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Mike Lee's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)

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Mike Lee did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2022 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.

What is the Political Courage Test?

Issue Positions

For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2022.

  • "Each human life, born and unborn, has immeasurable dignity and worth. The lives of both an unborn baby and her mother matter; and healthcare should heal, protect, and preserve both their lives. Our laws and use of taxpayer money should reflect that truth, which is why I have introduced these bills," (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States decided to take some of these otherwise debatable matters beyond debate, first, by denying the personhood, denying the existence of a human being, but then, on top of that, grafting onto the United States Constitution something that is not there." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 100% by National Right to Life Committee. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted in favor of S 3275 "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." (votesmart.org)
  • Rated 13% by Alliance for Retired Americans. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) today reintroduced the Poverty Measurement Improvement Act, a bill that would improve the accuracy of poverty measurement in the United States by requiring the Census Bureau to supplement its existing poverty data with additional data from other federal agencies. "To help the vulnerable in our social safety net programs, we must make sure that our limited resources are being used as effectively as possible, and going towards those who are most in need," Sen. Lee said. "This bill will help us ensure that we have the data to do just that."" (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Social Security Disability Insurance provides a financial safety net for disabled workers but requires a five-month waiting period prior to receipt of benefits. Unfortunately, for some Americans who suffer from illnesses that are clearly disabling long-term, have short life expectancies, and have no known cure, five months is simply too long. If passed, my bill could put SSDI benefits into patients' hands sooner, relieving some of the stress associated with end-of-life care." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The Trump administration has taken laudable steps to improve work in SNAP, but Congress should be doing more. That is why I will reintroduce the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act this Congress, which will make changes to the law to strengthen work and protect the integrity of our safety net. I hope that my colleagues will join me in pursuing the goal of getting more Americans off of the sidelines and back to work." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) today reintroduced the Poverty Measurement Improvement Act, a bill that would improve the accuracy of poverty measurement in the United States by requiring the Census Bureau to supplement its existing poverty data with additional data from other federal agencies. "To help the vulnerable in our social safety net programs, we must make sure that our limited resources are being used as effectively as possible, and going towards those who are most in need," Sen. Lee said. "This bill will help us ensure that we have the data to do just that." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "By continuing to move forward in reforming our criminal justice system, we can improve trust in law enforcement, strengthen our families and communities, and better uphold liberty and justice for all." (twitter.com)
  • Rated 25% by National Association of Police Organizations (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted against HR 6395 "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021." (votesmart.org)
  • Voted against S 1605 "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022." (votesmart.org)
  • Rated 75% by Center for Security Policy (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Of new spending amidst growing inflationary pressures and mounting federal debt, Sen. Lee said, "We are already seeing skyrocketing costs for things we need every day. Housing, food, gasoline, and electricity are all becoming more expensive in large part because the federal government keeps spending more money than it has. This inflation is making it harder to make ends meet and provide for our families. This spending risks our children's future, but we are also feeling the costs now." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The Federal Government can easily meet its infrastructure obligations and we don't have to spend trillions of dollars to do it. By focusing on what is truly federal, we can cut taxes, pay less, and build more. This bill does just that." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted against HR 3684 "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act." (votesmart.org)
  • "government cannot create jobs or wealth. It can reallocate them, but never create them." (twitter.com)
  • "Five times, we crafted major COVID relief bills in a bipartisan process, and passed them with overwhelming bipartisan support. Today, Democrats abandoned that approach and instead passed a partisan grab bag of special interest handouts in the name of fighting a disease. This bloated, wasteful bill was not written for patients or businesses or workers suffering from COVID; it was written for the Democratic Party. It's a shame and a sham." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted against HR 1319 "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021." (votesmart.org)
  • "Unfortunately, the COVID relief bill has been packaged together w/ a much larger government spending bill that is bursting at the seams with special interest handouts slipped into to 5,593 pages of legislative text in the dark of night. No one who voted for this bill read it." (twitter.com)
  • "This COVID relief bill - like the one Senate Democrats blocked for months out of pure partisan politics - contains some much-needed items to help Utahns recover including more funding for faster vaccine deployment and an expanded charitable deduction." (twitter.com)
