MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42)

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-41), Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement on Army Secretary Dan Driscoll:

“Dan Driscoll brought renewed energy and focus to the Army during his time as Secretary. I’m grateful for his leadership, vision and commitment.  As a decorated Army veteran, he understood the challenges facing our largest Service and I deeply appreciate his candor and partnership over the last two years. I wish Dan and his family well in his new chapter and look forward to continuing to work with Army leadership on Army transformation that ensures our Soldiers are poised to fight and win in any future conflict.”

 

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—This morning, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria to discuss House Republicans’ work to lower costs and protect taxpayers and the Democrats’ continued embrace of a socialist agenda. Leader Scalise also highlighted how communities are benefiting from data center investment and emphasized that decisions about those projects should remain at the local level.

Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full interview.
Highlights from Leader Scalise’s interview:On America First legislation held up in the Senate:“We have almost 600 bills that have been passed out of the House. Over in the Senate you’ve got the National Defense Authorization Act. You’ve got the farm bill, which is critical to Middle America. We want to help our farmers. That bill’s over in the Senate, and it’s really bipartisan. We had a big permitting reform bill. That bill would help make it easier to build things in America, and by the way, would also lower costs. If you care about affordability, you should want to pass that farm bill out of the Senate. Democrats are blocking that. And then, of course, you have the SAVE America Act. Which ensures the sanctity of the American vote. Just showing a picture ID to vote. Everybody understands that. I’ve been all over the country. Everywhere you go, people understand SAVE America. They want it because they want to preserve their vote. Because if somebody is voting illegally, they’re stealing your vote. That bill’s over in the Senate too.”On the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party:“It goes back to the old Margaret Thatcher saying, socialism ultimately fails because you eventually run out of other people’s money. And Mamdani is already seeing this in New York. You know, he has no money to do all these promises that he made. Everything’s going to be free. You know, the free grocery stores, the free buses. Everybody knows there is no free lunch. Somebody has to pay for it. And all the people that pay for it are leaving New York. Because they’re not — they’re not going to pay for this madness. And so they just keep raising taxes more and more. It’s insanity. And so what you end up with is higher costs, higher inflation. That’s what the socialist agenda will get you. And by the way, that is on the ballot this November. So I know Democrats here in Washington are scared to death of taking this vote because they don’t want the country to see what they really stand for. They’re all backing this socialist agenda…. and they will absolutely take all of your money in taxes to do the mad things they’re going to try to do, and it’s all going to fail. Go look at socialist countries. It just doesn’t work. They take your money first, and then the failure comes later.”On the local benefits of data centers:”Ultimately they’re decided at the local level and if you want them in your community. And by the way, there are a lot of communities that do want them. Then they’re working out really well. If you don’t want them, that’s your choice. Look, in Louisiana, Meta’s got the largest data center in the world being built in little Richland Parish. And do you know what Richland Parish was just able to do because of the data center that Meta built? They were able to give every single school teacher in that parish a $50,000 bonus. Bonus, not their salary. That’s on top of their salary because of the data center. You know, Loudoun County in Virginia, is saying yes to data centers. They were just able to give a 30% property tax cut to every resident in Loudoun County. So if you say yes to it, there are really good benefits that come. “This is a competition with China. Let’s be clear about this. And we are investigating whether China is behind a lot of this misinformation, false information against data centers. You know, who’s funding this campaign, I think is a good question to ask against data centers. Because if it’s literally a war between America and China, China is the only one that benefits. And so we’ve been investigating it. We’re finding some things. X just uncovered over 200 bots that are being controlled by China that are spewing out a lot of this stuff.”Bottom line is President Trump ensured with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge that every data center is going to have to pay their own way as far as the rates go on utilities. And there was a good study done that showed they’re not raising anybody’s utility costs. Where you have higher utility rates is in all blue-run states. Go look at the data. Because people are fleeing those states. So those ratepayers are paying more even without a data center because they’re moving to red states with data centers that have lower utility rates. But it works out well if you say yes to it and it’s done right. It’s a local community choice.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

WASHINGTON — This morning, at the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson highlighted his August travel through 54 cities and towns across 18 states. Speaker Johnson also addressed Democrats’ ongoing embrace of socialism and communism and House Republicans’ efforts to prevent another Democrat-led shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections.

