As 2024 begins, Senator Romney released a report detailing the policy and constituent services highlights from the past year. Major legislative highlights included enactment of Romney bills that equip the U.S. to better counter the rise of China, bolster the role Utah plays in our national defense, and advance efforts to bring a passport agency to Salt Lake City.
Senator Romney offered two amendments aimed at better understanding the impact of smartphones in the classroom to the Advancing Research in Education Act (AREA) during a Senate HELP Committee mark-up. Both amendments were unanimously approved by the Committee and were added to AREA, which subsequently passed out of HELP by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 20-1.
Senator Romney joined Senator Cassidy (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and several of his Republican HELP colleagues in urging Senator Sanders, HELP Committee Chairman, to hold a hearing to ensure the Administration is upholding its legal responsibility to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment and attacks on college campuses in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel earlier this month.
Senators Romney and Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation to prepare principals, superintendents, and other school leaders to facilitate high-quality early childhood education programs in school districts. The Creating Early Childhood Leaders Act would provide school leaders with the tools and training to support early childhood educators.
Senators Romney and Sinema (I-AZ) introduced the Earn to Learn Act, legislation to responsibly reduce student loan debt and help make college more affordable for students. The senators’ bill establishes a college matched-savings program that helps qualifying low-income students, including adult learners, pay for tuition, books, fees, and other education-related expenses.
Senator Romney joined his Senate Republican colleagues, led by Senator Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn President Biden’s reckless income-driven repayment rule, which will result in a majority of bachelor’s degree student loan borrowers not having to pay back even the principal on their loans, costing taxpayers as much as $559 billion.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) joined his Senate colleagues in a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressing concerns over new reports showing millions of dollars from CCP-linked entities have flowed into America’s K-12 classrooms.
Senators Romney and Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the Competency-Based Education Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation which will codify the Department of Education’s regulations governing the eligibility of competency-based education (CBE) programs. Western Governors University, a private, non-profit online university based in Millcreek, Utah, is recognized as a nationwide leader in CBE.
Senator Romney and Lee’s University of Utah Research Park Act passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a unanimous vote. This bill would preserve the University of Utah’s nearly 600-acre research park and avoid possible action by the Bureau of Land Management to repurpose the land. Research Park is a center for research and development serving both the University and the local workforce.
Senator Romney joined 36 of his Republican colleagues, led by Senator Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate HELP Committee, in introducing a CRA resolution to overturn President Biden’s student loan cancelation scheme, which would transfer up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower onto taxpayers, costing an estimated $400 billion.
Senator Romney, joined by Senators Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Barrasso (R-WY), introduced the GRAD Act, bipartisan legislation that would improve transparency and inform the decision-making of prospective students by ensuring the reporting of graduation rates accurately reflect the success of community colleges.
At a Health Committee hearing, Senator Romney discussed the widespread shortage of health care workers in the United States, which has been exacerbated by an overwhelming backlog of immigration interviews for nurses and doctors overseas—primarily from the Philippines.