Steve's Blog

Well I’m back in Washington, after a month or so being home in Cincinnati, preparing for, and recovering from, the recent election. Again, thank you for having the confidence in me to represent your best interests in the swamp that is Washington nowadays. I’m girding up for battle in what will most certainly be a very different environment – at least in the House.

Nancy Pelosi will most likely be Speaker again (the thought of that makes me shudder – literally.) Left-wing liberal partisans will head up the major committees, like Maxine Waters, and Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and company, and it’s going to be ugly, again, literally. (Just for the record, I’m referring to what they’re going to do, not how they look.)

Two committees where it’s going to be particularly ugly are Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform – one I’m on and the other I’m not. I’ve been a Member of Judiciary (and Foreign Affairs, and Small Business) for 22 years now.

A partial list of investigations I would expect to see Democrats go on fishing expeditions on are the following: Trump’s tax returns, Trump’s family businesses including the Trump Hotel in D.C., Russian collusion, the Comey firing, more Stormy Daniels and other sleazy-type stuff, the transgenders in the military ban, the replacement of U.S. Attorneys (even though every President does it), the travel ban – again, the separation of families at the border, hurricane responses, Trump’s stormy relationship with the press, the potential Space Force, the upcoming 2020 Census, the revocation of security clearances (like John Brennan’s), the Trump Administration’s refusal to defend Obamacare in court, the AT@T, Time-Warner merger, Russian attempts to compromise state and congressional elections, use of the pardon power thus far, the replacement of Attorney General Sessions with Matt Whitaker, more Justice Kavanaugh tawdriness, the expansion of mining and drilling on federal lands, various climate change matters, and various transgender bathroom issues.

The question is – will the Democrats’ focus on investigations and potential impeachment of a President, and maybe a Supreme Court Justice, prevent much of anything else from getting done? Well, if you go back 20 years (to 1998 to be exact), to a time when a Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and a Republican Congress were battling it out over an actual impeachment, we were able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We accomplished quite a bit: overhauled welfare, balanced a budget for the first time in decades, and fought various military engagements, at the same time the legislative branch was attempting to remove the chief executive from office.

Only time will tell whether Congress can be as productive this time around, but if so, here are a couple areas I’d say there might be enough bipartisanship to make some progress: infrastructure, immigration, trade, and criminal justice reform. There should be at least some common ground in these areas. I’m less optimistic that there will be much meeting in the middle on such issues as healthcare, balancing the budget, reforming so-called entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare so they’re there for future generations of Americans, and additional middle-class tax relief. Maybe I’m being too skeptical (but I doubt it.)

And finally, on the home front, I’m hoping we can make progress on several issues important to many of the people I have the honor of representing – the Brent Spence Bridge and the Western Hills Viaduct. We’ve been able to secure $53 million thus far for the Brent Spence Bridge, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to get it done. Fortunately, I was able to get something called “projects of national and regional significance” in the last transportation bill, which sets aside billions of dollars in a fund for major infrastructure projects like the Brent Spence Bridge, but in order to get that federal funding, the local stakeholders (Ohio, Kentucky, the City of Cincinnati, etc.) have to agree on how they’re going to pay for the local portion of the cost – we’re waiting on that now.

And on the Western Hills Viaduct, once the city determined that it’s replacement was a priority, we’ve been assisting the city and county to apply for federal funding. We’ve secured $5 million so far, but like the Brent Spence Bridge, it’ll cost a lot more than that. The city was turned down for something called a tiger grant (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) in the first round, because they were determined to be a “recommended”, rather than “highly recommended” project. We’re trying to help get them upgraded to “highly recommended” so they’ll have a better chance, and I’m committed to doing everything humanly possible to get Cincinnati and Hamilton County as much federal money as possible for this important infrastructure item.

Okay, that’s enough for this week. See you next week, when we’ll be getting ready for a truly great holiday – Thanksgiving!

See ya then.