“The question that voters across the nation have to answer this fall is whether we’re going to turn the greatest nation in the history of the world over to communism and big government socialism, as radical left Democrats insist,” Speaker Johnson said. “Or whether we’re going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic, the grand experiment in self-governance that’s built on our foundational principles like individual freedom and unlimited opportunity and human dignity and the rule of law. That’s what Republicans stand for and that’s what we’ll always stand for.”

 

Watch Speaker Johnson’s remarks here.

On Speaker Johnson’s August travel:

I spent time back in my beloved home state Louisiana, and I met with business owners and farmers and local leaders in my district, and I have heard the same sentiment from where I come from. And throughout the month I took those conversations on the road, went to every corner and pocket of America. In total, went to over 54 cities, did over 75 campaign events and countless meetings with groups and individuals over the time. I think 71 different members and candidates joined at some point along the way. We were across 18 states overall. So, from Alaska to Albuquerque to the Great Lakes down to the Rio Grande Valley, everywhere in between, literally we were everywhere. And our team of common sense, conservative candidates heard from parents and workers and small business owners and retirees on the issues that matter most.

And I’ll restate what I told the voters in all those cities. I went to over 50, I think it’s 54 cities. Listen to what I’m telling you, and you can write it, I hope you quote me – I’ve been saying this over and over, but Republicans are going to defy history in 63 days and we’re going to hold this House majority. And that’s for a simple reason: because the American people recognize the historic stakes of this, and they really do understand that this is a contrast election. We’ve been saying that for months. It’s not a ‘contract with America’ year. We did that in 2024. We kept our promises. This is a ‘contrast for America year’, and as we summarize it – it’s a contrast between common sense and crazy, and now common sense and communism.

On Democrats’ embrace of socialism and communism:

Here’s the reality: some of these crazy Democrats, these Marxists, socialists, communists who have won these primaries are going to win in these deep blue districts and they’re coming to the people’s house and they will be raising their hand to take an oath supposedly to uphold the Constitution, while they’re out on the campaign trail trashing it, saying they want to rip it in half.

They want to abolish the borders. They want to abolish prisons. They want to defund the police. They want to abolish the US Senate. That’s kind of an important Article I convention. They want to remove the president. They want one unicameral body of the House to run everything. Why? Because they have calculated that over two or three cycles, they can elect enough Marxists to take the thing over. And then you know what they want to do? They want to take over the means of production. They don’t want private property ownership. This is crazy stuff. They want to defund the Department of War. How’s that going to go in a dangerous world? It’s madness. So, our job is to defeat them.

On the Continuing Resolution to prevent another Democrat government shutdown:

The first and most urgent order of business is to take up the Senate-passed CR. Now, we began this work months ago, back in the mid part of the summer. We passed the CR for government funding and now the Senate’s done it. We’re going to avoid the threat of another Democrat shutdown. We know why this is necessary; these crazy Democrats in Congress don’t mind shutting the government down and hurting the American people. They demonstrated that already three times this Congress for a combined 120 days. That’s a record, of course. That’s roughly one-third of the calendar year of our federal government went without full funding because Democrats tried to play political games. I don’t believe they’re going to do that anymore. I certainly hope not.

On this CR we’ll take up, it simply holds funding steady at current levels through December 11 as Republicans work to complete the full year appropriations process. We’ve done that work in the House, as you know, and we’ll continue to push forward. Republicans have made remarkable progress towards returning to regular order and restoring the appropriations process the way it’s supposed to work – to a committee-driven approach, as it should be. And our appropriators have worked very hard to restore that muscle memory, and we are really, really grateful for their work because that is how you act as a good steward of taxpayer dollars and resources, and we’re going to continue all that great work.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) recently introduced the Vet CENTERS for Mental Health Act to expand access to mental health counseling for Veterans and their families. This bill aims to ensure that underserved areas, including areas of Central and Eastern Washington, are eligible for additional VA Vet Centers to provide in-person mental health care. Congresswoman Schrier is joined in introducing this legislation by Representatives Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Sean Casten (IL-06), and Steve Cohen (TN-09).

“We have a clear responsibility to make sure that those who have served and protected our country receive the best service and care possible. Recent tragedies in Washington state and Veterans mental health crises across our country are stark reminders of why we need to address the Veteran mental health care gap,” said Congresswoman Schrier. “For rural communities in Washington state, Vet Centers are often hours away and understaffed. We need to do more to ensure Veterans have accessible care that works for them. This bill will ensure that Veterans and their families can easily access centers and mental health resources, improving the health of our entire communities and supporting those who have served our country.”

