Join My Tele-Townhall
Join me and 10,000s of Utahns across the state for my monthly town hall meeting. For over five years, I have joined Utahns from Washington to answer their questions, gather feedback, and provide updates on events unfolding in the nation’s capitol. These telephone-based events are also live streamed online, so Utahns from across the state can join and participate in the format that suits them best. Callers and questions are carefully selected to enable a wide-ranging dialogue involving a variety of perspectives. As the audience for these events continues to grow, my team and I are committed to making sure that these events continue to be an ideal platform to engage with me, connect with others, and be part of the dialogue. My next event is on March 15 @ 5:00 p.m. MT, and you are invited to sign up to be part of this event.
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GOP Senators Call on Sec. Tillerson to Investigate State Department Meddling
WASHINGTON - Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and a group of Senators called on Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson today to immediately investigate how US funds are being used by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support left-of-center political groups and impress left-leaning policies on sovereign nations, regardless of their desire for self-determination. One such group is USAID multi-grant recipient, the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations. Sen. Lee and his colleagues believe this behavior is unacceptable and must be halted immediately.
Sens. Inhofe (R-OK), Tillis (R-NC), Cruz (R-TX), Perdue (R-GA), and Cassidy (R-LA) join in signing the letter.
“Over the past few months, elected officials and political leaders of foreign nations have been coming to me with disappointing news and reports of US activity in their respective countries. This includes reports of diplomats playing political favorites, USAID funds supporting extreme and sometimes violent political activists, and the US Government working to marginalize the moderates and conservatives in leadership roles,” Sen. Lee said. “This sort of political favoritism from our missions around the world is unacceptable and endangers our bilateral relationships.”
The letter calls on Secretary Tillerson to, “…investigate all funds associated with promoting democracy and governance and review the programs, accounts, and multiplicity of US entities involved in such activities. We must … review how all our tax dollars are being utilized in order to halt activities that are fomenting political unrest, disrespecting national sovereignty and civil society, and ultimately undermine our attempts to build beneficial international relationships.”
The most damaging consequence of the United States weighing in so heavily on one side of the political spectrum abroad is that we ostracize many foreign citizens who have traditionally supported strong relations with the United States. Such division allows aggressive opportunists like Russia space to operate and cause further damage.
Sen. Lee is hopeful Secretary Tillerson acts quickly on this issue and looks forward to continuing to work with him in the future.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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Sen. Lee Fights to Repeal Costly and Useless NOX Rule
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced a resolution pursuant to the Congressional Review Act Tuesday that will repeal a costly and ineffective Environmental Protection Agency regulation targeting the Huntington and Hunter power plants in Utah. The resolution of disapproval was introduced by the entire Utah Delegation.
“The great state of Utah already has proposed a perfectly safe and effective nitrogen oxide regulation regime,” Sen. Lee said. “The EPA’s costly new regulations would add hundreds of millions to the power bills of working families and all for an imperceptible change in visibility.”
Utah submitted a nitrogen oxide state implementation plan compliant with the Clean Air Act but it was rejected by the EPA last year. Instead, the EPA is trying to implement a federal implementation plan that would require the Huntington and Hunter coal-fired power plants to install $700 million in new equipment and add $150 million to the plants operating costs. By EPA’s own estimates, implementation of the FIP will result in 5-10% rate increases.
The EPA issued its new nitrogen oxide regulation pursuant to the Regional Haze Program of the Clean Air Act, which was passed to improve visibility at certain natural areas like Arches and Canyonlands National Park.
But the regulation the EPA issued would only improve visibility by just 0.14 deciviews compared to Utah’s regulation plan. For reference, 1 deciview is the minimum change perceptible to the human eye.
