Friends,
I hope you’re having a blessed Good Friday.

The 119th Congress officially surpassed the 100 day mark this past week. While there is still much work to do, we’ve wasted no time getting our country back on the right track. In the House, we’ve passed legislation to protect our energy independence, undo burdensome Biden-era big government regulations, shield Americans from the border crisis, and institute President Trump’s agenda.

Our focus now turns to codifying the President’s successful border policies, slowing the growth of federal spending, and ridding Washington of the waste, fraud, and abuse that’s defined it for far too long. The task ahead isn’t an easy one, but the American people sent us to DC to make real changes. I believe we’re on track to do just that.

This week, Kansans across the state filed their taxes. Unfortunately, this time next year your tax bill could be much higher if Congress fails to extend President Trump’s tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2025. Nearly a million Kansas households – not to mention countless Kansas businesses – have benefitted greatly from these cuts. Simply put, expiration would be a disaster for our state and our country.

Thankfully, the budget resolution Congress agreed to last week allows us to extend these tax cuts in the tax, spending, border security, defense, and debt limit package my colleagues and I will be working on in the coming weeks. I’m confident my colleagues and I will produce what President Trump calls “one big, beautiful bill” that prevents these tax hikes, cuts wasteful spending, strengthens programs Kansans rely on, and begins to inch America away from the edge of the fiscal cliff we’re looking over.

If you’re interested in seeing how failure to extend these cuts would affect you and your family, you can use this tool to calculate your potential federal tax increase.

The Biden border crisis impacted many aspects of American life, as nearly nine million illegal aliens poured into our country across our southern border during his four-year term.

Thankfully, President Trump has the situation under control in a matter of months. Now we must deal with the effects of four years of uncontrolled mass illegal immigration.

One of the biggest effects is the increased importance of systems that can be used to verify citizenship. Like the overwhelming majority of Kansans, I believe we need to take every step necessary to ensure only American citizens vote in America’s elections, which is why I cosponsored the Voter Eligibility Verification Act.

Introduced by my colleague Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, this commonsense legislation would ensure states have the federal help they need to determine the eligibility of voters by requiring U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to verify the immigration status of potential voters within 15 days of a request by a state attorney general or secretary of state. The federal government needs to be a good partner to state officials trying to protect our country by securing our elections.

Passing this legislation is a critical step to protecting our country from the disastrous effects of four years of open borders. I hope my colleagues feel the same so we can swiftly move this legislation through Congress with bipartisan support.

We’re blessed to have two of the Army’s infantry divisions headquartered in our 2nd Congressional District: the 1st at Fort Riley and the 35th at Fort Leavenworth. Last week, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on U.S. Military Posture and National Security Challenges in Europe, where we heard from General Christopher Cavoli, the Commander of U.S. European Command.

As General Cavoli touched on, maintaining a strong U.S. ground force presence in Europe is critical to preventing current conflicts from escalating and new conflicts from breaking out. At the same time, our European security partners must pull their weight and contribute their fair share. NATO is an international security agreement, not a handout.

This hearing is part of a larger effort my House Armed Services Committee colleagues and I are undertaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to refocus the Department of Defense on warfighting and servicemember quality of life.

I had another productive week of meetings with Kansans or about Kansas interests at my Washington, DC, office! Thank you to Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree, Michelin, Kansans with the North American Millers’ Association, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau, and Kansas Funeral Directors Association for stopping by!

I hope you and your family enjoy a wonderful Easter this weekend!