Long Suspected, Now Viable Theory

Five of my senate colleagues and Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher joined me in a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Many have long suspected that the COVID virus may have leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 has remained elusive. Recently, in response to the World Health Organization's study, a group of 18 scientists published a letter in Science magazine stating that a leak of the virus from a lab is a viable theory and should be thoroughly investigated.

Read the letter we sent asking for more information.

Wall Street Journal: Will Fauci's Boss Answer the Questions about the Wuhan Lab?

Leaving the Border Wall Unfinished

All but one Democrat in the Senate decided last week to waste approximately $2 billion by voting against my amendment that would have honored existing contracts and built an additional 250 miles of border wall. How did border security become a partisan issue?

What my amendment would do is simply complete the wall that President Trump started. He wanted to build 800 miles. He built 450. Two hundred fifty miles of that wall has already been contracted for. The contracts will be paid for whether the wall is built or not. So, American taxpayer, you will be on the hook for a couple of billion dollars and the waste of tens of thousands of tons of steel that have already been produced. And we won't even get the 250 miles of wall. Isn't that absurd? All because securing the border has become a partisan issue.

Watch my remarks on the Senate floor here.

Read more about my concerns with the border here.

Let's Get Wisconsin Back to Work

We need to get government out of the way, and let people start living productive lives again.

The biggest problem businesses in Wisconsin face now is finding people willing to turn down government subsidies and go back to work. We are paying people not to work, so employers cannot hire the people they need to run their manufacturing plants or be in the service industry. Governor Evers is only hurting more Wisconsin businesses by continuing down this path.

That's why I led Wisconsin's Republican lawmakers in asking Governor Evers to act on this immediately.

Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson and other Republicans ask Gov. Evers to cut unemployment benefits in Wisconsin

Who is Calling the Shots?

I'm leading an effort to get information and documents related to apparent political interference by teachers unions in the CDC's school reopening guidance.

Instead of honoring its commitment to 'follow the science', these documents show the Biden administration is in lockstep with their union overlords to the detriment of American children. Throughout the pandemic, teachers unions have consistently been an obstacle to children returning to in-person learning. America's parents and children deserve answers on why Joe Biden promised schools would open five days a week in the first 100 days of his administration and yet it seems teachers unions had more control over that decision than his own administration.

Fox News: GOP Senators Probe Close Coordination of Biden Administration and Teachers Unions

Getting Vaccinated is a Personal Choice

I wrote an op-ed for the Washington Examiner about my decision not to get vaccinated. Seven months after testing positive for COVID, I took an antibody test that showed my serology is positive for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at roughly the same level as someone with both Moderna vaccine doses.

Since testing positive for COVID last fall, I have been comfortable living a mostly normal life. My antibody test only increases that comfort level. Witnessing crowds in airports and other public venues, I'd say other Americans are also gaining confidence resuming life. Hopefully, the state of fear is receding, we will respect each others medical decisions, and we will recognize the danger to individual liberty that vaccine passports or other forms of coercion represent.

There should be nothing controversial about this decision. Read more here.

Tucker Carlson Interview

It's amazing how you get attacked for stating obvious and simple truths. I was on Tucker Carlson's show Friday to talk about the investigations into January 6th and why I believe there is a false narrative being pushed about that day.

Saying Goodbye to a Very Good Man

Pastor Jerome Smith Sr. was a man who loved God, loved his family and loved his community of Milwaukee's central city. May 12 was supposed to be a joyful day for Pastor Smith. He was thrilled to finally get a date for his long-awaited kidney transplant surgery. Instead, just days earlier, I joined Pastor Smith's family, friends and congregants to say goodbye.

I met Pastor Smith because of the Joseph Project. We set out to try to solve two problems: high unemployment in the inner city of Milwaukee and the need for manufacturing workers outside of the city. The idea was to guide and assist people in landing good paying jobs in manufacturing. Using Pastor Smith's humble church building in the heart of Milwaukee, we created a program that to date has trained almost 800 people, of whom about 550 found jobs.

Since 2015 when we started the Joseph Project, we learned getting a job is easy but keeping that job is hard. We show people a new path in life that they did not know was available to them.

We have all been blessed immeasurably because we knew Pastor Smith. The sister of one my staff members donated her kidney to Pastor Smith. We are devastated he won't get the shot to use that gift of life. But we all praise and thank God for sharing him with us even if it was for too short a time.