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In 2022, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) continued fighting for Missouri by standing in opposition to the Biden agenda, working across the aisle to advance key legislative priorities, and serving the needs of constituents across the state.
2022 Quick Stats:
- 2 bills signed into law: a TikTok ban on government devices and new safety standards for duck boats
- 1 resolution unanimously passed the Senate honoring Missouri police officers
- 17 original bills and resolutions introduced
- 10 amendments filed
- 63 bills and resolutions cosponsored
- 14 bipartisan bills, resolutions, and amendments cosponsored
- More than 330 one-on-one interviews with Missouri reporters
- New casework requests increased for the fourth consecutive year
- Staff traveled more than 55,000 miles within the state to serve Missourians where they live and work
- Following his tour of Fort Leonard Wood in August, Senator Hawley secured a commitment from the Department of the Army for new funding to replace 180 aging homes on base for service members
Serving Missourians:
Senator Hawley’s office remains committed to working with Missourians on important issues they’re dealing with every day:
- The top five casework issue areas were: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS), Veteran Affairs (VA), U.S. Department of State (DOS) and Social Security Administration (SSA). USCIS cases increased by 98 percent from the previous year
- Secured duck boat safety reform in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which will institute new standards to help prevent tragedies like the Table Rock Lake duck boat accident in 2018
- After reports of mail delays, Senator Hawley requested an audit of the United States Postal Service (USPS) in Clay and Platte Counties to improve service for Missourians
- Nominated two constituents for the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Citizen Honors Award, which they were awarded in September, for rescuing a young woman from drowning
- Following his tour of the St. Louis region hit by historic flooding, Senator Hawley called on the President to support Missouri’s request for federal assistance, which was granted
- Successfully advocated for rural communities to receive grant funding for first responders and to provide training for working class jobs
- Demanded answers from Google on behalf of pregnancy resource centers in Missouri concerned about apparent attempts to throttle their online ads and reach
- After federal police escorts for Honor Flights were put on hold, Senator Hawley successfully advocated for the Department of Interior to reinstate these critical escorts for Honor Flights, including those from Missouri, that visit Washington D.C.
- After three Missouri police officers were killed in the line of duty in March 2022, Senator Hawley introduced and passed a resolution honoring their sacrifice and service to their communities
- Following reports of contamination at Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, Senator Hawley demanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigate the reports and wrote to President Biden urging he provide federal assistance to the community
- Stood up for law-abiding citizens in Missouri and the Second Amendment by demanding the FBI explain audits of Missouri CCW permit holders
Legislative Priorities:
Confronting China –
- Time to Choose Act – to force government contractors like McKinsey and Deloitte to stand with the United States in its efforts to protect Americans against China’s imperial ambitions or forfeit their U.S. government contracts
- DITCH Act – to bar universities, public pension plans, and other tax-exempt entities from investing in Chinese companies
- Sanction Xi Jinping for Xinjiang Atrocities Act – to personally sanction General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, along with his top lieutenants, for their complicity in the Uyghur genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
- Taiwan Weapons Exports Act of 2022 – to fast-track delivery of critical weapons to Taiwan by expediting Congressional approval and eliminating administrative roadblocks
- Sent letters to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the Administration toprioritize arming Taiwan over Ukraine and to reconsider its support for Ukrainian membership in NATO, in order to focus on deterring China in the Indo-Pacific
- Urged the Biden Administration to maintain tariffs on Chinese goods and to initiate a new investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s unfair trade practices that harm American workers
Unrigging the System & Fighting for American Workers –
- American Energy Independence Act – to promote energy independence and lower energy costs for American households by cutting regulations, fast-tracking energy projects, and defunding any contributions to the Paris Climate Agreement
- Make the Universities Pay Act – to reform the nation’s higher education financing system and put universities on the hook for the creditworthiness of future student loans
- Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act – to ban Members of Congress and spouses from trading stocks while in office
- Stood up for workers in rail negotiations, while Joe Biden and Democrats forced workers to accept contract terms they rejected
- Voted to impose a $35 monthly cap on the price of insulin to protect Missouri families from Big Pharma
Taking on Big Tech –
- No TikTok on Government Devices Act – to ban government employees from installing China’s TikTok app on government devices, signed into law as part of the year-end omnibus spending bill
- Filed a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in the pending case of Gonzalez v. Google, concerning whether Big Tech companies may enjoy immunity under Section 230
