always been political. I regret that these actions have further divided our nation and blocked progress on issues that contribute to the strength of Arkansas and America. I truly hope that we can move forward, remember the many things that unite us, and get back to bridging the gap on the numerous challenges facing our nation.\r\nA video of his floor speech can be found here.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-cotton-applaud-nomination-of-mike-hagar-to-serve-as-u-s-marshal", "Boozman, Cotton Applaud Nomination of Mike Hagar to Serve as U.S. Marshal", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) today announced that Mike Hagar has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Arkansas.\r\nMike Hagar is a devoted public servant who has demonstrated his commitment to law enforcement in his well-established career with the Arkansas State Police. He has proven to be a valuable member of the ASP. I am confident he will continue to serve with the same honor and distinction as a U.S. Marshal. We can be proud of Mike for the opportunity he has to maintain the U.S. Marshals' long and storied history in our state and continue to uphold the rule of law,Boozman said.\r\nAs a member of the Arkansas State Police, Mike Hagar has protected Arkansas' governors and citizens for more than two decades. That experience will serve him well as a U.S. Marshal, where he will continue to build upon his strong legacy of service to our state. Captain Hagar's record has earned the president's nomination, and I look forward to his confirmation in the Senate,Cotton said.\r\nHagar is a member of the Arkansas State Police (ASP) where he has served since 1996. Hecurrently serves as Commander of Troop A, Highway Patrol Division, the largest Field Command in the ASP. His previous assignments include commander of the ASP Executive Protection Section and the ASP training division. He started his law enforcement career with the Sherwood Police Department. Hagar is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1279", "Senators Urge Response to National Security Threats Posed by Chinese Drones", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 18, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. -Today, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Rick Scott (R-Florida), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and Federal Aviation Administrator Stephen Dickson to express concerns regarding the national security threats posed by Chinese drones. \"We...urge you to immediately restrict the use of this equipment and technology that has the potential to jeopardize the security of critical information and infrastructure gained through this and other FAA programs,\" the Senators write. \"American taxpayer dollars should not fund state-controlled or state-owned firms that seek to undermine American national security and economic competitiveness.\" The letter is available below and here. Dear Secretary Chao and Administrator Dickson: We write to express concern regarding the national security threats posed by Chinese drones and urge the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure that the use of such drones is excluded from its programs and partnerships. Given the information presented in several government directives regarding the use of Chinese-manufactured drones, we were dismayed to learn that on December 3, 2019, one of the ten lead participants of DOT and FAA's Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP) announced its decision to partner with Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) Inc., a Chinese drone company, and use DJI drones for aircraft inspections, delivery of aircraft parts, airport perimeter security, and various airport safety inspections. On August 2, 2017, the Department of the Army released a memorandum ordering a halt on the use of DJI applications and products, citing an \"increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products.\"  Subsequently, on August 9, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released an unclassified bulletin which specifically warned against DJI for targeting critical infrastructure and law enforcement and providing U.S. data to the Chinese government. The bulletin states with \"high confidence\" that \"the company [DJI] is selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.\" The bulletin also warns that DJI-created apps, when used in conjunction with their UAS hardware, collect GPS locations and photographs taken by the device, register facial recognition data even when the system is off, and automatically upload information to cloud storage to which the Chinese government most likely has access. The bulletin continues, \"[a] foreign government with access to this information could easily coordinate physical or cyber attacks against critical sites.\" On May 20, 2019, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an industry alert of the potential risks to an organization's information posed by Chinese-made drones and DJI in particular. The alert states that the products \"contain components that can compromise data and share information on a server accessed beyond the company itself.\" More recently, on October 30, 2019, the Department of Interior announced that it was grounding its fleet of more than 800 non-emergency drones purchased from China until a security review is completed.  Further, Section 848 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act specifically prohibits the Department of Defense from operating or procuring UAS manufactured in the China. We commend the goal of the UAS IPP to partner federal, state, local, and tribal governments with the FAA to evaluate and integrate new technologies into airspace operations. We, however, urge you to immediately restrict the use of this equipment and technology that has the potential to jeopardize the security of critical information and infrastructure gained through this and other FAA programs. American taxpayer dollars should not fund state-controlled or state-owned firms that seek to undermine American national security and economic competitiveness. We therefore request the following information: \nHave the DOT and FAA reviewed the reports by ICE, CISA, the Army, and any other agencies to appropriately grasp the magnitude of the threat posed by the use of DJI hardware and software, and if so, what conclusions were drawn?\nHave the DOT and FAA conveyed their concerns with regard to data protection to the relevant state, local, and tribal partners in the IPP and any other program that may involve the use of drones?\nWhat, if any, security efforts have the DOT and FAA worked to implement with state, local, and tribal officials to ensure critical infrastructure data does not fall into the hands of the Chinese government?\n    Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your prompt response.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-urge-response-to-national-security-threats-posed-by-chinese-drones", "Senators Urge Response to National Security Threats Posed by Chinese Drones", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. -Today, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Rick Scott (R-Florida), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and Federal Aviation Administrator Stephen Dickson to express concerns regarding the national security threats posed by Chinese drones.\n\n\"We...urge you to immediately restrict the use of this equipment and technology that has the potential to jeopardize the security of critical information and infrastructure gained through this and other FAA programs,\" the Senators write. \"American taxpayer dollars should not fund state-controlled or state-owned firms that seek to undermine American national security and economic competitiveness.\"\n\nThe letter is available below and here.\n\nDear Secretary Chao and Administrator Dickson:\n\nWe write to express concern regarding the national security threats posed by Chinese drones and urge the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure that the use of such drones is excluded from its programs and partnerships.\n\nGiven the information presented in several government directives regarding the use of Chinese-manufactured drones, we were dismayed to learn that on December 3, 2019, one of the ten lead participants of DOT and FAA's Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP) announced its decision to partner with Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) Inc., a Chinese drone company, and use DJI drones for aircraft inspections, delivery of aircraft parts, airport perimeter security, and various airport safety inspections.\n\nOn August 2, 2017, the Department of the Army released a memorandum ordering a halt on the use of DJI applications and products, citing an \"increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products.\" Subsequently, on August 9, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released an unclassified bulletin which specifically warned against DJI for targeting critical infrastructure and law enforcement and providing U.S. data to the Chinese government. The bulletin states with \"high confidence\" that \"the company [DJI] is selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.\" The bulletin also warns that DJI-created apps, when used in conjunction with their UAS hardware, collect GPS locations and photographs taken by the device, register facial recognition data even when the system is off, and automatically upload information to cloud storage to which the Chinese government most likely has access. The bulletin continues, \"[a] foreign government with access to this information could easily coordinate physical or cyber attacks against critical sites.\"\n\nOn May 20, 2019, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an industry alert of the potential risks to an organization's information posed by Chinese-made drones and DJI in particular. The alert states that the products \"contain components that can compromise data and share information on a server accessed beyond the company itself.\"\n\nMore recently, on October 30, 2019, the Department of Interior announced that it was grounding its fleet of more than 800 non-emergency drones purchased from China until a security review is completed. Further, Section 848 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act specifically prohibits the Department of Defense from operating or procuring UAS manufactured in the China.\n\nWe commend the goal of the UAS IPP to partner federal, state, local, and tribal governments with the FAA to evaluate and integrate new technologies into airspace operations. We, however, urge you to immediately restrict the use of this equipment and technology that has the potential to jeopardize the security of critical information and infrastructure gained through this and other FAA programs. American taxpayer dollars should not fund state-controlled or state-owned firms that seek to undermine American national security and economic competitiveness. We therefore request the following information:\n\nHave the DOT and FAA reviewed the reports by ICE, CISA, the Army, and any other agencies to appropriately grasp the magnitude of the threat posed by the use of DJI hardware and software, and if so, what conclusions were drawn?\n\nHave the DOT and FAA conveyed their concerns with regard to data protection to the relevant state, local, and tribal partners in the IPP and any other program that may involve the use of drones?\n\nWhat, if any, security efforts have the DOT and FAA worked to implement with state, local, and tribal officials to ensure critical infrastructure data does not fall into the hands of the Chinese government?\n\nThank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your prompt response.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403772", "Womack Statement on FY2020 Appropriations Packages", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 17, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) released the below statement following the passage of Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations packages that keep the government open and fully fund critical defense and domestic priorities:\r\nCongressman Womacksaid, It's our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense, and our courageous men and women in uniform deserve stable and predictable funding. By boosting military readiness, providing our troops with a well-deserved pay raise, and supporting Arkansas's defense and National Guard programs  we are enhancing the safety and security of our homeland. Importantly, this bill also includes medical, agriculture, and economic development priorities important to the Third District.\r\nAppropriations package highlights include:\r\n \r\n    Strengthening national security and continuing to rebuild our military;\r\n    Securing our border by providing $1.375 billion in new border wall funding;\r\n    Granting resources for immigration, U.S. Coast Guard, and cybersecurity defenses;\r\n    Instituting a 3.1% pay raise for the military  the largest increase in 10 years;\r\n    Advancing our military power by investing in new equipment, including combat ships, submarines, and helicopters;\r\n    Supporting Arkansas's National Guard missions and boosting troop levels; \r\n    Providing our veterans with greater healthcare access and services; \r\n    Increasing funds for military training, maintenance, and base operations; \r\n    Standing with Arkansas's hardworking truckers by blocking burdensome regulations; \r\n    Extending tax provisions to allow families and businesses to keep more of their hard-earned money;\r\n    Enhancing resources for medical research through the National Institutes of Health for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer; and \r\n    Advancing critical research programs at the University of Arkansas.\r\n \r\nHe continued, While I am pleased that we have avoided another continuing resolution  or government shutdown  I feel strongly that this work should have been addressed and completed long ago. Our budget and appropriations process is broken and has perpetuated the dysfunction of this chamber for far too long. The American people deserve better  we need to get back to regular order, prioritize the fiscal issues facing the nation, and fulfill our Article I responsibilities on time.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-recognizes-late-jonesboro-wwii-veteran-in-salute-to-veterans", "Boozman Recognizes Late Jonesboro WWII Veteran in 'Salute to Veterans'", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) honored the service and sacrifice of the late William Kenneth Harp, a World War II veteran who served in the European Theater, in Salute to Veterans,' a series commemorating the military service of Arkansans.\r\nOn March 2, 2019, while surrounded by his loving family, 99-year-old Kenneth Harp shared stories from his life's experiences during an interview by a member of Boozman's staff for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Harp passed away a few weeks after the interview. \r\nHarp grew up on his family's farm in Strawberry, Arkansas. He graduated from Strawberry High School in a class of 27 in 1939. Soon after high school he met his wife Pauline. They were married for about a year when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Harp was draftedinto the U.S. Army.\r\nMy wife was pregnant at that time, Harp said. He was granted a waiver until the birth of their baby. Two weeks after his oldest son was born he reported for duty.\r\nHarp went to basic training at Camp Maxey, near Paris, TX. There he received initial training as an infantryman, and was later trained on mine detection.\r\nBy November 1942, Harp was on a ship headed to Europe where his assignment was to search for mines ahead of the advancing Allied Forces.\r\nWhen we'd find a minefield then we had to clear it out and put yellow tape up so the tank drivers would know it's safe, Harp said.\r\nHe had to work quickly in dangerous conditions. It's scary but you more or less had to forget it, Harp said. In one risky assignment,he was clearing the path for Alliedtroopsby hand while carrying 10 pounds of nitroglycerine.\r\nThroughout the war, Harp wrote to his wife. I tried to write her a letter every day, he said. She also wrote to him, updating Harp on their young son.\r\nHarp saw the atrocities the Nazis perpetrated against Jews. The SS had a trench dug and people laying down there and they had a bulldozer there ready to cover it over so we stopped them before they had a chance to hide their war crimes,herecounted.\r\nHarp returned to the United States on a liberty ship that docked in New York harbor. They told us the night before we'll get to see the lights of New York City. He remembered a ship displaying a welcome home soldiers' sign.\r\nFor his service he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and other campaign medals for his valor in Europe.\r\nKenneth Harp courageously served his countrywhile fighting against the forces of fascism in Europe.His memories of his time in uniform are an important part of our history as much as his own story. I am pleased to be able to collect and preserve his stories, Boozman said.\r\nBoozman will submit Harp's entire interview to the Veterans History Project, an initiative of the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center to collect and retain the oral histories of our nation's veterans.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/congress-approves-expansion-of-arkansas-veterans-cemetery-headed-to-president-s-desk", "Congress Approves Expansion of Arkansas Veterans Cemetery, Headed to Presidents Desk", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONThe Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock is slated to receive nearly 140 acres of land as a result of language U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) authored in the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is one step away from becoming law.\r\nNDAA, which invests in our military and authorizes $738 billion in critical national security funding, includes a provision to authorize the transfer of land from Camp Robinson to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) for purposes of expanding the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock. The bill has been approved by both chambers of Congress and is expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.\r\nThis commonsense solution was a team effort that benefits both the Army Guardandthe Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs.Theland has not been used for training in over two decades and is costly to maintain for the Guard. It will be extremely valuable for the state, which has an urgent need for additional burial space for our veterans. This land transfer will ensure that there is plenty of space to provide an appropriate final resting place for men and women who served in uniform who choose to be laid to rest alongside their fellow veterans,Boozman said.\r\nThe land conveyance will enable continuation of first burials beyond 2045, when the current cemetery is predicted to reach capacity. Rather than developing an additional cemetery in central Arkansas, the land conveyance provides an expansion opportunity which will be a more cost-efficient alternative for ADVA.\r\nWewant to recognize the leadership of the former Adjutant General, Arkansas National Guard Maj. Gen. Mark H. Berry for shepherding this veteran-centered initiative through the ground work for the veterans and families of veterans in Arkansas,said Nate Todd, Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs.This rightful benefit for veterans would not have been possible without the support of the Arkansas Congressional delegation and our Governor's commitment that Arkansas veterans' final resting place is a reflection of their service to our nation.\r\nThe language included in NDAA was taken from legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate by Boozman with the support of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman French Hill (AR-02) with the support of Arkansas's House delegation.\r\nThe land that will be transferred from Camp Robinson to ADVA has not been used for Army Guard training in over 25 years. The land lies in the flight path of the North Little Rock airport runway, which limits the use of training devices such as artillery simulators, flares and smoke. It is also separated from the main areas of Camp Robinson and has limited access.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/greene-county-mobile-office", "Greene County Mobile Office", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Members of my staff host Mobile Office events across the state year-around. These events allow my staff to be available at the walk-in events to help Arkansans who are having problems involving the federal government or who want to share their thoughts about legislative issues.\nBelow is a complete listing of upcoming (denoted by red push pin) and past (denoted by blue push pin) mobile offices:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/prairie-county-mobile-office", "Prairie County Mobile Office", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Members of my staff host Mobile Office events across the state year-around. These events allow my staff to be available at the walk-in events to help Arkansans who are having problems involving the federal government or who want to share their thoughts about legislative issues.\nBelow is a complete listing of upcoming (denoted by red push pin) and past (denoted by blue push pin) mobile offices:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1278", "Cotton Commemorates Petty Officer John Craig's Return to Arkansas", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 17, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tNavy Storekeeper 1st Class John William Craig of Monroe, Arkansas perished aboard the USS Oklahoma on December 7th, 1941a date which will live in infamy. On that day, Imperial Japanese bombers shattered the morning calm at Pearl Harbor, killing Petty Officer Craig and more than 2,000 of his brothers in arms.\n\nNearly eight decades later, however, his remains were listed as unknown and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific inHonolulu. He was reported as missing in action.\n\nBut Petty Officer Craig is missing no more. Thanks to the outstanding work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, his remains were accounted for in 2017. And just last weekend, on the 78th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he arrived home in Arkansas to his final resting place.  \nPetty Officer Craig's burial is a long-overdue moment of honor for a brave Sailor. And it's also a moment of hope for our many military families whose loved ones haven't yet been founda reminder that our nation won't rest until every one of our missing heroes is back in our arms or laid to rest with honor.\n\nWe've now fulfilled this solemn pledge to Petty Officer Craig. Nearly 80 years after his disappearance, we've affirmed once again that the United States leaves no man behind on the battlefield.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1277", "Cotton, Colleagues: China Shouldn't Lead World Intellectual Property Organization", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 17, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 17, 2019\n\nCotton, Colleagues: China Shouldn't Lead World Intellectual Property Organization\n\nWashington, D.C.  Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York), along with Representatives Jimmy Panetta (D-California) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), sent a letter urging the president to strongly oppose China's efforts to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations.\n\nIn the letter, the lawmakers write that China's persistent violations of intellectual property protectionsas well as the Chinese Communist Party's aggressive industrial policies and technology practices that undermine U.S. innovationpresent serious risks to the United States' economic leadership and security. Those risks include Huawei Technologies, which was the top corporate filer of international patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018.\n\nThe lawmakers' letter to the president may be found here. The text isbelow.\n\n\nPresident Donald Trump\nThe White House\n1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\nWashington, DC 20500\n\nDear Mr. President:\n\nWe write to express our concern about China's intent to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations and the threat this poses to both U.S. economic security and the integrity of international intellectual property rights and standards.\n\nLast month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reportedly nominated a candidate to head this organization, which was established as a global forum for intellectual property policy and cooperation and to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. Given China's persistent violations of intellectual property protections, including through trade secret theft, corporate espionage, and forced transfer of technology, the United States and its allies must stand firmly against such a move.\n\nThe CCP is strategically investing in and developing critical and emerging technologies as part of Made in China 2025 and other aggressive industrial policies. These initiatives include a patchwork of practices and tactics which coerce American companies to transfer their technology and intellectual property to domestic Chinese corporations with the effect of undermining U.S. innovation and economic leadership. In addition, Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies, which is thought to be influenced by the CCP and presents clear risks to U.S. national security, was the top corporate filer of international patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018.\n\nYour administration has repeatedly expressed concerns about the shortcomings in China's intellectual property regime. Notably, the Office of the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) Special 301 Report declares China a precarious and uncertain environment for U.S. owners of all types of intellectual property. China also remains on USTR's Priority Watch List for failing to make fundamental changes to strengthen intellectual property protection and enforcement and for engaging in harmful conduct, including unauthorized intrusions and theft from networks of U.S. companies.\n\nMr. President, you have also accused China of theft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September. We cannot let a regime, which continues to blatantly undermine the rules-based system by failing to ensure open markets or respect for intellectual property rights, ascend as the leader of global intellectual property policy.\n\nTherefore, we urge you to oppose China's leadership in the World Intellectual Property Organization and take the necessary diplomatic steps to ensure our allies and partners do the same before the Director General election next spring.