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Countering the China threat, tackling the national debt, and mitigating wildfires have been among Senator Romney’s top priorities since the beginning of his Senate term. This week, Senator Romney continued to advance these efforts. He led a hearing on U.S. policy in Taiwan and China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific, was recognized for his efforts to lower the public debt and stabilize the nation’s finances, and met with fire chiefs from Utah as he works to craft modernized wildfire legislation. He also pressed federal agencies on their inaction to understand and contain the recent outbreak of the bird flu virus.

Foreign adversaries and terrorists could misuse extremely powerful AI models of the future to develop biological, chemical, cyber, or nuclear weapons. This week, Senator Romney led a bipartisan effort to establish federal oversight over these advanced AI models to prevent this technology from being misused by bad actors to develop weapons that could threaten our national security or humanity at large. Senator Romney also met with groups of Utahns who were visiting Washington.

As China continues its quest to become the global superpower, the United States must remain diligent about safeguarding American technology. This week, Senator Romney focused on strengthening export controls enforcement—a key national security tool—to help ensure U.S. technology is not acquired or used by our adversaries. He introduced legislation to support interagency enforcement efforts and led an Emerging Threats Subcommittee hearing with Administration witnesses on the topic. Also critical to managing the emergence of China is the U.S. alliance with Japan. Upon Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Washington, Senator Romney introduced a resolution underscoring the strength and importance of this alliance.

While Congress worked to keep the federal government funded, Senator Romney continued working toward safeguarding the United States from threats related to the rise of China. He introduced bipartisan legislation to counter the national security risks associated with our economic entanglement with China and led a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing to learn more about how the U.S. government can prevent fentanyl, and the precursor chemicals used to make it, from entering the country—primarily from China and Mexico. Senator Romney also received an award for his efforts to modernize federal wildfire policies.

Capitol Hill was abuzz this week as groups from all over the country flew in for their spring “fly-ins” to meet with their senators and representatives. Senator Romney met with many local leaders from cities and towns throughout Utah who were in Washington to advocate for their priorities that can be addressed at the federal level. The President also released his proposed budget—an unserious proposal filled with gimmicks—which Senator Romney chastised at a Budget Committee hearing. Senator Romney also led a committee hearing focused on modernizing wildfire policies based off of the recommendations of his Wildland Fire Commission.

This week, Senator Romney had the privilege of welcoming several groups of Utahns to Washington to discuss priorities like veterans care, transportation, water supply, and economic prosperity. He also helped introduce legislation to overturn a Biden Administration rule that would harm Utah’s gig-worker economy, continued efforts to address our current military recruitment crisis, and saw his bill to protect Americans’ health data from foreign adversaries advance in Committee. Last night, Senator Romney shared his thoughts on the President’s State of the Union address.

Senator Romney has long been clear on this point: Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions extend beyond Ukraine. If the U.S. steps away from Ukraine and halts aid, Putin could be emboldened to invade a NATO nation, which would pull the U.S. into war. This week, Senator Romney urged his colleagues to pass additional aid to Ukraine and warned of the dire consequences of the U.S. losing its status as the global leader. He also pressed the Administration to clarify its posture on Iran, introduced legislation to help Americans rise out of poverty and find meaningful work, and met with several Utahns visiting Washington.

Senator Romney has made deterring threats posed by authoritarian regimes, like the Chinese Communist Party and Putin’s Russia, a top priority. The Senator started his week by joining a majority of his colleagues in voting to send additional aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan—allies and partners whose resistance to authoritarian aggression is critical to America’s national security and standing as leader of the free world. Later in the week, Senator Romney headed home to Utah to meet with members of the state legislature and join one of the five passport fairs he, and the Utah Congressional delegation, set up with the State Department—advancing his efforts to bring a permanent passport agency to Salt Lake City.

For years, Utah and the American West have seen catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters which have, in many cases, been strikingly difficult to recover from. This week, Senator Romney introduced two key pieces of legislation—one aimed at bolstering our ability to restore water infrastructure damaged by wildfires and the other to avoid deficit spending on disaster relief by requiring Congress to plan ahead. He also pushed for his legislation to stabilize the national debt, argued against calls for socialist healthcare policies, and met with several Utahns.

The State Department, in coordination with the Utah Congressional Delegation, will hold five “Passport Fairs” throughout the state to provide Utahns with an opportunity to obtain expedited passport services closer to home. Utahns in need of a passport, or those whose passports have expired or will expire in the next year, may register for an appointment from February 13 – 17 at one of five locations. Bringing a passport agency to Salt Lake City is still a top priority of mine, but these passport fairs are an opportunity to help Utahns in the meantime.

Illicit vaping products, designed to target young people with flavors such as blue cotton candy and pink lemonade, have gotten more and more of our youth addicted to nicotine. Senator Romney continued efforts to tackle the youth vaping crisis by introducing bipartisan legislation to crack down on illicit vaping products, most of which come from China. He also called for an immediate and permanent halt of U.S. funding to UNRWA following reports that members of its staff participated in the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7.

It’s no secret that the Chinese Communist Party is implementing a multipronged strategy to overtake the United States as the global leader—militarily, economically, and geopolitically. Senator Romney advanced efforts to counter the China threat by introducing a bill to safeguard Americans’ sensitive health data from getting into the hands of the CCP and calling on the federal government to assess how export controls can restrict adversaries from using advanced U.S. technology to bolster their AI capabilities. He also called on the Biden Administration to withdraw its overreaching electric vehicle mandate.