The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key inflation index, hit near the highest level in more than 40 years in April. The CPI increased 8.3% over the past 12 months, and it has been the biggest single-year growth level since 1984. 
 
MAKE NO MISTAKE: Inflation is a tax on ALL Americans, and it has skyrocketed because of Joe Biden and House Democrats’ out-of-control government spending to fuel their radical Far-Left agenda. 
 
BIDEN’S ECONOMIC CRISIS BY THE NUMBERS: 

• Inflation is a tax on ALL Americans. 
• Inflation has increased every month of Joe Biden’s presidency. 
• Inflation has risen dramatically since Biden took office. 
• This massive level of inflation is not the result of a so-called “Putin price hike,” but the failed policies of President Biden and House Democrats.  
• Real wages have decreased under Biden 10 out of the 14 months since his first full month in office.
• Real average hourly earnings decreased 2.6%, seasonally adjusted, from April 2021 to April 2022.
• Earnings are not keeping up with inflation.
• Americans are paying more for just about everything because of inflation: 
  • Gas is UP 43.6%
  • Airline fares are UP 33.3%
  • Used vehicles are UP 22.7%
  • Hotels and motels are UP 22.6%
  • Eggs are UP 22.6%
  • Public transportation is UP 21.8%
  • Lodging away from home is UP 19.7%
  • Bacon is UP 17.7%
  • Chicken is UP 16.4%
  • Roasted coffee is UP 14.7%
  • Uncooked beef and veal are UP 14.3%
  • Pork is UP 13.7%
  • New cars are UP 13.2%
  • Baby food is UP 13.0%

Instead of addressing the root cause of inflation, out-of-control government spending, Joe Biden and House Democrats continue to push their Far-Left Socialist agenda, which will only exacerbate America’s economic crisis.

This week is National Police Week and it is a somber celebration for the men and women in blue. Last year, murder of police officers hit an all-time high, with rates up 59% from 2020 levels. Unprovoked attacks, or ambushes against officers, jumped from 2 in 2020 to 25 in 2021.
 
Biden’s first year in office saw 73 police officers killed – the highest number in more than 25 years.  
 
It’s not just attacks on law enforcement. AGGRAVATED ASSAULTS have increased 4% over 2020 levels. MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS were up by 14%.
 
These horrifying statistics are the direct result of the Left’s soft-on-crime policies and Democrats efforts to defund and demonize the police.

House Democrats are showing the American people their true priorities by bringing zero bills to the floor in support of law enforcement.
 
DEMOCRATS’ CRIME CRISIS:

• So far in 2022, homicide rates have increased 48% compared to this time in 2020, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
• Shootings of police officers have increased 38% compared to this time in 2020, according to the National Fraternal Order of Police.
  • 123 officers have been shot so far in 2022.
    • 19 of whom were killed, up 6% compared to 2020.
  • 39 officers have been shot in ambush-style attacks.
    • These attacks are up 56% compared to 2020.
• According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll of voters, Republicans beat Democrats by 12 points on handling crime, the highest in this poll’s 32-year history.
  • A Politico/Morning Consult poll shows 2 in 3 voters, 69% of Americans, think more police funding would decrease crime.
  • A new Ipsos poll also found that 64% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of crime.
• Under President Biden, more police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2021 than in any year since 1995.
  • In 2021, 73 police officers were killed – a 59% increase from 2020.
• In 2021, over a dozen U.S. cities set new homicide record.
• In 2021, there were 346 officers shot, 63 of whom were killed by gunfire.
• In 2021, there were 103 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers, a 115% increase from 2020.
• Progressive prosecutors are in cities that represent over 20% of the nation’s population.

