U.S. Senator Josh Hawley Archives

Hawley says news reports of Russia offering Taliban militants bounties to kill U.S. troops ‘don’t square very well’

July 2, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

National media reports say Russia offered Taliban militants bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan. Missouri U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says he has received classified details and so far his impression is very different.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R) speaks to Missourinet during an interview on March 25, 2020 (photo courtesy of Senator Hawley’s office)

“After hearing the briefing which went on for some time and was in fairly great detail, I have to say it doesn’t square very well with reporting by the (New York) Times or the (Washington) Post,” Hawley tells Missourinet. “Having said that, I think we just need to send a very clear signal hear to the Russians that if they so much as think about putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers, there will be punishment, there will be punishment enforced upon them.”

As far as punishment goes, Hawley did not have specifics.

“I think we need to make it very clear that we will defend our soldiers and we’re not going to allow them to be targeted by anybody,” says Hawley. “But I say again the details that I’ve been briefed on are pretty substantially different from what I’ve read in the press.”

He says lawmakers will continue to speak with intelligence officials at all levels of government to gather details.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Kansas City, tells the Kansas City Star the allegations are “profoundly disturbing”. He says reports that President Donald Trump had the information for over one year and did nothing should have every American outraged. Trump has denied sitting on the information for that long.

Hawley calls for surge of personal protective equipment into Missouri hospitals

March 29, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A U.S. Senator from Missouri who serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill says the state’s hospitals need more personal protective equipment (PPE).

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R) speaks to Missourinet during an interview on March 25, 2020 (photo courtesy of Senator Hawley’s office)

Senator Josh Hawley (R) tells Missourinet that he’s spoken to the leaders of almost every hospital in the state.

“All of them … rural, urban, suburban … all of them need more,” Hawley says. “They need more tests, they need more protective equipment, they need more masks.”

Hawley says the hospitals need a large infusion of the equipment.

“We’ve got to surge this into the hospitals, frankly I think that the FDA has been too slow in getting this stuff out there,” says Hawley.

Hawley is in regular contact with Governor Mike Parson (R), who announced Saturday evening that Missouri’s Strategic National Stockpile warehouse has shipped about 5,000 gloves and 2,717 cases of masks to hospitals, EMS and long-term care facilities in the state.

The governor also says about 43,000 face shields have been shipped, along with 908 cases of surgical gowns. There are about 18 to 30 surgical gowns in a case, depending on the size.

Parson also says PPE for first responders have been purchased, and that the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has ordered millions of items. They include 6.6 million surgical masks, 5.8 million gloves, 4.3 million N-95 masks, 214,000 containers of disinfecting wipes and about 74,000 safety goggles.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) announced on Sunday afternoon that there are now 903 confirmed coronavirus cases in Missouri, in addition to 12 deaths.

As for Senator Hawley, he says Missouri hospitals will also need more ventilators, and he praises President Trump for invoking the Defense Production Act. The president invoked it on Friday, ordering General Motors (GM) to produce ventilators for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Politico” reports President Trump wants to see GM produce the ventilators at their recently closed plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

Hawley wants international probe into China’s handling of coronavirus

March 23, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, says China should be held accountable for the way it has dealt with the coronavirus sweeping the globe. He wants an international investigation opened into China’s handling of the outbreak.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s official portrait (2020 photo courtesy of Senator Hawley’s press office)

“We know that they suppressed the actual news,” Hawley tells Fox News. “We know that they ordered the whistleblower doctors to keep silent. Of course, one of those doctors at least lost his life because of that. We know that they delayed global response to this virus by weeks.”

Hawley says thousands of lives could have been saved if China would have notified health officials in a timely manner.

“They ought to be made to foot the bill for what the world, including the United States, is now suffering,” he says.

Hawley says China lied to the world and we are all paying the price.

The pandemic has led to more than 15,000 cases in the U.S., including some 200 deaths. Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 266,000 and killed roughly 11,000 people.

Missouri U.S. Senators split on vote to keep federal government open

November 21, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Congress has passed a bill to keep the federal government open through December 20. U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, supported the measure and Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, opposed it.

