May 7


Congressional Art Competition Winner George De La Cruz: Art and design matter not only in an artistic sense but in a competitive and commercial sense as well. Because I’m way behind the times, I’m now reading Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs, and I’m struck by the ways in which design created value for Apple. Similarly, Richard Florida in his book “The Creative Class” talks about how the creative process is fundamental to competitiveness in our country. In a variety of different parts of the world, they may be able to produce a good less expensively than we might, but we consistently add value in ways that they don’t, given the thinking and creative process that is part of what makes America’s economic engine move as it does.

All this brings me to the annual Congressional Art Competition. In that vein, I’m struck by the artistic talent of many in the Lowcountry.

Each year, all 50 states have high school art competitions in each congressional district wherein the winners have their art displayed at the U.S. Capitol for the next year. In our case, we’re fortunate because Southwest Airlines will fly the winner and their parent to Washington this summer for a reception recognizing his artwork at the U.S. Capitol.

I’m pleased to announce that this year’s First District winner is George De La Cruz.

A senior at Cane Bay High School, George’s entry, entitled The Last Great Artist, is a colored pencil drawing of Willis Sanders, a long time Berkeley County resident, lifelong artist, and retired teacher. I got to do a surprise drop by at the school this morning to let George know that his is this year’s winner and had the pleasure of also speaking with Mr. Sanders.

George’s natural talent was so clear in his ninth grade art class that the school placed him in a higher level class. Now, he’s taking college level courses. You can see the hard work and skill in his winning submission. Indeed, he told me this morning that this drawing took him over 60 hours to create!

I wanted to say thank you to the many teachers, parents, and of course, students who participated in this year’s contest. We received a whole host of entries that showcased the talent of our students here in the Lowcountry.

Congratulations, George!


May 8



Iran Nuclear Deal: I agree with President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Simply put, the 2015 deal was a bad deal. I said so in 2015 and voted accordingly against it. I’ve taken the liberty of sharing my post from that time, and it gets into some of the details of both the deal itself and surrounding amendments at that time.

As it stands now, there is room for improvement in this agreement, and it’s my hope that these improvements can be found, given the significance of Iran in the region and given the significance of a nuclearized Iran in the region.

The original plan was that Iran’s nuclear facilities would be dismantled, a 1,500-count maximum would be placed on the centrifuges (which are needed to enrich uranium), the arms embargo would continue, and there would be inspections “anytime, anyplace.” In return, economic sanctions against Iran would be eased.

That’s not what we got. Instead, facilities were repurposed instead of dismantled, 5,000 centrifuges continued running, the arms embargo was made temporary (5 years for weapons and 8 years for ballistic missiles), and inspections could be delayed for up to three and a half weeks….and sanctions were still eased.... Click here to read more...


May 9



Citizens’ Right to Know Act: Today, the House voted on a bill that would require states and localities that receive federal grant funding for pretrial service programs to report specific information on defendants to the Justice Department. It did some other things too that I’ll talk about, but the gist of my concern was once again in the way that states and localities were required to become agents of the federal government.

Most of us believe in an inverted pyramid, that power should reside at the individual and local level. That none of us should be wards of the federal government, in this case forced to do their bidding based on money that we send to Washington and then get back in the form of a grant.

The bill, H.R. 2152, the Citizens’ Right to Know Act, passed 221 to 197. I voted against it for the reason just described as well as because of its implications over the long run with regard to privacy and the most basic of American precepts...the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty.

Privacy was the other major reason that I voted against this bill.

Do we want to have yet another big database in Washington with people’s personal effects?... Click here to read more...


May 10


Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act: Today, the House passed H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, which will work to finalize the Yucca Mountain site for nuclear waste storage and also authorize interim storage until the Yucca site is fully licensed and prepared to receive shipments. I voted yes on the bill, which passed 340 to 72, because I think it’s past time for the federal government to fulfill its promises on this front made in 1982. 

Think about that for a minute. I was still in college then. I’m not sure where you were, but the idea of more than 35 years passing in the delivery of a promise is something that only government seems capable of doing. This lapse in action has everything to do with people’s frustrations with Washington.

As just mentioned, in the early 1980s, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which laid out a comprehensive strategy for storing our nation’s nuclear waste. After studying sites around the country, Yucca Mountain was deemed to be the most suitable. And this decision was reaffirmed in 2002 when construction started. Politics halted this construction in 2011...but that was after $15.4 billion had already been sunk into building costs.

The site has simply sat there since then...and this again is a monument to levels of waste that only government seems capable of enacting.... Click here to read more...