Hageman: Lessons from the road – 23 town halls, 23 counties, 6 months

Members of Congress have many important responsibilities; we cast votes, serve on committees, and sponsor or cosponsor good legislation, to name a few. The most important responsibility, however, and the one that makes being successful at all the others possible, is meeting with and listening to our constituents.

From the very beginning of my campaign, I understood how important this was and promised to hold a town hall in every county of our state, every year. Not only have I kept that promise, but I did it in half the time.

Conversations through all 23 counties have helped shape my legislative agenda on the issues that matter most to Wyoming. The most important issues were strikingly similar everywhere — a failing economy, constant and intrusive government overregulation, and the invasion on our southern border.

The weakness of the Biden economy is crushing hardworking Wyomingites. Food, energy, housing and nearly everything else is more expensive than when Joe Biden became president. When he assumed office, inflation was 1.4% (it has been above 4% for the last two years), the economic growth rate was 6.3% (versus 1.3% now), and unemployment was already down from a peak of 14.7% in April 2020 (COVID’s peak) to 6.3%.

Immediately, Biden reversed every policy that was successful under President Trump, wasted trillions more of your tax dollars in unnecessary and fraudulent COVID spending, and caved to environmental radicals. His restriction of American energy production — halting pipeline construction, stopping new oil and gas leases, and waging a war on coal — created massive spikes in the price of not just gas for our cars, home heating oil and electricity, but also in food and housing. Joe Biden prefers energy provided by despots and dictators, instead of American energy independence — a policy that is purposely driving our citizens into a state of poverty.

To combat “Bidenomics,” I sponsored or cosponsored multiple bills to restart our nation’s energy production, including the Lower Energy Costs Act, which passed the House this spring and included the COAL Act to end Biden’s de facto ban on coal. I also cosponsored and voted for the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would save $3.6 trillion, repeal “green bad deal” tax credits, and bring spending back to FY 2022 levels.

President Biden’s unprecedented use of agency rulemaking and guidance to subvert Congress and create the force of law has been costly and restrictive for our state. Unelected bureaucrats have burdened Americans with billions of dollars in regulations that restrict our very way of life. One-page agency “guidance” requiring RFID ear tags for cattle and bison, for example, would have had a cost of over $2 billion to our ranchers if enacted — all without a single public hearing or consultation with anyone who would be affected, and without a vote of Congress.

To combat these unconstitutional executive branch actions, I have cosponsored the REINS Act to require a vote of Congress to enact any agency rule or guidance above $100 million. I have also cosponsored the Separation of Powers Act to end congressional delegation of lawmaking to the White House and agencies. Both bills passed the House in early June.

While the above issues are dire, no topic has been more constant in my town halls than illegal immigration. As with the economy, Biden inherited a system that was working. This president, via executive order, ended the successful policies of Donald Trump and enabled millions of illegals to cross unvetted into America.

Over 10 times the population of Wyoming have illegally crossed since Biden has been president. Over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl has come across the border — enough to kill more than 3.1 billion people. In the first six months of 2023, 80 people who appeared on the FBI’s terror watchlist have been caught trying to cross into the United States — more than in all FY 17, FY 18, FY 19, FY 20 and FY 21 combined.

Joe Biden and his administration are enabling the largest drug smuggling and human trafficking operation in U.S. history. I can personally attest to these horrors, having visited the border town of Yuma, Arizona, earlier this year with the House Judiciary Committee. To combat this crisis, I cosponsored the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which passed the House in May.

Questions, comments and viewpoints from back home have been vital to my success in Washington, D.C. Many of the other concerns that have been voiced fit into the broad categories outlined here — and many more bills are underway to address them.

I look forward to continuing to visit with Wyomingites and sharing updates throughout the remainder of the year. It is truly an honor to represent the great state of Wyoming in Congress.