Cruz’s legislative accomplishments touted

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The staff of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has provided a comprehensive list of the senator’s legislative accomplishments as they relate to the economy, jobs, energy and the environment, plus his actions as the ranking member of the Commerce Committee.

Staff sent the list not only to showcase Cruz’s work in the Senate but also to contrast his legislative track record with the accomplishments of his general election opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. Cruz’s staff say that even on Allred’s own website the Dallas Democrat struggles to name things he has done to advance Texas’ economy. They say everything is solely based on things Allred has voted for or supported, never spearheaded. 

Allred’s staff hotly dispute this analysis. They say Allred has shown time and time again in Congress that he is more interested in getting things done than playing politics.

They point out Allred has partnered with Republicans on major bipartisan initiatives such as:

• Bringing a new VA Hospital to Garland, Texas 
• Strengthening the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal
• Passing an historic investment in rebuilding our roads and bridges
• Working with Texas Senator John Cornyn to pass the first meaningful gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years

They also point out that Allred is a rare member of Congress in that he has been endorsed by both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and leading labor unions like the AFL-CIO in both of his re-election campaigns. More than 70% of the bills he’s cosponsored have been bipartisan, they note.

By way of example, they reference a government funding bill passed earlier this month in which Allred secured more than $16 million in federal funding for local police, airport security, energy, universities and local infrastructure.

“Texans know who Ted Cruz is. He is among the most divisive, partisan Senators in Congress, and whether it is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, investing in high-tech manufacturing in Texas or capping the cost of insulin at $35 for Texans — Ted Cruz has been an obstructionist every step of the way,” said Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson.

“Congressman Allred’s record is clear. He builds coalitions to get things done, and unlike Ted Cruz, he will be a Senator that Texans can be proud of.” 

This is the list of Cruz’s accomplishments, provided by the senator’s staff:

Sen. Cruz’s Economic Growth for Texas Highlights:

• SIGNED INTO LAW: After months of legislative efforts from a bipartisan coalition of Texas lawmakers led by Sen. Cruz, the annual defense authorization bill included language to streamline the presidential permitting process for building key bridges across the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Laredo, and Eagle Pass, Texas.
  • Sen. Cruz also wrote a letter to the Biden administration in support of the Puerto Verde Global Trade Bridge (PVGTB)presidential permit application.
• SIGNED INTO LAW: Sen. Cruz’s Coastal Texas Program known as “Coastal Spine” or “Ike Dike” ensures that coastal Texans are better protected from major storms. 
• SECURED BIPARTISAN, BICAMERAL SUPPORT: Sen. Cruz led the fight for U.S. diplomats and officials of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary Commission to have the necessary resources to ensure Mexico’s compliance with the 1944 Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado, Tijuana, and Rio Grande Rivers. A bipartisan majority of senators supported his efforts.
• PASSED THE U.S. SENATE: Sen. Cruz led efforts to formally name the Ports-to-Plains Corridor through Texas and New Mexico as Interstate 27, which will boost economic growth in Texas.
• Sen. Cruz participated in agriculture roundtables with industry leaders from the coast to the panhandle as he works to ensure our farmers and ranchers have the resources they need for Texas agriculture to thrive.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Highway Formula Modernization Act, bipartisan legislation that would direct the Department of Transportation to reevaluate the funding formulas used to distribute federal highway dollars to ensure we invest properly in Texas highways and highways across the nation.
• Following reports of mail theft in the Galveston area, Sen. Cruz introduced the Upholding a Secure Postal System (USPS) Act that would require the Comptroller General of the United States to submit a report to Congress on nationwide mail theft trends, and what the Postal Service is doing to combat theft.
• Sen. Cruz worked in a bipartisan way to call for the Biden administration to pick a Texas location for the National Semiconductor Technology Center and National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program. 

