FIRST STEP Act - Nov. 2018

The House and Senate are in session this week.

President Trump is looking to leverage his new trade deal, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), by threatening to withdraw unilaterally from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He says this will give Congress the choice between accepting the USMCA, or returning to the pre-NAFTA framework which, he said, worked very well.

1) Video of the Week: This video details 25 government regulations that wildly overstep the bounds of proper, constitutional governance.

FreedomWorks signed on to a coalition letter with 54 other conservative, free market advocacy groups to oppose the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) proposed international pricing index (IPI). If implemented, this rule would tie drug prices for Medicare Part B recipients to an international model based on the prices in over a dozen European countries.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a long, well-documented history of abusing federal forfeiture laws. They seize assets from innocent Americans on the mere suspicion of malfeasance. If the IRS believes a citizen is structuring deposits to avoid reporting requirements, the agency can seize your money. Administrative reforms were made in 2015 to roll back some abuses, but there is still much work to be done.