\n\nSincerely,\n ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-china-shouldn-and-146t-lead-world-intellectual-property-organization", "Cotton, Colleagues: China Shouldn\u0092t Lead World Intellectual Property Organization", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 17, 2019\n\nCotton, Colleagues: China Shouldn\u2019t Lead World Intellectual Property Organization\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York), along with Representatives Jimmy Panetta (D-California) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), sent a letter urging the president to strongly oppose China\u2019s efforts to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations.\n\nIn the letter, the lawmakers write that China\u2019s persistent violations of intellectual property protections\u2014as well as the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s aggressive industrial policies and technology practices that undermine U.S. innovation\u2014present serious risks to the United States\u2019 economic leadership and security. Those risks include Huawei Technologies, which was the top corporate filer of international patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018.\n\nThe lawmakers\u2019 letter to the president may be found here. The text is below.\n\nPresident Donald Trump\n\nThe White House\n\n1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\n\nWashington, DC 20500\n\nDear Mr. President:\n\nWe write to express our concern about China\u2019s intent to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations and the threat this poses to both U.S. economic security and the integrity of international intellectual property rights and standards.\n\nLast month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reportedly nominated a candidate to head this organization, which was established as a global forum for intellectual property policy and cooperation and to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. Given China\u2019s persistent violations of intellectual property protections, including through trade secret theft, corporate espionage, and forced transfer of technology, the United States and its allies must stand firmly against such a move.\n\nThe CCP is strategically investing in and developing critical and emerging technologies as part of Made in China 2025 and other aggressive industrial policies. These initiatives include a patchwork of practices and tactics which coerce American companies to transfer their technology and intellectual property to domestic Chinese corporations with the effect of undermining U.S. innovation and economic leadership. In addition, Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies, which is thought to be influenced by the CCP and presents clear risks to U.S. national security, was the top corporate filer of international patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2018.\n\nYour administration has repeatedly expressed concerns about the shortcomings in China\u2019s intellectual property regime. Notably, the Office of the United States Trade Representative\u2019s (USTR) Special 301 Report declares China a \u201cprecarious and uncertain environment\u201d for U.S. owners of all types of intellectual property. China also remains on USTR\u2019s Priority Watch List for failing to make fundamental changes to strengthen intellectual property protection and enforcement and for engaging in harmful conduct, including unauthorized intrusions and theft from networks of U.S. companies.\n\nMr. President, you have also accused China of \u201ctheft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale\u201d in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September. We cannot let a regime, which continues to blatantly undermine the rules-based system by failing to ensure open markets or respect for intellectual property rights, ascend as the leader of global intellectual property policy.\n\nTherefore, we urge you to oppose China\u2019s leadership in the World Intellectual Property Organization and take the necessary diplomatic steps to ensure our allies and partners do the same before the Director General election next spring.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-announces-nominations-military-academies", "Westerman Announces Nominations to Military Academies", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) announced the Fourth District's student nominations to military academies. Westerman issued the following statement:\n\n\"I'd like to encourage all Fourth District students interested in serving their country to consider attending a military academy. America's freedom and values depend on the courage of young people who put on a uniform and fight to protect liberty. U.S. military academies offer unparalleled opportunities to serve while obtaining a fully-funded, top-notch education.\"\n\nBackground\n\nTo attend a U.S. service academy, students must be nominated by either the vice president, their senator or their representative. All interested candidates are seniors in high school or currently attending an Academy Preparatory School, and they fill out a packet and submit it through their elected representative's office.\n\nThe nomination deadline was Nov. 1, 2019. Below are the students Westerman nominated to military academies:\n\nSamuel Tankersley from Pearcy, nominated to the Air Force Academy and U.S. Military Academy\n\nJacob Tankersley from Pearcy, nominated to the Air Force Academy and U.S. Military Academy\n\nJohn Butler from Hot Springs, nominated to the Naval Academy\n\nDavid Carter from Hot Springs, nominated to the Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy, Air Force Academy and Massanutten Military Academy\n\nDaniel Moore from Pine Bluff, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy\n\nWyatt Hubby from Texarkana, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy\n\nBryant Burns from Ozark, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy\n\nHayden Foster from White Hall, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy\n\nMarc Wilson from Mena, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy, Air Force Academy and Naval Academy\n\nDaniel Woolsey from Ozark, nominated to the Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy and Air Force Academy\n\nEsther Filipek from Bismark, nominated to the Air Force Academy\n\nSarah Xie from White Hall, nominated to the U.S. Military Academy\n\nCannon Turner from Arkadelphia, nominated to the Air Force Academy", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-leads-bipartisan-delegation-to-commemorate-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-the-bulge", "Boozman Leads Bipartisan Delegation to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) led a bipartisan Senate delegation to Belgium and Luxembourg to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. On Monday, the senators joined members of the House of Representatives at an official ceremony at the Mardasson Memorial near Bastogne, Belgium marking this occasion.\r\nBoozman and U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) participated in events surrounding this milestone including meeting with U.S. veterans who fought at the Battle of the Bulge.\r\n\r\nSenators at the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium.\r\nOn December 16, 1944, the Germans launched their last major offensive campaign during World War II. The attack surprised Allied Forces in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg. Outnumbered, facing record-low temperatures and dwindling supplies, the Allied Forces on the frontlines dug in to defend against the German army. The battle lasted for six long weeks. More than 89,000 American soldiers were casualties including 19,000 soldiers killed, 47,5000 wounded and 23,000 captured or missing in action.\r\nThe valiant efforts of Allied Forces made possible the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945.\r\nIn the Battle of the Bulge, American soldiers demonstrated the commitment, courage and resilience that helped define a generation. To this day, we take immense pride in the unwavering bravery and valor of the Allied Forces in their decisive defeat of the German attack, ultimately leading to the end of the Nazi regime,Boozman said.It is fitting that we recognize the 75th Anniversary of a battle that both shaped the future of combat and ushered in a new era of comity between Europe and the United States.\r\nOn this 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, we honor the heroic efforts of the valiant Allied Forces who saved the free world,Barrasso said. My father, John, was one of these heroes. He and his fellow soldiers succeeded in slowing the German advance during this brutal, historic battle of World War II. It is an incredible honor to join veterans and world leaders at the commemoration ceremony in Belgium. We remember those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our freedom.\r\nAs the daughter of a veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, I was moved and humbled to stand on the very battlefields where so many American soldiers fought to defeat the Nazis and keep our country safe, secure, and free,Hassan said.It is that mission that we have the responsibility of carrying forth to this day. I was honored to stand united with Democrats and Republicans alike in representing our nation in commemorating this historic battle and in meeting some of the veterans who served in those pivotal days.\r\nAs the daughter of a WWII veteran, this trip was a personal one for me,Capito said. 75 years ago, many Americans lost their lives fending off the German offensive during the Battle of the Bulge, and these efforts ultimately paved a way to end the war five months later. Having the chance to visit this historical location was a powerful reminder of the heroic actions of the Allied Forces that protected our democracy.\r\nI am deeply grateful to have joined a bipartisan Senate delegation in Belgium for the 75thanniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. We honored the U.S. veterans and all Allied Forces of the Greatest Generation who fought in what was the bloodiest and largest battle in the history of U.S. forces. These brave fighters include people such as my uncle, David Buckner, who participated in the Battle of the Bulge as part of the 117thInfantry Regiment, 30thInfantry Division. Our nation will be forever indebted to the courage, service, and sacrifice of those who contributed to this critical German defeat that helped end fascism and Nazi menace,Fischer said.\r\nSeventy-five years ago, half a million Americans, including my great uncle, participated in what became one of the largest battles in U.S. military history,said Rosen. Throughout those six brutal weeks, the strength, grit, and courage of our men in uniform were tested, but our love of freedom and democracy prevailed. I was honored to join my colleagues in commemorating the Battle of the Bulge and meet with U.S. WWII veterans who fought to end tyranny and to protect our liberties and our American way of life.\r\nSeventy-five years ago, American soldiers  including my father  joined our Allies to fight evil and free Europe from the yoke of tyranny.It was an honor to join my colleagues in Belgium and Luxembourg tohonor the sacrifices made by so many freedom-loving people in support of this cause.We will never forget their sacrifice, and the United States will always stand up for freedom and democracy,Scottsaid.\r\nThe Battle of the Bulge was a historic turning point in World War II that led to the surrender of Nazi Germany,said Tillis.I am honored to be on this delegation to commemorate the 75thanniversary and pay tribute to the brave soldiers who were outnumbered and faced impossible conditions.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/arkansas-stands-to-gain-with-usmca", "Arkansas Stands to Gain With USMCA", "2019-12-14", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Recent data points to an economy that is firing on all cylinders. The country has added over seven million jobs since President Trump's election, unemployment is at a 50-year low and wages are rising at a rate that far outpaces inflation.\r\nAmerican workers are benefitting, but that doesn't mean we can't do more to help them and our economy thrive. Congress has a responsibility to continue to foster an environment that leads to growth and builds on those record numbers.\r\nThat is why Congress should move to take up the now-finalized US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as it has the potential to provide another jolt to our already surging economy.\r\nOur neighbors to the north and south are our natural allies and trading partners, yet our trade policy with them has not been updated in twenty-five years. The president and his team worked hard to get Canada and Mexico to the negotiating table to modernize our trade agreement in a mutually beneficial manner. The administration worked equally hard, across party lines, to ensure lawmakers in the U.S. were satisfied with the deal.\r\nWhile my colleagues and I continue to review the final text of the agreement, it does hold the promise of being very beneficial for Arkansas. Canada and Mexico are the number one and two destinations for Arkansas's exports. Arkansas is one of a handful of states that, in recent years, has consistently exported more than what it imported from Canada and Mexico.\r\nThe World Trade Center Arkansaswhich has played a valuable role in connecting businesses in the state with international partners for over a decaderecently released a report summarizing trade and jobs data for the Natural State.\r\nThe center's report underscores the value trade brings to Arkansas's economy and reinforces the fact that the path to a more prosperous, long-term outlook is through opening additional markets for our farmers, manufacturers and small businesses.\r\nThe report notes that as of September 2019, trade in Arkansas supported nearly 350,000 jobs, representing approximately 26 percent of the state's total employed labor force. It points to a direct correlation between job numbers and trade, documenting that trade-related jobs in the state have grown six times faster than total employment over the past few years. Moreover, it underscores just how crucial Canada and Mexico are for Arkansas's economy.\r\nNatural State exports to Canada amounted to $1.2 billion last year. Our exports to Mexico totaled $870 million in that same time span. Combined, these two countries account for a third of Arkansas's total exports. Nearly 69,000 jobs in Arkansas are dependent on trade with Canada and another 41,000 are tied to trade with Mexico.\r\nMelvin Torres, the center's director of Western Hemisphere trade, praised Arkansas's effective partnership with both countries for creating this symbiotic and successful relationship. That relationship appears poised to grow with USMCA.\r\nCompletion of USMCA stands to boost job creation and bring stability to an uncertain trade environment. A modernized agreement is long overdue, and an array of industriesincluding manufacturing, technology and agriculturewill all benefit from the certainty it will bring to doing business with Canada and Mexico.\r\nUSMCA, along with the recent deals struck with South Korea and Japan, will show the rest of the world that the U.S. is open for business. It will show our trade partners, China in particular, that we negotiate in good faith to reach mutually beneficial outcomes for all parties involved. Most importantly, it upholds the promise of continuing to unlock our economy's true potential.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6410", "VIDEO: Rep. Hill Advocates for Supporting Religious Freedom of Coptic Christians in Egypt", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. On Thursday, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) participated in a House Committee on Foreign Affairs Member Day hearing where he advocated for passage of his legislation,H.Res.49, expressing support for Coptic Christians and religious liberty in Egypt. Click HERE or on the picture below to watch Congressman Hill's remarks from Thursday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHighlights of Congressman Hill's remarks as prepared for delivery: I appreciate the opportunity to testify in front of you today about my resolution, H.Res.49, Supporting Coptic Christians in Egypt, which has a diverse and bipartisan coalition of members that cosponsor it. My Democratic lead on H.Res. 49 is my friend and Foreign Affairs Committee member, David Cicilline of Rhode Island. My resolution currently has 71 cosponsors, including 25 from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.\r\nI introduced this resolution in the 115th Congress following a 2017 visit to Egypt, and while preparing for the trip, visiting the country, and returning home, I repeatedly heard about the plight of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. Although the Copts have been victims of numerous terrorist attacks by groups like ISIS, what is most disturbing to me is the attacks against Copts carried out by their fellow Egyptians. Our country and our citizens over the generations have worked mightily to live up to the values and unalienable rights granted us by God above and enshrined in our founding documents, especially the vocal support of free expression abroad, particularly in the form of advocacy for religious tolerance and freedom; the rule of law; human rights; and education for women and minorities.\r\nThese are fundamental tenets of our foreign policy. In my work on this resolution here in the House, I continue to give voice to this very American ideal of religious tolerance. Likewise, I've met with religious leaders from all across the Levant from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Jerusalem with an eye towards better shaping American and allied support of Christians and other persecuted religious minorities. I have great respect for Egyptian President Sisi, and I applaud the changes and message that he has made in the area of religious tolerance. He continues to say and do the right things at the top level of government. However, I believe there is more to do, and as the second highest receiver of annual American military aid in the world, the United States Government must use the tools we have to hold our allies, like Egypt, to a higher standard if they are to continue to receive our aid.\r\nIt is in that regard, that I believe one vehicle readily available to this committee to highlight the U.S. government's concern of the treatment of Coptic Christians in Egypt is my resolution, H.Res.49. Let's recall President Reagan's admonition as to our responsibility: Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy.\"Background: On January 16, 2019, Congressman Hill introduced a resolution, H.Res.49, expressing support for Coptic Christians and religious liberty in Egypt. The full text of H.Res.49 can be foundHERE. H.Res.49 acknowledges the importance of the United States-Egypt partnership in advancing our common interests, recognizes Egypt's need for certain government reforms, and calls on the Egyptian government to end the culture of impunity and make examples by arresting, prosecuting, and convicting those responsible for attacks on Christians.It also calls on the government to hold those local government officials accountable who fail to enforce the law. On April, 9, 2019, Congressman Hill sent a letter to President Trump ahead of his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, calling on him to raise concerns about the plight of Christian minorities in Egypt.The full letter can be foundHERE. In October,Congressman Hill received In Defense of Christians' (IDC) 2019 Congressional Champion award for his \"extraordinary commitment to the human rights and religious freedom of Christian and other religious minority communities in the Middle East.\" Specifically, IDC highlighted Congressman Hill's work in support of Coptic Christians.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/usmca-will-be-huge-boost-arkansas-trade", "USMCA Will Be a Huge Boost for Arkansas Trade", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "As the end of the year approaches, there's no shortage of news here on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives is quickly trying to get impeachment articles, appropriations and military funding finalized before Christmas. But by far the most important news of the week was a deal on the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA). This is an overwhelmingly bipartisan trade agreement that's been ready to go for over a year, and yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to bring it to the floor for a vote for unspecified reasons.\nNow, in the eleventh hour, she's finally announced that we're moving forward on USMCA, which is welcome news. The House should be able to vote on it quickly and get it to the Senate.\nWhat will this trade deal look like in practice? It will result in an estimated $68 billion in economic growth across the country, providing hundreds of thousands of American jobs and solidifying solid trade partnerships with our closest neighbors. In Arkansas alone, more than 7,000 manufacturing jobs depend on exports to Canada and Mexico, not to mention thousands of other jobs relating to agricultural production. Mexico has now become America's number one trading partner, replacing China. If we get an agreement with Japan, we would have new trade agreements with three of our top four trading partners.\nOverall, this agreement is a massive win for the U.S. economy, and I only wish Speaker Pelosi had let us vote on it sooner. President Trump continues delivering on his promises to revitalize American jobs, and I'm looking forward to seeing USMCA ratified and put into action.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1275", "Cotton Statement on United Kingdom Election Results", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 13, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 13, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on United Kingdom Election Results\n\nWashington, D.C.  Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives won a powerful majority of parliamentary seats last night:\nCongratulations to Prime Minister Johnson, the Tories, and the British people on a resounding victory. Best of luck, now get Brexit done!\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1276", "Cotton, Jones, and Merkley Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Stop Predatory Unsolicited Loans", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 13, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) along with Senator Doug Jones (D-Alabama) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) have reintroduced bipartisan legislation-the Unsolicited Loan Act -that would halt the predatory practice of mailing high-interest loans to consumers in the form of \"live\" checks.  Often times, when consumers receive these checks in the mail they believe them to be from their bank or another trusted financial institution and are unaware the check is a high-interest loan. Under the Unsolicited Loan Act, this practice would be prohibited and would ensure consumers can only access loans for which they proactively applied. This legislation echoes Congress' ban on the mailing of live credit cards.\n\"People should understand exactly what they're getting into when taking on debt. But many individuals don't understand that live' checks mailed directly to consumers are just high-interest loans in disguise. Congress put an end to live' credit cards decades ago, it's time to do the same with live' checks,\" said Senator Cotton.\n\"We need to continue to take a stand for hard-working families and make sure we have protections in place to prevent these predatory tactics,\" said Senator Jones. \"Many honest folks are not aware that by depositing these checks they are actually taking on a high-interest loan. Congress must act now and pass this common-sense legislation to protect consumers from this predatory scam.\"\n\"Families across the country have fallen victim to scams where they think they're getting a lucky windfall or refund from their bank, and instead are being lured into a high-interest loan they never asked for,\" said Senator Merkley. \"It should be illegal to trick unsuspecting customers into loans they don't want, and that's why I'm urging my colleagues to take a stand for consumer fairness and transparency by passing the Unsolicited Loan Act.\"\nBackground on the Unsolicited Loan Act\nCongress has long recognized consumer loans should require an application by a customer and nearly 50 years ago the practice of mailing live credit cards was banned. In modern lending, formal loan applications are often quick to fill out and this legislation would not prohibit the direct mailing or marketing of a loan application. This legislation would allow for common-sense consumer protections to be put in place-without limiting access to credit-for consumers who willingly apply and seek lending products.\nThe Unsolicited Loan Act would also ensure that companies cannot shift from the mailing of live checks to other forms of transfer, such as a gift card or an \"e-check.\" Additionally, customers would not be held liable for debt incurred from illegal, unsolicited live check loans.\nThis legislation has been endorsed by The National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/-cotton-statement-on-united-kingdom-election-results", "Cotton Statement on United Kingdom Election Results", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 13, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on United Kingdom Election Results\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s Conservatives won a powerful majority of parliamentary seats last night:\n\n\u201cCongratulations to Prime Minister Johnson, the Tories, and the British people on a resounding victory. Best of luck, now get Brexit done!\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-jones-and-merkley-reintroduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-stop-predatory-unsolicited-loans", "Cotton, Jones, and Merkley Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Stop Predatory Unsolicited Loans", "2019-12-13", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) along with Senator Doug Jones (D-Alabama) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) have reintroduced bipartisan legislation-the Unsolicited Loan Act -that would halt the predatory practice of mailing high-interest loans to consumers in the form of \"live\" checks.\n\nOften times, when consumers receive these checks in the mail they believe them to be from their bank or another trusted financial institution and are unaware the check is a high-interest loan. Under the Unsolicited Loan Act, this practice would be prohibited and would ensure consumers can only access loans for which they proactively applied. This legislation echoes Congress' ban on the mailing of live credit cards.