FreedomWorks’ Member of the Month for August 2020: Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio)

FreedomWorks is proud to honor Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) as our member of the month for August 2020. Representing the corridor of Ohio along the Indiana border north of Cincinnati and west of Dayton and Columbus since 2016, Davidson’s predecessor in Ohio’s 8th Congressional District was none other than former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio). Unlike Boehner, Davidson has not only been a 100 percent vote on FreedomWorks’ scorecard for over 4 years, he has been out front leading on several fronts to protect our liberties from the government leviathan.

Towards the beginning of 2020, Davidson stepped forward in a big way as a leader in the struggle to rein in warrantless mass surveillance of Americans by their government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). With Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act up for reauthorization, Davidson was co-lead sponsor of the Safeguarding Americans’ Private Records Act (H.R. 5675) in the House, along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a FreedomWorks-endorsed bill that would have made huge strides towards restoring proper Fourth Amendment due process boundaries with respect to electronic surveillance.

Davidson and Lofgren’s success in rallying support to significant, non-cosmetic FISA reforms in the House was the biggest reason that House leadership (of both parties) chose to shove the FISA reauthorization bill through the House without any opportunity for amendment at any part of the process, because some of their positive reforms were certain to pass if allowed to come to a vote. When the Senate sent the amended FISA reauthorization back to the House, Davidson and Lofgren very nearly succeeded in getting a key protection for Americans’ sensitive internet search and browsing histories passed, until House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff’s dishonest dealings blew up the process.

Meanwhile, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Davidson has drawn attention to the ways that many states have been violating the constitutional rights of their citizens via their extensive lockdowns. He introduced a bill, H.R. 7742, to require that the US Attorney General examine and report on these civil liberties violations by state governments. Davidson was also named to the Presidential Task Force to Re-Open the Economy, in order to help establish safe ways to get Americans back to work so that the economic catastrophe caused in part by the lockdowns can give way to recovery.

More recently, Davidson has been at the center of another initiative that is of immense importance — reinvigorating the conversation about sound monetary policy in Congress. As co-founder of the Sound Money Caucus, he envisions “hashing out policy solutions to address the economic distortions of monetary inflation, so that monetary and fiscal policy can help rebuild the middle class, restart the American economy, and get us on a path for sustainable growth.”

Restoring sound money is a crucial component both to spurring economic recovery and growth, and to reining in the endless expansion of government spending and debt. Davidson’s focus on monetary policy compliments his consistent voting record of taking tough votes against bloated federal spending bills, making him an important voice as we confront our crushing federal debt and deficit spending in the coming years. FreedomWorks is proud to name the august Rep. Warren Davidson as our August 2020 member of the month and look forward to continuing to support his work for liberty.