  • "Inflation in Utah is up to 9.7%. Joe Biden's failed policies have made life more expensive for and harder on Utah families, and Democrats want to spend trillion$ more today. End the madness." (twitter.com)
  • "ON THIS DAY: Democrats decided to ignore inflation and spend billions beyond our means while rejecting nearly every Republican effort to protect taxpayers." (twitter.com)
  • "Since this runaway inflation began, I have received an outpouring of phone calls, emails, and letters from anxious Utahns struggling to make ends meet. Their message is resounding and consistent: they can no longer afford the Biden administration’s misguided policies." (twitter.com)
  • Voted against H.R. 5376 "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" (votesmart.org)
  • "Forgiving student loans to redistribute wealth to your political supporters is patronage, and it is wrong." (twitter.com)
  • Rated 0% by National Education Association (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "One of the flaws in this is that it would have consolidated all of this law and made it federal, and effectively precluded states from updating their own voter registration files or imposing voter ID requirements, or any of the good things that you identified. It would have also made normal the practice of vote trafficking whereby professional political operatives could come in and for money collect votes and then cast them for other people." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 0% by Common Cause (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "S.1 would make election fraud easier to commit and harder to detect by allowing vote trafficking & undermining popular voter ID laws." (twitter.com)
  • Rated 100% by American Energy Alliance. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Signed Letter to Administrator Regan: "In response to this acute financial distress, a bipartisan group of six governors, as well as a number of small refineries, have petitioned the EPA requesting that the Administrator exercise the general waiver authority. The renewable fuels for the 2020 compliance year have already been produced and blended. Thus, a waiver presents no risk of harm to the biofuels industry. This necessary action would provide a degree of relief for these states and avert additional refinery closures and the ensuing economic ripple effects. If relief is not provided in a timely manner, more refineries will be forced to shut down and place thousands of workers on the unemployment rolls just as the economy is beginning to roar back." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Energy is a major driver of this inflation. Biden’s energy policies have been DISASTROUS. Shutting down Keystone, the moratorium on energy leases on federal land, begging OPEC to fill in the gaps. @POTUS has failed on energy, and Americans are paying the price." (twitter.com)
  • "It’s the poor and middle class who are paying for this war on American energy. We should not be bailing out Biden’s poor policies with oil from our reserves or asking Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran to come to our rescue." (twitter.com)
  • "For example, regulations under the Clean Air Act discourage the practice of letting fires burn, especially in those areas that have air pollution levels that exceed permissible standards." (twitter.com)
  • ""Local governments that want to work with the EPA to lower pollution shouldn't have to wait till pollution is already a problem in their communities before they are credited for reducing emissions," Sen. Lee said. "The Early Action Against Ozone Act would empower local communities to work with the EPA before ozone levels reach unhealthy levels in their communities."" (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 94% by Independent Petroleum Association of America. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Signed Letter to Administrator Regan: "In response to this acute financial distress, a bipartisan group of six governors, as well as a number of small refineries, have petitioned the EPA requesting that the Administrator exercise the general waiver authority. The renewable fuels for the 2020 compliance year have already been produced and blended. Thus, a waiver presents no risk of harm to the biofuels industry. This necessary action would provide a degree of relief for these states and avert additional refinery closures and the ensuing economic ripple effects. If relief is not provided in a timely manner, more refineries will be forced to shut down and place thousands of workers on the unemployment rolls just as the economy is beginning to roar back." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Local governments that want to work with the EPA to lower pollution shouldn't have to wait till pollution is already a problem in their communities before they are credited for reducing emissions," Sen. Lee said. "The Early Action Against Ozone Act would empower local communities to work with the EPA before ozone levels reach unhealthy levels in their communities." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 93% by National Rifle Association (NRA) (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Signed Letter to Director Richardson: "It has come to our attention that the ATF has rejected hundreds of the "Application to Make and Register a Firearm" form, better known as "Form 1." According to the ATF website, the National Firearms Act (NFA) and the Gun Control Act (GCA) do not prohibit the creation of a silencer, or suppressor. Historically, the ATF has required Americans to file a Form 1, pay the $200 fee, and they would be permitted to make the suppressor for their own personal use. These continued assaults of the Second Amendment threaten law-abiding Americans' rights as they try to follow ATF guidance on making these parts. We request that the ATF provide us answers on why they are rejecting legal applications and denying law abiding citizens access to their Second Amendment right. The ATF was not established to interfere with a basic right afforded to every American." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • ""The current, oppressive process required to buy silencers only hurts the eardrums of millions of hunters, sportsmen, and marksmen each year, and serves to provide surreptitious gun control," said Sen. Lee. "The SHUSH Act would eliminate this onerous regulation to make a perfectly legal sport safer for millions of Americans."" (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The current, oppressive process required to buy silencers only hurts the eardrums of millions of hunters, sportsmen, and marksmen each year, and serves to provide surreptitious gun control," said Sen. Lee. "The SHUSH Act would eliminate this onerous regulation to make a perfectly legal sport safer for millions of Americans." