President Biden’s open borders policies are a national security threat and a disgrace to the rule of law. As of April 2022, almost 3 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border during the Biden Presidency. In 2021, 42 people on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) terror watch-list crossed the southern border. Those are just the numbers that we know about. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimated that over 400,000 illegal migrants entered the border illegally last year undetected. During this Congress, I supported
and voted for legislation to:

• Restart President Trump’s border wall
• Reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy
• Maintain Title 42 protections to expel illegal migrants during a public health emergency
• Deploy new technology and hire new border agents to help secure our southern border

My strong stances for border security are part of why President Trump endorsed my campaign for re-election. In the next Congress, I’ll continue to push to return to many of the policies I worked together with him on to implement that secured our border and kept our nation safe.

Historic levels of inflation are crushing middle-class Kentuckians, killing small businesses and jeopardizing our economy. According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Wharton Business, inflation cost the average American family $3,500 in 2021. Ending this historic inflation is a top priority of mine in Congress. Here are some of the steps we must take to do so:

• Normalize monetary policy
• Enact pro-growth tax and regulatory policies—including by making the Trump tax cuts for the middle-class permanent
• End the Socialist spending sprees in Washington that is bankrupting our country and devaluing the dollar
• Unleash American energy producers to make America energy dominant again

As the lead Republican on the House Financial Services Subcommittee overseeing monetary policy, I will be your champion for a strong economic agenda that will ensure the great American economic comeback is on the horizon.

It only took one year for President Biden to deliver humiliation in Afghanistan and enable war in Eastern Europe. This is because President Biden is the weakest and most incompetent Commander in Chief in modern American history. Here are some of the key actions I’ve taken on foreign policy as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the 117th Congress to promote a strong national defense and sound foreign policy to protect America as well as secure our interests abroad:

Afghanistan:

• Warned against the withdrawal from Afghanistan, especially the abandonment on Bagram Air Base. I was the first member of Congress to call for the resignation of the President’s National Security Team because of the botched withdrawal. Thirteen American military service members were killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan in part because President Biden’s Administration failed to plan an orderly withdrawal.
• Introduced the IMF Afghan Recognition Assurance Act, permanently cutting off Taliban access to resources from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• I supported the Afghanistan Withdrawal Oversight and Liability (AWOL Act) requiring the Administration to submit a report to Congress on all the military equipment left behind to the Taliban.

Iran

• Introduced the Iran Nuclear Deal Advise and Consent Act of 2021 to create roadblocks for the Biden Administration in their inexplicable pursuit to rejoin the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal. This bill would require the Biden Administration to submit any agreement between the U.S. and Iran on nuclear weapons to Congress as a treaty. Since even Democrats like Chuck Schumer opposed the Iran Deal in Congress back in 2015, I am hopeful that this would be an effective death-nil to the agreement should it ever see the light of day.
• I support the Maximum Pressure Act, legislation to reimpose Trump-era sanctions on Iran. These sanctions were effective and cut Iranian militia fighters’ salaries in half.
• Continue to support funding for the Iron Dome to protect our ally Israel amid numerous attempts by Congressional Democrats to strip funding for the Dome out of the federal budget.

Ukraine:

• I supported the Never Yielding Europe’s Territory (NYET) Act to impose tough sanctions on Russia to deter an invasion of Ukraine. The NYET Act sanctions included reimposing sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline pre-invasion. Unfortunately, President Biden refused to impose sanctions on Russia pre-invasion, a critical error that showed weakness and invited Russian aggression.
• Following the invasion of Ukraine, I voted to ban imports of Russian oil and gas to the United States. I also introduced the No Energy Revenues for Russian Hostilities Act to close a loophole in U.S. sanctions permitting banks and financial institutions to process transactions involving Russian energy to other countries.