Around a third of returning service members have reported experiencing symptoms of depression, and the Veterans suicide crisis is severe. In 2023, suicide rates among Veterans were 35.2 per 100,000 – compared to 16.9 per 100,000 for non-Veteran American adults.

The Vet CENTERS for Mental Health Act would ensure a Vet Center or outstation is established for either every 55,000 Veterans or every 30,000 square miles. Vet Centers provide a range of services to Veterans and their families, including mental health counseling to combat Veterans and those who suffered military sexual assault, and bereavement services. Vet Centers’ practice of providing services to families in addition to the affected Veterans is also unique in the VA Veteran care space.

“Veterans sacrifice so much to keep our nation safe and deserve access to quality mental health care close to home,” said Congressman Kean. “Many veterans in New Jersey and across the country are faced with long, sometimes impossible travel to get the help they need. I worked across the aisle to find a solution. This bill, the Vet CENTERS for Mental Health Act, would increase access to mental health facilities and ensure our veterans receive access to the benefits they earned.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Andy Biggs (AZ-05)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 8481, Kayleigh’s Law, by voice vote. The legislation, introduced by Congressman Abe Hamadeh (AZ-08), requires federal courts to issue permanent no-contact orders prohibiting certain convicted violent and sex offenders from contacting their victims if requested by the victim. Congressman Andy Biggs (AZ-05) is an original cosponsor of the bill.

Kayleigh’s Law was inspired by the experience of sexual abuse survivor Kayleigh Kozak, who learned her abuser was seeking to terminate his lifetime probation. When Kayleigh sought a protective order against the man who had abused her as a child, she was shocked to discover that the court required evidence of a recent encounter between them before it could consider her request—effectively preventing her from obtaining protection unless her abuser first attempted to reenter her life.

Determined to ensure other victims would not face the same terrifying obstacle, Kayleigh first advocated for reform at the Arizona Legislature. In 2021, then-State Senator Sine Kerr spearheaded legislation allowing survivors to petition a judge for a lifetime no-contact order against offenders convicted of certain violent crimes, including sex trafficking and child sexual abuse. Kayleigh and Senator Kerr’s determined efforts resulted in Arizona becoming the first state in the nation to enact this important policy.

Congressman Biggs issued the following statement:

“Victims deserve lasting protections, and offenders who have committed heinous acts should not have the opportunity to reinsert themselves into the lives of those they harmed. This victim-centered, public safety-focused legislation ensures that victims of violent crime have meaningful protections at the federal level while also serving as a model for states seeking to better protect survivors. Kayleigh’s Law makes clear that our criminal justice system works for victims, not against them.

I am grateful to Sine Kerr for leading this effort in the Arizona Legislature and to Congressman Hamadeh for bringing it to the federal level. I was pleased to help advance the bill through the Judiciary Committee, and I am grateful for the overwhelming bipartisan support it received on the House floor.”

After Arizona’s enactment of Kayleigh’s Law in 2021, other states soon followed. Today, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas, and Virginia have adopted similar policies designed to provide lasting protections for victims of violent crimes.

H.R. 8481 now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (7th District of Washington)

Washington, D.C. (September 1, 2026)—Today, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, delivered opening remarks at a hearing on Republicans’ efforts to force state and local police to carry out the Trump Administration’s chaotic mass deportation agenda, diverting limited resources from fighting crime and making communities less safe.

Below are Ranking Member Jayapal’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.

WATCH Ranking Member Jayapal’s opening statement.

Ranking Member Pramila Jayapal

Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement

Hearing on “Sanctuary Policies: Tragic Consequences”

September 1, 2026

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today, we are here to talk about the tragic consequences of policy decisions. Unfortunately, the erratic, disturbing policy decisions of the Trump Administration have left countless tragedies in their wake. Right now, in Donald Trump’s America, people are dying from a disease we declared eliminated in 2000, because his Secretary of Health and Human Services cannot stop spreading lies about vaccines. 18 service members have died, and over 700 were injured as a result of Trump’s illegal war of choice against Iran that has no strategy, no exit plan and has driven up gas and grocery prices for Americans at a time when too many are already struggling.