\n\n\"People should understand exactly what they're getting into when taking on debt. But many individuals don't understand that \u2018live' checks mailed directly to consumers are just high-interest loans in disguise. Congress put an end to \u2018live' credit cards decades ago, it's time to do the same with \u2018live' checks,\" said Senator Cotton.\n\n\"We need to continue to take a stand for hard-working families and make sure we have protections in place to prevent these predatory tactics,\" said Senator Jones. \"Many honest folks are not aware that by depositing these checks they are actually taking on a high-interest loan. Congress must act now and pass this common-sense legislation to protect consumers from this predatory scam.\"\n\n\"Families across the country have fallen victim to scams where they think they're getting a lucky windfall or refund from their bank, and instead are being lured into a high-interest loan they never asked for,\" said Senator Merkley. \"It should be illegal to trick unsuspecting customers into loans they don't want, and that's why I'm urging my colleagues to take a stand for consumer fairness and transparency by passing the Unsolicited Loan Act.\"\n\nBackground on the Unsolicited Loan Act\n\nCongress has long recognized consumer loans should require an application by a customer and nearly 50 years ago the practice of mailing live credit cards was banned. In modern lending, formal loan applications are often quick to fill out and this legislation would not prohibit the direct mailing or marketing of a loan application. This legislation would allow for common-sense consumer protections to be put in place-without limiting access to credit-for consumers who willingly apply and seek lending products.\n\nThe Unsolicited Loan Act would also ensure that companies cannot shift from the mailing of live checks to other forms of transfer, such as a gift card or an \"e-check.\" Additionally, customers would not be held liable for debt incurred from illegal, unsolicited live check loans.\n\nThis legislation has been endorsed by The National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6400", "Rep. Hill: \"Speaker Pelosi's Drug Plan  Puts Politics Over People\"", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.Today, Congressmen French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after voting against H.R. 3, the Pelosi drug pricing plan: Once again, Speaker Pelosi decided to put politics over people when she brought her partisan drug plan to the floor knowing that it has no chance of becoming law. Instead of working with Republicans, she steamrolled the House to appease the progressive wing of her party and introduced a bill that would implement government price controls for medications and prevent an estimated 100 new drugs from being developed over the next ten years. Losing even one new cure is too many for families in central Arkansas affected by fatal diseases.  I cosponsored a better alternative, H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, because I believe we can lower drug costs without stifling innovation. Every single provision in H.R. 19 has demonstrated bipartisan support. It would encourage innovation and competition, reduce the price of insulin, cap out-of-pocket costs in Medicare Part D, and provide more stability for our community pharmacists. \r\nCentral Arkansans cannot wait any longer for Congress to take action on the high cost of prescription drugs. By pushing her government takeover of the U.S. drug industry through the House, Speaker Pelosi has guaranteed that Americans will have to wait a little bit longer to see any real action.\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            Pictured below: Congressman Hill met with Lindsey Overman and her daughter Skylar, from Bryant, Arkansas in his Washington, D.C. office.Skylar was diagnosed with a rare condition called Schizencephaly and her family is focused on treating her symptoms. The Lower Costs, More Cures Act encourages innovation of new treatments which could help the Overman family.\r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBackground:\r\n(Courtesy of the House Republican Conference) The Lower Costs, More Cures Act:\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Encourages innovation of groundbreaking new cures, promotes more low-cost options for patients, and curbs how drug companies can game of the system.\r\n                Provides first-ever out-of-pocket cap for seniors in the Medicare Part D program.\r\n                Caps the cost of insulin for seniors in the Medicare Part D program.\r\n                Increases transparency and removes uncertainty at the pharmacy counter.\r\n                Cuts the cost of drug administration, including cancer treatment, for Medicare beneficiaries by as much as half.\r\n                Stops subsidizing other developed countries' health care through stronger trade agreements.\r\n                Includes policy that has bipartisan, bicameral support and could be signed into law today.\r\n            \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\nSpeaker Pelosi's H.R. 3:\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Undermines access to lifesaving medicines. Under Pelosi's partisan plan, theCongressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates 8 fewer cures would be developed. \r\n                The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimatesH.R. 3 could lead to as many as 100 fewer drugs entering the United States market over the next decade.\r\n                Uses the weight of the federal government to threaten manufacturers with a 95 percent taxon revenue if they don't comply with bureaucraticdemands. That's not negotiation, that's coercion.\r\n                Jeopardizes months of bipartisan work to capsenior citizens' out-of-pocket costs for prescription drug spending byopting for a partisan plan to appease progressives.\r\n                Isunconstitutional!Analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded Pelosi's partisan plan could violate both the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, as well as the Eight Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause.\r\n                Will not be signed by President Trump.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1273", "Cotton Honors Slain Fayetteville Officer on Senate Floor", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 12, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tStephen Carr has been described by friends as a gentle giant and all-American boy: He enjoyed hunting and fishing, played on the offensive line at Southwest Baptist University, and came up in a law-enforcement family. He always knew he wanted to be a police officer.\n\nSo it was little surprise when Stephen joined the Fayetteville Police Department two and a half years ago. Officer Carr served his community with professionalism and valor for those two and a half years as a patrol officer in the Dicksen Street entertainment district.\n\nSadly, Officer Carr was in his patrol car Saturday night when he was ambushed by a gunman looking for an officer to kill.\n\nCarr's fellow police heard gunshots and responded to the scene within seconds. With little regard for their own safety, they pursued the gunman down an alley. When confronted, they met force with forceand took him down.\n\nThe whole incident took just minutes from start to finish. Emergency services were on the scene within an instant. But despite their best efforts, they couldn't save Officer Carr. He succumbed to his wounds on the scene, as did his killer. Officer Carr was only 27 years old.\n\nThis tragedy reminds us of the terrible risks officers face every day when they put on the uniform and the badge, not knowing whether they'll be alive to take it off that night. Already this year, 118 officers across America have been killed in the line of duty. Some were the victims of random tragedies. Others, like Officer Carr, were targeted by a criminal class that hates what the police represent: Law and order.\n\nSince Officer Carr's killing, two more officers have fallen in the line of duty. Detective Joseph Seals, a 15-year veteran of the Jersey City Police Department, was shot to death while approaching two suspected killers. Sergeant Kaila Sullivan, a 16-year veteran of the Nassau Bay Police Department, was struck and killed by a fleeing suspect in a vehicle.\n\nAll these fallen officers will be remembered as heroes. In Arkansas especially, we'll remember Officer Carr, whose watch ended on December 7th, 2019. May he rest in peace.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1271", "DEA Confirms: Unlawful to Sell Morphine-Laced Poppy Seeds That Killed Arkansas Student", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 12, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353\nDecember 12, 2019\n\nDEA Confirms: Unlawful to Sell Morphine-Laced Poppy Seeds That Killed Arkansas Student\n\nWashington, D.C.  The Drug Enforcement Administration has clarified that selling morphine-laced, unwashed poppy seedsthe kind that killed Arkansan Stephen Hacala Jr.violates the Controlled Substances Act. \n\nEarlier this year, Senator Cotton introduced a bill banning the sale of the seeds and asked the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice whether the Controlled Substances Act prohibited the sale of morphine-laced seeds. Following that inquiry, the Department of Justice agreed to investigate the Hacala case.\n\nStephen Hacala Jr. died from an opioid overdose because of a dangerous gap in our nation's drug laws. After years of work by Stephen's loving family, the DEA has finally acted to close that gap. Now, anyone who sells unwashed morphine-laced poppy seeds will face the full force of the law and can no longer hide behind legal technicalities, said Cotton.\n\nBackground:\n\n On April 3, 2016, Stephen Hacala Jr. died from morphine intoxication from unwashed poppy seeds sold through Amazon.  \n A research team led by Dr. Madeleine Swortwood, assistant professor of forensic science at Sam Houston State University, studied the morphine content in different bags of poppy seeds. The researchers found that some bags of poppy seeds contained morphine levels many times higher than a fatal dose.  \n Since then, as many as 20 other Americans have died from morphine-laced seeds sold through retailers.  \n Companies have continued selling morphine-laced seeds to consumers due to perceived ambiguity in the Controlled Substances Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1272", "Senators Propose Bills to Clamp Down on World Bank Lending to China", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 12, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Following reports of a questionable $50 million World Bank loan to a Chinese organization associated with the forcible internment of Chinese Uighur Muslims, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) are introducing legislation to prevent such loans in the future. The three senators introduced S.3108, which instructs U.S. representatives at the World Bank to vote against and use best efforts to deny any loan or extension to countries that significantly exceed the graduation thresholds or that are designated as a country of concern for religious freedom. Grassley and Cotton also introduced an additional measure, S.3017, which is a companion to the Accountability for World Bank Loans to China Act introduced in the House Representatives. That legislation codifies Congress' support for Administration efforts to graduate China from the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lending program. \"The World Bank is sending development aid meant for poor countries to China, the second largest economy in the world with access to plenty of capital. The ruling Chinese Communist Party uses these loans to fund its repression of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The United States must urge the World Bank to end these loans, which are contrary to its own guidelines and the demands of justice. Every dollar loaned to China is a dollar spent on strengthening the CCP's grip over the Chinese people,\" Cotton said. \"China has been lending development money outside its borders to extend its influence for years while taking in U.S. taxpayer dollars via World Bank loans. It's confounding that these loans still continue and they ought to stop,\" Grassley said. \"What's worse is that these loans might have helped free up resources used to violate human rights and force Uighurs into internment camps. Our bills provide a short-term and longer-term means to take away the status that allows China to receive loans and halt loans to any country like China that exceeds the World Bank graduation thresholds or poses a risk to religious freedom.\" \"This bill will provide the U.S. Governor of the World Bank with the necessary guidance to uphold U.S. interests and to focus on the bank's development mission,\" Rubio said. \"For too long, countries like China and Russia have been allowed to exploit the World Bank's limited resources even after they should no longer qualify for assistance. I'm proud to co-sponsor this bill, which will also reaffirm our nation's continued commitment to international religious freedom worldwide.\" The World Bank International Bank IBRD program is designed to provide loans for economic-development purposes to middle-income developing countries. The threshold for graduation from the IBRD program currently stands at a gross national income per capita level of $6,975, which China has exceeded since 2016. China currently has a World Bank calculated gross national income per capita of level of $9,470. The Accountability for World Bank Loans to China Act codifies Congress' support for Administration efforts to graduate China from IBRD lending in a vote at the World Bank. Full text of S.3018 can be found HERE. Full text of S.3107 can be found HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1274", "Cotton Statement on First Test of Post-INF Ballistic Missile", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 12, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 12, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on First Test of Post-INF Ballistic Missile\n\nWashington, D.C.  Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after the Department of Defense conducted its first test of a conventionally-configured ballistic missile since the Russian Federation rendered the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty defunct:\nThis is a firm statement to the Russian Federation. They cannot violate international agreements without consequence. Now, I urge the Pentagon to regain the strategic advantage we lost due to the INF treaty by expediting the development and deployment of a new generation of ground-launched missiles. Today's test signals to Moscow and Beijing that the United States will no longer ignore their threats.  Background:\nFor years, Senator Cotton advocated for the United States to bring Russia back into compliance with the INF Treaty or to leave it altogether. A brief timeline is below: March 2015:Cotton talks about INF Treaty in Maiden Floor Speech  October 2016:Cotton Statement Reports that Russia is Advancing its Missile Program in Violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty February 2017:Cotton, Johnson, Rubio, Poe, and Rogers Introduce Intermediate-Range Forces Treaty Preservation Act March 2017:Cotton Statement on Reports that Russia Has Deployed a Banned Missile April 2017:Cotton Op-Ed in the Washington Post: \"Russia has subverted our treaty on cruise missiles for years. It's time to act\" July 2017:Cotton Warns Russia to Comply with INF Treaty in CSIS Speech July 2017:Cotton Questions General Paul Selva on the INF Treaty during Senate Armed Services Committee hearing\nDecember 2017:Cotton, Colleagues Urge Appropriations Committee to fund measures to bring Russia into compliance with INF March 2018:Cotton Questions Pacific Command Chief Admiral Harry Harris on INF Treaty October 2018:Cotton Statement on Reports the U.S. is Preparing to Withdraw from INF Treaty  December 2018:Cotton Statement on NATO Confirmation that Russia is in Breach of INF Treaty February 2019: Cotton Statement on U.S. Withdrawal from INF Treaty August 2019: Cotton Statement on Formal End of the INF Treaty\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-first-test-of-post-inf-ballistic-missile", "Cotton Statement on First Test of Post-INF Ballistic Missile", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 12, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on First Test of Post-INF Ballistic Missile\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement after the Department of Defense conducted its first test of a conventionally-configured ballistic missile since the Russian Federation rendered the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty defunct:\n\n\u201cThis is a firm statement to the Russian Federation. They cannot violate international agreements without consequence. Now, I urge the Pentagon to regain the strategic advantage we lost due to the INF treaty by expediting the development and deployment of a new generation of ground-launched missiles. Today\u2019s test signals to Moscow and Beijing that the United States will no longer ignore their threats.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nFor years, Senator Cotton advocated for the United States to bring Russia back into compliance with the INF Treaty or to leave it altogether. A brief timeline is below:\n\nMarch 2015: Cotton talks about INF Treaty in Maiden Floor Speech\n\nOctober 2016: Cotton Statement Reports that Russia is Advancing its Missile Program in Violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty\n\nFebruary 2017: Cotton, Johnson, Rubio, Poe, and Rogers Introduce Intermediate-Range Forces Treaty Preservation Act\n\nMarch 2017: Cotton Statement on Reports that Russia Has Deployed a Banned Missile\n\nApril 2017: Cotton Op-Ed in the Washington Post: \"Russia has subverted our treaty on cruise missiles for years. It's time to act\"\n\nJuly 2017: Cotton Warns Russia to Comply with INF Treaty in CSIS Speech\n\nJuly 2017: Cotton Questions General Paul Selva on the INF Treaty during Senate Armed Services Committee hearing\n\nDecember 2017: Cotton, Colleagues Urge Appropriations Committee to fund measures to bring Russia into compliance with INF\n\nMarch 2018: Cotton Questions Pacific Command Chief Admiral Harry Harris on INF Treaty\n\nOctober 2018: Cotton Statement on Reports the U.S. is Preparing to Withdraw from INF Treaty\n\nDecember 2018: Cotton Statement on NATO Confirmation that Russia is in Breach of INF Treaty\n\nFebruary 2019: Cotton Statement on U.S. Withdrawal from INF Treaty\n\nAugust 2019: Cotton Statement on Formal End of the INF Treaty\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/dea-confirms-unlawful-to-sell-morphine-laced-poppy-seeds-that-killed-arkansas-student", "DEA Confirms: Unlawful to Sell Morphine-Laced Poppy Seeds That Killed Arkansas Student", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 12, 2019\n\nDEA Confirms: Unlawful to Sell Morphine-Laced Poppy Seeds That Killed Arkansan\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 The Drug Enforcement Administration has clarified that selling morphine-laced, unwashed poppy seeds\u2014the kind that killed Arkansan Stephen Hacala Jr.\u2014violates the Controlled Substances Act.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Cotton introduced a bill banning the sale of the seeds and asked the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice whether the Controlled Substances Act prohibited the sale of morphine-laced seeds. Following that inquiry, the Department of Justice agreed to investigate the Hacala case.\n\n\u201cStephen Hacala Jr. died from an opioid overdose because of a dangerous gap in our nation's drug laws. After years of work by Stephen\u2019s loving family, the DEA has finally acted to close that gap. Now, anyone who sells unwashed morphine-laced poppy seeds will face the full force of the law and can no longer hide behind legal technicalities,\u201d said Cotton.\n\nBackground:\n\n\u00b7 On April 3, 2016, Stephen Hacala Jr. died from morphine intoxication from unwashed poppy seeds sold through Amazon.\n\n\u00b7 A research team led by Dr. Madeleine Swortwood, assistant professor of forensic science at Sam Houston State University, studied the morphine content in different bags of poppy seeds. The researchers found that some bags of poppy seeds contained morphine levels many times higher than a fatal dose.\n\n\u00b7 Since then, as many as 20 other Americans have died from morphine-laced seeds sold through retailers.\n\n\u00b7 Companies have continued selling morphine-laced seeds to consumers due to perceived ambiguity in the Controlled Substances Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-propose-bills-to-clamp-down-on-world-bank-lending-to-china", "Senators Propose Bills to Clamp Down on World Bank Lending to China", "2019-12-12", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Following reports of a questionable $50 million World Bank loan to a Chinese organization associated with the forcible internment of Chinese Uighur Muslims, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) are introducing legislation to prevent such loans in the future.\n\nThe three senators introduced S.3108, which instructs U.S. representatives at the World Bank to vote against and use best efforts to deny any loan or extension to countries that significantly exceed the graduation thresholds or that are designated as a country of concern for religious freedom.\n\nGrassley and Cotton also introduced an additional measure, S.3017, which is a companion to the Accountability for World Bank Loans to China Act introduced in the House Representatives. That legislation codifies Congress' support for Administration efforts to graduate China from the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) lending program.\n\n\"The World Bank is sending development aid meant for poor countries to China, the second largest economy in the world with access to plenty of capital. The ruling Chinese Communist Party uses these loans to fund its repression of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The United States must urge the World Bank to end these loans, which are contrary to its own guidelines and the demands of justice. Every dollar loaned to China is a dollar spent on strengthening the CCP's grip over the Chinese people,\" Cotton said.\n\n\"China has been lending development money outside its borders to extend its influence for years while taking in U.S. taxpayer dollars via World Bank loans. It's confounding that these loans still continue and they ought to stop,\" Grassley said. \"What's worse is that these loans might have helped free up resources used to violate human rights and force Uighurs into internment camps. Our bills provide a short-term and longer-term means to take away the status that allows China to receive loans and halt loans to any country like China that exceeds the World Bank graduation thresholds or poses a risk to religious freedom.\"\n\n\"This bill will provide the U.S. Governor of the World Bank with the necessary guidance to uphold U.S. interests and to focus on the bank's development mission,\" Rubio said. \"For too long, countries like China and Russia have been allowed to exploit the World Bank's limited resources even after they should no longer qualify for assistance. I'm proud to co-sponsor this bill, which will also reaffirm our nation's continued commitment to international religious freedom worldwide.\"\n\nThe World Bank International Bank IBRD program is designed to provide loans for economic-development purposes to middle-income developing countries. The threshold for graduation from the IBRD program currently stands at a gross national income per capita level of $6,975, which China has exceeded since 2016. China currently has a World Bank calculated gross national income per capita of level of $9,470. The Accountability for World Bank Loans to China Act codifies Congress' support for Administration efforts to graduate China from IBRD lending in a vote at the World Bank.\n\nFull text of S.3018 can be found HERE.\n\nFull text of S.3107 can be found HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6393", "Rep. Hill Secures Multiple Victories for Arkansas  in FY20 National Defense Bill", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after voting in favor of the Conference Report for the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA): I believe that ensuring the safety and security of the American people is the most important job I have as member of Congress. To achieve that goal, we must support and properly fund our Armed Forces. Central Arkansas is home to many brave members of the active duty, reserve, and National Guard on Camp Robinson and Little Rock Air Force Base. The passage of the NDAA today signals to Arkansas's service members and their families that their nation stands behind them 100%. I am pleased that two of my bills were included: H.R. 2249, the World War I Medals Review Act, to ensure medals earned are awarded, and H.R. 2033, to expand the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery. In October 2018, while working with Dr. Brian Mitchell from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, my office presented the family of Sergeant Leroy Johnston medals he earned but did not receive for his service in World War I because, like many soldiers of that era, Sergeant Johnston was a victim of discrimination. The World War I Valor Medals Review Act provides an opportunity to correct this injustice for countless American heroes and their families. This bill ensures that minorities who served in World War I are honored with the recognition they deserve on behalf of a grateful nation. Additionally, I am pleased that my bill to allow the Arkansas National Guard to release land on Camp Joseph T. Robinson to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) was included. Expanding the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery ensures that we can continue to honor veterans and their families with fitting tributes that memorialize their service to our country. Transferring this land from the Arkansas National Guard to ADVA is an efficient and effective solution that benefits all Arkansans and enables the continuation of first burials beyond 2045, when the cemetery is currently predicted to reach capacity.  \r\n\r\n\r\nBackground: In addition to including Congressman Hill'sWorld War I Medals Review Act(Section 548) and his legislation toexpand the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery(Section 2832), the NDAA Conference Report includesH.R. 2483, the Fentanyl Sanctions Act(Title LXXII), which was introduced by Congressman Max Rose (D-NY). Congressman Hill is an original cosponsor of the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and was active in securing its inclusion in the NDAA. This bill combats the ongoing opioid crisis by strengthening penalties for fentanyl distribution and trafficking while also providing additional screening resources for the United States Postal Service. The Conference Report also includesH.R. 31, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act(Title LXXIV). Congressman Hill is an original cosponsor of this bill and has been aleading voice in calling for its immediate passage.The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act imposes new sanctions on Syrian human rights abusers and those who facilitate the Bashar al-Assad regime's atrocities. TheFY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Reportalso includes:\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Authorizing $738 billion in defense funding.\r\n                Providing a 3.1% military pay-raise, the largest increase in a decade.\r\n                Providing the resources to continue to rebuild readiness, advance modernization of the nuclear triad, develop emerging technologies, enhance missile defense, and confront our adversaries.\r\n                Maintaining long-standing prohibitions on transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay, constructing detention facilities in the U.S., and closing Guantanamo.\r\n                Providing an additional $5.3 billion in emergency funding for military installations damaged by natural disasters.\r\n                A three-year phased repeal of the Widow's Tax.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6395", "Hill, Van Hollen, Blunt, Cleaver Secure WWI Valor Medals Review Act in FY20 National Defense Bill", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, Congressman French Hill (R-AR), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD),Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) announced that the World War I Valor Medals Review Act had been included in the House and Senate-negotiated Conference Report for the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would require the Department of Defense (DOD) to undertake a review of valor medals awarded to minority veterans during WWI to determine whether any should receive the Medal of Honor. The language encourages DOD to conduct this review in consultation with the Valor Medals Review Task Force, a joint project of the Congressionally-established World War I Centennial Commission and Park University's George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War, which has conducted extensive research to identify WWI veteran service records for this review. In October 2018, while working with Dr. Brian Mitchell from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, my office presented the family of Sergeant Leroy Johnston medals he earned but did not receive for his service in World War I because, like many soldiers of that era, Sergeant Johnston was a victim of discrimination,said Congressman Hill.The World War I Valor Medals Review Act provides an opportunity to correct this injustice for countless American heroes and their families. This bill ensures that minorities who served in World War I are honored with the recognition they deserve on behalf of a grateful nation.  \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            An African-American World War I veteran and Pine Bluff native,Leroy Johnston (right) is shown with two of his brothers, Drs. D.A.E. (left) and L.H. (center) Johnston.Rep. Hill and his staff members were instrumental in ensuring that Johnston's finally received his long overdue medals.\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n  \r\n\r\nHundreds of thousands of minority Veterans served their country during World War I, and their efforts were essential to our victory. But for far too long, their sacrifice has not received the recognition it deserves,said Senator Van Hollen.William Butler, an African American Veteran from Salisbury, was recognized with the Croix de Guerre with Palm, the Distinguished Service Cross, and a recommendation for the Medal of Honor  but he never received that medal before his death. This legislation is designed to ensure that cases like William Butler's will get a fair review. I was proud to fight for the inclusion of these crucial provisions in the NDAA so that William Butler and countless others have the opportunity to be honored. Minority WWI veterans who demonstrated the highest acts of bravery deserve to be recognized with the Medal of Honor,said Senator Blunt. While we can't undo the discrimination these heroes faced in their lifetimes, we can do the right thing now by making sure they receive the honor they're due. I appreciate the important efforts by the Valor Medals Review Task Force, with the support of Park University, to ensure veterans who were wrongly denied our nation's highest military honor will finally be acknowledged for their heroic actions. Today, we take an important step in righting the wrongs of the past, said Congressman Cleaver. While the nation may have failed to appreciate the bravery and sacrifices made by these servicemembers in their time, the passage of this legislation ensures that they will receive the honors that are long overdue. I want to thank Rep. Hill for his bipartisan support and his help in fighting to get these veterans the recognition they deserve. It may be too late for those who fought to protect our freedom, but it will mean the world to their families. Background: The full text of the World War I Valor Medals Review Act can be foundHERE. The bill was included in Section 548 of theHouse and Senate-negotiated Conference Report for the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).\r\nU.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are original cosponsors of the Senate bill, and Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) are original cosponsors of the House bill. This bill isendorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion,American GI Forum, and Congressional Black Caucus Veteran's Braintrust.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403727", "Womack Honors Fallen Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr on the House Floor", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 11, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) today spoke on the House floor to honor the life and dedicated service of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr, who was ambushed and tragically killed in the line of duty last weekend. Womack's tribute included a speech and moment of silence recognizing our heroes who have met their end of watch. Additionally, he included a message of condolence from Congressman Kevin Brady (TX-8), who represents Woodlands, Texas  which is where Officer Carr grew up.\r\n  \r\n\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) honors the life and service of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr\r\n\r\nA transcript of Womack's remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below and you can watch his full speech here:\r\nMr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and sacrifice of a hero from the Third District: Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr.\r\nOn Saturday, December 7th, Officer Carr was preparing to begin another shift of keeping our community safe when he was cowardly ambushed and executed  most likely because of the uniform he wears.\r\nWe have lost one of our finest law enforcement officers  someone who dedicated his life to serving Arkansas and defending others.\r\nOfficer Carr made it his mission to make our state a safer place for everyone. He served as a protector, promoted peace and justice, and demonstrated the valor and integrity that the uniform embodies.\r\nOur hearts are broken as we grieve this unthinkable loss. Today, we vow to never forget his memory and pledge to forever honor his life of service.\r\nI join all of Arkansas in mourning the loss of Officer Stephen Carr, and our prayers are with his family, loved ones, and the Fayetteville Police Department. I also want to recognize Corporal Seay Floyd and Officer Natalie Eucce, who immediately engaged and eliminated the suspect.\r\nOur police deserve our deepest respect and gratitude. While they know the risks they face are greater than ever, they refuse to shy away from their mission to protect and serve.\r\nI ask for a moment of silence for Officer Carr  who will be laid to rest tomorrow (December 12)  and all of our heroes who have met their end of watch.\r\nI yield back the balance of my time.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403728", "Womack Supports the National Defense Authorization Act, Delivers American Security Wins", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 11, 2019.... Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) today voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The legislation, which includes several Womack supported provisions, authorizes $738 billion for national defense activities, including resources to equip our troops, support military families, enhance defense capabilities, strengthen military readiness, and modernize the force. The bipartisan legislation passed by a margin of 377 to 48.\r\nCongressman Womack said, The National Defense Authorization Act will support our military and defense strength. This bill will authorize a well-deserved pay raise for our brave men and women in uniform, ensure that they have the resources needed to protect the homeland, and strengthen capabilities to address evolving threats. I'm also pleased that, with my support, provisions to end the disgraceful widow's tax, expand the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery, and improve military housing were also included in the final package. I look forward to seeing this bill quickly passed in the Senate and signed into law by President Trump.\r\nHighlights of the bill include authorizations to:\r\n \r\n    Provide our courageous troops with the largest pay raise in a decade; \r\n    Repeal the widow's tax, an important initiative that Womack has supported and advocated for;\r\n    Expand the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery by transferring nearly 141 acres of land at Camp Robinson to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs;\r\n    Sanction Russian energy projects, which would undermine U.S. and European security; \r\n    Review World War I records in order to properly honor veterans;\r\n    Invest in the tools needed to keep our troops safe, well-trained, and agile; \r\n    Enhance resources to improve lethality and confront threats around the world, including aggression from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran; and \r\n    Emphasize policies and programs that advance America's security against emerging threats, including artificial intelligence, space and counter-space capabilities, cyber, influence operations, hypersonics, and others.\r\n \r\nWomack continued, While this bill is a great step forward in authorizing critical initiatives, our work is far from complete. We must come together to immediately pass the Defense Appropriations bill to fully fund these programs  otherwise, we risk putting our national security in danger. Anything less than sustained and predictable appropriations will hinder our military and defense efforts.\r\nThe National Defense Authorization Act will now go to the Senate for consideration.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-honors-fallen-fayetteville-police-officer", "Boozman Honors Fallen Fayetteville Police Officer", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) paid tribute to the service and sacrifice of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr who was killed in the line of duty on Saturday, December 7.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/final-defense-bill-includes-provisions-authored-by-boozman", "Final Defense Bill Includes Provisions Authored by Boozman", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONU.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) touted significant commitments in the final version of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) while highlighting provisions he authored that were included in the bill.\r\nThe NDAA invests in our military and authorizes $738 billion in critical funding to ensure servicemembers have the tools and resources they need to protect national security.It makes significant investments in research and development for key defense technologies that will help the U.S. maintain its competitive advantage. It invests in our servicemembers by including a 3.1 percent pay increase for military personnel, and it continues to build readiness across the services.\r\nSupporting our defense must be a top priority as we face evolving threats to our national security. This bill supports our men and women in uniform and strengthens our military forces so we can deter conflict or be well prepared for it if deterrence fails now or in the future. I'm pleased my colleagues understood the importance of incorporating my provisions that accommodate the needs of the Air Force Reserve and our nation's veterans,Boozman said. \r\nOne long-fought for reform included in the NDAA is a repeal of the widow's tax which prevents surviving families of deceased military members from receiving the full Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs benefits for which they are eligible.\r\nElimination of the widow's tax is a big victory that has been a long time coming for surviving family members. Many of my colleagues and I have sought this change for years as the current policy that forces survivors to take reduced benefits fails to uphold the promise that was made to our men and women in uniform and their families, Boozman said.\r\nSeveral provisions authored by Boozman were included in the final version, including one that transfersnearly 141 acres of land at Camp Robinson to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. This provision is basedon a bill introduced by Boozman and members of the Arkansas Congressional Delegation that would secure land to expand burial space for veterans.\r\nThis is a commonsense solution that helps the Army Guard and the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. The land is costly to maintain and not useful to the guard for training. It will provide a valuable expansion of burial space for veterans  an important step to securing a place of honor for future generations of veterans. This land conveyance will help the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs provide the men and women who served in uniform a final resting place that appropriately acknowledges their service and sacrifice,Boozman said.\r\nAlong with the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery language, the NDAA includes the following Boozman-authored provisions:\r\nExpands Arlington National Cemetery: The nation's most sacred shrine, Arlington National Cemetery, is reaching its burial capacity. Cemetery officials have worked diligently to expand in order to preserve burials into the future. This provision, which authorizes a land exchange between the U.S. Armyand the National Park Service, will allow more burial space for veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. The exchange will also enable an improvement to the entrance of the cemetery.\r\nBroadens Wounded Warriors Adaptive Sports Programs:Military Services Adaptive Sports Programs are important rehabilitation tools. This provision will allow veterans who were enrolled in their respective service's Wounded Warrior Program to continue rehabilitative services for one year after their date of separation. This would permit the Department of Defense to use appropriated funds to cover travel, lodging and per diem for veterans for one year from date of separation to continue or complete the member's physical, psychological and social rehabilitation. \r\nIncreases Number of Air Force Reservists Serving on Full-Time Reserve:This provision provides an authorization for additional full-time Reservists, one of the top priorities for the Air Force Reserve.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1268", "Cotton Secures Arkansas Interests in National Defense Authorization Act", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 11, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 11, 2019\n\nCotton Secures Arkansas Interests in National Defense Authorization Act\n\nWashington, D.C.Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas),Chairman of the Airland Subcommitteein the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement on the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020. Senator Cotton secured dozens of provisions in the annual defense bill to support Arkansas servicemembers and military families. For a copy of the conference report, click here.\n The National Defense Authorization Act will strengthen America's warfighters and military families. This bill will make our military a stronger fighting force, while protecting America from fentanyl traffickers, terrorists, and other enemies. I'm pleased that so many Arkansas priorities will now pass into law, including provisions to expand the Arkansas State Veteran's Cemetery and help military spouses transfer occupational licenses when they move across state lines, said Cotton.\n\nSenator Cotton's provisions address a range of issues, including cutting the flow of fentanyl from China, expanding Arkansas' State Veterans Cemetery, easing the process of military spouse licensing transfers, including homeschooled students in JROTC programs, updating burial honors for certain veterans, and sanctioning companies who are working on Russia's Nord Stream II pipeline.\n Cracks Down on Chinese Fentanyl: America is suffering from the worst drug epidemic in our history, which has been fueled by deadly fentanyl from China. The bipartisan Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which Senator Cotton sponsored with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), imposes new sanctions and penalties on fentanyl traffickers.  \n Allows Military Spouses to Transfer Occupational Licenses: Many Arkansas military spouses struggle with recertifying their occupational licenses as they move from state to state. The Portable Certification of Spouses amendment allows the Defense Department to fund the creation of interstate compacts that will create common credentials across major professions. The bill will also help alleviate the burden military spouses bear when having to re-register a small business in a new state each time a service memberchanges station.  \n Expanded Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery: Ensures we keep our promises to Arkansas veterans who choose to be buried alongside their brothers and sisters in arms by transferring approximately 141 acres from the Army National Guard to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs.   \n Includes Homeschool Students in Local JROTC Units: Mandates inclusion of homeschooled students residing in the geographic area served by a JROTC unit. The bill ensures thathomeschool students who want to participate in JROTC can do so.   \n Grants Full Military Honors Burial Rites: Allows Medal of Honor and Prisoner of War Medal recipients to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors, regardless of rank.  \n Sanctions companies constructing the Nord Stream II Russian pipeline: Sanctions companies working on the pipeline and allows the president to sanction firms providing insurance or other financial services to these pipeline construction companies.   \n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1269", "Cotton, Colleagues Introduce Bill Imposing Sanctions on Drug Cartels", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 11, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), along with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), David Perdue (R-Georgia), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) today introduced the Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act, legislation that would subject certain foreign criminal organizations like drug cartels to sanctions, including immigration, financial, and criminal penalties. The process would be similar to the system used for designating entities as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). \"Criminal organizations and drug cartels like the one responsible for last month's attack in Mexico ought to be treated just like terrorist groups in the eyes of the U.S. government.  This bill would help stop cartel violence by ensuring these groups-and anyone who helps them-face dire consequences for their actions,\" said Cotton. \"Drug cartels function at a high level of sophistication. It is imperative that they be subject to repercussions that appropriately correspond to their criminal activity. This legislation seeks to give law enforcement the tools needed to penalize their crimes,\" said Blackburn. \"From narcotics and human trafficking to fuel theft and money laundering, transnational criminal organizations don't care who they hurt by their single-minded focus on turning an enormous profit from corrupt dealings,\" said Cornyn. \"This legislation would provide law enforcement additional tools to keep Americans safe and shut down the Cartel networks.\"    \"Though the camera crews have left, Texans and all Americans regularly face the consequences of an unsecured southern border,\" Cruz said. \"Violent gang members and drug cartels terrorize communities both abroad and along the Texas-Mexico border. This bill gives the president expanded options to label and take action against those cartels. This is an important step in safeguarding the American people.\" \"Mexican cartels are a national security and law enforcement threat,\" said Graham. \"It is time to update our laws to give us more tools to fight against this scourge.  I fully support Senator Cotton's efforts so we can effectively deal with the transnational criminal activity emanating from Mexico.\" \"Violent Mexican cartels have gotten rich by flooding our communities with addictive drugs that are ruining lives and tearing families apart. Unfortunately, the Mexican government has been unwilling or unable to stop these criminals. Enough is enough. This bill will beat back the cartels by freezing their assets, removing them from the country, and sanctioning anyone who helps sustain their criminal enterprises,\" said Hawley.  \"Cartels are the worst of humanity. As we saw in last month's horrific attack in Mexico, they terrorize innocent families and exploit children in order to fuel the drug trade and other illicit activity. These criminal organizations must face severe financial consequences for the terror they inflict in the United States and across the world. We have to put the cartels out of business once and for all,\" said Perdue.  \"By providing a new tool to designate significant transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), subject them to financial and criminal penalties, and bar their members from the United States, this legislation will better equip us to meet the threats our nation faces from violent cartels and other foreign criminal networks. Our legislation also requires the president to submit a full report to Congress regarding the horrific attacks against Americans in Mexico last month, including whether the organization responsible should be designated as a Significant Transnational Criminal Organization and sanctioned under our legislation,\" said Romney.   \"We need a smart, full-scale offensive against the cartels that have turned parts of our southern border into a violent wasteland,\" said Sasse. \"This designation would give federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to go after the butchers who blur the line between drug trafficking and terrorism. Cartels have slaughtered innocent American children, blackmailed their way to the top, and flooded our country with drugs. Let's crush these sickos.\" Background:\n \nThe Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act enables the federal government to impose on the most significant Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) the same sanctions that apply to FTOs including:\n \n \nBarring organization members and their immediate families from admission to the United States.\nFreezing assets,\nSeeking civil and criminal penalties against Individuals providing material assistance or resources to the organization.\n  \n \nThe bill also requires the President to submit a report to Congress with the government's findings on the November 4, 2019 attack on U.S. citizens in northern Mexico once the investigation is completed, including whether the organization responsible should be designated a Significant TCO.\n \n\nClick here for the text of the legislation.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1270", "Cotton, Schumer Bill Cracking Down on Chinese Fentanyl Included in Defense Bill", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 11, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 11, 2019\n\nCotton, Schumer Bill Cracking Down on Chinese Fentanyl Included in Defense Bill\n\nWashington, D.C.  U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) today announced that their Fentanyl Sanctions Acthas been includedinthe National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which is expected to pass early next week.\n\nThe senators' bill will hold China and other countries accountable for their commitments to crack down on producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic opioids. Additionally, the legislation will provide the U.S. government with more tools and resources to sanction illicit traffickers from China, Mexico, and other countries. Read more about the billhere.\n\nThe Chinese government is the world's largest drug dealer,\"said Cotton.\"China has allowed fentanyl and other synthetic opioids to pour into the United States for years, killing tens of thousands of Americans. Our law enforcement and intelligence agencies need additional resources to target the fentanyl producers, traffickers, cartels, and other criminals who are funneling this poison across our borders and into our communities. I'm pleased that this year's NDAA includes our bipartisan amendment to give law enforcement critical tools to stop this scourge and hold China accountable.\n\nThe opioid epidemic is devastating and indiscriminate, and year after year, it's claimed tens of thousands of American lives. We must hold China, currently the world's largest producer of illicit fentanyl, accountable for its role in the trade of this deadly drug. Our bipartisan sanctions bill will do just that, said Schumer.For years, Chinese laboratories have been cooking-up formulas of death and freely exporting lethal fentanyl across the United Statesand it has to stop.\n\nThe Fentanyl Sanctions Act was co-sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee).