Tim's Record

Source: https://votetimscott.com/record/

Border Security

“On my first day as Commander-in-Chief, the strongest nation on Earth will stop retreating from our own southern border. If you don’t control your back door, it’s not your house. And if our southern border is unsafe and insecure, it’s not our country.”

Border security is national security. If we want to prevent deadly drugs like fentanyl from infiltrating our communities, we need to stop the illegal immigrants who bring them across our borders. The cartels won’t stop pumping drugs and violence into American communities until we stop them, either with a strong border wall or by military force. Biden’s failure to address the crisis at our southern border has turned every county in America into a border county.

Expel illegal immigrants trying to enter the country by reinstating Title 42 to combat the fentanyl crisis.
Fully fund the construction of the wall at the southern border, while strengthening law enforcement’s capabilities to detect drug smugglers and human traffickers before they enter our country.
End Biden’s “Catch and release” policies which weaken our nation’s security, and undermine our nation’s sovereignty.
Recognize drug cartels as terrorists and let the world’s greatest military power defend our borders and our lives.

A Proven Record:

Combatting The Fentanyl Crisis: Leading with legislation – the FEND Off Fentanyl Act – to sanction those supplying the deadly drugs, whether it is the suppliers in Chinese labs or the traffickers in Mexico.
Securing Our Border Act: While Biden and congressional Democrats chose to spend $45 billion of taxpayer money to hire an army of IRS agents to target the middle class, we must redirect those resources into border security and give Border Patrol the support they need to keep our nation secure. To do so also means ending Biden’s catch-and-release agenda.
Alan T. Shao II Fentanyl Public Health Emergency and Overdose Prevention Act: Utilize the powers outlined in Title 42 to address the true national public health emergency that is the raging fentanyl epidemic Biden has allowed to go unchecked. My good friend Alan Shao lost his 27-year-old son due to a fentanyl overdose, fentanyl that is being trafficked across the southern border.

Education, Not Indoctrination

“I have lived the truth that education is the closest thing to magic in America. But today, the far left has us retreating away from excellence in our schools. Extreme liberals are letting Big Labor bosses trap millions of kids in failing systems. They’re replacing education with indoctrination.”

America’s children should be learning ABCs, not CRT. The radical Left wants to indoctrinate our children, not educate them. We will fight to ensure that America’s kids are learning how to read and write, not about gender transition and sexual identity. We must demand excellence in our schools, which means giving every family a choice, every parent a voice, and every child a chance.

Defend parental rights by giving every family the power and resources they need to decide their child’s education and future.
Demand transparency in the classroom so parents are informed as to what their children learn in school.
Expand opportunities for all children by embracing education freedom and empowering parents, which will allow millions of children to unlock their God-given potential.

A Proven Record:

The CHOICE Act: Ensures parents have the tools to find a school that can effectively serve their child’s needs and grants flexibility and support to parents with disabled children.
Training America’s Workforce Act: Empower apprenticeship programs because every child deserves the opportunity to achieve their version of the American Dream.
Kids in Classes Act: Big Labor Bosses have kept children out of classrooms, so this legislation would allow families to put unused Title I funds toward further choices for in-person education.
Educational Choice for Children Act: Provides $10 billion in annual tax credits for Scholarship Grant Organizations.
PROTECT Kids Act: Cut off federal funding from any school that allows students to change their pronouns, gender markers, or sex-based accommodations including locker rooms and bathrooms, without their parents’ consent.

Conservative Values and God-given Rights

“Under Joe Biden, we have become a nation in retreat. Retreating from religious liberty and the worship of God himself. I will preserve one nation, Under God, indivisible — where we honor our Creator and respect every innocent life.”

Conservatism is the home of common sense. The radical Left has tried its best to remove faith, patriotism, and religious liberty from our society, but we won’t back down. It’s time for new conservative leadership to bring Americans together with faith: Faith in God, faith in each other, and faith in America.

Life has intrinsic value because it comes from God. With a 100% pro-life voting record, we must stand up against the radical left pushing taxpayer-funded abortion up until the moment of birth. This starts by fostering a culture of life, and winning the hearts and minds of Americans.
Celebrate our Founding Fathers, not cancel them. Americans have won the lottery of citizenship. Each generation must pass on the appreciation for the magnificence of our U.S. Constitution and the God-given rights it protects while cherishing the power of American exceptionalism.
Individual Responsibility is an American value. If you are able-bodied, you work. You don’t spend what you don’t have. If you take out a loan, you pay it back. If you commit a violent crime, you go to jail. It’s common sense.