Service members have had to fend off attacks from foreign governments as well as our own government. After enduring nine months of the horrifying conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln that drove another sailor to attempt suicide, Joshua Aviles—who is risking his life to serve our country—learned that Trump’s ICE had detained his father. Donald Trump’s out of control ICE has also deported seven spouses of active-duty service members.

Meanwhile, federal agents have killed people who are simply driving home after celebrating their birthdays, like Ruben Ray Martinez, or driving to work, like Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Guerrero, or exercising their constitutional rights, like Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Not a single ICE or CBP officer has been held accountable for any of these fatal shootings. In fact, it took almost six months for the Department of Justice to turn over key evidence to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office to even allow local investigations around the murders of Good and Pretti to proceed.

The extent of disregard for the American people from this President and his Cabinet is stunning. Trump has called affordability a hoax, got the Attorney General who still serves as his personal attorney to approve a deal that gives him and his family immunity from tax fraud, even as he has enriched himself with unconstitutional crypto and business deals that have now made him and his family $2.2 billion dollars in the past year.

But the distraction, the corruption, and the cruelty are backfiring. 70% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance overall. Even on immigration, where Trump claimed he was going after the “worst of the worst,” what the American people have seen instead is the kidnapping, disappearing, and incarceration of people of all statuses, including U.S. citizens kids, parents and spouses of U.S. citizens, and people with legal status that he took away.

ICE’s own data shows that the majority of people they arrest have ZERO criminal charges or convictions. Arrests of immigrants without a single criminal conviction have surged by 770%.  In their recent operation targeting people in the D.C. suburbs, ICE actually bragged that 70% of the immigrants they arrested lacked any criminal charges or convictions. 

Perhaps even more disturbingly, Trump is releasing people with criminal charges and convictions from immigration detention to make room for folks without any criminal history. In fact, in stark contrast to Republican talking points, DHS data shows that under Trump, ICE is releasing 23% more people with criminal convictions from immigration detention than it did during the Biden Administration.

Republicans want you to think they care about public safety, but none of this does anything to improve public safety. They have pulled agents off of fentanyl investigations to roam the streets searching for people who “look undocumented.” As a result, according to the Trump-appointed DHS Inspector General, federal agents are spending 30% less time working on fentanyl cases, leading to a 40% drop in fentanyl seizures.

DHS goes into federal prisons to pick up immigrants in the middle of their criminal sentences to put them into deportation proceedings. Letting people with criminal convictions out early so you can boost your detention and deportation numbers doesn’t make America safer. Perhaps even worse are the many instances where DHS has picked up people with criminal charges before their trials and deported them or allowed them to self-deport long before a judge is able to hand down a sentence. Not only does this grant them a get-out-of-jail free card, but it also deprives their victims of justice and restitution.

The administration lets these people go free so they can fill immigration detention centers with people who have never harmed anyone. Nuns and pastors, care-workers, moms, dads, and children. Last month, I visited the Stewart Detention Center in rural Georgia. What I saw was absolutely unacceptable: a private for-profit detention center that incarcerates over 1,900 people every single night in unsanitary conditions, substandard medical care, and severe overcrowding.

One 24-year old man with absolutely no criminal history, who came to escape the war in Yemen, has spent 24 months in detention and was even bleeding from the mouth after ICE pulled his tooth instead of trying to fix it. A 72-year-old man who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years with no criminal record, and is married to a U.S. citizen who is in final stages of renal failure, went in for a green card interview and instead was arrested by ICE. And a woman who can longer conceive children because the last time she was in ICE detention under Trump, a doctor conducted an unnecessary medical procedure without her consent, was weeping over her U.S. citizen daughter who is suffering severe mental health problems because her mother is in immigration detention even though she has multiple legal pathways in process.

The stories we will hear today deserve our attention as do all the ones I mentioned. I would hope this Committee would treat the issues I mentioned with the seriousness they deserve. Until then, I thank our witnesses for being here today and give my sincere condolences for the horrific injuries your daughters have suffered.

I yield back.

Issues: Immigration, Public Safety & Criminal Justice

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Alma Adams (12th District of North Carolina)

Federal investment will strengthen STEM education, undergraduate research and workforce preparation at Charlotte HBCU

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Levin (CA-49)

August 20, 2026

In New Letter, Rep. Levin Denounces the Cancellation of 321 Grants for Projects That Would Lower Energy Costs; Demands Reinstatement of Grants

Washington, D.C.—Today, Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49), alongside House Appropriations Committee Member Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), led colleagues in a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright and Office of Management and Budget Director (OMB) Russell Vought condemning the politically motivated termination of grants in Democratic-aligned states for projects intended to lower energy costs, improve electric grid reliability, create jobs, and strengthen the United States’ global leadership in energy innovation.