Boosting Jobs and the Economy

• Sen. Cruz was awarded the 2022 Club for Growth Defender of Economic Freedom Award for dedication to promoting economic growthand championing issues related to limited government.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Cost Recovery and Expensing Acceleration to Transform the Economy and Jumpstart Opportunities for Businesses and Startups (CREATE JOBS) Act to generate much-needed investment in America’s workforce, create jobs, and provide relief for struggling Americans.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Capital Gains Inflation Relief Act, and legislation to make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s middle-class tax cuts.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Chemical Tax Repeal Act to eliminate the Superfund Tax imposed by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Federal Permitting Modernization Act (FAST Act) and the 90-day Review Act aimed at streamlining and expediting federal permitting for major infrastructure projects by putting more stringent timetables on federal agencies and courts to review projects.

Freeing American Energy and Dismantling Burdensome Environmental Regulations

• The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) honored Sen. Cruz with the Legislator of the Year Award for championing policies and advocating and leading legislative efforts to promote U.S. energy.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act to counter the Biden administration’s executive overreach banning gasoline powered vehicles and establishing an electric vehicle mandate.
• Sen. Cruz introduced a resolution pushing back on the implementation of a carbon tax. The resolution addresses the negative impacts of instituting a carbon tax.
• Sen. Cruz sent a letter to the Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) against adding unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to the permitting process for domestic mining.
• Sen. Cruz introduced legislation to amend the National Trails System Act and designate Route 66 as a National Historic Trail without harming Texas and American energy development projects in the areas around Route 66.
• Sen. Cruz sent a bipartisan letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm raising concern about a proposed rule by the DOE to change efficiency standards on distribution transformers—critical electric grid components.
• Sen. Cruz sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of the Treasury Janet Yellen condemning efforts by the Biden administration to use the U.S. tax code to penalize American energy production.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Natural Gas Export Expansion Act, which would expedite the federal approval process for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) and increase free trade.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the Energy Freedom Act, in order to make America energy secure again by accelerating federal permitting for energy projects and pipelines, mandating new onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales, approving pending liquified natural gas (LNG) export licenses, and generally speeding up solar, wind, and geothermal development.

Leading Republican Legislative Initiatives as the Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce Committee

• PASSED THE U.S. SENATE: Sen. Cruz advanced legislation that would streamline the CHIPS permitting reform process, removing burdensome hurdles to achieving environmental reviews and permits. The amendment, which passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support in July, would provide regulatory certainty and accelerate the construction of semiconductor manufacturing plants.
• Sen. Cruz introduced the bipartisan, bicameral AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in vehicles. In Texas, over 88,000 jobs are tied to radio.
• Sen. Cruz led bipartisan efforts to stop three Biden administration nominees over lack of experience or radical policy positions.
• Sen. Cruz led more than 100 other lawmakers in calling on Congressional leaders to include Sens. Cruz and Kelly’s amendment to streamline the CHIPS permitting reform process in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
• Sen. Cruz led a bicameral coalition of federal lawmakers calling on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to reverse its suspension of rules allowing liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail.
• Sen. Cruz led a group of senators in urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to withdraw a proposed rule designating more than 28,270 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, an area larger than West Virginia, as a “critical habitat” for the newly discovered Rice’s whale—a clear attempt to shut down oil and gas operations in the area over a single sighting of a whale in 2017.
• Sen. Cruz took to the Senate floor requesting unanimous consent to pass the Pay Our Coast Guard Act, bicameral, bipartisan legislation he introduced with Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). The Pay Our Coast Guard Act would ensure Coast Guardsmen are paid just like other military personnel in the event of a government shutdown.
• Sen. Cruz joined Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on an amicus brief in a case concerning the Biden administration’s decision to alter the terms of “Lease Sale 261,” an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico required by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
• Sen. Cruz released a fact-finding report on the single largest pot of federal money ever allocated for broadband—the $42.45 billion allocation for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
• Sen. Cruz and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), announced that they had secured a bipartisan amendment to prevent the Biden administration from banning gas stoves in households across America in the Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill. The amendment largely mirrors the bipartisan Gas Stoves Protection and Freedom Act that they had introduced together in February that would preclude CPSC from using federal funds to ban gas stoves or impose regulations that would substantially increase the costs of gas stoves to make them unaffordable for Americans.
• Sen. Cruz and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent a bipartisan letter to seven automakers that either removed or planned to remove broadcast AM radio in their current and future vehicle models, including electric vehicles, urging the automakers to make a commitment to keep AM radio in their vehicles.
• Sen. Cruz sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Lina Khan regarding the troubling drop in employee morale at the agency.
• Sen. Cruz and Republican committee members sent a letter expressing concern that President Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg are improperly favoring Northeastern states over the rest of the country with respect to Amtrak Board seats and a large taxpayer-funded rail grant program.
• Sen. Cruz led a letter with more than a dozen Senate Republican colleagues to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo urging the administration to strike a number of liberal social policy conditions that were attached to grants for domestic chip production. Few of the requirements on the $39 billion in money, such as requiring applicants to develop plans around mass transit use and affordable housing, were found in the CHIPS Act, a bill enacted last year meant to help re-shore semiconductor manufacturing.
• Sen. Cruz called on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to rescind its costly, radical proposed rule to require government contractors to provide extensive information about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• Sen. Cruz sent a letter to the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) seeking information about its lengthy delays in reaching decisions on applications for deepwater ports for exporting oil and natural gas. The letter also urged MARAD to meet its statutory deadlines to make decisions. Currently, four of the seven applications for licenses are for projects located off the coast of Texas.