\n\nBackground:\n\nFollowing a commitment to the U.S. at the G-20 in December 2018, Chinese regulators announced on April 1, 2019, that a wider range of fentanyl derivatives would be declared controlled substances in China on May 1, 2019. China has struggled to enforce its current drug laws and continues to deny that its illicit fentanyl producers are a major source of the illicit opioids contributing to the U.S. opioid crisis. \n\nTo ensure accountability, the sanctions legislation would pressure the Chinese government to move forward with an aggressive plan to enforce its announced new laws and provide the president with flexible new sanction tools to go after actors, from manufacturers to traffickers, in China and other countries.   \n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/2019/12/11/cotton-secures-arkansas-interests-in-national-defense-authorization-act", "Cotton Secures Arkansas Interests in National Defense Authorization Act", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 11, 2019\n\nCotton Secures Arkansas Interests in National Defense Authorization Act\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Airland Subcommittee in the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement on the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020. Senator Cotton secured dozens of provisions in the annual defense bill to support Arkansas servicemembers and military families. For a copy of the conference report, click here.\n\n\u201cThe National Defense Authorization Act will strengthen America\u2019s warfighters and military families. This bill will make our military a stronger fighting force, while protecting America from fentanyl traffickers, terrorists, and other enemies. I\u2019m pleased that so many Arkansas priorities will now pass into law, including provisions to expand the Arkansas State Veteran\u2019s Cemetery and help military spouses transfer occupational licenses when they move across state lines,\u201d said Cotton.\n\nSenator Cotton\u2019s provisions address a range of issues, including cutting the flow of fentanyl from China, expanding Arkansas\u2019 State Veterans Cemetery, easing the process of military spouse licensing transfers, including homeschooled students in JROTC programs, updating burial honors for certain veterans, and sanctioning companies who are working on Russia\u2019s Nord Stream II pipeline.\n\n\u00b7Cracks Down on Chinese Fentanyl: America is suffering from the worst drug epidemic in our history, which has been fueled by deadly fentanyl from China. The bipartisan Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which Senator Cotton sponsored with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), imposes new sanctions and penalties on fentanyl traffickers.\n\n\u00b7Allows Military Spouses to Transfer Occupational Licenses: Many Arkansas military spouses struggle with recertifying their occupational licenses as they move from state to state. The Portable Certification of Spouses amendment allows the Defense Department to fund the creation of interstate compacts that will create common credentials across major professions. The bill will also help alleviate the burden military spouses bear when having to re-register a small business in a new state each time a service member changes station.\n\n\u00b7Expanded Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery: Ensures we keep our promises to Arkansas veterans who choose to be buried alongside their brothers and sisters in arms by transferring approximately 141 acres from the Army National Guard to the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs.\n\n\u00b7Includes Homeschool Students in Local JROTC Units: Mandates inclusion of homeschooled students residing in the geographic area served by a JROTC unit. The bill ensures that homeschool students who want to participate in JROTC can do so.\n\n\u00b7Grants Full Military Honors Burial Rites: Allows Medal of Honor and Prisoner of War Medal recipients to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with Full Military Honors, regardless of rank.\n\n\u00b7Sanctions companies constructing the Nord Stream II Russian pipeline: Sanctions companies working on the pipeline and allows the president to sanction firms providing insurance or other financial services to these pipeline construction companies.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-introduce-bill-imposing-sanctions-on-drug-cartels", "Cotton, Colleagues Introduce Bill Imposing Sanctions on Drug Cartels", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), along with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), David Perdue (R-Georgia), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) today introduced the Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act, legislation that would subject certain foreign criminal organizations like drug cartels to sanctions, including immigration, financial, and criminal penalties. The process would be similar to the system used for designating entities as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).\n\n\"Criminal organizations and drug cartels like the one responsible for last month's attack in Mexico ought to be treated just like terrorist groups in the eyes of the U.S. government. This bill would help stop cartel violence by ensuring these groups-and anyone who helps them-face dire consequences for their actions,\" said Cotton.\n\n\"Drug cartels function at a high level of sophistication. It is imperative that they be subject to repercussions that appropriately correspond to their criminal activity. This legislation seeks to give law enforcement the tools needed to penalize their crimes,\" said Blackburn.\n\n\"From narcotics and human trafficking to fuel theft and money laundering, transnational criminal organizations don't care who they hurt by their single-minded focus on turning an enormous profit from corrupt dealings,\" said Cornyn. \"This legislation would provide law enforcement additional tools to keep Americans safe and shut down the Cartel networks.\"\n\n\"Though the camera crews have left, Texans and all Americans regularly face the consequences of an unsecured southern border,\" Cruz said. \"Violent gang members and drug cartels terrorize communities both abroad and along the Texas-Mexico border. This bill gives the president expanded options to label and take action against those cartels. This is an important step in safeguarding the American people.\"\n\n\"Mexican cartels are a national security and law enforcement threat,\" said Graham. \"It is time to update our laws to give us more tools to fight against this scourge. I fully support Senator Cotton's efforts so we can effectively deal with the transnational criminal activity emanating from Mexico.\"\n\n\"Violent Mexican cartels have gotten rich by flooding our communities with addictive drugs that are ruining lives and tearing families apart. Unfortunately, the Mexican government has been unwilling or unable to stop these criminals. Enough is enough. This bill will beat back the cartels by freezing their assets, removing them from the country, and sanctioning anyone who helps sustain their criminal enterprises,\" said Hawley.\n\n\"Cartels are the worst of humanity. As we saw in last month's horrific attack in Mexico, they terrorize innocent families and exploit children in order to fuel the drug trade and other illicit activity. These criminal organizations must face severe financial consequences for the terror they inflict in the United States and across the world. We have to put the cartels out of business once and for all,\" said Perdue.\n\n\"By providing a new tool to designate significant transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), subject them to financial and criminal penalties, and bar their members from the United States, this legislation will better equip us to meet the threats our nation faces from violent cartels and other foreign criminal networks. Our legislation also requires the president to submit a full report to Congress regarding the horrific attacks against Americans in Mexico last month, including whether the organization responsible should be designated as a Significant Transnational Criminal Organization and sanctioned under our legislation,\" said Romney.\n\n\"We need a smart, full-scale offensive against the cartels that have turned parts of our southern border into a violent wasteland,\" said Sasse. \"This designation would give federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to go after the butchers who blur the line between drug trafficking and terrorism. Cartels have slaughtered innocent American children, blackmailed their way to the top, and flooded our country with drugs. Let's crush these sickos.\"\n\nBackground:\n\nThe Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act enables the federal government to impose on the most significant Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) the same sanctions that apply to FTOs including:\n\nBarring organization members and their immediate families from admission to the United States.\n\nFreezing assets,\n\nSeeking civil and criminal penalties against Individuals providing material assistance or resources to the organization.\n\nThe bill also requires the President to submit a report to Congress with the government's findings on the November 4, 2019 attack on U.S. citizens in northern Mexico once the investigation is completed, including whether the organization responsible should be designated a Significant TCO.\n\nClick here for the text of the legislation.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-schumer-bill-cracking-down-on-chinese-fentanyl-included-in-defense-bill", "Cotton, Schumer Bill Cracking Down on Chinese Fentanyl Included in Defense Bill", "2019-12-11", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 11, 2019\n\nCotton, Schumer Bill Cracking Down on Chinese Fentanyl Included in Defense Bill\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) today announced that their Fentanyl Sanctions Act has been included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which is expected to pass early next week.\n\nThe senators\u2019 bill will hold China and other countries accountable for their commitments to crack down on producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic opioids. Additionally, the legislation will provide the U.S. government with more tools and resources to sanction illicit traffickers from China, Mexico, and other countries. Read more about the bill here.\n\n\u201cThe Chinese government is the world's largest drug dealer,\" said Cotton. \"China has allowed fentanyl and other synthetic opioids to pour into the United States for years, killing tens of thousands of Americans. Our law enforcement and intelligence agencies need additional resources to target the fentanyl producers, traffickers, cartels, and other criminals who are funneling this poison across our borders and into our communities. I'm pleased that this year's NDAA includes our bipartisan amendment to give law enforcement critical tools to stop this scourge and hold China accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe opioid epidemic is devastating and indiscriminate, and year after year, it\u2019s claimed tens of thousands of American lives. We must hold China, currently the world\u2019s largest producer of illicit fentanyl, accountable for its role in the trade of this deadly drug. Our bipartisan sanctions bill will do just that,\u201d said Schumer. \u201cFor years, Chinese laboratories have been cooking-up formulas of death and freely exporting lethal fentanyl across the United States\u2014and it has to stop.\u201d\n\nThe Fentanyl Sanctions Act was co-sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee).\n\nBackground:\n\nFollowing a commitment to the U.S. at the G-20 in December 2018, Chinese regulators announced on April 1, 2019, that a wider range of fentanyl derivatives would be declared controlled substances in China on May 1, 2019. China has struggled to enforce its current drug laws and continues to deny that its illicit fentanyl producers are a major source of the illicit opioids contributing to the U.S. opioid crisis.\n\nTo ensure accountability, the sanctions legislation would pressure the Chinese government to move forward with an aggressive plan to enforce its announced new laws and provide the president with flexible new sanction tools to go after actors, from manufacturers to traffickers, in China and other countries.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6385", "USMCA Passage is Huge Victory for Arkansas Farmers, Ranchers, and Manufacturers", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.  Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that a long-awaited deal had been reached to finalize the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), replacing the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). With today's announced agreement on USMCA, more than 100,000 Arkansas farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers can celebrate increased exports, more jobs, and rising wages in 2020 and beyond. This agreement is a much-needed 21st century update of NAFTA and will keep the United States and our North American markets competitive for decades to come. This trade deal was one of President Trump's top priorities for the American people, and I want to congratulate him and U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer on this historic victory. The Arkansas Farm Bureau is very supportive of USMCA,said Arkansas Farm Bureau President Rich Hillman. Just last week at our state convention, our delegates reiterated to me the importance of getting this trade agreement ratified as quickly as possible. Canada and Mexico are the nation's two largest agricultural trading partners. Arkansas agriculture provides more than $20 billion annually to our state's economy. Passage of USMCA will help stabilize the marketplace and will allow the United States to focus efforts on other important trade agreements around the world. This is a vital piece of legislation for Arkansas businesses,said Arkansas State Chamber President Randy Zook.It is a real shot in the arm for Arkansas farm families. Canada and Mexico are our biggest trading partners, and this will be especially important to our farm sector.This is a solid achievement and the Arkansas State Chamber appreciates all of the hard work from the Arkansas delegation to get this moved forward. Background: Congressman Hill is a member of the USMCA Republican House Whip Team and has extensive international experience working on trade. In 1989, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance, where one of his key assignments was representing the United States as a negotiator in the historic bilateral talks with Japan known as the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII).While serving in President Bush's White House as Executive Secretary of the President's Economic Policy Council (EPC), he chaired the weekly interagency Trade Policy Review Group. This year, Congressman Hill has been a leading voice onchampioning America's trade priorities and advocating for passage of USMCA. This May, Congressman HilljoinedMSNBC's Morning Joeto talk about the latest developments on USMCA trade talks. ClickHEREor on the picture below to watch the full interview with Congressman Hill on Morning Joe.\r\n\r\n  \r\nIn November, Congressman Hill joinedKARK's Capitol Viewto discussthe positive impact that USMCA will have on Arkansas's 100,000 farmers and producers who will benefit from the new trade deal.Click HERE on the video below to watch his remarks.\r\n\r\nThis past May, theArkansas Democrat-Gazettepublished an op-ed by Congressman Hill highlighting the importance of finalizing USMCA in order to open trade markets for Arkansas exportsincluding services, agricultural, manufacturing, and energy. That op-ed can be readHERE. \r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \"On balance, the USMCA is a successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is superior to the existing arrangement and is a far better proposal than the alternative of scrapping NAFTA and returning to World Trade Organization rules. This agreement is good for American workers, taxpayers, businesses, and consumers and will keep the United States and our North American markets competitive for decades to come.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6388", "Rep. Hill Statement Opposing Democrats Articles of Impeachment", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.  Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement in opposition to articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrat leadership:Today's announcement is another step by Speaker Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues in their race to undo the 2016 elections before Christmas. It has been clear from day one that this was an inquiry in search of a crimeand that any crime would do. Instead, the facts did not demonstrate any offense sufficient to justify removing a duly elected U.S. president from office. No testimony produced evidence of bribery, extortion, or a high crime or misdemeanor. This partisan inquiry was flawed from the start when House Democrats blatantly deviated from historical precedent by altering the process used to establish impeachment proceedings against both President Nixon in 1974 and President Clinton in 1998. Additionally, the results of Speaker Pelosi's inquiry failed to meet criteria she herself established this past March for impeachment, requiring something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan.' The only bipartisan voting record that exists in the House is against the impeachment inquiry. If House Democrats wanted to conduct oversight of President Trump's foreign policy, they should have held oversight hearings in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Instead, their decision to pursue a partisan and prejudged impeachment inquiry has delayed the important work of Congress and contributed to more civic division.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6390", "Rep. Hill Celebrates Passage of Bill to Permanently Fund Arkansas's HBCUs", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Rep. Hill Celebrates Passage of Bill to Permanently Fund Arkansas's HBCUs \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        Washington,\r\n        December 10, 2019\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n      \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the House of Representatives passed a Senate amended version of H.R. 5363, the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE)Act by a vote of 319-96 with Congressman French Hill's (AR-02) support. This bipartisan legislation would permanently reauthorize more than $250 million in funding for historically black colleges (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions.\"The FUTURE Act is a crucial piece of legislation reauthorizing invaluable resources for America's minority-serving academic institutions,\" said Congressman Hill. \"Today, I was proud to support the amended version of this bill that will streamline the financial aid process for lower- and middle-income families. These reforms include a much-needed change from the tedious and often-confusing process students currently undergo in obtaining their own tax return information while also offering a simplified and secure transfer of this information. I was also pleased to see the final version of this bill address the need for taxpayer consent for the disclosure of their confidential tax information. \"Every student in America deserves the opportunity to succeed. In Arkansas, HBCUs have served thousands of students and helped them achieve their dreams of a college education. As the Vice Co-Chair of the bipartisan HBCU Caucus, I am committed to building a strong education system that prepares all our students for success in a 21st century global economy. I am proud to represent three outstanding HBCUs in central Arkansas that will be better prepared to serve its students because of the important funding authorized under the FUTURE Act.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403723", "Womack Statement on USMCA Trade Agreement Update", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DCDecember 10, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) released the below statement after President Trump and Congress concluded negotiations related to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). After nearly a year of delay tactics by Democrats, this significant trade deal is now expected to be brought to the House floor for a vote:\r\nPresident Trump and Ambassador Lighthizer have fought for and secured a 21st century trade deal for Arkansas and the country. The USMCA provides a strong framework that will enhance market access, create jobs, and unleash new sources of opportunity. Canada and Mexico are two of Arkansas's top trading partners, and modernizing our trade policies will help foster prosperity for decades to come. After nearly a year of delay tactics from Democrats, I am pleased that this significant agreement is being advanced. I look forward to voting to support the farmers, ranchers, businesses, and workers who move our economy.\r\nCanada and Mexico are Arkansas's two top trading partners. A recent report from the World Trade Center Arkansas found that, in 2018, exports to Canada amounted to $1.2 billion and exports to Mexico totaled $870 million, accounting for a third of Arkansas's total exports. Overall exports to these two countries support more than 12 million American jobs, including 120,000 jobs in the Natural State. Congressman Womack has continuously called for Congress to pass the USMCA and previously highlighted the importance of this agreement to the Third District during a local trade tour.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403724", "Womack Statement on Articles of Impeachment", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Womack Statement on Articles of Impeachment  \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        Washington,\r\n        December 10, 2019\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      Washington, DCDecember 10, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) released the following statement after Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump today:\r\nIt has been abundantly clear that since President Trump's election in 2016, House Democrats have been hell-bent on removing him from office. Even today, after articles of impeachment were filed, one member was already predicting another effort should the Senate acquit. The articles filed today are baseless and unsurprising.They won't go anywhere in the Senate. It is sad that instead of focusing on issues that contribute to our nation, Speaker Pelosi and her lieutenants are consumed with removing a duly-elected President. I predict that they will pay a dear political price for this misguided attempt to overturn the will of the American people.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###\r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1267", "Cotton Op-Ed in the Washington Post: The Open Skies treaty is giving Russia spying capabilities. End it.", "2019-12-10", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 10, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe Open Skies treaty is giving Russia spying capabilities. End it.The Washington PostBy: Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) Like so many treaties with Russia, the Open Skies agreement was negotiated and signed with good intentions, then abused by Moscow for maximum advantage. The treaty, which entered into force in 2002 and has 34 signatories, is intended to allow unarmed and unobstructed observation flights over both Russian and NATO territory. But Russia has breached the treaty for years by imposing limits on U.S. flights while suffering no such restrictions itself. In other words, \"open skies for me, closed skies for thee.\" President Trump should end this charade by withdrawing from the treaty and diverting the hundreds of millions of dollars it wastes to valuable military projects. Open Skies is straightforward in concept. It allows signatories to fly specialized aircraft over other countries to photograph existing facilities, construction and troop movements. These overflights are intended to build trust and transparency among our countries. The idea had support from U.S. leaders for decades, beginning in the 1950s with President Dwight Eisenhower. Arms-control treaties can reduce dangerous tensions and build trust - but only when signatories live up to their promises, either because they act in good faith or because they perceive that compliance advances their interests. Yet Russia is not a good-faith actor. Moreover, the Open Skies Treaty no longer serves to reduce tensions or build trust, if it ever did. Instead it gives Russia a spying capability it wouldn't otherwise possess, which jeopardizes U.S. security. For the Open Skies Treaty to work, signatories are supposed to allow overflights of all their airspace on several days' notice and with virtually no restrictions. These rules ensure that signatories can't hide military buildups or other sensitive projects. In practice, Russia allows only limited overflights of areas where it is engaged in covert military operations. Russian President Vladimir Putin is free to send his spy planes over U.S. military installations or over Trump's retreat in Bedminster, N.J., while restricting U.S. flights over his own territory. That includes Kaliningrad, Russia's heavily fortified Baltic Sea enclave deep inside NATO territory. Russia last year upgraded nuclear-capable missile bases and other military installations in Kaliningrad. Russia also denies overflights of its border with Georgia, where Russian troops covertly assist separatist forces. What a strange coincidence that Russia denies Open Skies flights over the very areas where those flights would be useful. Despite Russia's violations, it might be worth staying in the treaty if it supplied the United States with intelligence unavailable through other means. But that is not the case. We have the most advanced reconnaissance capabilities of any country, including satellites that can capture images on short notice anywhere on the planet - including Kaliningrad and the Russia-Georgia border. Open Skies overflights are thus a redundant capability for us, but a critical supplement to Russia's smaller, less capable spy satellite network. Defenders of the Open Skies Treaty argue that the treaty improves intelligence-sharing among our NATO allies, even if it doesn't directly improve U.S. intelligence capabilities. Setting aside the dubious rationale of staying in treaties that don't benefit the United States, the treaty doesn't provide any advantage that our allies can't easily replace. The resolution of Open Skies imagery is capped at 30 centimeters per pixel, virtually the same as the resolution available from commercial satellite-imaging companies. Our allies could therefore purchase imagery of the same quality as Open Skies imagery right now. They also benefit, and will continue to benefit, from the many intelligence-sharing channels that already exist with the United States and have nothing to do with the Open Skies Treaty. Another drawback: The two specially modified U.S. aircraft used for Open Skies flights are old and expensive to maintain. The planes, a derivative of the KC-135 that first flew in the 1950s, are older than the treaty they support and have broken down midflight. Modernizing these aircraft would cost nearly a quarter-billion dollars. The money would be better spent on tools that increase the combat effectiveness and survivability of U.S. troops. Withdrawing from Open Skies also would allow us to restrict Russian spy flights over the most sensitive U.S. military installations without damaging our ability to monitor theirs. Too many members of the foreign-policy establishment view treaties with sentimental affection rather than hard-nosed and clear-eyed objectivity. Far from being a pillar of the post-Cold War order, the Open Skies Treaty is a slow drain on U.S. resources and a spying coup for a key adversary. It's time to close American skies to Russian spies.