U.S. Rep. Keith Self explains his votes and tells us whether he supports a blank check for the Iran War.
DALLAS — It was a busy week inside the U.S. House of Representatives, where lawmakers finally passed three critical bills, despite plenty of GOP infighting over what should – and shouldn’t – be included.
And that was just part one of the heavy lift as the U.S. Senate has its own ideas for the legislation.
“The Senate has dismissed all of them and said they’re going to do their own thing. We need to go to the conference rather than them just coming up with something on their own. But we need to tell Texans that the Senate needs to get on the stick. They need to get things done,” U.S. Representative Keith Self, R-3rd District, told us on Inside Texas Politics.
FARM BILL
After a debate that lasted for hours over a couple of days, House lawmakers finally passed a farm bill. While the five-year, $390 billion measure re-upped several food and agriculture programs, it also changed some of them. It preserves $187 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, or food stamps.
It also contains $60 billion in farm subsidies.
We asked Congressman Self if farmers deserve another bailout.
“That would be the executive branch. They have not brought us that. I know that this discussion is going on, but I don’t want to get ahead of the negotiations,” the Republican answered. “Our farmers are hurting. And whether or not this farm bill will move fast enough and far enough is the question right now. We need to get the farm bill in place to start giving relief to our farmers.”
One of the more controversial aspects of the farm bill centered around liability protection for manufacturers of pesticides. In the end, the House included an amendment that eliminated language that provided that legal shield, which means states could pursue legal action. States can also require warning labels alerting consumers to the potential dangers of pesticides.
Congressman Self says farmers are hurting not only because of rising input costs, including skyrocketing fertilizer and diesel prices due to the Iran war, but also because of government regulation.
“We just passed an amendment that I hope the Senate will pass that says EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) cannot regulate farm equipment. Much like military equipment, farm equipment cannot be held to the same standard as a passenger sedan, for instance,” he explained.
U.S. Rep. Self voted in favor of the farm bill.
It is now up to the U.S. Senate to decide whether it will adopt the House version or produce its own.
DHS FUNDING BILL
The U.S. House passed a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and the Coast Guard. This was the version that already passed the Senate, so President Trump quickly signed the legislation ending the longest shutdown of a federal department in government history at 76 days.
The only sections of DHS not funded are its enforcement agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, the most visible agencies involved in the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown.
Democrats were unified and firm in their opposition to funding ICE and Border Patrol unless reforms were put into place, including the requirement of warrants for certain immigration-related arrests and banning the use of face coverings.
Republicans will now work on funding ICE and Border Patrol through what’s known as reconciliation, which would allow the GOP to pass the measure without any Democratic support.
Congressman Self, who voted in favor of the funding bill, told us that timeline pressure ultimately allowed the House to move forward with the legislation.
FISA EXTENSION
The U.S. House also approved a three-year extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), considered to be one of the U.S. government’s most critical surveillance tools.
But section 702 is controversial because it allows the government to collect the communications of foreign targets overseas without a warrant. Critics say it also allows warrantless surveillance on American citizens communicating with those foreign targets.
Several Republicans voted against the extension because of those Fourth Amendment concerns.
Congressman Self supported the measure initially, but only after a controversial provision was added that bans the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC), which Self argues could be used to surveil the finances of Americans.
But the CBDC language torpedoed the bill in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats strongly objected to a ban. Instead, the Senate passed a 45-day FISA extension without the ban included.
The House then passed the 45-day extension, sending it to President Trump’s desk. But Congressman Self voted no on this version.
IRAN WAR
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth testified before Congress last week for the first time since the Iran War started.
He told lawmakers on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the United States has, so far, spent $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury. The Pentagon’s overall budget request is $1.5 trillion.
We asked Congressman Self if he supported writing an open check for the Iran war.
“This is a very complex funding matrix that we’re dealing with here. The conservatives like myself want to support our troops, want to support the war effort, but how are we going to pay for this,” Self answered with a question of his own. “We’re already $39 trillion in debt. We want to see some sort of payment schedule. How are we going to pay for this is the question that we are asking. So, I don’t have an answer for you yet. We’re asking those questions. We’re asking them to come to us with how are we going to pay for this.”