Coronavirus

Breaking news this morning with an ongoing clinical study of one of the COVID-19 vaccines currently in development. This particular vaccine, developed by Pfizer, appears to have prevented more than 90% of COVID-19 infections, and is being called “the most encouraging scientific advance so far in the battle against the coronavirus.” The company also reported no significant safety… Read more »

Some good news this morning, as new unemployment claims beat expectations last week. If you don’t care for the details, at least do me a favor and skip down to read the last two paragraphs of this post. Here’s the latest… Jobless claims are reported weekly by the U.S. Department of Labor. We watch these reports closely because they often represent a near real-time… Read more »

Lots of competing ideas right now about unemployment benefits.  I realize this is a lengthy post, but if you just want the high-level points, look for the blue diamonds 🔹 below. 🔹 One of the recent coronavirus bills passed by Congress, the CARES Act, provided an additional $600 per week in unemployment compensation. That’s in addition to what someone was already eligible to… Read more »

Below is a full replay of my telephone town hall, which took place on Thursday, July 30th. During this call, I covered a wide variety of issues including our COVID-19 response, our economy and jobs, our federal spending and national debt, along with several other important topics. Read more »

Friends, we need to have a conversation about how to safely re-open our schools. I know there’s a lot of differing views on this issue, and it’s hard to find any topic right now with a wider range of opinions. But here’s what I see on the federal level and across our congressional district in South Carolina: First, I agree with our CDC Director, Dr. Robert Redfield, who said… Read more »

Three topics on my appearance this morning on Fox News: First up – liberals introduced a bill in Congress to limit the President's ability to mobilize federal police forces in riot-ravaged cities. 🔷 My response: these are NOT peaceful protests, and the folks in Congress who don't think help is needed to restore law & order are completely tone deaf to what's happening. Topic #2… Read more »

More good news... About two weeks ago, I shared the national jobs report for June. It was OUTSTANDING, with 4.8 million jobs being restored in June, according to the Labor Department. That was nationally, which of course begs the question: How are we doing here in South Carolina? Well, we now have that data, and it too is very encouraging. According to a report released yesterday from… Read more »

New Bill: The Healthy Skies Act Earlier today, I sponsored a new bill in the House of Representatives. As we work to get our nation back on its feet, it’s clear we have to keep searching for ways to slow the spread of COVID-19.  On that front, air travel is very important to our economy, but it obviously poses unique challenges because of the number of people packed into a confined… Read more »

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) introduced the Healthy Skies Act in the House of Representatives, along with Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT). This bill will require the Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") to conduct a limited experimental trial program to check passenger temperatures before those passengers are allowed to proceed through airport… Read more »

Think about this: if you suspected you might have the coronavirus, even if your symptoms were very mild, wouldn’t you take steps to protect others around you? Just in case? Of course you would. We all would, even if they were total strangers. The problem, however, is any one of us could be infected and highly contagious long before we even suspect something’s wrong. And even if our… Read more »