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/standing-with-hong-kong-s-pro-democracy-protesters", "Standing With Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Protesters", "2019-12-09", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Hong Kong, a bustling international business hub and one of the world's most significant commercial ports, is often wrongly assumed to be under the full control of the People's Republic of China (PRC).\r\nLess than 25 years ago, Hong Kong was still a British colony. It was handed back to China under a policy known as one country, two systemswhich suggests that while there is only one China, Hong Kong would retain its own economic and administrative systems. The arrangement allows for Hong Kong to function as a separate entity while the rest of mainland China is governed by the communist system administered by Beijing.\r\nAs a result, the citizens of Hong Kong enjoy many liberties denied to those of mainland China. For instance, they have the right to assemble, the right to unfettered access to the internet and freedom of speech.\r\nNow, those rights appear to be slipping away.\r\nIn early June, protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong to denounce attempts from China's communist regime to institute the same brutal surveillance state it uses to oppress its citizens.\r\nThe resulting police crackdown enflamed the already high tensions. Now, parts of Hong Kong look like a war zone as the violent response of government forces has led to chaos.\r\nThe choice for the U.S. on this issue is quite simple. We must stand up for American values. We must stand with the people of Hong Kong.\r\nBoth the Senate and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation, signed into law by President Trump, that supports the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong by giving Washington additional tools to respond to PRC belligerences.\r\nSpecifically, theHong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Actwhich I proudly co-sponsoredauthorizes additional sanctions for Chinese and Hong Kong officials tied to human rights abuses. It also requires the State Department to review the special autonomous status the U.S. grants Hong Kong on an annual basis.\r\nThis new law has not gone over well with the authoritarian regime in Beijing, which would like nothing more than for the rest of the world to look the other way while it cracks down on the people of Hong Kong who are simply seeking to preserve the freedoms they have been promised. \r\nThe Communist Party of China would like the world to believe that these organic protests are somehow being orchestrated by outside interests. In response to theHong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the regime sanctioned several American nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations it accused of being behind the protests. It is the latest in a long line of propaganda efforts to deflect responsibility for the violence.\r\nThe regime needs to perpetuate the idea that these organizations are fomenting unrest because the reality is detrimental to its ability to maintain its authoritarian control. Unfortunately for the regime, the truth is much more troublesome. The people of Hong Kong simply want to preserve their rights. The regime wants to continue to chip away at those freedoms while hiding the real story from the mainland citizens it already oppresses. \r\nStanding with the people of Hong Kong is the right thing to do. I am pleased that President Trump, in signing the bill into law, recognizes our policy decisions regarding China go well beyond trade. Beijing needs to understand that our desire to finalize a better trade deal does not mean we will turn a blind eye to human rights abuses.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1265", "Cotton Statement on Decision Banning Russia From Olympics", "2019-12-09", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 9, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 9, 2019\n\n\nCotton Statement on Decision Banning Russia From Olympics      \nWashington, D.C.Following an announcement that the World Anti-Doping Agency had banned Russia from international sports after a doping scandal, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\nVladimir Putin's pathetic Olympic doping scheme once again has deprived young Russians of the opportunity to compete fairly on behalf of their country at the Olympic Games, just as his rule has deprived the Russian people of so many opportunities. Now Putin won't even have fraudulently won medals to distract the Russian people from the country's isolation, failing economy, and demographic collapse.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1266", "Cotton Statement on Justice Department Report Concerning Russia Investigation", "2019-12-09", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 9, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 9, 2019\n\n\nCotton Statement on Justice Department Report Concerning Russia Investigation      \nWashington, D.C.After the Department of Justice released Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the origins of the Russia investigation, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:The Inspector General's report is clear that top officials at the FBI launched a highly improper, intrusive investigation into the president's campaign and associates during the 2016 election while suppressing and omitting critical evidence. I agree with Attorney General Barr that this was a clear abuse of the FISA process and the Department of Justice must take steps to restore integrity and credibility in the wake of this failure.\n\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/2019/12/09/cotton-statement-on-justice-department-report-concerning-russia-investigation", "Cotton Statement on Justice Department Report Concerning Russia Investigation", "2019-12-09", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 9, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Justice Department Report Concerning Russia Investigation\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 After the Department of Justice released Inspector General Michael Horowitz\u2019s report on the origins of the Russia investigation, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\n\n\u201cThe Inspector General\u2019s report is clear that top officials at the FBI launched a highly improper, intrusive investigation into the president\u2019s campaign and associates during the 2016 election while suppressing and omitting critical evidence. I agree with Attorney General Barr that this was a clear abuse of the FISA process and the Department of Justice must take steps to restore integrity and credibility in the wake of this failure.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-decision-banning-russia-from-olympics", "Cotton Statement on Decision Banning Russia From Olympics", "2019-12-09", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 9, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Decision Banning Russia From Olympics\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Following an announcement that the World Anti-Doping Agency had banned Russia from international sports after a doping scandal, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\n\n\u201cVladimir Putin\u2019s pathetic Olympic doping scheme once again has deprived young Russians of the opportunity to compete fairly on behalf of their country at the Olympic Games, just as his rule has deprived the Russian people of so many opportunities. Now Putin won\u2019t even have fraudulently won medals to distract the Russian people from the country\u2019s isolation, failing economy, and demographic collapse.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://womack.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403722", "Womack Statement on the Death of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr", "2019-12-08", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Steve Womack", "W000809", "womack.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Womack Statement on the Death of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr \r\n   \r\n    \r\n       \r\n      \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e\r\n      \r\n      \r\n    \r\n    \r\n      \r\n        Washington,\r\n        December 8, 2019\r\n      \r\n       \r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      \r\n      \r\n      Washington, DCDecember 8, 2019....Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) released the following statement mourning the loss of Fayetteville Police Officer Stephen Carr, who was senselessly targeted and killed in the line of duty:\r\nOfficer Stephen Carrproudly wore his shield while upholding his oath to keep Arkansans safe each day. He was on duty about to begin another shift when he was unjustly targeted and assassinated.He will be remembered for his dedication to community, the selfless service he exemplified, and the meaning of the uniform he wore. This tragedy serves as a reminder of the risks our brave men and women in uniform face each day. I join all Arkansas in mourning the loss of Officer Carr and offer my deepest condolences to his family, loved ones, and the Fayetteville Police Department.\r\nCongressman Steve Womack (AR-3) has represented Arkansas's Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense and transportation, housing and urban development subcommittees.\r\nwomack.house.gov\r\n###\r\n    \r\n  \r\n  \r\n  \r\n    \r\n      f \r\n      t \r\n      #\r\n      e", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6383", "RELEASE: Rep. Hill Applauds Inclusion of Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in FY20 NDAA", "2019-12-07", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) praised Congressional leaders for including H.R. 31, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Congressman Hill is an original cosponsor of the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act, bipartisan legislation which will impose new sanctions on Syrian human rights abusers and those who facilitate the regime's atrocities.\"Earlier this year, I met with 'Caesar,' a Syrian defector who risked his life to smuggle photographic proof of the atrocities committed by Bashar al-Assad and his brutal regime to the United States,\"said Congressman Hill.\"These photos, now known as the Caesar Files, depict more than 55,000 men, women, and children who suffered horrific torture and murder in Assad's prisons throughout Syria. \"His message to me was this: do not let the 500,000 Syrians murdered by Assad and his henchmen die in vain. Today, with the inclusion of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in the NDAA, the United States is sending a clear message that we will not turn away and ignore heinous acts committed against civilians by Assad, Iran, and Russia. I'm calling on President Donald J. Trump to sign this important legislation promptly after its passage.\"\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            Below:In September, Congressman Hill met with the Syrian defector known as \"Caesar\" who smuggled photographic proof of Bashar al-Assad's genocide against the people of Syria.\r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n  \r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            Below: Congressman Hill meeting withOmar Alshogre (second from left), a survivor from one of Assad's death prisons. Omar described in detail how he was tortured for years and witnessed his own family die in his arms. Also pictured are leaders of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Natalie Larrison and executive director Mouaz Moustafa (on the right) .\r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n  \r\nBackground: The full text ofthe Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act can be foundHERE.\r\nThis legislation imposes new sanctions on Syrian human rights abusers and those who facilitate the regime's atrocities. It also authorizes the State Department to support entities that are collecting and preserving the chain of evidence for eventual prosecution of those who have committed war crimes in Syria since the war began in 2011. The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act is named in honor of the former Syrian military photographer Caesar who risked his life to document Assad's horrific brutality and revealed his findings to members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Congressman Hill spoke in support of the passage of theCaesar Syria Civilian Protection Act when it was brought to the House floor for a vote this past January.Video of that speech can be viewed by clickingHERE. This past June, Congressman Hill spoke out on the House floor against the daily atrocities occurring in Syria. Congressman Hill called on Congressional leaders to act on legislation, H.R. 336, the Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act, which includes additional sanctions related to the conflict in Syria. Video of that speech can be viewed by clickingHERE. This past May, theWashington Examinerpublished Congressman Hill's op-ed highlighting the difficult, yet necessary steps the United States must take to end the ongoing civil war in Syria. That op-ed can be foundHERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-statement-disaster-recovery-grants", "Westerman Statement on Disaster Recovery Grants", "2019-12-06", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 This week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an $8,940,000 million disaster recovery grant to Arkansas counties affected by the May-June flooding. U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement:\n\n\"Unprecedented flooding earlier this year devastated parts of the Fourth District, destroying homes, businesses and farmland. This grant is a huge step toward getting Arkansan families and businessowners back on their feet. I'm grateful to President Trump and HUD Secretary Carson for approving this funding for our state, and will continue working to modernize water infrastructure to make sure severe flooding like this doesn't happen in the future.\"\n\nBackground\n\nHUD is directing the disaster recovery funding to the counties most severely affected by the flooding: Conway, Crawford, Desha, Faulkner, Jefferson, Lincoln, Logan, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Sebastian and Yell.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/taking-strong-action-against-robocalls", "Taking Strong Action Against Robocalls", "2019-12-06", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "At their best, robocalls are a frustrating nuisance. At their worst, robocalls are a means by which criminals scam people to get money or personal information. Robocalls have been around for years, but an estimated 48 billion robocalls occurred in 2018  a 64 percent increase since 2016. Many of you have received these calls, some even posing as your own phone number.\nThat's why I was so glad to see Congress taking strong bipartisan action against robocalls with the passage of Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. The House passed a Senate version of the bill with a vote of 417-3, and it now heads to President Trump to be signed into law.\nThe TRACED Act implements a nationwide caller ID system so consumers can immediately verify that the person calling their phone is someone they know. Consumers will also be able to block unlawful calls, at no extra charge. Finally, the TRACED Act equips the Federal Communications Commission and law enforcement officials with the necessary tools to go after robocallers breaking the law.\nI'm glad to finally see action on an issue that affects much of the Fourth District. No one has the right to use an anonymous call to defraud or deceive American families. I hope President Trump quickly signs the TRACED Act into law.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1264", "Cotton Statement on Further Delay of Death Penalty for White Supremacist and Murderer", "2019-12-06", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 6, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 6, 2019\n\n\nCotton Statement on Further Delay of Death Penalty for White Supremacist and Murderer      \nWashington, D.C.After a federal court in Indiana granted a stay of execution to convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\nJustice should come quickly to the perpetrators of heinous crimes.But for more than 20 years, our justice system has instead protected a white supremacist who murdered an entire Arkansas family, including an eight-year-old girl.This brutal murderer has already exhausted every avenue of dueprocess and is now employing frivolous delay tactics. It's time for him to face the consequences of his actions.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-further-delay-of-death-penalty-for-white-supremacist-and-murderer", "Cotton Statement on Further Delay of Death Penalty for White Supremacist and Murderer", "2019-12-06", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 6, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Further Delay of Death Penalty for White Supremacist and Murderer\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 After a federal court in Indiana granted a stay of execution to convicted murderer Daniel Lewis Lee, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) released the following statement:\n\n\u201cJustice should come quickly to the perpetrators of heinous crimes. But for more than 20 years, our justice system has instead protected a white supremacist who murdered an entire Arkansas family, including an eight-year-old girl. This brutal murderer has already exhausted every avenue of due process and is now employing frivolous delay tactics. It\u2019s time for him to face the consequences of his actions.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-highlights-world-trade-center-arkansas-report-in-push-for-usmca", "Boozman Highlights World Trade Center Arkansas Report in Push for USMCA", "2019-12-05", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONU.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) highlighted data from a new report produced by the World Trade Center Arkansas to make the case that ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) needs to happen now.\r\nDuring a speech on the Senate floor, Boozman argued that the U.S. House of Representatives, which must act first on ratification, is unnecessarily delaying the process and stifling economic growth as a result.\r\nHouse Leadership's refusal to move this trade deal is preventing additional job creation in our country and is sending the wrong signal to our trading partners across the globe. We ought to be spurring economic activity by striking fair trade agreements globally, not sitting on our hands and refusing to approve an agreement between two of our top trading partners, Boozman said.\r\nBoozman cited the findings of a recent report from the World Trade Center Arkansas, entitledArkansas International Trade and Jobs Data Summary 2019, to make the case for how important the Canadian and Mexican markets are for Arkansas exporters.\r\nThe Arkansas World Trade Centerwhich has played a valuable role in connecting businesses in my state with international partners for over a decaderecently released a report summarizing trade and jobs data for the Natural State. The report underscores just how crucial Canada and Mexico are for Arkansas's economy. Natural State exports to Canada amounted to $1.2 billion last year. Our exports to Mexico totaled $870 million in that same time span. Combined, these two countries account for a third of Arkansas's total exports, Boozman said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/boozman-urges-passage-of-usmca-trade-deal-cites-benefits-for-arkansas", "Boozman Urges Passage of USMCA Trade Deal, Cites Benefits for Arkansas", "2019-12-05", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Senator John Boozman (R-AR), delivered remarks on the Senate floor urging passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. He cites economic data from World Trade Center Arkansas regarding the Natural State's trading relationship with our neighbors to the north and south", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6374", "VIDEO: Rep. Hill Talks Fed Policy, USMCA, and Cryptocurrency Regulation with Yahoo Finance", "2019-12-04", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. Congressman French Hill (AR-02) joined Yahoo Finance'sThe Final Roundto discuss the Fed's decision to cut interest rates in 2019, getting the USMCA trade deal to the House floor for a vote, and the possibility of a U.S.-backed cryptocurrency.ClickHEREor on the picture below to watch the full interview with Congressman Hill on Yahoo Finance.\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n\r\n  \r\nKey excerpts from Congressman Hill below:On the Fed Cutting Rates:  \r\n\"I think they made the right decision to cut rates when they did and I think now we need to see what's been the response of the market and what's been the response out in the mainstreet economy across the country where you still see some softening.\"On USMCA and China Trade Negotiations:  \r\n\"In my home state of Arkansas, trade supports over 100,000 Arkansans, and Canada and Mexico are our largest trading partners. So there's really nothing [more] to be done. USMCA has been approved in Canada, it's been approved in Mexico, and it's now time for the United States Congress to approve the USMCA. Let's get 2020 off to a great start in trade.I have not generally supported across the board steel and aluminum tariffs. I think we have to be competitive in steel and aluminum manufacturing here in the U.S., but across the board tariffs are distortive and they hurt intermediate goods manufacturers here in the country. So I haven't seen today the president's rationale for re-imposing tariffs on Brazil, but they originally had steel and aluminum tariffs imposed and then the president granted them an exception.\" On the Future of Cryptocurrency:  \r\n\"My view is that blockchain and digital currency are part of our future, both in financial services and in the broader commercial market. I would like to see in the future, the dollar have its own token and blockchain method of payments. That would not mean that people couldn't innovate in private ways to conduct those payments, but they would be in the dollar, not in something like Libra that has been proposed by Facebook.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6376", "Rep. French Hill in the Arkansas Catholic: Advocating for the Unborn", "2019-12-04", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. This month,the Arkansas Catholic Newspaperpublished a letter to the editor by Congressman French Hill (AR-02)highlighting the importance of passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that requires health care practitioners who are present at a live birth to exercise skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child. Congressman Hill's letter argues that, \"today, we face a morally defining moment as a nation where we must choose that, once born, every life deserves equal protection under the law.\" Congressman Hill's full letter tothe Arkansas Catholic Newspaperis copied below.\r\n\r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n  \r\nLetter to the Editor: Advocating for the Unborn\r\nBy Congressman French Hill\r\nVolume 108 | Number 43\r\nPage 10\r\n\r\nAdvocating for the Unborn\r\nThank you for your editorial titled,The Infanticide States Aren't Talking About, published in the September 21, 2019 issue, highlighting the tragic state laws facilitating born-alive abortion.\r\nIn January of this year, New York signed the Reproductive HealthAct into law. This law makes born-alive abortion legal if the doctor makes a reasonable and good-faith judgment that the abortion will benefit the pregnant woman's mental or physical health. Virginia's governor followed suit, signing into law similar legislation that allows third-trimester abortions in cases of deformities or unviable infants.\r\nAmericans have made it clear that they are repulsed by these statutes that have legalized infanticide. Today, we face a morally defining moment as a nation where we must choose that, once born, every life deserves equal protection under the law.\r\nThat is why I cosponsored the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that requires health care practitioners who are present at a live birth to exercise skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the childthe same degree of care that would be offered to any other child born prematurely.\r\nAll Members of Congress should be able to agree that, once born, all children deserve protection under the law.Despite the efforts of House Republicans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has blocked this piece of legislation from coming up for a vote. In total, she has refused a request to allow a vote on this bill more than 80 times.\r\nHouse Republicans have a chance to break through this obstruction and force a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by signing a discharge petition.So far, 203 membersRepublican and Democrathave signed onto this effortjust 15 shy of the required 218.\r\nI encourage your readers to contact Speaker Pelosi, a Catholic herself, and ask her to immediately schedule a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.\r\nSincerely,  \r\nCongressman French Hill  \r\nU.S. Representative, Arkansas's Second Congressional District", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1262", "Cotton Statement on Strengthening Food Stamp Work Requirements", "2019-12-04", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 4, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 4, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Strengthening Food Stamp Work Requirements  \nWashington, D.C. U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) released the following statement after the United States Department of Agriculture announced a rule that would strengthen work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program:\nArkansans want to help their fellow man in need, but their assistance should be taken in good faith. That means if you're receiving food stamps and you can get a job, you should. Secretary Perdue's decision to strengthen work requirements for food stamps ensures that food aid is being taken in good faith, going to the Americans who truly need it.