{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/blogs/e-newsletter_-week-of-september-16th", "e-Newsletter - Week of September 16th", "2022-09-16", "2022", "2022-09", "Republican", "Senate", "TX", "Ted Cruz", "C001098", "www.cruz.senate.gov", "cruz", "https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Good Evening,\n\nYet another week of meeting with and advocating for Texans up here in Washington, D.C. is wrapping up as I head back to Austin to speak at the Texas Tribune Tribfest.\n\nWe began the week celebrating the United States Air Force\u2019s birthday. For 75 years, the Air Force has defended the skies and kept our country safe. Thank you to all who have served!\n\nThis week, I had the honor of meeting with my friend Rosa Maria Paya, the daughter of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, to discuss her advocacy for freedom and human rights. Recounting the parallels of our experiences as children of men subjected to the atrocities of communism was a sobering experience and harrowing reminder of how precious the freedom the United States affords us truly is. I promise to keep up the fight to uphold our freedom here at home, and to promote liberty abroad.\n\nSpeaking of defending freedom, Biden nominated a socialist, radical Venezuelan congressman who served under Hugo Chavez to represent America abroad. It's completely unacceptable. When Senate Democrats tried to push through a live unanimous consent vote for this socialist, I stepped in to ensure the vote did not proceed. Watch my speech below.\n\nMonday evening, I spoke to a room of patriots at the Conservative Partnership Institute\u2019s Annual Conference. It was an honor to speak to the men and women in attendance about CPI\u2019s integral role in aiding my day-to-day as a Senator and thank them for standing strong in their conservative principles. And, of course, it was a great opportunity to crack a few jokes.\n\nThis week, negotiations on the Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) continued. As originally drafted, the JCPA lacked proper safeguards to ensure the media could not use their new antitrust exemption to collude with each other and Big Tech to censor and suppress conservative speech. My amendment successfully adds new and critically important safeguards to protect free speech. Specifically, the amendment would prohibit the media and Big Tech from negotiating over or agreeing to content moderation and censorship. I am proud to defend free speech at every opportunity.\n\nTo see what I had to say about Big Tech, click above \u2191\n\nRead my full statement here.\n\nWednesday, I joined the Regional Airline Association for their Leaders Conference to talk about my work as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation\u2019s Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation. We also discussed the pilot shortage and priorities for the FAA Reauthorization coming up next year in the Commerce Committee.\n\nThis week I also had the privilege of speaking at the Association of Christian Schools International Advocacy Summit about the importance of school choice and religious liberty. I believe school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and I\u2019ve worked to expand school choice in the Senate. As part of the historic 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress passed by Student Opportunity Amendment, which allows families to save for K-12 educational expenses through 529 savings accounts tax free. I\u2019ve also introduced the Student Empowerment Act, which would allow 100% of American students to use 529\u2019s to pay for K-12 education, and the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, which would create a federal tax credit for taxpayers who donate to scholarship organizations supporting K-12 education and crucially, postsecondary workforce education. The American Dream should be within reach for every student, and a good education often determines their ability to seize it.\n\n\u201cThe threats to our freedoms, including our religious liberty, are never ceasing, and the space in which it is deemed acceptable to practice one\u2019s faith shrinks each and every day. We need to stand up, we need to fight for what we believe in, and we need an American revival.\u201d\n\nKeep Texas Strong,\n\nMORE FROM SEN. CRUZ:\n\nREAD: Daily Wire: Ted Cruz Urges DeSantis, Abbott To Send Illegal Immigrants To 3 New Liberal Spots\n\nICYMI: Varney & Co.: Biden\u2019s policy of catch-and-release is a complete disaster!\n\nREAD: The Coin Republic: Texas Senator Ted Cruz Extremely Bullish On Bitcoin, Believes It An Asset For The Environment\n\nICYMI: Sen. Cruz on Hannity: \u201cThe Biggest Human Trafficker on the Planet Right Now Is Joseph Robinette Biden.\u201d\n\nSTATE SPOTLIGHT:\n\nThe Texans I met with this week\n\nThe Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce\n\nCEO & Chairman of Nap Queen, Garrett Clayton\n\nTexas Business Leadership Council\n\nTexas Military Spouses\n\nCongressional Coalition on Adoption Institute Angels in Adoption\n\nNational Sand, Stone, and Gravel Association", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "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"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/blogs/e-newsletter_-week-of-september-16th"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.847263891249895, "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"}