A Manufactured Controversy

I published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal Monday expanding on the manufactured controversy surrounding recent comments regarding the Jan. 6 protests. As I have said many times, "This isn't about race. It's about riots." I condemn both the violence and chaos of Jan. 6 and the riots of last summer. I support anyone and everyone's right to peacefully protest.

Leftists want to pretend last summer's political violence never happened. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, 570 leftists protests became riots last year. In addition, 25 people lost their lives and 700 law enforcement officers were injured. Along with the peaceful protests, there were too many scenes like in this video. There's a reason why the boarded-up windows in the downtowns of major cities came down soon after Joe Biden won the election: Nobody was worried what Trump supporters would do if their guy lost; they were worried about what Biden supporters would do if their guy didn't win.

Wausau Joseph Project

The Joseph Project is helping turn lives around one person at a time through work. What is the Joseph Project? It's a group of people loving each other and supporting each other to transform lives through work.

It's the most rewarding thing I've done as a U.S. Senator.

It's always inspiring to visit a Joseph Project class and talk to successful alumni who share their "secrets" to success. Turns out that "secret" is to have a good attitude, commit yourself to success and get to work!

Please check out this story by Wausau TV station WSAW to learn more about the Joseph Project.

Congratulations to all the graduates in the 14th class of Wausau's Joseph Project (and our 103rd class overall.)

Protecting the Filibuster

On Monday, I appeared on Fox News' Maria Bartiromo to discuss the possibility of President Biden raising taxes and the importance of the Senate maintaining a 60 vote threshold for most pieces of legislation.

I said I hope West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin holds true to his promise of keeping the filibuster. In today's Senate we are split 50/50. That is not a mandate to force through massive legislation without getting some kind of bipartisan cooperation, in this case, having ten Republicans sign on to meet the 60 vote threshold.

Legislating Commonsense

Last week, I introduced legislation to increase transparency in government.

It's called the Guidance Out Of Darkness (GOOD) Act, which requires federal agencies to publish their regulations on the internet in easy-to-find locations.

This commonsense legislation has passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by voice vote twice and passed the House in 2018. I hope that Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer and President Biden will support this non-controversial transparency measure.

On The Hill

In the Senate Commerce Committee with Senator Mike Lee of Utah.