China:

• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses the greatest military, economic, political and technological threat to the United States in a generation.
• To address the economic and military threat, I introduced the Chinese Military and Surveillance Company Sanction Act of 2021. My proposal requires the President to sanction CCP military companies included on the U.S. Department of Defense’s annual listing and other Chinese military and surveillance companies that pose a risk to U.S. national security.
• In response to the CCP’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I introduced the Assessing Xi’s Interference and Subversion (AXIS) Act. My bill requires the State Department to submit an initial report within 30 days of the bill’s enactment and every 90 days thereafter on the CCP’s support for Russia. We know that the CCP purchased a major contract from a Russian gas company shortly after the invasion and released a joint statement with the Kremlin saying their partnership had “no limits.” The AXIS Act recently passed the House of Representatives.

This year, over 100,000 Americans died from overdose deaths. Annual deaths were 50% higher in 2021 versus data from 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kentucky experienced an increase of 54%. I’m working to improve resources for both rehabilitation and enforcement.

Rehabilitation:

• I helped deliver an $87 million federal grant to the University of Kentucky to support UK’s HEALing Communities research. The goal of this project is to reduce opioid fatalities by 40% in three years in sixteen counties across the Commonwealth. Some of these counties include Sixth District counties such as Bourbon, Fayette, Jessamine, Clark and Madison.
• I led the effort in Congress to establish the Recovery Housing Program, a new federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This grant program was created as part of the CAREER Act that I led to passage in Congress by including the legislation in a larger package to address opioids—the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act.
• In December of 2020, the Commonwealth received a $1.1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Recovery Housing Program.
• The Isaiah House Treatment Center also received a $2.4 million federal grant through CAREER Act funding in August of 2021. This grant will allow the Center to service 6,000 Kentuckians over the next five years.

Enforcement:

• Since entering Congress, I successfully pushed for multiple Sixth District counties to be designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) counties. This designation allocated additional federal resources to strengthen the partnership between federal, state and local collaboration to halt drug trafficking and prosecute other drug crimes. These counties in the Sixth District are HIDTA designated: Madison, Montgomery, Powell and Clark County.
• In 2021, enough fentanyl poured through our southern border to kill every man, woman and child in the United States seven times over again. That is just the fentanyl that we know about. We must secure our southern border and stop the flow of deadly fentanyl that makes every community in America a border community. I’m cosponsoring and have voted for legislation to restart border wall construction, hire new border agents and deploy new technology to secure our southern border and stop this deadly flow of drugs once and for all.

Andy Barr is Getting Results

• As the lead Republican on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Andy is responsible for holding financial regulators accountable and ensuring that the U.S. financial system works effectively for hard-working Kentuckians.
• Andy introduced H.R. 8410, the Promoting Access to Capital in Underserved Communities Act, to expand access to financial services to underbanked areas, including rural Kentucky.
• Andy supported the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which is the most financial regulatory relief package in a generation. The legislation included two bills introduced by Andy:
  • The Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, which extends the “qualified mortgage” legal safe harbor to small creditors, banks and credit unions, with total assets of $10 billion or less who originate and hold residential mortgage loans in portfolio, rather than selling or securitizing them, allowing those lenders to satisfy Dodd-Frank’s ability-to-repay rule.
  • The Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act, which clarifies the definitions of “high-cost” loans so that manufactures homes no longer fall under this designation that is harming access to affordable manufactured housing, allowing more Americans to own their home rather than rent.
• Andy supported and helped pass the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, which is a comprehensive reform to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the export control regime. This legislation closes loopholes and prevents adversaires, like China, from obtaining access to critical technology and infrastructure.

Andy Barr is Getting Results

• Andy voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the first comprehensive reform of the tax code in over 30 years. This legislation:
  • Cuts taxes by $2,052 for the average median income family in the Sixth District
  • Doubles the standard deduction and child tax credit
  • Includes legislation Andy introduced to boost Kentucky’s horse and bourbon industries
  • Led to increased bonuses, wages and enhanced benefits for over four million workers nationwide
  • Lowered utility rates for families throughout Kentucky
• As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Andy is a national leader in the effort to roll back burdensome regulations, authoring multiple bills that will increase Americans’ access to the financial system so that entrepreneurs, farmers and homeowners can access the capital they need to build businesses, create jobs and purchase a home.
• As the lead Republican of the subcommittee that oversees financial regulators, Andy is a top policymaker in Congress advocating for a financial system that efficiently allocates capital, helps businesses create jobs and isn’t hindered by unnecessary red tape.
• Andy is the Co-Chair of the Global Investment in America Caucus, which promotes foreign direct investment in the U.S. so overseas companies, like Toyota, want to do business in America and employ American workers.