A Proven Record:

100% Pro-Life: 100% score from National Right to Life and an A-rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Child Tax Credit for Pregnant Moms Act: Allowing pregnant moms to claim the Child Tax Credit for their unborn children, to further protect life, support mothers, and reduce the number of kids born into poverty.
Defending the Second Amendment: Holds an A-rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America.
Lifting Local Communities Act: Leading on a bill to allow faith-based organizations to apply for, and receive government grants without the fear of government overreach.

National Security

“Security starts on our borders, but it doesn’t end there. The Chinese Communist Party’s goal is not just to surpass us. It is to beat us. As President, I will rebuild a military so lethal and powerful that our adversaries will fear us and our allies will respect us.”

Joe Biden and the radical Left have shown weakness on a global stage, and have made our adversaries bolder. Defeating China starts with reducing our soaring national debt and removing the Chinese Communist Party from our universities, our farmland, our personal data, and our skies.

Peace through strength can only be achieved if we have the most capable fighting force on the planet. My father and my brothers have 85 years of combined military service between them. When I am President, our service members will have every tool they need, and our veterans will have every resource they deserve. We must steadfastly support those who risk their lives to protect our freedom and ensure they have the modern capabilities they need to address the threats of tomorrow.
Economic prosperity promotes stability and security — here at home and around the world. As Biden sends us deeper and deeper in debt to the Chinese Communist Party, he only further fuels China’s rise. And we will win the next century by the strength of our economy. China started this new economic Cold War, but America will finish it.
Our military is not a social experiment, and we must show the world we are prepared and serious about winning the next century.

A Proven Record:

Senate Foreign Relations: Senator Scott currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has jurisdiction over all matters of U.S. foreign policy. Within the committee, he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy.
Senate Banking Committee: Senator Scott is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which has jurisdiction over the national security work of the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Commerce, including economic sanctions and foreign trade.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council: For several years, Senator Scott has served on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. As a member of the council, he supports the museum’s work to educate the American people about the horrors of the Holocaust and combat anti-semitism.
Senate Armed Services Committee: Senator Scott previously served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the U.S. Department of Defense and all U.S. military activities—at home and abroad.

Law and Order

“In Biden’s America, crime is on the rise and law enforcement is in retreat. The far left is ending cash bail. They’re demonizing, demoralizing, and de-funding the police. I grew up in neighborhoods alongside people who ended up incarcerated or in a cemetery. We needed more public safety, not less!”

Joe Biden and the radical Left’s agenda isn’t about protecting communities, they seek to promote chaos and fear under the guise of “fairness.” We must break the concept in this nation that you have to be for law enforcement or for communities of color. That is a false binary choice. We must re-fund our police and support public safety, because we cannot have innocent people at risk, police officers getting attacked and ambushed, and seniors locked in their homes in fear from sundown until sunup.

Supporting law enforcement: One out of every four law enforcement officer positions remains vacant. They can’t get people to do the job. President Biden has blamed the police, allowed for the Democrats to defund the police, and they’ve demonized the actual law enforcement profession.
End sanctuary cities to stop illegal immigration, allowing local law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities.
Increase the penalties for criminals who intentionally target law enforcement officers.

A Proven Record:

Recognized by law enforcement: Awarded the FSA National Legislative Champion Award from the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Major County Sheriffs of America Legislative Champion Award.
Combating Violent and Dangerous Crime Act: Strengthens violent crime laws related to attacks on law enforcement, bank robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, and other offenses.
Back the Blue Act: Increase penalties for criminals who intentionally target law enforcement officers and provide new tools for officers to protect themselves.
Safe Kids, Safe Schools, and Safe Communities Act: Fund enhanced school security, doubling the number of school resource officers in America’s schools and investing in school mental health professionals.

Create Opportunities and Grow Wages

“I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. The circumstances may be different, the details may change, but every one of us is here because of an American journey where there were obstacles that became opportunities.”