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The Second Amendment guarantees Americans the fundamental right “to keep and bear arms”. The Supreme Court correctly interpreted this guarantee as an individual right as opposed to a collective right enjoyed only by colonial militias. Many gun control efforts threaten the rights of law-abiding Americans while criminals intent on hurting themselves or others continue to ignore the law. These efforts also harm the ability of Americans to protect themselves and their families, disproportionately hurting minorities and those living in high-crime areas. Senator Lee has led the fight against efforts to further restrict the ability of law-abiding Americans to exercise this fundamental right and he supports efforts to roll back existing gun control laws." (www.lee.senate.gov)
  • "#Obamacare is compromising the structural integrity of our healthcare system. Repeal it first. Then we can fix the damage to the system." (twitter.com)
  • Voted in favor of S. Amdt 271 “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017” (votesmart.org)
  • Voted in favor of S. Amdt 667 “Health Care Freedom Act of 2017” (votesmart.org)
  • "Grateful to see @FLOTUS and @POTUS making paid parental leave a priority." (twitter.com)
  • "Great meeting with @alexisohanian and @PaidLeaveUS today to talk about the importance of #PaidLeave for working American families." (twitter.com)
  • "Honored to join Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Patrice Onwuka to help introduce the CRADLE Act, a plan to offer paid parental leave to America’s working families." (twitter.com)
  • "This bill is not a comprehensive solution for out of control drug prices, but it is a good first step that will demonstrate how lower government regulation and increased competition can help American patients." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, along with Senators Patrick Leahy, Mike Lee and Amy Klobuchar, is pushing to include legislation that would combat rising drug prices for Iowans by deterring brand-name pharmaceutical companies from blocking the entrance of more affordable generic alternatives in the marketplace in the 21st Century CURES bill being debated in the Senate." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The best way to lower prices and increase quality for any good, even health care, is competition," (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 86% by NumbersUSA. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Securing our nation’s borders is a fundamental responsibility of the federal government. Five billion dollars for border security efforts that will save lives is a very reasonable request, and I hope Democrats will end this spending impasse soon." (twitter.com)
  • "We already have 650 miles of wall on the southern border. But it is not enough. Pres. Clinton built wall, Pres. Bush built wall, and even Pres. Obama built wall. Walls work." (twitter.com)
  • "We have a crisis on our southern border. Our law enforcement personnel are being overrun. We need more border patrol agents, more emergency medical technicians, more immigration judges, and yes, more wall." (twitter.com)
  • "DACA was an illegal abuse of executive power, and it's important to reaffirm that the president cannot unilaterally rewrite the law. Today's decision puts the ball in Congress' court to address the problem of the approximately three quarter million DACA participants, who originally came to the country as children. A balance between compassion and deterring future illegal immigration can be found." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Immigration is often a contentious issue, but we should not delay progress in areas where there is bipartisan agreement. There is a clear desire for a more merit-based system to help our citizens and protect legal immigrants from being penalized for their country of birth. Treating people fairly and equally is part of our founding creed and the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act reflects that belief." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Rated 86% by NumbersUSA. (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted in favor of S Amdt 1948 "Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act (Toomey Amendment)" (votesmart.org)
  • Voted in favor of S Amdt 1948 "Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act (Toomey Amendment)" (votesmart.org)
  • "Today’s sanctions against Maduro's regime are welcome news. Hopefully they lead to change & release of prisoners such as Utahn Joshua Holt." (twitter.com)
  • Voted in favor of S. 1 “Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019” (votesmart.org)
  • Voted against H.R. 7691 “Making emergency supplemental appropriations for assistance for the situation in Ukraine for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes.” (votesmart.org)
  • ""The tariffs proposed by the president this week would be a huge job-killing tax hike on American consumers," Sen. Lee said. "While I am sympathetic to the issues facing domestic steel manufacturers, there must be a better way to address the steel industry's concerns, and I hope Congress and the executive branch can identify an alternative solution before these tariffs are finalized next week."" (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • Voted in favor of HR 5430 "United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act." (votesmart.org)
  • Rated 25% by Public Citizen (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The tariffs proposed by the president this week would be a huge job-killing tax hike on American consumers," Sen. Lee said. "While I am sympathetic to the issues facing domestic steel manufacturers, there must be a better way to address the steel industry's concerns, and I hope Congress and the executive branch can identify an alternative solution before these tariffs are finalized next week." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "The USMCA is a huge win for all of Utah, especially the more than 120,000 Utahns whose jobs depend on trade with Mexico and Canada." (twitter.com)

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