It only took one year for President Biden to take our country from energy dominant to energy desperate. From January of 2021 to April of 2022, gas prices went from $2.30 to $4.20. I’ve been warning against the Biden Administration’s radical climate agenda from the beginning. Now, it is time to unleash American energy producers to create an avalanche of reliable energy and bring down prices at the pump. That is why I supported and voted in favor of H.R. 6858, legislation that:

1. Reapproves the Keystone XL Pipeline
2. Restarts leasing for oil and natural gas projects on federal lands
3. Eliminates barriers to liquified natural gas exports

Furthermore, I am leading the Republican effort in the House Financial Services Committee to block efforts to politicize access to capital as well as to prevent the Green New Deal from being enacted through the back door of financial regulation. I also introduced the Fair Access to Banking Act. This legislation requires banks and financial institutions to base lending decisions solely on credit worthiness, eliminating any scenario where a fossil fuel company could be discriminated against because of their business.
Additionally, I led Republican pushback to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Climate Risk Disclosure rule proposal, which creates an avalanche of new disclosure requirements for public companies intended to suffocate investment in energy.

Despite skyrocketing energy costs, the President continues to double and triple down on his failed and bizarre energy policies. He recently called for more subsidies for the green energy companies to fight rising prices. Rest assured, I’ll continue to push back on this agenda and deliver on a vision that can deliver reliable and affordable energy for all Kentuckians.

Andy Barr is Getting Results

• Andy is recognized as a Champion of Patient advocacy by the Alliance for Patient Access. This award is given to Members of Congress who have in response to COVID-19 provided leadership in protecting and expanding access to critical treatment.
• Andy cosponsored the Lower Cost Lower Cures Act which encourages innovation of groundbreaking new cures, promotes low-cost options for patients, and curbs the gaming of the system by drug companies.
• Andy voted to eliminate the Medicare Part D donut hole through the Bipartisan Budget Act. This will save Medicare beneficiaries will save $6.7 billion in premiums and cost sharing between 2020 and 2027.
• After nearly seven years of hearing constituents’ struggle with the one-size-fits all health care law that is now collapsing under its own weight, Andy supported the American Health Care Act to increase competition and choice, lower costs, and deliver relief to families throughout Kentucky. The American Health Care Act, which represented the largest entitlement reform in history, would have created a personalized, patient-centered health care system to encourage the health insurance marketplace to compete, ensure individuals with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable, quality health care and allow families to pick the plan that best fits their needs.  
• Andy supported repealing the individual mandate for health insurance, which penalized Americans for not choosing to purchase health insurance they did not want or was too expensive to maintain.
• Andy supported the Small Business Fairness Act to allow small businesses to bind together to offer high quality, lower cost health insurance plans to their employees, relieving them from the costly state-mandated laws that make health care coverage exorbitantly expensive.
• Andy cosponsored the Childhood Cancer STAR Act, which advances pediatric cancer research and child-focused cancer treatments. This legislation was signed into law by President Trump on May 29, 2018.
• Andy led a Kentucky Congressional delegation letter in support of the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center’s application to renew its National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. The University of Kentucky received its renewal NCI designation in August 2018.
• Andy voted for the 21st Century Cures Act, which authorizes state block grants to improve the treatment of disease, mental health and addiction.
• Andy voted for a $4 billion appropriation – the largest to date – to combat the opioid crisis and address prevention, treatment and enforcement
• Andy has continued to support Community Health Centers and their work to provide accessible and cost-effective health care to many Kentuckians living in rural areas of the Sixth District.

