Senator Romney, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight Subcommittee, led a bipartisan hearing with Senator Hassan (D-NH), Subcommittee Chair, examining federal COVID-era spending.
Senator Romney applauded an announcement by the U.S. Economic Development Administration that it would invest in Utah’s critical mineral production and manufacturing industry. The announcement comes after Romney advocated on behalf of the Intermountain Critical Materials Consortium, a collaborative group of industry partners led by the Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative, which is developing a regional strategy to advance the production and manufacturing of critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies, many of which lack any domestic production presence.
Senators Romney and Sinema (I-AZ) introduced the Earn to Learn Act, legislation to responsibly reduce student loan debt and help make college more affordable for students. The senators’ bill establishes a college matched-savings program that helps qualifying low-income students, including adult learners, pay for tuition, books, fees, and other education-related expenses.
Senators Romney, Cotton, Cassidy, Collins, Capito, and Vance introduced the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, legislation which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $11 and mandate E-Verify to ensure the wage increase only goes to legal workers. The bill would also index future minimum wage increases to inflation and includes a slower phase-in for small businesses.
Senator Romney joined his Senate Republican colleagues, led by Senator Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn President Biden’s reckless income-driven repayment rule, which will result in a majority of bachelor’s degree student loan borrowers not having to pay back even the principal on their loans, costing taxpayers as much as $559 billion.
Senator Romney joined KSL Sunday Edition with Boyd Matheson for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the issues impacting Utah, as well as some of the biggest challenges facing our nation—both at home and abroad.
Senator Romney this week continued to highlight how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the bipartisan infrastructure bill he negotiated with colleagues, is benefitting Utah’s communities.
In an effort to prevent money laundering and stop crypto-facilitated crime and sanctions violations, Senators Romney (R-UT), Reed (D-RI), Rounds (R-SD), and Warner (D-VA) introduced the Crypto-Asset National Security Enhancement and Enforcement (CANSEE) Act. This bipartisan legislation requires decentralized finance (DeFi) services to meet the same anti-money laundering (AML) and economic sanctions compliance obligations as other financial companies, including centralized crypto trading platforms, casinos, and even pawn shops.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to advance provisions secured by Senator Romney to improve passport services during a business meeting to consider the Department of State Authorization Act of 2023—continuing his longstanding efforts to bring a passport agency to Salt Lake City and improve Utahns’ access to consular services.
The Utah Congressional delegation has announced its full support of the Direct Capital Access (DCA) Act, legislation to add 28 additional in-and beyond-perimeter flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in the 2023 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization bill. Senator Romney today joined on as co-sponsor of the Senate’s version of the DCA Act, which was originally introduced by Rep. Owens (R-UT) in the House.
Senator Romney joined his colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to take immediate action to resolve the massive, unacceptable backlog of passport applications. In the letter, the senators note countless reports from Americans in their states regarding issues and concerns with delayed wait times, lack of available in-person appointments, and an inability to communicate with passport agencies.
Senator Romney, along with Senators Coons (D-DE), Dr. Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Cornyn (R-TX), and Blumenthal (D-CT), introduced the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA), a bill that would require social media companies to share more data with the public and researchers.