Responsiblities To You and My Work In DC

Representing you in Congress is a true honor.  These are challenging times our country faces, but the American spirit is strong and has persevered through tough times in the past.

Congress needs to be about the business of providing regulatory, tax, litigation, and trade structures conducive to economic growth.  As I have traveled the Upstate talking with employers and employees alike, the message from them to Washington is crystal clear—“We want certainty, predictability, and the freedom to grow and expand.”

Serving in a legislative body is obviously very different from being a prosecutor, but there are at least a couple of similarities.

Firstly, feedback is essential.  In a courtroom, the jury provides nearly contemporaneous feedback on whether or not the state has proven its case.  As a legislator, feedback is critical to being able to effectively represent the people I work for.  Whether it takes the form of constituent calls, letters, town halls, or ultimately the ballot box, feedback is what enables the legislator to attempt to represent his fellow citizens.

Secondly, being a prosecutor helps in the formulation of arguments in an attempt to persuade based on evidence, and being a prosecutor leads one to value the asking of tough, but fair, questions with the expectation of an honest answer.

It was this desire to blend the characteristics of being a prosecutor with the obligation to represent the interests of the people I work for to request the committee assignments ultimately received:  Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and Education and Workforce.

Judiciary is where all matters related to the Constitution are considered.  From patent reform to the proposed balance budget amendment to immigration to safeguarding the 2nd Amendment, the Committee on Judiciary is charged with being a guardian of the Constitution.  Clearly to safeguard the Constitution, it is important to study it and be prepared to defend it as being just as relevant today as the day it was first ratified.

Oversight and Government Reform is the Committee charged with making sure government is accountable to the taxpayers.  Among the biggest challenges we face as a country is the reality that people simply do not trust the institutions of government.  Public trust did not erode overnight nor will it be recaptured overnight.  It will be a long, arduous journey but it must be undertaken for our Republic to thrive.  Part of undertaking this must be to challenge, question, examine, and, yes, cross examine the various components of government.

Education and Workforce is a dynamic committee that includes topics as divergent as “No Child Left Behind” to the overreach of the National Labor Relations Board.  It provides a forum to show the difference between something that is a good idea and something that is a good federal idea, namely the pursuit of educational excellence.  South Carolina has challenges in the realm of education—as do other states.  But the federal government is neither well equipped nor constitutionally charged with making sure education is reformed.  The federal government’s responsibility is to regulate Executive Branch overreach like the recent activism of the NLRB.  Part of the process of accountability is to make sure tough questions are asked of this quasi-judicial and ostensibly non-partisan board.  And when we become convinced, as I have, that the NLRB has lost all pretense of objectivity, Congress must move to rein in an agency that is discouraging job creation.

In sum, I want to simply say thank you for the privilege of carrying your voice to Congress.  I am grateful for the opportunity and want to do a job worthy of the caring, innovative, hard-working people I work for.