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1263", "Cotton, Colleagues Urge FERC to Combat National Security Threat Posed by Huawei", "2019-12-04", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 4, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Caroline TablerorJames Arnold(202) 224-2353December 4, 2019\n\n\nCotton, Colleagues Urge FERC to Combat National Security Threat Posed by Huawei\nWASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), John Cornyn (R-Texas), James Risch (R-Idaho), Angus King (I-Maine), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) today sent a letter to Neil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In the letter, the Senators ask for Chairman Chatterjee's assurance that the FERC understands the threat posed to U.S. national security by the Chinese-owned telecommunications company Huawei, and they urge the FERC to work with the administration to combat the threat.\n\n\nThe signed letter is here, and full text is below.\n\n\n\n\nDecember 4, 2019\n\nThe Honorable Neil Chatterjee\nChairman\nFederal Energy Regulatory Commission\n888 First Street, NE\nWashington, DC 20426\n\n\nDear Chairman Chatterjee,\n\nWe write today to get assurances from you that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) fully appreciates the threat posed to the nation's energy infrastructure by the use of equipment manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (Huawei). Creating a new cybersecurity division within your agency is a good start. We are hopeful that one of the new division's first objectives will be to defend this infrastructure against the threats posed by the use of equipment manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (Huawei).\n\nAs you know, the Intelligence Community has issued repeated warnings to regulators and political leaders about the dangers associated with using Huawei equipment on the nation's telecommunications network. Congress and the Trump Administration have taken steps to eliminate Huawei products from national security sensitive applications, citing concerns with the company's links to the Chinese Communist party, including its intelligence services. Given FERC's responsibility for overseeing the reliability of the electric grid, it is critical that your agency take steps to ensure that United States critical infrastructure and the electric grid remain protected from foreign intrusion.\n\nWhile Huawei announced earlier this year that it intended to exit the U.S. solar market, there are no guarantees. Huawei's line of solar products relies on inverters  devices that manage and convert energy produced by solar panels  for use in homes and businesses. Huawei-produced inverters connected to the U.S. energy grid could leave it vulnerable to foreign surveillance and interference, and could potentially give Beijing access to meddle with portions of America's electricity supply.\n\nThe Administration will ultimately need to address the full scope of the threat posed by Huawei, including consideration of a ban on the company's entry into the U.S. inverter market. In the meantime, we urge FERC and its new cybersecurity division to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and its National Laboratories, industry, utilities, and other federal, state and local regulators to curb threats and protect critical infrastructure.\n\nWe offer our assistance, as it is imperative that Congress, the Administration and others in the private and public sector work closely together to protect our most vital assets from domestic and foreign threats.\n\nThank you for your attention to this important matter.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-strengthening-food-stamp-work-requirements", "Cotton Statement on Strengthening Food Stamp Work Requirements", "2019-12-04", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or James Arnold (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 4, 2019\n\nCotton Statement on Strengthening Food Stamp Work Requirements\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) released the following statement after the United States Department of Agriculture announced a rule that would strengthen work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program:\n\n\u201cArkansans want to help their fellow man in need, but their assistance should be taken in good faith. That means if you\u2019re receiving food stamps and you can get a job, you should. Secretary Perdue\u2019s decision to strengthen work requirements for food stamps ensures that food aid is being taken in good faith, going to the Americans who truly need it.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6371", "Rep. Hill Delivers Speech at  University of Arkansas's Fulbright College:  America and Her Place in a Post-Berlin Wall World", "2019-12-03", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "French Hill", "H001072", "hill.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON D.C.  On Monday, November 25th, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) visited the University of Arkansas, touring the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering and the Center for Advanced Spatial Technology (CAST), while also spending time with students from the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences culminating in a speech entitled, America and her place in a post-Berlin Wall world. \r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            Above:Congressman French Hill addresses faculty, students, and administrators at the Univeristy of Arkansas's J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.\r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n  \r\nIt is a pleasure to visit the Fulbright College at the University of Arkansas. It is always a welcoming presence to be on campus during the fall with bright colors and the smell of falling leaves. And, of course, hearing about the recently texted promises of good grades to be more fully discussed while at home for Thanksgiving this weekend!\r\nThis morning I will discuss America and her place in a post-Berlin Wall world with global conflict in full bloom and the return of Great Power Competition ever present. The Fulbright College as venue for this talk serves well as its namesake established a fundamental tool of American foreign policy   educational exchange. Senator Fulbright walked the sidewalks as an undergraduate, teacher, and university president. In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Fulbright Program, in the spring of 2016, I had the pleasure of sponsoring the planting of a fine young American Elm on the US Capitol grounds. The Architect of the Capitol wisely selected a site on the historic grounds in view of the former senior senator's window in the Russell Senate Office Building.\r\nSeven decades after the ashes in Dresden and Hiroshima cooled, the loss of 55 million people fresh in policymakers' nightmares, the United States and her World War II allies stood up the post-war system that we continue to utilize today. The United States alone rested atop the post-war smoldering pile of broken lives, countries, economies, and villages. At the end of the war, America accounted for more than 50 percent of global industrial production.\r\nIn July 1944, just a month after the D-Day invasion and yet a long painful year before the surrender of Japan, 730 delegates from 44 allied nations convened at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Drawing on the lessons of World War I, the Great Depression, and the current conflict, financial leaders would hammer out a global economic reconstruction plan that included trade, the creation of the World Bank (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IRBD)), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was an optimistic, even hopeful time.\r\nJust over a year later, George Kennan, then the US charg d'affaires's in Moscow, wrote his definitive Long Telegram to the State Department.This telegram known as the Sources of Soviet Conduct outlined the yet unknown irksome years ahead of the East-West conflict.The next month, in March 1946, Winston Churchill visited Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri as a guest of President Truman and delivered his now famous Iron Curtain speech. It was in this context that then Senator Fulbright proposed that proceeds from the sale of surplus war property fund educational exchanges to promote international goodwill. President Truman signed Fulbright's vision into law on August 1, 1946.\r\nSoviet whisperer George Kennan argued that the West's containment strategy would succeed and would so not just because of the strength and steadfastness of the United States and its allies but even more because of the weaknesses and contradictions in the Soviet system itself.[1]\r\nKennan's strategy hinged on allied strong economic and defense investment, which led to an unprecedented coalition to defeat Soviet expansionism, lifted living standards, and dramatically reduced poverty by opening the globe to the benefits of trade and development. Perhaps, most importantly, the long Cold War informed the people of the world more about America as an idea, as the world's best hope  and, as indeed a global shining city on a hill.\r\nAmerica as an Idea Our country and our citizens over the generations have worked mightily to live up to the values and unalienable rights granted us by God above enshrined in our founding documents, fully stated in our U.S. Constitution and its hard-fought and powerfully adopted amendments. Along the way we stumbled, but often redeemed ourselves as in the successful passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts after 100 years of Jim Crow.\r\nOur post-war example included: free expression at home and strong, vocal support of free expression abroad particularly in the form of advocacy for religious tolerance and freedom; the rule of law; human rights; education for women and minorities. These are fundamental tenets of our foreign policy. They are not missed. They are not lost in the contemporary sea sludge of social media malcontents, propagandists, and brave digital warriors on the web. Freedom invites unwanted comparisons. As Churchill said, Russia fears our friendship more than our enmity.[2]\r\nIn this regard, I'm grateful that President Trump has prioritized this critical tenet by hosting during each of his first two years in office the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Hosted by the State Department, government leaders, religious leaders and civil society groups from over 80 countries share best practices on identifying challenges to religious freedom; develope responses to persecution; and shape new commitments to protect religious freedom for all. In my work in Congress, I continue to give voice to this very American ideal of religious tolerance. My House resolution, H. Res. 49 with more than 70 bipartisan cosponsors, aims to ensure that the government of Egypt protects the rights of its Coptic Christian population. Established by St. Mark as Bishop of Alexandria in 48 A.D., Copts are about 20 percent of the Egyptian population and are the largest Christian population in the Middle East.\r\nLikewise, I've met with religious leaders from all across the Levantfrom Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Jerusalem with an eye towards better shaping American and allied support of Christians and other persecuted religious minorities. Together we can fight against both martyrdom of blood as well as what Pope Francis terms white martyrdom whereby, even in democracies, Christians are persecuted with limitations on their religious freedom.\r\nThis past February, Pope Francis together with the Grand Imam from Egypt's important Al-Azhar Mosque, issued a message on Human Fraternity inviting all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect in the awareness of the great divine grace that makes all human beings brothers and sisters.[3]\r\nThis public coming together of Catholicism and Islam is a powerful statement to all governments around the world, but particularly those in the Middle East, to support religious freedom and religious tolerance.\r\nI found this document signing with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar particularly important given the martyrdom of the 21 Copts brutally beheaded on a Libyan beach in 2015, and the suicide attack in 2016 that killed more than two dozen in the Coptic St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Cairo.\r\nAmerica as an Incubator\r\nLikewise, these decades of Pax Americana have been anchored by America as an incubator of innovation, technological advance, academic freedom and research. Over those decades thousands have come to our country to study, many each year with the help of the Fulbright Program, to advance their field of study, to make a scientific discovery, or to build an enterprise. We have just as happily sent thousands of our own citizens abroad to gain understanding, language skills, and new ideas in advancing their own futures.\r\nIn 2015, while visiting Kabul, Afghanistan, I was fortunate to take tea with a cohort of enthusiastic women leaders. Despite the misery of divided politics and the daily terror delivered by the Taliban, few countries have seen more heartening progress for women and children. Today nine million Afghan children are in school, including 3.5 million girls   3.5 million more than allowed by the mullahs in 2001. Two of the women left such an impression on me: \r\nOnaba Payab, 2014 valedictorian of the American University of Afghanistan   the first female   and a Fulbright scholar, is now at The Asia Foundation sharing her passion for improving access to educational and economic opportunities; and, Naheed Esar, a native of Jalalabad and a Fulbright Scholar and Arkansas Razorback with a Master's degree in cultural anthropology. Today, Naheed is at home in Kabul and, this summer, was appointed as Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister for Resources Management. And, just last week, I met with Pakistani Senator Mushahid Sayed, Chair of their Foreign Affairs Committee, himself a Fulbright scholar, thanking me for Senator Fulbright and for his vision.\r\nThis idea of America as an incubator of education and shared innovation is not new.The idea of a Fulbright traces its roots back to a much earlier time. Indeed, at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. In the late 1890's, Chinese militias known in English as the Boxers initiated a violent persecution against foreigners and Christian missionaries. In punishment for these atrocities, the Chinese Imperial Court, and 84 nations agreed to reparations. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt and the Congress diverted America's share of these reparations into the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program. Approximately $17 million was used to educate Chinese students at U.S. universities. President Roosevelt thought that the use of the scholarship fund would in most satisfactory and subtle of ways help the United States gain respect and assume its leadership position in the world.This was the first such American engagement as global innovator and educator.\r\nAmerica as a Good Partner\r\nOver the seven decades, with America as an idea and incubator, the nations of the globe raised living standards, expanded education, reduced poverty, and encouraged religious tolerance. These ideals were complemented by an extremely well-focused and realistic diplomatic and military strategy to counter the serious Soviet threat well considered by Churchill, Kennan, and Truman. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949. Lasting peace in Europe was preserved all these years not through scholarships, but through a strong, well-trained tactical and strategic partnership developed in conjunction with our military alliances in Europe via NATO and in Asia with our postwar key ally and partner, Japan.\r\nIn 1983, former President Nixon wrote in Real Peace: The U.S. has played the starring role in the Western alliance for so long that our allies sometime act as if it is a one-man show. Too often when crises have erupted   in Iran, in Afghanistan, in Central America   our allies have sat back and waited for the U.S. to step forward and respond.[4] Now, sadly, we can add to Nixon's litany, among others, the threats of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and 9/11's horrors leading to a war on terrorism.\r\nBut, one simply must argue that the Asian and European alliances have been the remarkable successful military partners to the Bretton Woods economic institutions. And thus, given thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of peace and prosperity to the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, the Allies should take a victory lap. A piece of the Berlin Wall sits in my Washington office. It's not a memento or gift for my work in Central and Eastern Europe for President Bush. Instead, it's a touching gift from a delightful Danish student who stayed with our family as a part of a Rotary International program. My piece of the Wall came chipped from her own wall keepsake brought home by her father, a Danish military officer assigned to NATO.\r\nPresident Nixon agreed that lasting peace is brought about by realistic, clear keen military readiness that takes the profit out of any miscalculation. Nixon argued all nations know we want peace. But we have to convince them is that they cannot win a war.[5] Indeed, we did just that and lasting peace has reigned in Asia and Europe. But, today, states like Iran, Putin's Russia, a rising China, and North Korea pursuing aggressive, expansionist strategies all need reminding.\r\nTo serve as helpful reminder,President Trump authorized lethal aid to Ukraine, reassured Baltic nations by rotating Operation Atlantic Resolve forces to Poland, bombed with Allied assistance the chemical weapons capabilities in Syrian dictator and Iranian/Russian co-conspirator Assad, and, in Asia, led an international coalition to sanction North Korea for its nuclear tests, celebrated the USS Carl Vinson paying a port call in Hanoi to demonstrate American commitment to open seas and signed into law the critical Asia Initiative Assurance Act of 2018. Upon arrival in Congress in January 2015, I was dismayed at the lack of preparedness in our military strategy and the readiness of our forces. I witnessed firsthand at Camp Robinson and Little Rock Air Force Base the lack of training funds from years of budget cuts and ill-timed Continuing Resolutions. I saw the fatigue of our men and women serving down range for so many years. That's why President Trump's leadership in working with Congress to rebuild and refocus our strategy and enhance our military readiness was so heartening over the last three years. Two weeks ago, I was piped aboard our newest Virginia Class Attack Submarine, the USS Delaware. She will launch next spring. Her officers and sailors offer a reminder of the critical defensive posture for our homeland and maintenance of our commitment to global trade.\r\nPresident Trump clearly shares the one man show concern. Particularly refocusing NATO is critical. This is why President Trump's focus on the strength and long-term diverse financial support of NATO is right on point. NATO countries agreed at their 2014 meeting to spend not less than 2 percent of GDP on defense, of which at least 20 percent should be invested in major equipment. At that time only three countries met this objective.That's not right.\r\nThe President said: [w]e cannot continue to pay for the military protection of Europe while the NATO states are not paying their fair share and living off the fat of the land. We have been very generous to Europe and it is now time for us to look out for ourselves.[6] This quote is not by President Trump. It actually came from President Kennedy's complaint in a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on January 22, 1963.[7]Kennedy's complaint in the NSC meeting was at the height of the Cold War. We are now 30 years following the unification of Germany and the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).Yet, the need for greater financial support in Europe remains a key sticking point. Surely, our friends can up their resolve.\r\nPresident Trump additionally is right to call for European nations, particularly Germany, to also strengthen their energy independence from Russia and work for greater connections to the world's new energy leader, the United States. Indeed, energy security is national security.\r\nAccess to reliable energy was part of the Bretton Woods-NATO economic and security strategic goals. For Europe and Japan to prosper and purchase American goods and for American industrial might to expand over those seven decades required reliable energy. Now, the world has access to nuclear power and is working hard to develop carbon free power and storage. But, for several decades to come   before the sun is fully and cleanly harnessed   natural gas and oil will provide economic power.\r\nOld adversaries like the Soviets might have considered acting as a python and squeezing off control of the Persian Gulf thus choking off Europe or Asia's critical access. But since World War II, the U.S. Navy and our allies carefully coordinated open sea lanes and access to Middle Eastern energy sources. Volatile Russian oil, Iranian oil, Venezuelan oil, and oil from Iraq and the Saudi Arabian Peninsula all have a new stable, reliable player on the scene: the United States. Texas entrepreneur and oil engineer George Mitchell and his masterful example of fracking and directional drilling revolutions led to America becoming the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas. This extraordinary resource development of the last 15 years has culminated with the United States in 2015 lifting the crude oil export ban, a relic of the 1970s. This new energy source combined with the extensive resources in Mexico and Canada and our allies in the United Kingdom and Norway in North Sea, significantly reduce the chance of Russia or China or Iran successfully executing a flanking strategy in achieving energy dominance in the Middle East in order to severely damage Atlantic or Asian allies.\r\nToday, in Asia and Europe, the world faces a return to a pre-Bretton Woods, even pre-World War I, Great Power Competition. At inflection points such as these, America once again is pulled between the two magnetic poles of its two centuries of exceptionalism: the pull of riding to the rescue to right a wrong versus the admonition beginning with Washington to lead by example and not as then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams admonished in 1821, go [not] abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.[8] Putin's Russian Authoritarian State is fighting for relevance and General Secretary Xi's is moving the Middle Kingdom from the ultimate Asian Tiger economic success to a great, independent military and diplomatic power.Our partners in our Pacific and Atlantic economic and security alliances must recognize that it is in each nation'sowninterest to fully participate in ouralliedinterests. This is absolutely essential for President Trump and for other nations as well. Tweets acknowledging frustration with allied funding in Europe or Korea, sanction strength against North Korea, Venezuela, or Iran or the humanitarian disaster in Syria notwithstanding, America needs our economic and national security allies and our allies need America, her ideas, her leadership, her Navy, her reliable energy, and her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.\r\nSo, yes, indeed, let's take that victory lap about our successful alliances and their economic, cultural and national security institutions, but let's recognize the need for change and refocus. For the Atlantic Alliance, Europe must step up financially and soon. Together the alliance must stand shoulder-to-shoulder for the free countries of Europe; NATO must extend its security sphere to beyond the Fulda Gap, the Elbe, to include cyber and space. Like Reagan's visionary investment in the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), we should share technology that increases national security and defense, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Mr. Putin and others who want to be aggressive invaders or autocrats should recognize that there is no profit in war and our allies are cutting edge in our defense and readiness on land, air, sea -- and now in space and cyber.\r\nFor our friends in Asia we share heritage that America is a great neighbor and partner in the Pacific. We argued for the open-door policy in China; President Theodore Roosevelt earned the Nobel Peace Prize for settling the Russo Japanese War; we have had over 700,000 American GI's killed or wounded in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.[9] Today, we offer trade and technology partnerships and we believe in mutual benefit for a strong commitment to opening the Indo-Pacific all the way to the Aleutian Islands. We stand ready to work with Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia mutually to reduce the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and utilize that maximum pressure on North Korea to let go its nuclear weapon ambitions. Naturally, we are mindful of admonition in arms-control negotiations, which recognizes that, Neither can be secure unless both feel secure[10] America's long-time strategic alliances with Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, along with elsewhere in Southeast Asia are essential to peace in the entire Pacific basin.\r\nEconomically, since Bretton Woods, the United States has served as the nexus for all countries to lift themselves toward a higher standard of living has been a success. From our 50 percent share of world industrial output at the end of World War II to today's 18 percent[11] demonstrates magnificently the breadth of living standards whereby billions have been lifted out of poverty; economic advances are being shared with the world over. Yet we recognize that there is more work to be done. Despite this nearly great century, we still have theft, corruption and economic basket cases across the globe principally due to greedy, autocratic leaders that have turned their backs on their people. From Venezuela to Syria to Iran one sees the failures of socialism, communism and plain old autocratic theft. We rededicate ourselves to leadership. We no longer have to foot the entire bill, but world leaders still look to the one man show to set the example, rally the cause and help encourage others to support with talent and treasure. Senator Fulbright would stand amazed by today's global living standards. He would be proud of the long success of postwar institutions, particularly of his own contribution in education exchange. But he would remain concerned about the human race and its possible suicide.