On October 2, 2025, DOE announced it would terminate 321 grants supporting 223 projects across the country, accounting for approximately $8 billion. Three projects were canceled in California’s 49th Congressional District, including $1.2 billion statewide for ARCHES hydrogen production hubs, $8.8 million for Smartville electric battery recycler, and $2 million for GKN Hydrogen Corp. California lost more than $3.3 billion in funding from these cancellations.

Since the grants were terminated, several grant recipients have sued. In recent court filings, DOE officials admitted that the cancellation of billions of dollars in funding for projects was politically motivated. The termination was “based solely” on whether the grantee was located in a Blue State that did not vote for Donal Trump for President in 2024. Multiple courts have now ruled that the terminations violate the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The letter condemns the grant terminations and demands that DOE immediately reinstate the illegally cancelled energy grants.

Read the letter here and below:

Dear Secretary Wright and Director Vought:

In light of court filings recently made public, we write to condemn in the strongest terms your decision to terminate nearly 300 energy projects in October 2025 based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state. We are deeply concerned by how these terminations were politically motivated to target projects in Democratic-leaning states, undermine the spirit of competitively awarded merit-based decision making for how federal taxpayer dollars are spent, and risk further increasing costs for our constituents. We urge you to immediately reinstate the funding for these projects that were subject to blatantly partisan cancellation.

In October 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the decision to terminate nearly 300 energy projects in blue states, totaling more than $7.5 billion.^[1] This announcement followed a post from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought that “nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled… The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.”^[2] The terminations came as President Trump was repeatedly threatening to use the government shutdown as an opportunity for political retribution against Democrats.^[3]

Despite these facts, for months, Secretary Wright repeatedly denied that the decision to terminate these grants were related to partisanship, including while testifying to Congress that “all of the 2,270 projects we evaluated were not evaluated in any way, shape or form based on where they were. … And all of the people that worked on our project review process did not take into account any politics in the evaluation of these projects,” and claiming that project decisions were made based on “merits and unrelated to politics.”^[4]

Yet in a court filing this month, the Department’s own lawyers contradicted Secretary Wright’s testimony to Congress, attesting that none of the grants terminated in October 2025 were terminated “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factor.”^[5] DOE lawyers further admitted that, following OMB’s review and selection of grants to terminate, “the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State.”^[6] These astonishing admissions in court raise serious concerns about the legality of these terminations.

This blatant weaponization of federal taxpayer dollars to punish states based on their political leanings is wholly inappropriate and in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws. The courts have already ruled against the DOE terminations. In a different lawsuit, St. Paul v. Wright, DOE lawyers admitted that a “primary reason for the selection of which DOE grant termination decisions were included in the October 2025 notice tranche was whether the grantee was located in a ‘Blue State,’ —a state that ‘tend[s] to elect and/or recently elected Democratic candidates in state and national elections,’ including for President of the United States in 2024.”^[7] On January 12, 2026, the court ruled that the termination decisions violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantees because the classification “was not rationally related to the asserted legitimate government purpose of ‘administering grant programs consistent with the agency’s priorities.’”^[8] Months later, in American Institute of Chemical Engineers v. Wright, the Administration admitted again that the grantees’ awards were terminated because of their location in blue states and conceded it was in violation of equal protection guarantees.^[9]

Further, this Administration’s decision to play political games will result in genuine harms at a time when millions American families are already struggling to pay their electricity bills amidst the ever-rising cost of living. This Administration’s reckless energy policy and award terminations, designed to stifle the development of clean, affordable energy in Democratic-aligned states and prop up more expensive dirty energy, will only further increase the cost burden for families to keep the lights on and kill good-paying jobs.

Two court decisions have now found that your department violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee when it terminated grants in Democratic-leaning states in October 2025. Based on DOE’s own admission in the recent court filings that all the grant terminations in October were based on political factors, DOE and OMB must immediately reinstate all grants that it has wrongfully terminated. There is no other acceptable remedy for this corrupt abuse of power and weaponization of taxpayer dollars. We will utilize every oversight and legislative tool available to ensure that DOE and OMB follow the law, honor congressional intent, and address the skyrocketing cost of electricity.