DEMOCRATS WHO SUPPORT DEFUNDING THE POLICE: 

• President Biden famously expressed support for the Defund the Police movement during an interview in 2020 but was forced to walk back his position after public backlash to his position.
• Vice President Kamala Harris applauded Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for defunding the police.
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “defunding police means defunding police,” arguing the cuts to the NYPD weren’t enough.
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley said she supports efforts to defund police departments.
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib called for ‘no more police.’
  • Tlaib’s campaign has paid over $150,000 to an anti-Semitic and defund the police activist, Rasha Mubarak.
• Rep. Ilhan Omar said “not only do we need to defund, we need to dismantle” Police Departments.
• Rep. Cori Bush spent over $70,000 on personal security from January through March of this year. In total, Bush has spent over $300,000 for this election cycle while simultaneously promising to defund the police for the rest of America.
  • Rep. Bush then doubled down in her support for defunding our police departments on Twitter, and in February, Bush said she would not stop calling for our police departments to be defunded.
  • In March, Bush called on her progressive colleagues to continue pushing the Defund the Police agenda.
• President Biden’s Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke supported efforts to “defund the police.”
• President Biden’s Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said officials must heed calls to “decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.”
• President Biden’s Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh, proposed a budget to divert funding from law enforcement.

Americans are smart—they trust Republicans to handle crime far more than Democrats. House Republicans unequivocally stand with our law enforcement and remain committed to providing them with the funding they need to continue keeping our communities safe.

I was honored to join my fellow House Republicans at this year’s second annual “Back the Blue Bike Tour” in recognition of National Police Week!

Our brave officers put their lives on the line every day. According to statistics reported to the FBI, 59 police officers were killed in the line of duty from January 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021. This marks a 51 percent increase in the number of police officers killed when compared to the same period last year. That basically translates to every five days—more often than every five days in this country—an officer is murdered in the line of duty.

This year alone, 619 fallen officers were added to the wall at the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial! With the rates of murdered officers on the rise, it is important we show our support for them, now more than ever.

Legislation cosponsored:

• H.R. 7743 - To amend the National Labor Relations Act to adjust the dollar thresholds for National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction over certain labor disputes, and for other purposes.
• H.J.Res. 82 - Disapproving of the rule submitted by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security relating to "Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers".
• H.R. 7719 - To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit discrimination by abortion against an unborn child on the basis of results from laboratory developed tests, and for other purposes.
• H.J.Res. 81 - Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Health and Human Services relating to "Vaccine and Mask Requirements To Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19 in Head Start Programs".
• H.Res. 1091 - Calling for the immediate resignation of Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security.

Friends,

Democrat one-party rule in Washington, D.C. has created crisis after crisis, and now it has created a severe shortage of baby formula that is crushing mothers and babies as shelves remain empty in stores across the country. 
 
According to a CNN report, Datasembly CEO Ben Reich, who’s company collected the data, knows what is to blame:

“This issue has been compounded by supply chain issues, product recalls and historic inflation…Unfortunately, given the unprecedented amount of volatility to the category, we anticipate baby formula to continue to be one of the most affected products in the market.”

• As of today, roughly 40% of the nation’s baby formula is out of stock. 
• From November 2021 to May 2022, the percentage of out-of-stock baby formula jumped roughly 29 percentage points.
  • It jumped nine percentage points in just three weeks in April.
• Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee had over half of their baby formula sold out for the week of April 24th. 
• Now, many popular stores are rationing formula for customers. 
• According to the FDA, roughly 67% of babies are fed at least partially through formula by three months old. 
  • For many parents, these “elemental” formulas (e.g. similac) are a matter of survival of children. Those kids can’t process milk or soy proteins and need a broken-down formula.

Compounding the crisis, we the baby formula shortage that has left young parents across the country desperate – especially in South Texas. 
 

While Americans are struggling to feed their children, the Biden administration is shipping pallets of baby formula to the Ursula processing facility in McAllen, Texas where thousands of illegal immigrants are being housed and processed every day.

If it couldn't get worse, Baby formula accounts for 13% of the most stolen items from stores, according to the NRF 2020 Organized Retail Crime survey.

With the Democrats' radical defund-the-police movement and soft-on-crime policies like no-cash bail sending crime through the roof, this is a formula for disaster.

But I want to hear from you!