3B

Dear ,

I hope you and your family are doing well! Below, please find a few updates on my work last week for the residents of Arizona’s First Congressional District.

If You Want to Save the Country, Learn the Math

My House floor speech last week focused on flawed estimates provided by our very own White House. We were promised additional revenues like $400 billion, $1 trillion, and $700 billion from enhanced tax enforcement. These estimates proved that even though the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted a high of $851 billion and a low of $390 billion over ten years on $400,000+ earners, we have only seen $1.3 billion from additional collections in the first two years. Does anyone see a math problem? 

So often, since this place is so mathematically vacuous, the elites build these promises that are a complete fraud. 14.5% of all of our spending today is just interest— total interest, interest we owe to the trust funds, interest we owe to anyone that bought one of our bonds, our union pension funds. If gross interest comes in at $1.4 trillion, (45.68% of every income tax dollar), a little less than half of your income taxes go towards just paying down interest. 

My Legislation to Protect Our Communities & Constituents Passes Out of Committee

Can You Guess What Our Total National Debt Will Be by the End of Fiscal Year 2024?

To commemorate Congress gaveling back in session for the month of September, I wanted to host a contest for YOU to predict what the total national debt will be at the end of the fiscal year! The U.S. Department of Treasury will publish data for September 30 (which will include the total national debt number) on October 1 at approximately 4:15 PM EDT.

Submit your entry by expressing the total debt in trillions rounded to 3 decimal places. For example, 35.xxxx trillion. The winning entry will be the submission that is closest to, but not over the result as published by the Treasury Department. 

The grand prize will be an American flag flown over our United States Capitol on Constitution Day (September 17, 2024) provided at my personal expense. We will be accepting submissions up to the day of Treasury's announcement. Reply to this newsletter with your guess in the correct format, and we will keep a spreadsheet with the necessary information. I'm looking forward to reviewing each of your submissions!

Update on the Gate Fire in North Scottsdale

As of Friday, September 13, the Scottsdale Gate Fire control was achieved with 100% containment at 1,008 acres. Crews will continue to stay engaged to mop up the remaining hot spots and patrol the perimeter. McDowell Mountain Regional Park reopened over the weekend. The public is asked to avoid the burn area shown above.
Heavy equipment was instrumental in allowing crews to access the fire, but it did leave behind soft and rocky tread in its wake. Hikers and bikers are urged to use caution on all recently disturbed surfaces. Thank you to all the neighboring agencies for the assistance on keeping the area safe!

Recognizing Some Amazing Citizens of AZ-01

Occasionally, you hear someone compliment another and you don’t think too much about it.

But when over ten people rave about the presentation, kindness, and overall great service at Lou Malnati’s from Ricky Bobby Boucher, I felt compelled to recognize his above-and-beyond attitude. I asked my staff to present Ricky a certificate honoring his amazing work and epitomizing the Golden Rule. Ricky Bobby Boucher; thanks for being a leader and for reminding us of all what excellence looks like. 

Upcoming Mobile Office Hours with My District Office

My district casework team is here to assist residents of Arizona’s First Congressional District with applications and claims pertaining to federal benefits. Staff from my district office may be in your neighborhood to offer one-on-one casework assistance. Please see the table below to find which meeting works best for you or call my District Office at (480) 946-2411 for immediate assistance with the IRS, Passports, Medicare, Social Security, VA and other federal benefits.

Stay Informed on Our Rapidly Rising National Debt

As a leg up for our Fiscal Year Debt Contest, we would recommend signing up for my Daily Debt Monitor, which is a free text message thread where I send you updates on our growing debt. You can sign up by clicking the image above, or by clicking here!

What I'm Reading & Why It Matters

New tax law now allows for remaining funds in 529 College Savings accounts to be moved into a Roth IRA fund, free of taxation up to a determined limit. In an article authored by the Wall Street Journal, the account must have been open for at least 15 years, and contributions made in the last five years must be excluded. Additionally, rollovers cannot extend past $35,000 per beneficiary. Beneficiaries are only able to rollover as much as their current job salary, with additional restrictions of a $7,000 limit per saver or beneficiary under 50-years-old. There is still clarity that needs to be provided surrounding 529 transfers, pro-rata withdrawals, and the timeline requirements in relation to 529 rollovers and transfers.

The fate of wild horses in the U.S. is headed for a legal battle at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, following a recent lower court ruling. Wild horse advocates argue that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to remove nearly 5,000 wild horses from public lands in Wyoming and store those not adopted in long-term facilities is an overreach. They claim the BLM's actions violate procedural requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act and have not sufficiently considered alternatives like contraception for population control. The BLM's spokesperson and the U.S. Justice Department have declined to comment on the case. The controversy dates back to the 1860s, with the creation of the Wyoming Checkerboard land allocation that complicates wild horse management due to its mix of public and private lands. The Rock Springs Grazing Association, which has long had issues with the high wild horse population, seeks to lower the herd numbers after revoking previous agreements. Horse advocates argue that the BLM's new plan, which drastically cuts the allowed horse population, sets a dangerous precedent by potentially removing wild horses from public lands whenever management becomes challenging or if they stray onto private lands.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update on my latest work in Washington, D.C. and Arizona’s First Congressional District! If you have any comments or concerns, I encourage you to reach out to my office.

Sincerely,

David Schweikert