I was presented with a 92 percent Congressional rating and 2018 Award for Conservative Excellence from the American Conservative Union Foundation.

The ACU Center for Legislative Accountability rates and awards members of Congress by evaluating their votes on bills that focus on Ronald Reagan's philosophy of the "three-legged stool" of conservatism, which includes 3 main priorities:

1) fiscal and economic: taxes, budgets, regulations, spending, healthcare, and property

2) social and cultural: Second Amendment, religion, life, welfare, and education

3) national security: preserving our nation's security by maintaining a strong national defense

In May, I spoke at the Amazon Prime Air Hub ground-breaking event at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), one of the fastest-growing cargo airports in the country.

CVG is growing in many different dimensions. In the last five years, airport ticket prices have dropped while cargo freight and passenger departure rates have doubled in volume.

Logistics and transportation are vital to our nation and especially to Kentucky's 4th District. As a member on the Aviation Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I am excited about this significant investment in Northern Kentucky.

CVG currently has enough room for 15 Amazon aircraft at one time. Once Amazon completes construction in 2021, the area will be large enough to fit 100 planes. The hub is projected to create more than 2,000 jobs! This addition will also help Amazon Prime orders go from two-day to one-day delivery times. I look forward to the facility’s grand opening in the years ahead.

It was my honor to introduce Kirk Schaffer, Associate Administrator for Airports with the Federal Aviation Administration at this event. Many thanks to Governor Matt Bevin, CVG CEO Candace McGraw, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for attending this ground-breaking event as well!

Red flag laws are:

🚩 Unconstitutional
🚩 Ineffective
🚩 Ripe for abuse

Thanks to Weld County, Colorado Sheriff Steve Reams and Dr. John R. Lott of Crime Prevention Research Center for joining me in this in-depth interview about red flag laws!

Click here to watch the full interview. 

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and I re-introduced the PRIME Act this month. Senator Angus S. King, Jr. and Senator Rand Paul introduced companion legislation in the Senate today as well. This bill would give individual states freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores.

Consumers want to know where their food comes from, what it contains, and how it’s processed. Yet, federal inspection requirements make it difficult to purchase food from trusted, local farmers.

It is time to open our markets to give producers the freedom to succeed and consumers the freedom to choose.

My response to the Boeing 737 MAX crash investigations...

• Why isn’t flight data streamed to ground instead of disappearing if the black box isn’t recovered?

• Why aren’t there video cameras in the cockpits of commercial planes?

I asked these questions of National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration witnesses at a recent Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.

Click here to watch my questioning. 

Did you know that a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) holder cannot travel interstate until he/she is 21 years old, even though state law allows intrastate transportation? This means, an 18-year-old can drive from Covington to Louisville, but not from Covington to Cincinnati. This prohibition is disruptive for states like Kentucky with dense population centers in close proximity to state borders.

The federal government should not dictate where licensed, working adults are permitted to drive. For this reason, I am pleased to announce that I am cosponsoring the DRIVE-Safe Act (H.R. 1374)—a bill that allows 18 to 21-year-old CDL holders to apprentice with an experienced driver so they can provide intrastate and interstate transportation.