Press Releases

Washington, D.C.—Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced numerous amendments to the Coast Guard Authorization Act during a markup hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee this week. 19 of Sen. Lee’s amendments were incorporated into the bill passed by the committee.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), joined by Sen. Grassley, Blackburn, Tillis, Cotton, Lummis, Cruz, and Scott, sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan expressing concerns over the agency’s use of unpaid consultants. Earlier that month an FTC Inspector General report found that the FTC, despite making wide use of unpaid consultants, lacked any organized policy or procedures to prevent “unpaid consultants and experts involvement in inherently governmental functions.” The letter asked the FTC to respond to a series of questions to assist Congress in its oversight of the agency. Chairwoman Khan responded on September 9th.

Senator Lee introduced legislation to prevent the Federal Reserve from reshaping the U.S. financial sector and spying on every consumer transaction. The Fed, with encouragement from the Biden Administration, has begun to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a cryptocurrency, minted, issued, and controlled by them, that would alter the ability of financial institutions to function as lenders, while giving the federal government knowledge of every purchase that uses a CBDC. Financial institutions could no longer offer loans since they would bear no risk for a deposit – they would function merely as wallets, holders of a CBDC –

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Stopping Harmful Incidents to Enforce Lawful Drone Use (SHIELD-U) Act to equip state and local law enforcement with the authority needed to protect their citizens and communities from drone threats.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) opposes President Biden’s plan to cancel a portion of federal student debt. Lee offered the statement below following the plan’s announcement.

In Utah, the federal government owns 66.48% of the total land. Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) are federal payments to local governments designed to offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries. However, these payments are far lower than what local governments could expect to collect in property taxes. To regard PILT payments as tax equivalents in Utah cities, they would need to be 262 times larger.

Sen. Mike Lee denounced Senate Democrat’s passage of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. The bill spends hundreds of billions of dollars and raises taxes at a time when inflation has grown to 9.1% nationally and nearly 15% in Utah.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a Resolution designating the week of November 7th as “National Pregnancy Center Week.” Pregnancy Resource Centers are a vital resource to women across the country, providing a wide range of healthcare services to those in need. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) introduced a companion resolution in the House.

During a markup focused on protecting children’s online privacy, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) offered thirteen amendments, nine of which the Senate Commerce Committee adopted. Lee’s amendments were adopted as part of Sen. Blumenthal’s (D- CT) and Sen. Blackburn’s (R-TN) Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and provide additional regulatory safeguards and protections for children online. Sen. Lee voted in favor of pushing KOSA out of committee while noting the work still needed to improve the bill.