Priorities
Our current immigration system is broken. We are a nation of laws and must continue to keep America safe. Our approach to combating illegal immigration must be comprehensive and include permanently securing our border, enforcing the rule of law, and ensuring law enforcement has the resources they need to carry out their duties.
High speed broadband has the potential to revolutionize the way rural populations live their lives. Many families, students and businesses in rural areas struggle to gain access to key services such as telemedicine, distance-learning, online banking, and grant applications that help small businesses compete in the 21st Century.
As the son and the husband of a public school teacher, I am especially thankful for the ways teachers inspire and shape the minds of our nation’s students. Their dedication does not go unrecognized; the positive influence and selflessness that our educators possess is invaluable.
Ensuring American energy independence is critical to the United States’ economic stability, growth, and security. The American energy industry creates jobs, lowers the cost of gas and electricity for hard-working families, and advances American interests on the global stage.
As vice chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, I am focused on ways we can address climate change while promoting economic prosperity. I want clean air, water, and environmental protection, but those things do not have to be achieved at the expense of jobs, prosperity, and national security. We can protect our environment by promoting policies that encourage clean energy such as nuclear, hydropower, natural gas, wind, and solar power.
A lot of people say they would not be where they are today without their parents – for me that is the absolute truth. When I was eight months old, my mom and dad adopted me from the Children's Home Society in Richmond. My birth mother’s decision to put me up for adoption gave me more opportunities than she felt she could provide, and my parents’ decision to adopt instilled a passion in me to protect the most vulnerable among us.
It is imperative that we get our nation’s fiscal house in order and work to address our nation’s debt and deficit. High levels of debt translate to much lower levels of economic growth and those same high levels of debt mean that too many of our taxpayer dollars are wasted on paying high interest and unnecessary overages. While we can start with eliminating duplicative programs, wasteful spending, and fraud.
Before serving in Congress, I earned my master’s degree in public health and spent 26 years working for the Virginia Department of Health. I understand the importance of not only focusing on public health but also the need to fix our broken healthcare system.
We need to support our small businesses and prepare potential employees to fill jobs as they become available. We must return to sound economic principles and that means limiting the role of the federal government in people’s lives, not expanding it. It is vital that we rein in runaway spending, think carefully about our future priorities, and prevent tax hikes before we stunt the United States’ economy.
We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history; we must decide if the United States will retain its global primacy, or if we will concede our position to the malign intent of Communist China. As vice chairman on the House Armed Services Committee, I have worked to ensure we bring the capability of our Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force closer to meeting the reality of the threats facing the United States and to project power around the globe to deter our adversaries.