DENVER, Colorado, April 7 -- Sen. Michael F. Bennet, D-Colorado, issued the following news release on April 6, 2023: Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined U.S. Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to introduce the bipartisan Security and Oversight of International Landholdings (SOIL) Act to provide oversight and transparency over purchases of American agricultural land that threaten our national security. "For too long, Washington has allowed f  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, issued the following news release on April 3, 2023: U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) to introduce the bipartisan Accelerating Deployment of Versatile Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act 2023. The ADVANCE Act improves the nation's nuclear infrastructure, secures America's uranium supply chain, grows the economy, creates jobs, reduces carbon emissions and strengthens national securi  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Mike Crapo, Jim Risch ( both R-Idaho) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) with 15 of their colleagues introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to retain the regulatory definition of habitat within the Endangered Species Act (ESA). By defining habitat, this CRA will provide clarity and transparency to landowners and businesses in Idaho and throughout the west. "Providing an exact definitio  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release on April 3, 2023: U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) joined a bipartisan group in introducing the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2023. "Advanced nuclear energy presents boundless potential, and the ADVANCE Act will make the kind of clean and reliable nuclear power being developed at the Idaho National Lab available to the nation. With this bill, we will st  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) with Senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a bill to prevent the IRS from being used as a political weapon against conservative and ideological non-profit groups. "The IRS should never expose taxpayers' private information because of their political i  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) with 15 of their colleagues introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to retain the regulatory definition of habitat within the Endangered Species Act (ESA). By defining habitat, this CRA will provide clarity and transparency to landowners and businesses in Idaho and throughout the west. "The Biden administration   more

WASHINGTON, April 7 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release on April 6, 2023: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced the MicroCap Small Business Investing Act, legislation, which would break down barriers to capital investment for underrepresented small business owners by diversifying the backgrounds of people applying for the SBA's MicroCap SBIC license. The bill aims to give smaller businesses in u  more

WASHINGTON, April 6 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced the Accelerate Long-term Investment Growth Now (ALIGN) Act, which would make permanent a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that allowed businesses to fully expense new investments (machinery, equipment, etc.) in the year of purchase. That provision currently began to phase out in the federal tax code starting at the end o  more

WASHINGTON, April 5 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, issued the following column on April 3, 2023: * * * Setting The Record Straight On Recent Bank Failures And What We Should Be Focused On Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) collapse was due to massive inflation followed by spiking interest rates and mismanagement that led to a liquidity event, not a capital shortfall. A combination of excessive spending, skyrocketing inflation, rising interest rates, mismanaged interest rate risk, failed supervision a  more

WASHINGTON, April 5 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Barrasso (R-Wyo), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced the Natural Gas Appliances Standards (Natural GAS) Act of 2023. This legislation will block any rulemaking by the Department of Energy that could have the effect of outlawing the sale of a range of natural gas appliances. Studies have shown that in residential applications, when evaluated on a full-f  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee issued the following testimony by Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner involving a hearing on March 9, 2023, on nuclear fuel cycle: * * * My name is John Wagner, and I am the director of Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the nation's nuclear energy research and development center. In this role, I lead a United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory with more than 5,700 scientists, engineers   more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following opening remarks at a hearing on March 7, 2023, entitled "Tax Policy's Role in Increasing Affordable Housing Supply for Working Families": * * * "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You have well laid out the issue today. I appreciated your focus on this issue and supply-side solutions, but the fact that you recognized the bipartisan work we do in this Committee and identify this as one of  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following opening remarks at a hearing on March 16, 2023, entitled "The President's Fiscal Year 2024 Budget With Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen": * * * "Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to today's hearing, Secretary Yellen. "I appreciate you appearing before the Committee in a timely manner following the release of the President's budget. "While the budget is the focus of tod  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following remarks at a hearing on March 23, 2023, entitled " The President's 2023 Trade Policy Agenda": * * * "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Ambassador Tai. "Members of this Committee have very thoughtful ideas to advance the trade interests of the American people. For example, just yesterday, Senator Young was recognized by the National Foreign Trade Council for his leadership on d  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement at a hearing on March 22, 2023, entitled "The President's Fiscal Year 2024 Health and Human Services Budget": * * * "Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Secretary Becerra, for being here today. "I do want to respond to the question of the debt ceiling negotiations. I want to make it very clear, the Republicans are asking for negotiations on the debt ceiling proce  more

WASHINGTON, April 4 -- Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement at an open executive session on March 2, 2023, to consider the nominations of Daniel Werfel to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Rebecca Haffajee to be assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, and Brent Neiman to be deputy under secretary of the Treasury: * * * Mr. Chairman, we have considered Mr. Neiman and Ms. Haffajee in the prior Congress,   more

BOISE, Idaho, April 5 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement on April 4, 2023: * * * U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement on the announcement of locations for new U.S.-Philippine defense sites: "I am glad to see the announcement of locations for the four new U.S.-Philippine defense sites agreed to in February. "The sele  more

WASHINGTON, April 8 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement on April 6, 2023: U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement on the Biden Administration's long-overdue release of an after-action report on its botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan: "The White House's release today of its after-action report on the botched U.S. with  more

WASHINGTON, April 8 -- Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the following statement on the seventh anniversary of Ekpar Asat's detention by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): "Seven years ago, Ekpar Asat went missing in Xinjiang - detained by the CCP for his Uyghur identity. Ekpar is a s  more

WASHINGTON, April 8 -- Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, issued the following news release on April 7, 2023: U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), issued the following statement on Idaho's new law that bars minors from traveling across state lines to seek abortion care without parental consent--and criminalizes the act of helping minors seek the care they need. Idaho's new law, which was signed into law last night and now takes effect in 29 days, makes it a felony to assist a minor in seeking abort  more

WASHINGTON, April 8 -- Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Delaware, issued the following statement on April 7, 2023: * * * U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) released the following statement on the seventh anniversary of Ekpar Asat's detention by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): "Seven years ago, Ekpar Asat went missing in Xinjiang - detained by the CCP for his Uyghur identity. Ekpar is a son, brother, entrepreneur, and recipient of the State Department's International Visito  more

WASHINGTON, April 5 -- Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, issued the following news release on April 4, 2023: Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson, Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, last week questioned Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning in a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2024 budget requests for the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service. Chief among the questions Simpson asked Director Stone-Manning was related to th  more