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Commitment to America: Restoring Our Way of Life

October 14, 2020
Blog Post

As appeared in the October 15, 2020 edition of the Lititz Record, Elizabethtown Advocate & Ephrata Review

Earlier this year, I stood socially-distanced with my House Republican colleagues on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to discuss a series of policy proposals, our Commitment to America. Our plan has three pillars designed to restore our way of life, rebuild the greatest economy in history and renew the American dream. Over the next three weeks, in this column, I will be detailing each of the pillars of our Commitment to America. In this installment, I will focus on the first pillar: the importance of restoring our way of life.

We will defeat the COVID-19 virus and keep America healthy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to our nation and restoring our way of life means that we will defeat this virus. As I wrote about in a previous column, the full strength of the American government and the private sector are working to develop, manufacture and distribute over 300 million doses of a safe and effective vaccine, in addition to continuing development of therapeutic treatments and increasing testing opportunities. This project is known as Operation Warp Speed. Many vaccine candidates are in the final stages of clinical trials and expanded therapeutics being brought forth, as well. Recently, President Trump announced that 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests will be shipped to states. A safe and effective vaccine, expanded treatments, and enhanced testing will help us defeat the coronavirus.

As we take steps to address the current pandemic, it is critical that we are simultaneously taking steps to prepare for any future pandemics. One of the key components for preparedness is ensuring that our medical and personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chains are not dependent on other nations. Our nation is overwhelmingly reliant on China and India which manufacture over-the counter medicines, generic prescription drugs, and pharmaceutical ingredients. We have seen countless examples of local businesses and individuals stepping up to support the production of PPE to support our medical providers and first responders, but we need to ensure that the National Strategic Stockpile is modernized so we are prepared to address any emerging threat.

We will ensure the safety of our communities and neighborhoods.

Another threat our nation currently faces is that of civil unrest. House Republicans have put forth legislation, known as the JUSTICE Act, which I supported, to increase federal support for law enforcement by $1.75 billion. These funds would be used to enhance policy training, support community policing and assist in purchasing over 500,000 body cameras for police. Supporting our brave law enforcement officers should not be a partisan issue, but unfortunately Democrats in the House and Senate blocked this legislation from being considered earlier this year. At the same time, members of the House Democratic Caucus called for defunding and dismantling police departments--which are radical and dangerous proposals. Every day, law enforcement selflessly serves and protects our communities. They deserve our support, not rhetoric from politicians which incite violent rioting and looting.

We will protect our freedoms.

Our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution must be defended. As former President Ronald Reagan famously said: "freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction." We will fight for the unborn and oppose efforts of many states across the nation to expand abortion and legalize infanticide. We will stand for free speech at a time when big tech companies are curtailing it. We will uphold our Second Amendment.

Our Commitment to America will keep our nation and communities healthy and safe. Next week, I will go into further detail on our efforts to rebuild the greatest economy in history. To learn more about these proposals, please visit my website at Smucker.House.gov.