[12] Surely, Fulbright and Nixon would find agreement in the former president's view that [p]eace is not an end to conflict but rather a means of living with conflict and once established it requires constant attention or it will not survive.[13]\r\nLooking Forward\r\nAs you reflect on America and her place in the 21st-century world, I urge each of you to consider:\r\n--Support our strong moral convictions born out of our Judeo-Christian Heritage and that serve an essential national purpose and as President Reagan said when addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy.[14]\r\n--Support our innovation and military preparedness, including our naval superiority and strategic leadership in the new critical areas of cyber and space.\r\n--Mold our existing institutions and design new responses that strengthen our post-Berlin Wall world and encourage - no, achieve - stronger financial and manpower resources from our allies across the Pacific and the Atlantic.\r\n--Devote yourselves to the best of American traditions of civic engagement, cultural and educational exchange, honor Sen. Fulbright's legacy of expanding the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception[15] through education.\r\n--Realistically demand the countries that wish to be accepted in the family of nations then, in fact, play by the rules and understand the consequences of failing to live by those rules.\r\nA young President Kennedy in 1961 told a new generation of Americans, We sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations, the complexity of our decisions, the agony of our choices. But, there is no comfort or security for us in evasion, no solution in abdication, no relief in responsibility.[16]\r\nAs you assume your generational role in leadership in this country and across the globe know that you stand on a firm foundation and that there is no burden too great or decision too complex that you are not fully capable of navigating to a success.\r\n\r\n[1] The Sources of Chinese Conduct, Odd Arne Westad in Foreign Affairs, September/October 2019\r\n[2] Churchill dinner with Pres. Truman aboard the SS Williamsburg, January 3, 1952   notes taken by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Bradley.\r\n[3] His Holiness Pope Francis and, The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, Abu Dhabi February 4, 2019; available at: https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/travels/2019/outside/documents/papa-francesco_20190204_documento-fratellanza-umana.html [last visited November 21, 2019]\r\n[4] Real Peace, page 57\r\n[5] Real Peace, page 26\r\n[6] Cited in The Economist. March 14, 2019.\r\n[7] Remarks of President Kennedy to the National Security Council Meeting. Washington. January 22, 1963. Office of the Historian. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v13/d168\r\n[8] July 4, 1821. Oration delivered in Washington, D.C. by then Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams\r\n[9] \r\n\r\n    \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            Killed\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            Wounded\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            Total Casualties\r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            World War II\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            111,606\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            253,142\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            364,748\r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            Vietnam\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            58,318\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            153,303\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            211,621\r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            Korea\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            36,914\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            103,284\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            140,198\r\n            \r\n        \r\n        \r\n            \r\n            Totals\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            206,838\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            509,729\r\n            \r\n            \r\n            716,567\r\n            \r\n        \r\n    \r\n\r\n[10] Real Peace, page 36\r\n[11] Brookings 2018\r\n[12] Senator Fulbright. The New Yorker, May 10, 1958. Pg 31\r\n[13] Real Peace, page 4\r\n[14] President Ronald Reagan, Addressing the United Nations General Assembly. September 1986.\r\n[15] Senator Fulbright during the 1976 30th Anniversary event\r\n[16] President John. F. Kennedy. State of the Union Address. January 11, 1962.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/westerman-announces-2019-congressional-app-challenge-winners", "Westerman Announces 2019 Congressional App Challenge Winners", "2019-12-03", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", "westerman", "https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 On Monday night, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) hosted a reception announcing the top five winners of the Congressional App Challenge. Westerman issued the following statement:\n\n\"The Fourth District is home to students and entrepreneurs with incredible ideas, and I look forward to the App Challenge every year as an opportunity to showcase that innovation. I'm so proud of every student who took time to create and design their own original app \u2013 their creativity is inspiring!\"\n\nBackground\n\nThe Congressional App Challenge is an annual event in which high school students across the country design and code an original app. The winning team from each congressional district is honored at an event in Washington, D.C., where they present their apps to attendees.\n\nThis year, the Fourth District received 59 submissions from students, and the winners were announced Monday at a reception at the Mid-America Science Museum.\n\nThe 2019 Fourth District top five teams are:\n\nFirst Place: Austin Jackson and Brandon White, from Mufreesboro High School, with their app, \"Check Me Out.\"\n\nSecond Place: A.J. Navarro, Yibing Hu, Tracy Yang and Sydney Crabtree, from Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts (ASMSA), with their app, \"StreamSave.\"\n\nThird Place (tie): Kendal Shamel and Abby Reynolds, from Lake Hamilton High School, with their app, \"WorkTally.\"\n\nThird Place(tie): Hannah Grimes, from ASMSA, with her app, \"LaTex Command Center.\"\n\nFourth Place: Max Green, David Huang and Tristan Goodell, from ASMSA, with their app, \"ASMSA Cafeteria Buddy.\"\n\nFifth Place: Yug Shah, Trinity Robinson, Jacob Holmes and Shaan Hyder, from ASMSA, with their app, \"Proact.\"\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1261", "Cotton Condemns Chinese Concentration Camps in Xinjiang Province", "2019-12-03", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 3, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe New York Times has recently obtained a secret trove of documents from the highest ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. Those documents reveal some chilling, terrifying details about Beijing's campaign to stamp out all dissent and religious diversity in Xinjiang Province in northwest China, where the Party has concentrated more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other minorities in reeducation camps.\n\nThese documents bring to mind George Orwell's famous novel 1984, not as the cautionary tale that he meant it, but as an instruction manual for the totalitarian government in Beijing.\n\nThis reign of terror began in 2014, after a string of terror attacks in Xinjian province. But instead of bringing those terrorists to justice, the Chinese Communist Party used the attacks as an opportunity to eradicatealldissent,allwrongthinkif you willfrom a province with 25 million residents. It would be as if you tried to turn the state of Texas into a concentration camp.\n\nThese secret documents revealed a stunning order from General Secretary Xi Jinping. He said, We must be as harsh as them and show them absolutely no mercy.\n\nSo to beat these terrorists, Beijing chose to adopt the tactics of terror. Every Uighur and dissenter in the province is suffering as a result.\n\nSecretary Xi tapped one of the most notorious enforcers to execute this mission: a man named Chen, who climbed the ranks of the Communist Party first by crushing dissent and religious diversity in the southwestern Chinese province of Tibet. And the techniques that they perfected in Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party took to Xinjiang.\n\nThey've turned the province into a garrison state with ruthless and pitiless competence. Chen's order to the police? Round up everyone who should be rounded up.\n\nUighurs, young and old, were loaded onto buses and taken to camps with thick concrete walls and razor-sharp barbed wire. The police informed anxious relatives that these were schools. Their loved ones were being re-educated. And no, they were not free to leave the school, nor would there be any recess or field trips.\n\nA secret manual obtained by Western journalists reveals that these facilities operate more like maximum-security prisons than like schools. The manual's very first section deals with preventing escapes through the use of guard posts, patrols, internal separation, video surveillance, and double locks on dormitory and hallway doors. The manual even advocates the use of secret forces to infiltrate the detainee population and prevent them from joining forces or planning an escape.\n\nBeijing now holdslet me say againmore than one million people in these reeducation campssupposedly for reasons of national security, but the truth is a lot more chilling.\n\nThe Chinese Communists, like all totalitarians, are paranoid about their own survivaland rightly so,as a conspiracy of greedy, power-mad princelingswith no democratic legitimacy whatsoever.\n\nAnd like all totalitarian rulers, the Chinese Communist Party is also a very jealous master. Every attachment, every conviction, every loyaltywhether to one's family, one's culture, even one's Creatormust be sacrificed on the altar of the Party.\n\nAccording to the Chinese Communist Party, every knee must bow before it, and every tongue must profess the slogans of Xi and Mao.\n\nThat means the Uighursbut also Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Taiwanese, and others. A paranoid communist power won't limit itself to one province or people, nor will it ultimately limit itself to its own land. It will extend its tyrannical reach to every corner that it views as its own, creeping ever outward until it commands the deference ofall the world. Until it deals with the rebellious billions who haven't yet learned to love the Chinese Big Brother.\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party is running concentration campstoday, but make no mistake: its appetite for expansion is far greater, its methods of control applicable to anyone, anywhere. The Free World must confront this threat in plain view, and act now to avert such adark and chilling future.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/independence-county-mobile-office", "Independence County Mobile Office", "2019-12-02", "2019", "2019-12", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Members of my staff host Mobile Office events across the state year-around. These events allow my staff to be available at the walk-in events to help Arkansans who are having problems involving the federal government or who want to share their thoughts about legislative issues.\nBelow is a complete listing of upcoming (denoted by red push pin) and past (denoted by blue push pin) mobile offices:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://westerman.house.gov/media-center/weekly-columns/connecting-arkansans-i-want-hear-you", "Connecting with Arkansans: I Want to Hear from You", "2019-11-29", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Bruce Westerman", "W000821", "westerman.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "In his book, Love Your Enemies, author Arthur Brooks cites a study showing that 70 percent of Americans believe the U.S. will endure long-term hurt if both political parties don't work together. More than 60 percent of Americans believe the current political climate has reached the lowest point they can remember, which, as the American Psychological Association notes, [spans] every generation, including those who lived through World War II and Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. With the 2020 election around the corner, partisan divides are likely to deepen even further.\nThis shouldn't be the case. I believe that all political leaders  no matter their background, party, or individual beliefs  can and should put differences behind them to unite in service to the American people. A big part of that leadership involves hearing from the constituents we represent, and it's why meeting with Arkansans will always be a top priority. Whether you're visiting D.C. on vacation, calling my office with a question or concern, or attending a telephone town hall or Coffee with Your Congressman, know that receiving your input is the most important part of my job.\nIf you are having issues with a federal agency or just want to voice your thoughts, give my office a call anytime at (202) 225-3772. We can do better than spending our time arguing with each other behind anonymous Twitter profiles or Facebook comments. It's only by talking with each other, acknowledging our differences, and looking to the future that we can see there is more that unites us than divides us.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1260", "Cotton Statement on Thanksgiving", "2019-11-28", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "November 28, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement marking the Thanksgiving holiday: \"From the Cotton family to yours, we wish you and your loved ones a happy Thanksgiving. \"Nearly 400 years ago, our Pilgrim Fathers and the Native Americans shared the bounty of the New World at the first Thanksgiving. They gave thanks to God for delivering them from many hardships, including the near destruction of the Plymouth Colony from disease and starvation. \"Since that first banquet, America has grown from a dangerous and uncharted wilderness into a mighty and united nation. This Thanksgiving, let's rejoice in the many blessings we enjoy as citizens of the most prosperous and free country on Earth. \"Let's also give thanks for the many troops who are far from home. We can enjoy the company of family and friends in peace because of their faithful service.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/2019/11/28/cotton-statement-on-thanksgiving", "Cotton Statement on Thanksgiving", "2019-11-28", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement marking the Thanksgiving holiday:\n\n\"From the Cotton family to yours, we wish you and your loved ones a happy Thanksgiving.\n\n\"Nearly 400 years ago, our Pilgrim Fathers and the Native Americans shared the bounty of the New World at the first Thanksgiving. They gave thanks to God for delivering them from many hardships, including the near destruction of the Plymouth Colony from disease and starvation.\n\n\"Since that first banquet, America has grown from a dangerous and uncharted wilderness into a mighty and united nation. This Thanksgiving, let's rejoice in the many blessings we enjoy as citizens of the most prosperous and free country on Earth.\n\n\"Let's also give thanks for the many troops who are far from home. We can enjoy the company of family and friends in peace because of their faithful service.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:43:09Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/11/boozman-encourages-arkansans-to-support-small-business-saturday", "Boozman Encourages Arkansans to Support Small Business Saturday", "2019-11-27", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONU.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) released the following statement encouraging Arkansans to support small businesses in their communities on Small Business Saturday this Saturday, November 30:\r\nSmall businesses drive our state's economy. Shopping with locally-owned small businesses this holiday season is a win-win, and I urge Arkansans to join me in celebrating the entrepreneurs who invest in their own businesses as well as within communities across the state. When you shop at small businesses and retailers this Saturday and all season long, you will be supporting thousands of jobs, benefitting our economy and emboldening pursuit of the American Dream.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/11/reasonable-and-responsible-rules-for-effective-avian-predator-management-needed", "Providing Reasonable and Responsible Rules for Effective Avian Predator Management", "2019-11-27", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "House", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Aquaculture is an important component of Arkansas's agriculture industry.Our state ranks second in the nation in aquaculture production, whichincludes species like baitfish, catfish, hybrid striped bass and more.Nearly 5,000 water surface acres across the state are used for aquaculture production, and Arkansas fish farmers contributed $71.1 million to our state's economy in 2017. A growing number of fish farmers have shared with me their frustrations regarding a threat to their fishthe double-crested cormorant.\r\nDouble-crested cormorants are aquatic birds that eat mostly fish, so when they migrate south for the winter months, Arkansas fish farms make ideal locations for these birds to prey.With adult birds eating a pound of fish a day,they can do serious damage.The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates double-crested cormorants cause more than $25 million in damage annually within the aquaculture industry. These birds have become the foremost antagonists of fish farmers.\r\nAquaculture producers aren't alone in the fight against avian predators. Arkansas ranchers are increasingly defending their herds against black vultures. These birds are notorious for attacking during the spring and fall calving seasons. USDA reports that black vultures are responsible for 10 percent of all calves lost to predators.This is quite astonishing considering that other predators include the likes of wolves and bears.\r\nThese birds have proven to be a costly menace. Producers are left with few options to defend their animals because these predators are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Today, populations of double-crested cormorant and black vultures are thriving. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading authority on the global conservation status of species, considers these species of least concern. Still, the protected status prevents producers from taking proactive measures to guard their investment without a valid federal permit. The depredation permit is granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), but it costs producers annually and caps the number of birds they can legally kill. The quantity permitted is often inadequate to stop these predators.\r\nWe need a commonsense solution that allows ranchers and aquaculture producers to safeguard their animals. I recently pressed FWS for flexibility so our farmers and ranchers can better protect their livestock or aquaculture. In a letter I led to the agency signed by members of the Senate and House of Representatives, including Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Congressmen Rick Crawford and Bruce Westerman, we urged the agency to streamline the permitting process and revise its rules to allow greater flexibility for producers to better protect their livelihoods.\r\nThis problem extends beyond Arkansas, but the good news is our state's federal elected officials are engaged on this issue and proposing legislative solutions. This summer, cattlemen from Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi met with FWS and USDA to discuss their problems and possible solutions in a roundtable hosted by Congressman Crawford. Legislation has also been introduced in both chambers of Congress. I am a cosponsor of theCormorant Relief Act, legislation introduced by Senator Cotton that would allow fish farmers to manage the double-crested cormorants targeting their farms.\r\nFish farmers and ranchers need additional tools to defend their livestock and their livelihood. They shouldn't have to suffer additional financial losses. We can provide reasonable and responsible rules for effective avian predator management.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"], ["https://crawford.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399327", "Heifer CEO: Low coffee prices one cause of border crisis", "2019-11-26", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "House", "AR", "Rick Crawford", "C001087", "crawford.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Heifer CEO: Low coffee prices one cause of border crisisWritten by: Steve Brawner  \r\nPublished by: Talk Business & Politics  \r\n Guatemalan immigration to the United States is rooted partly in low coffee prices, the CEO of Heifer International said Monday (Nov. 25). However, the United States must learn how to create better farm markets domestically before it can help Central Americans improve theirs, said U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro.\r\nThe two made their comments during a panel discussion at the Clinton School of Public Service Monday in Little Rock. The panel also included Manuel Espina, Guatemala's ambassador to the United States, and University of California Irvine professor William Hernandez Requejo.\r\nHeifer CEO Pierre Ferrari said the border crisis is linked to a crisis of poverty, with low coffee prices being one cause. Coffee farmers in Guatemala are being paid 62-63 cents a pound but face production costs of between $1.30 and $1.50. If they are unable to make a profit, they often try to come to the United States or Mexico to find work.\r\nFerrari said farmers make about 2 cents for a cup of coffee sold at profitable American companies like Starbucks. If farmers were paid 5 cents or a dime, it would make a huge difference to them. He said paying the farmers fairly would cost Starbucks $300 to $400 million annually.\r\nConditions for farm workers in Costa Rica are also desperate and deplorable, because farm owners aren't being paid well, either, he said.\r\nThere's a lack of fairness in the system that is so acute that it is part of the issue that we have to deal with, he said.\r\nHeifer is working to help Guatemalan farmers diversify into growing spices, which are profitable. Meanwhile, the Little Rock-based charity will increase the attention it pays to these inequities.\r\nWe're going to get more and more public about this because we think it's an outrage, he said.\r\nRequejo agreed that better economic situations would reduce immigration to the United States from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.\r\nIf we give this populace sustainable livelihood, they will stay, he said. And if they stay, then a lot of those migratory pressures, whether it's at the Guatemalan-Mexico border or whether at the California-Mexico border, that significantly decreases.\r\nAmbassador Espina said the majority of immigration out of Guatemala comes in the agricultural sector. Guatemala has signed a memorandum of understanding to have more temporary working visas in the United States and is working to have more service visas as well.\r\nCrawford said the problems occurring in Guatemala also are occurring in Lee and Phillips Counties in Arkansas. As in Guatemala, farm workers are leaving the Arkansas Delta looking for work.\r\nAgriculture won't solve every problem, but you've got to figure out, how do you make a product profitable? If the market's telling you one thing and you're not responding, that's a problem, he said.\r\nCrawford said lessons learned in the United States could be applied elsewhere regarding creating value for farmers.\r\nIf you don't control the value chain, you're captive, he said. So how do we implement strategies to create a value-added, a vertical integration model in agriculture that empowers the grower? We've got to figure that out in the United States before we can go tell Guatemala how to do it.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "truncated": false, "filtered_table_rows_count": 1104, "expanded_columns": [], "expandable_columns": [], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "units": {}, "query": {"sql": "select url, title, date, year, month, party, chamber, state, member_name, bioguide_id, domain, scraper, source, date_source, text, has_text, collected_at, updated_at from releases where \"party\" = :p0 and \"state\" = :p1 and \"year\" = :p2 order by date desc limit 101", "params": {"p0": "Republican", "p1": "AR", "p2": "2019"}}, "facet_results": {"party": {"name": "party", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019", "results": [{"value": "Republican", "label": "Republican", "count": 1104, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?state=AR&year=2019", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "chamber": {"name": "chamber", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019", "results": [{"value": "House", "label": "House", "count": 906, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019&chamber=House", "selected": false}, {"value": "Senate", "label": "Senate", "count": 198, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019&chamber=Senate", "selected": false}], "truncated": false}, "state": {"name": "state", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019", "results": [{"value": "AR", "label": "AR", "count": 1104, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&year=2019", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}, "year": {"name": "year", "type": "column", "hideable": false, "toggle_url": "/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019", "results": [{"value": "2019", "label": "2019", "count": 1104, "toggle_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR", "selected": true}], "truncated": false}}, "suggested_facets": [], "next": "2019-11-26,https~3A~2F~2Fcrawford~2Ehouse~2Egov~2Fnews~2Fdocumentsingle~2Easpx~3FDocumentID~3D399327", "next_url": "http://dpwillis-congress-press-search.hf.space/press/releases.json?party=Republican&state=AR&year=2019&_next=2019-11-26%2Chttps~3A~2F~2Fcrawford~2Ehouse~2Egov~2Fnews~2Fdocumentsingle~2Easpx~3FDocumentID~3D399327&_sort_desc=date", "private": false, "allow_execute_sql": true, "query_ms": 161.95421596057713, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}