Biden and the left have taxed, borrowed, and spent trillions of dollars trying to replace a hand up with handouts. All they bought us was crushing inflation that has devastated families like yours and mine. We must rebuild and restore every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. Because I want my American story to pale in comparison to you.

Made in America agenda that ramps up research and development, reclaims supply chains, and re-energizes our manufacturing base with Opportunity Zones 2.0.
Unleash American energy and innovation by removing burdensome red tape, cutting taxes, and expanding an all-of-the-above energy approach.
Live within our means, by reining in the left’s out-of-control spending, ending earmarks and political favors, and making tax cuts permanent.

A Proven Record:

Lead author of the Republican tax cuts: Slashed taxes for families, brought jobs and investment back from overseas, and created Opportunity Zones to inject private dollars into communities that have been left behind. We spurred high employment, low inflation, and fast wage growth for the working class.
Championing Opportunity Zones: The most impactful anti-poverty program in the past 50 years, by generating private sector investments into nearly 4,000 communities across the country. Households have seen their personal lives, financial security, and standard of living improve as a result of local investments.
Permanently fund HBCUs: Provide for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, without putting taxpayers on the hook.
Expanding Access to Credit for Small Businesses Act: Opens up access to credit for small businesses, particularly rural and minority-owned businesses owners, who are less likely to have relationships with traditional banking institutions, would have the much needed access to fulfill their American dream.

Sen. Tim Scott Delivers Republican Response - Apr 28, 2021

REMARKS: SENATOR SCOTT RESPONSE TO THE JOINT ADDRESS

Source: https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/remarks-senator-scott-response-to-the-joint-address

***As Prepared for Delivery***

Common Sense Makes Common Ground

Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.

We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress.

Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words.

But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership.

He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted.

That was the pitch. You just heard it again.

But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.

We need policies and progress that bring us closer together.

But three months in, the actions of the President and his party are pulling us further apart.

I won’t waste your time tonight with finger-pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on T.V. any time you want.

I want to have an honest conversation.

About common sense... and common ground.

About this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation… and how we move forward together.

***

Growing up, I never dreamed I’d be standing here tonight.

When I was a kid, my parents divorced. My mother, my brother, and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us, sharing one bedroom.

I was disillusioned and angry, and I nearly failed out of school. But I was blessed.

First, with a praying momma…

Then with a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A operator named John Moniz…

Finally, with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America.

But this past year, I’ve watched COVID attack every rung of the ladder that helped me up.

So many families have lost parents and grandparents too early.

So many small businesses have gone under.

Becoming a Christian transformed my life — but for months, too many churches were shut down.

Most of all, I am saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a day.

Locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of their future.

Our public schools should have reopened months ago. Other countries’ did. Private and religious schools did. Science has shown for months that schools are safe.

But too often, powerful grown-ups set science aside. And kids like me were left behind.

The clearest case for school choice in our lifetimes.

***

Last year, under Republican leadership, we passed five bipartisan COVID packages.

Congress supported our hospitals, saved our economy, and funded Operation Warp Speed, delivering vaccines in record time.

All five bills got 90 or more votes in the Senate. Common sense found common ground.

In February, Republicans told President Biden we wanted to keep working together to win this fight.

But Democrats wanted to go it alone.

They spent almost $2 trillion on a partisan bill that the White House bragged was the most liberal bill in American history!

Only 1% went to vaccinations. No requirement to re-open schools promptly.

COVID brought Congress together five times. This Administration pushed us apart.

***

Another issue that should unite us is infrastructure.

Republicans support everything you think of when you think of “infrastructure.” Roads, bridges, ports, airports, waterways, high-speed broadband — we’re all in!

But again, Democrats want a partisan wish list. They won’t even build bridges... to build bridges!

Less than 6% of the President’s plan goes to roads and bridges. It’s a liberal wish-list of Big Government waste... plus the biggest job-killing tax hikes in a generation.

Experts say, when all is said and done, it would lower Americans’ wages and shrink our economy.

***

Tonight we also heard about a so-called “Family Plan.” Even more taxing, even more spending, to put Washington even more in the middle of your life — from the cradle, to college.

The beauty of the American Dream is that families get to define it for themselves.

We should be expanding options and opportunities for all families — not throwing money at certain issues because Democrats think they know best.