Rep. Allred discusses border security

Rep. Allred recently participated in a press conference covered by the Rio Grande Guardian. It was about the need to pass bipartisan legislation to improve security at the US-Mexico border. Here is what Allred said:

“Good morning, everybody. I want to thank Henry Cuellar for his incredible leadership in bringing us out here this morning and performing this group. I want to thank my colleagues for being here. And we’re here because Democrats are serious about border security. I’m here because I’m a fourth generation Texan. My family is from Brownsville, Texas, the very tip of Texas. My grandfather was a customs officer after serving in the Navy and fighting in the Pacific in World War Two. My mom and my aunt grew up in Brownsville. I spent my childhood visiting my grandmother there. I know that our border communities are not just political backdrops. They’re not just places you go to point out problems. There are places where real people live, where they’re trying to raise their families. And I am sick and tired of politicians talking about the problem, about the crisis that we are experiencing at our border, but being unwilling to actually solve it. 

“The cynicism of saying that I don’t want to pass a package that will help us address a problem because I want to run on that in November is unacceptable to Texans, to folks in border communities, and to all of us here this morning. The Senate bill that was being discussed and that we should still have a chance to pass was a serious attempt to actually make some real progress on securing our border and addressing this crisis, with $20 billion in resources to try and secure the border. 

“Just a few stats for y’all, because our CBP agents need this help. This bill would have provided 1,500 new CBP personnel, 100 new immigration judges, 4,300 asylum officers and $1.4 billion for affected communities. There’s a serious attempt. And what Texans need now is action. We can’t wait any longer. We need to actually have some action here instead of just folks using this as a political problem. 

“For me as a Texan, it’s personal. But also for all of us as a country. We know that we have a broken immigration system. We can’t just address this at the border. Our legal immigration system has to work better as well. That’s why in addition to the Senate bill, we should take up some of the bipartisan efforts that are out there to address our immigration system in a comprehensive way. Like Veronica Escobar’s Dignity Act, which I’m a co sponsor of and which I think is a bipartisan effort to try and find a way forward in terms of a comprehensive reform. That’s what we all know needs to be done. That’s what the American people know needs to be done. That’s what Texans know, needs to be done. Now, we need to just have leaders who actually do it, instead of wanting to have these problems to run on in November.

“So I want to thank my colleagues for being here this morning. Thank you all for joining us.”