Andy Barr is Getting Results

• Andy is the lead Republican on the Build for Future Disasters Act, which would take meaningful steps to align flood insurance rates with actual risk, better protect policyholders, put the National Flood Insurance Program on a sustainable fiscal footing and protect taxpayers.
• Andy supported H.R. 3, the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act, which cuts wasteful spending and restores fiscal responsibility with the federal government’s use of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
• Andy supported reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that would place the program on a sustainable financial path for the future while ensuring it still offers affordable insurance to Kentuckians in flood prone areas. Some of the reforms that Andy supported included greater use of LIDAR for better flood maps, enhanced flood prevention resources to reduce the number and cost of claims, and changes to increase private sector participation. Today the program is $20.5 billion in debt and that is after a $16 billion bailout in 2017.
• Andy supported reforms to government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would increase access to mortgages for qualified, credit-worthy borrowers and minimize the risk of future taxpayer bailouts, similar to those that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis.  
• Andy voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment would prohibit total outlays for each fiscal year form exceeding total receipts for that fiscal year unless Congress authorizes the excess by a three-fifths roll call vote of each chamber. This measure failed as it did not receive two-thirds support.
• Andy supported the American Health Care Act, which would have been the largest reform to mandatory spending in our nation’s history.
• Andy introduced the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act, which would reduce wasteful spending in health care by up to $66 billion over ten years through comprehensive tort reform.
• Andy supported the House Republican “Building a Better America” Budget that would balance the budget in 10 years without raising taxes.
• Voted in favor for the Farm Bill, including reforms to SNAP that introduce work requirements for able-bodied, working age adults.
• Andy has supported regular order for appropriations, which includes all 12 FY17 appropriations bills the House passed and Senate failed to consider. These appropriation bills contained numerous reforms to restore fiscal responsibility.
• Co-Chaired the Republican Study Committee’s Empowerment working group, which aims to promote upward mobility and importance of work within our nation’s welfare programs to move individuals off government assistance and help them lead independent lives.

Andy Barr is Getting Results

• In April 2019 Andy introduced H.R. 2196 a bill that amended the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship, which was created in the Forever GI Bill. The bill lowered the credit hour requirement in the scholarship that made it more accessible to student veterans across the county. The bill passed the House by voice vote on June 24 and passed unanimously in the Senate in July. President Trump signed the bill into law on July 31, 2019. Already Kentucky veterans have benefitted from this legislation by being able to take the classes needed to complete their education after their service.
• Andy introduced in a bipartisan manner H.R. 7795, Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act to protect veterans applying for VA disability benefits by requiring the VA to restore online forms used by veterans to apply for disability payments and cut through bureaucratic red tape to make it easier for veterans to apply for benefits. The idea for this bill came from a member of the Sixth District Veteran’s Coalition. H.R. 7795 passed the House in September 2020 and has been supported by numerous Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs).
• Andy secured key equine assisted therapy provisions in S.785, the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act. This landmark legislation works to better serve veterans by connecting them with mental health services in the community to address veteran suicide. Andy’s provisions strengthen access for veterans to equine assisted therapy (EAT) treatments for mental health and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).  EAT is an innovative therapy that allows veterans with mental, social, or physical impairments to work with horses on their road to recovery.
• Andy established the Sixth District Veterans Coalition, which meets quarterly and has helped hundreds of veterans resolve problems with the VA, appeal disability claims and even replace medals.
• Andy introduced legislation to rename the two Lexington VA Medical Center campuses in honor of two Kentucky World War II heroes, Troy Bowling and Franklin Sousley. This legislation was signed into law on March 9, 2018 and were officially renamed in August 2018.
• Andy supported the VA Mission Act, which consolidates the VA’s seven community health care programs into one program, funds the VA Choice Program, and expands the VA Caregiver Program to all eras.
• Andy introduced the Military Sexual Assault Victims Empowerment (SAVE) Act, which would allow survivors of military sexual trauma (MST) to receive the treatment of their choice outside of the VA system.
• Andy passed an amendment to increase funding for equine assisted therapy to help our returning warriors recover from the psychological scars of combat.
• Andy supported the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, which expanded GI bill eligibility, removed the time restriction on the use of the GI bill for eligible recipients, and increased funding for Reservists and Guardsmen.
• Andy succeeded in petitioning the Secretary of the Department of Interior to recommend the Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park in Jessamine County be designated a National Monument.