- Supported the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act – both were voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by large margins in 2022 and which represent the most significant antitrust crackdown on Big Tech ever
- Demanded answers from Mark Zuckerberg on an investigation which found that drug dealers openly operate on Instagram and sell illicit substances that are easily accessible to teenagers as young as 13
- Confronted Apple CEO Tim Cook on Apple’s dependency on foreign labor and urged him to restore production to the United States. Senator Hawley also called on Apple to explain why they limited the iPhone AirDrop feature in China, widely used by anti-CCP protestors
Supporting Families & Kids –
- Pregnancy Resources Center Defense Act – to protect these centers and houses of worship from radical pro-abortion activists’ campaign of violence
- PROTECT ACT – to protect children from sexual exploitation by enhancing penalties for possessing child pornography and preventing judges from sentencing offenders below federal guidelines
- Copyright Clause Restoration Act – to strip Disney of special copyright protections after it caved to the woke agenda
- Demanded answers from the Biden Administration on the baby formula shortage and urged the Administration to consider using the Defense Production Act
- Called on the Drug Enforcement Administration to provide urgent updates on the steps being taken to counter new, so-called “rainbow fentanyl” designed to appeal to children
Holding the Biden Administration Accountable –
- Dissolving the Disinformation Governance Board Act – to dissolve the Department of Homeland Security’s Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board (The Board was successfully terminated in August 2022)
- Sent numerous oversight requests demanding DHS release all documents related to the agency’s Disinformation Governance Board
- Led a letter with 11 colleagues to the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee opposing any language in the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act that would require women to register for the military draft and later introduced an amendment to the FY23 NDAA to remove the language. The provision to draft women was originally included in the NDAA but later stripped in the version that was signed into law
- Opposed President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, by exposing Judge Jackson’s alarming record of lenient sentencing for child pornography offenders
- Sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for the release of all information related to his office’s investigation into DOD’s refusal to grant service members religious exemptions from DOD’s Covid vaccine mandate
- Senate Select Committee on the Afghanistan Withdrawal Resolution – to investigate the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Afghan Vetting and Accountability Act – to declassify intelligence related to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and ensure adequate vetting of Afghan nationals evacuated to the United States
- Empowering States to Deport Illegal Immigrants Act – to authorize States to enforce federal immigration laws by deporting illegal aliens
- Exposed new whistleblower allegations that the Biden Administration failed to properly vet hundreds of Afghan evacuees, which initiated a new investigation into these allegations by the DOD Inspector General
Working Across the Aisle –
In 2022, Senator Hawley worked across the aisle on a variety of important bipartisan initiatives, including:
- Slave-Free Business Certification Act – Introduced by Senators Hawley and Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to root out forced labor in corporate supply chains
- Enhancing DHS Drug Seizures Act – Introduced by Senator Peters (D-Mich.) and cosponsored by Senators Hawley and Hassan (D-N.H.) to combat the flow of deadly and illicit drugs like fentanyl into our nation
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers (CPBO) Retirement Corrections Act – Introduced by Senator Peters and Hawley to ensure that border patrol officers received the proper retirement benefits they are entitled to
- Fire Station Improvement Act of 2022 – Introduced by Senators Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Hawley to help local fire departments make improvements, repairs, and renovations to their facilities
- Supported increases to the Renewable Fuel Standard, including biodiesel, with Senators Klobuchar (R-Minn.), Grassley (R-Iowa), Murray (D-Wash.), Thune (R-S.D.), and 19 other colleagues
Notable Speeches:
- Keynote speech at the National Conservatism Conference: The Biblical Revolution
- Speech at CPAC: The Goodness of America
- Senate Floor speech on Senate passage of bill banning TikTok from government devices
- Senate Floor speech urging the Senate to toughen sentences for child porn offenders
- Senate Floor speech urging the Senate to pass the American Energy Independence Act of 2022
- Senate Floor speech calling for accountability over Biden’s failures in Afghanistan & Ukraine
Notable Opinion Pieces:
- Fox News: Democrats brought us a year of fear in 2021. In 2022, let us be not afraid and reclaim our American spirit
- Fox News: Russia-Ukraine crisis – China is America’s biggest enemy, not Moscow
- Fox News: Supreme Court Roe v Wade leak was plan to bully Justices but they must not back down
- Fox News: It’s time to end economic handouts for woke corporations
- Compact Magazine: No to Neoconservatism
- The American Principles Project’s Top 25 Threats to the American Families Report: Parents’ Bill of Rights Act Essay
- National Interest: Why I Won’t Vote to Add Sweden and Finland to NATO
- The Federalist: The Left’s War On History Is Really A War On The God Of The Bible
- Washington Post: The GOP is dead. A new GOP must listen to working people.
- Compact Magazine: Which Side Are You On, DC? – Biden’s Bad Deal for Railworkers