***

“Infrastructure” spending that shrinks our economy is not common sense.

Weakening our southern border and creating a crisis is not compassionate.

The President is abandoning principles he held for decades. Now, he says your tax dollars should fund abortions. He’s laying groundwork to pack the Supreme Court!

This is not common ground.

***

Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions of race.

I have experienced the pain of discrimination.

I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I’m shopping.

I remember, every morning, at the kitchen table, my grandfather would have the newspaper in his hands. Later, I realized he had never learned to read it. He just wanted to set the right example.

I’ve also experienced a different kind of intolerance.

I get called “Uncle Tom” and the N-word — by ‘progressives’! By liberals!

Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my family’s poverty was actually privilege… because a relative owned land generations before my time.

Believe me, I know our healing is not finished.

In 2015, after the shooting of Walter Scott, I wrote a bill to fund body cameras.

Last year, after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal.

But my Democratic colleagues blocked it!

I extended an olive branch. I offered them amendments. But Democrats used the filibuster to block the debate from even happening.

My friends across the aisle seemed to want the issue... more than they wanted a solution.

But I’m still working. I’m still hopeful.

***

When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart.

A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic — and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior.

Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.

From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.

You know this stuff is wrong.

Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.

It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different discrimination.

And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.

***

I’m an African-American who has voted in the South all my life. I take voting rights personally.

Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.

And so do voters!

Big majorities of Americans support early voting…

And big majorities support Voter I.D. — including African-Americans and Hispanics.

Common sense makes common ground.

But today, this conversation has collapsed.

The state of Georgia passed a law that expands early voting; preserves mail-in voting; and, despite what the President claimed, did not reduce Election Day hours.

If you actually read this law, it’s mainstream! It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York.

But the left doesn’t want you to know that. They want people to virtue-signal by yelling about a law they haven’t even read!

Fact-checkers have called out the White House for misstatements.

The President absurdly claims this is worse than Jim Crow.

What is going on here?

I’ll tell you. A Washington power grab.

This misplaced outrage is supposed to justify Democrats’ sweeping bill that would take over elections for all 50 states; send public funds to political campaigns you disagree with; and make the bipartisan Federal Elections Commission... partisan!

This is not about civil rights, or our racial past. It’s about rigging elections in the future.

And, no — the same filibuster that President Obama and President Biden praised when they were Senators… that Democrats used just last year… has not suddenly become a racist relic just because the shoe is on the other foot!

Race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants.

It’s too important.

***

This should be a joyful springtime for our nation.

This Administration inherited a tide that had already turned. The coronavirus is on the run!

Thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the Trump Administration, our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines.

Thanks to our bipartisan work last year, job openings are rebounding.

So why do we feel so divided... and anxious?

A nation with so much cause for hope should not feel so heavy-laden.

A President who promised to bring us together should not push agendas that tear us apart.

***

The American family deserves better. And we know what better looks like!

Just before COVID, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime.

The lowest unemployment ever recorded for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. The lowest for women in nearly 70 years.

Wages were growing faster for the bottom 25% than the top 25%.

That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans.

We passed Opportunity Zones… criminal justice reform... and permanent funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities for the first time ever.

We fought the drug epidemic... rebuilt our military… and cut taxes for working families and single moms like mine.

Our best future won’t come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams. It will come from you — the American people.

Black, Hispanic, white and Asian. Republican and Democrat. Brave police officers and Black neighborhoods.

We are not adversaries. We are family!

We are all in this together. And we get to live in the greatest country on Earth.

The country where my grandfather, in his 94 years, saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.

So I am more than hopeful — I am confident — that our finest hour is yet to come.

Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls, and not for our nation. The real story is always redemption.

***

I am standing here because my mom has prayed me through some very tough times.

I believe our nation has succeeded the same way:

Because generations of Americans, in their own ways, have asked for grace… and God has supplied it.

So I will close with a word from a worship song that helped me through this past year. The music is new, but the words draw from Scripture.

[May] the Lord bless you and keep you,
Make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you…

May His presence go before you,
And behind you, and beside you…

In your weeping and rejoicing,
He is with you...

May His favor be upon [our nation], for a thousand generations
And your family... and your children…
And their children.

Good night, and God bless.