The U.S. House passed the proposal on Tuesday.

U.S. Capitol dome courtesy of the U.S. House

The legislation would also include a 3.1% military pay raise, funding for U.S. census efforts and extends controversial surveillance programs to March.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill this week, Blunt says many things are on hold until the funding issue is resolved.

“Defense is critical, but there are lots of other things in this appropriations process that are waiting to see if we’re going to fund the government, at what level we’re going to fund the government, and whether we’re going to move toward the future or just wait for the future come to us,” says Blunt.

Blunt says the National Institute of Health needs funding for important research, like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

“The one percent of that amount that we put into research isn’t nearly as effective if you get it three months into the year as it would be if you got it at the first of the year. It’s even less effective if you get it five months into the year,” says Blunt.

President Donald Trump signed the proposal shortly after.

President signs Hawley’s bill aimed at addressing police officer suicides

July 26, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri U.S. Senator Josh Hawley’s bill that’s meant to stop police officer suicides has been signed into law by President Trump. The bipartisan measure restores and expands grant funding for law enforcement support services and lets organizations use funding for suicide-prevention programs and mental health services for law enforcement officers.

Then-Attorney General Josh Hawley speaks in Winchester, Missouri on October 23, 2018 (file photo courtesy of Bill Greenblatt/UPI)

The legislation passed with unanimous Congressional support. It authorizes up to $7,500,000 in appropriations each year for fiscal years 2020 to 2024, which is the same level of authorization that the program had in 2000.

In a press release, Hawley, a Republican, says suicide is the number one cause of death for police officers nationwide. In 2018, 160 committed suicide, compared to 159 suicides in 2017 and 141 suicides in 2016. That is compared to 144 who died in the line of duty in 2018 from homicides, traffic accidents, and other causes.

“I’m thrilled that President Trump signed my bipartisan legislation to support the heroes of law enforcement into law. This legislation will save lives by providing critical aid to officers in crisis,” says Hawley.

According to Hawley, a former Missouri Attorney General, studies and surveys consistently show that law enforcement officers (“LEOs”) have above-average stress levels in their jobs.

Among the top stressor events that LEOs report facing on a regular basis are:

• Dealing with family disputes and crisis situations (83%)
• Responding to felonies in progress (80%)
• Dealing with insufficient department support for their mission (77%)
• Situations requiring the use of force (59%)
• Exposure to dead or battered children (27%)
• Being physically attacked (23%)

He says these differences in stress levels lead to greater adverse outcomes for LEOs than the general population.

• One study estimates that between 25% and 30% of police officers have stress-based physical health problems, most notably high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and gastrointestinal disorders.
• Another study of Ohio police officers found that 7% of officers sampled met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The Centers for Disease Control concluded that the rate of suicides among workers in protective services (law enforcement and firefighting) is 40% higher than the national average.

Hawley to YouTube: Stop recommending videos of kids to pedophiles

July 10, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, says video-hosting website YouTube refuses to stop automatically recommending footage of kids to pedophiles. He wants to require such companies to change their algorithms for videos of children or face fines and prison time. Hawley’s legislation follows The New York Times reporting that YouTube’s algorithm is designed to suggest videos of children to pedophiles.

Missouri U.S. Senator Josh Hawley

“This report was sickening, but I think what was even more sickening was YouTube’s refusal to do anything about it,” he says. “YouTube admitted that they could do something about it, they could stop auto-referring these videos of minors to pedophiles, but they chose not to do so.

During Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Hawley says YouTube is prioritizing ad revenue over children’s safety.

“Their model is that 70 percent of their traffic comes from these auto-recommended videos. In other words, there is ad revenue that would be lost if they actually took some enforcement steps here, took some steps to stop this exploitation of children,” says Hawley.

YouTube says it has banned younger kids from live streaming unless they are clearly accompanied by an adult and has disabled comments on videos with children. The company says it has strongly enforced its policies on children’s content and removed more than 800,000 videos in the first quarter of 2019 for violating those policies.