Opinion Pieces

By Jim Jordan May 5, 2020 | 5:11pm President Trump’s task force has been working hard to fight the coronavirus pandemic and open up America. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has been silent — AWOL, you might say. Even as the Senate returns to work this week, the House remains shuttered. And now, feeling the heat for their prolonged absence, House Democrats are floating plans that would upend centuries of legislative precedent and concentrate power in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hands. One Dem... Read more

by Rep. Jim Jordan | April 13, 2020 12:00 AM One of the fundamental instincts of policymakers during any crisis is to grow government. Government programs expand, agencies assume new powers, and sometimes whole new agencies emerge as policymakers try to prove that they have acted in face of the crisis. The coronavirus pandemic is no different. This pandemic is a serious public health emergency that demands the attention of federal policymakers. But some high-profile Democrats want to go further,... Read more

Reconciliation is a parliamentary vehicle linked with the budget and designed to achieve specific revenue and spending requirements. This is the preferred approach for certain policy objectives because only 51 votes are required for passage in the Senate. Republicans plan to use this process for tax reform. There’s one concern: This was the same approach attempted for ObamaCare repeal. In January, Congress passed a budget with reconciliation instructions for fiscal 2017. The House Freedom Caucus... Read more

By Rep. Jim Jordan “The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.” This quote, taken from the 1974 Woodward Report at Yale, summarizes the policy that was, for years, the gold standard of what free speech on campus should look like. But conservatives, and many liberals, too, recognize that many colleges and universities in our great country ha... Read more

Former FBI Director James Comey misled the American people during last year’s presidential campaign when he referred to the Clinton email scandal as a “matter,” not an investigation. He did it willfully. He did it intentionally. And he did it at the direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Mr. Comey misled the American people in the early weeks of the Trump administration by furthering the perception that President Trump was under investigation, when in fact he was not. He again did this wil... Read more

Americans are, on average, wealthier, healthier, and better-educated than we ever have been. We've made huge strides in civil rights and racial equality. We have access to technology that would have awed past generations. But fundamentally, our culture and way of life has undergone some changes that are not necessarily positive. As documented in the recently released report, "What We Do Together: The State of Associational Life in America," Americans' day-to-day lives have significantly changed ... Read more

Too often, Washington puts the concerns of the politically connected before those of ordinary Americans. Imagine this scenario. A man who works a second shift walks out to get in his truck to drive to work. Now remember, when you work second shift you’re forced to miss some of your kids’ after school activities and their summer little league games. But like most Americans he’s willing to do the hard things for his family. As he pulls out of his driveway, the second shift worker sees a guy two ho... Read more

For those who wonder why the vast majority of regular Americans think Washington, D.C., is rigged against them, just look at today’s headlines. They show that the elite and well-connected in Washington play by a different set of rules. When testifying before the Benghazi Select Committee in October of 2015, Hillary Clinton said to us under oath, “there was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received.” We now know that statement is patently false, according to the FBI. Sadly, ... Read more

By Mike Pompeo and Jim Jordan On Sept. 11, 2012, as fire engulfed the State Department’s temporary mission facility in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors and a CIA security team who had come to their rescue made a desperate dash for a CIA annex located nearby. From there they would fend off a continued and determined jihadist attack. Despite heroic efforts that night, four Americans lost their lives. For the first time in more than 30 years, a U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens, was assassinated. Anothe... Read more

Since then-IRS official Lois Lerner first revealed in 2013 that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative organizations for their political views, the American people have sought justice in the matter. President Obama appointed John Koskinen as IRS commissioner to clean up the agency and help Congress get to the bottom of the targeting scandal. Koskinen has instead stonewalled and impeded congressional investigations into the matter. With two subpoenas and three preservation orders in p... Read more