Sincerely,

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH)

Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (NH-02), and 86 House colleagues are urging President Trump to change his administration’s diplomatic approach with Canada and recognize the importance of the U.S.-Canada relationship. The effort follows further fraying in the two country’s relations amid President Trump’s escalating and chaotic use of trade barriers against Canada. In a letter to President Trump, the lawmakers specifically highlighted the risk to America’s economy should the president continue to use demeaning rhetoric and implement damaging policies against Canada.

“Your Administration’s escalating and chaotic use of trade barriers against Canada is putting this relationship at serious risk. Recent tariffs, continued threats of additional trade restrictions, and increasingly adversarial rhetoric are creating uncertainty for businesses, workers, farmers, and consumers on both sides of the border. American exports to Canada declined in 2025, while Canadian exports to the United States also fell substantially following the implementation of U.S. tariffs. Additionally, Canadian businesses are increasingly looking to diversify their supply chains and markets, which should concern your Administration,”the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers went on to describe the shared economic interests between the U.S. and Canada and the risks a worsening relationship would have on the American people.

“Our economic relationship is too important to put at risk. Our manufacturers, farmers, producers, small businesses, and consumers depend upon Canada, as Canadian businesses and workers depend upon access to the United States. Materials, parts, and components routinely cross the border as part of shared North American supply chains. Disrupting these relationships increases costs for American businesses and consumers, undermines our competitiveness, and puts good-paying American jobs at risk. For example, the North American automotive industry relies on a highly integrated supply chain in which parts and materials can cross the U.S.-Canada border multiple times before a vehicle reaches a customer. Similar integration exists across energy, agriculture, steel, aluminum, critical minerals, and manufacturing,”the lawmakers continued.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ed Case (Hawai‘i – District 1)

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Representative Ed Case (HI-01) announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has denied a petition from Trident Adventures for an exemption to the FAA’s rules governing the use of aircraft safety belts and supplemental restraints which would allow the company to continue operating its so-called “helocast” jumps from helicopters into the ocean while hovering at low altitude above the water.

Case had joined many others in communicating his strong opposition to the petition. In his letter to the FAA, Case said that Trident Adventures “has temporarily suspended this activity and is seeking an exemption from applicable Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations to resume conducting helocast jumps as part of its tour operations.

Case noted that the petition called for an exemption “that would allow temporary release of passenger restraints during a stabilized helicopter hover approximately 10 to 35 feet above open water for the purpose of conducting controlled water-entry operations.

“These provisions are critical to maintaining the safety of air travel, regardless of flight altitude or aircraft stability. Trident Adventures seeks to rely on its low-altitude, stable flight operations as grounds for an exemption from passenger restraint requirements and the resumption of helocast operations.”

“Any uncertainty regarding whether air-tour services such as those proposed by Trident Adventures are authorized to operate and comply with the applicable regulatory framework would place public safety at risk.”

The FAA noted that Trident Adventures was “not seeking a reduction in safety standards or operational oversight but believes that their operational history, documented procedures, training programs, and conservative performance based operating limitations together demonstrate an equivalent or greater level of safety” as called for in the agency’s rules.

However, in its analysis of the company’s helocast operations, the FAA noted that while the company made assurances for passenger safety “the operational and environmental controls do not provide an equivalent level of protection against slip, loss of footing, aircraft motion, turbulence, windblast, sudden control input, or human error that the regulation’s restraint framework is intended to provide.”

The FAA went on to say that “even under favorable conditions a participant remains exposed to the possibility of a fall caused by unexpected aircraft movement, momentary loss of balance, wet or unstable footing, downwash effects, or sudden participant movement.

“Therefore, although the controls put in place by Trident Adventures may reduce the probability of encountering a degraded operating environment and reduce the likelihood of an inadvertent separation of persons from the aircraft, the FAA finds that they do not provide for a level of safety at least equivalent to the restraint-based protections required by § 91.108 once the participant is no longer seated and restrained inside the aircraft.”

After reviewing the petition, the FAA in its 21-page ruling found that “a grant of exemption would not provide an equivalent level of safety” as defined in its rules “and therefore would not be in the public interest.”

• FAA denial of the petition is here
• Case letter opposing the petition is here

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