2024 Year-End Report 118th Congress, 2nd Session

Overview

As the second session of the 118th Congress began, Republicans controlled the House of Representatives by a narrow majority — 221 GOP to 213 Democrats. The Senate majority was narrowly held by the Democrats with 52 Democrats (and Independents who caucus with the Democrats) to 48 Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had a narrow majority to work with, but still had many accomplishments. He will remain as Speaker in the new Congress. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his resignation from his leadership position but will serve out the remainder of his term as Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was elected by secret ballot to be the Senate Majority Leader for the 119th Congress beginning in January 2025.

Life

Senate Democrats tried and failed to pass several anti-life bills this Congress — some of these under the guise of protecting in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The Right to IVF Act (S. 4445) introduced a new term into legislation called “artificial reproductive technology” (ART). This term includes not only IVF but also encompasses experimental procedures such as cloning and animal-human hybrids. The language was also placed in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Both the Right to IVF Act and NDAA language failed to pass.

Earlier this year, the Senate voted on a bill to broaden the definition of “contraception” to include any device or medication that prevents pregnancy, including abortifacients. It would have negated conscience protections for medical professionals and eliminated all informed consent laws and waiting periods for minors. This measure also failed.

Senate Democrats, who controlled the chamber, also tried to pass a resolution (S. 4554) to support the overturned Roe v. Wade decision. This was part of a larger strategy to codify abortion on demand until birth in all 50 states. Thankfully, they failed to reach the 60 votes needed to bring it to a floor vote. Eagle Forum opposed all these pro-abortion bills.

Reigning in the Federal Government

The Biden administration often tried to use regulations to “legislate” through the executive branch. They imposed “woke” policies on agencies on matters from gender identity to climate change. Eagle Forum supported Congress’s attempts to overturn these rules through the Congressional Review Act. We favored four bills to repeal regulations on dishwashers (H.R. 7700), refrigerators (H.R. 7637), clothes washers (H.R. 7673), and other appliances (H.R. 6192). We also endorsed bills to eliminate the most extreme car emissions rule in history (H.J. Res. 136) and to stop the Biden administration from allowing China to mass produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries (S.J. Res. 38). All bills passed the House. The EV battery bill passed both chambers, but President Biden vetoed the bill.

Title IX – Protecting Women and Girls

After nearly a two-year wait, the Biden administration published their rewritten Title IX rule that replaced “sex” with “gender identity.” Title IX has historically given girls and women a right to education and to compete in their own athletics. Redefining “sex” would allow boys who identify as girls to compete against biological girls despite differences in strength and size. This also opened girls’ private spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers to members of the opposite sex. Eagle Forum supported a resolution (H.J. Res. 165) to repeal this rule which passed the House but failed to move in the Senate. In January, a federal court struck down this regulation nationwide.

Anti-wokeness

The House of Representatives held an “Anti-Woke Week” this Congress to address the social experimentation happening at our financial and higher education institutions. The bills would have stopped investors from making decisions based on the political whims of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) politics (H.R. 4790 & H.R. 5539) and ensure that colleges would not be forced to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies while protecting their religious and moral missions (H.R. 3724). Eagle Forum endorsed all these bills.

Additionally, the Senate Armed Services Committee inserted language in the National Defense Authorization Act to require young women ages 18-24 to register for the selective service. Once again, Eagle Forum opposed this provision and it was stripped out of the final bill.

Immigration & Border Security

The Senate refused to take up the border security bill last year (Secure the Border Act, H.R. 2) that was backed by Eagle Forum and other conservative groups. Instead, GOP leaders in the Senate decided to craft their own immigration bill. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tapped Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) to lead the effort and negotiate with the Open Border Biden Administration. The “bipartisan” deal, deemed the “Schumer-Lankford bill,” included codifying catch-and-release policies, giving billions of tax dollars to organizations that incentivize illegal immigration, limiting a President’s ability to close the border, and more anti-border security measures. Eagle Forum opposed this bill and worked with conservatives to stop the legislation altogether.

Additionally, Eagle Forum supported Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) amendment (#1999) to the Federal Aviation Act to ensure that immigrants use real forms of identification when entering the country. Currently, they are allowed to use the Biden administration’s CBP-One Mobile App which does not prevent the use of fraudulent identities. Unfortunately, the amendment did not pass.

The House worked on several single-issue immigration bills throughout the year. The SAVE Act (H.R. 8281), to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and passed the House with bipartisan support. After the Senate refused to take it up, the SAVE Act was attached to September’s continuing resolution but failed to garner enough votes to pass.

Other immigration bills that passed the House included the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act (H.R. 7909), to immediately deport immigrants who engage in sexual offenses; the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 5717), to defund sanctuary cities that harbor criminals, and the Equal Representation Act (H.R. 7109) to add a citizenship question to the census. Eagle Forum endorsed all these measures.

American Sovereignty

The House of Representatives took a strong stance against the practices of communist China while bolstering America’s sovereignty. Our Members took votes on defunding Confucius Institutes (H.R. 1516), codifying the Trump administration’s protections against China’s theft of intellectual property (H.R. 1398), giving Congress the power to review U.S. land purchases by China (H.R. 9456), and eliminating the ability for China to benefit from electric vehicle tax credits (H.R. 7980). In a unified effort, the House and Senate passed into law a provision (H.R. 7521) to ban online apps, such as TikTok, that are controlled by foreign adversaries.

The 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) wrapped up its self-proclaimed “historic” meeting in Geneva on June 1, 2024, by passing a modified version of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and delaying the adoption of the Pandemic Treaty. The new IHRs allow the WHO to expand its reach to events that are “potential” pandemics and give them the authority to counter “mis- and disinformation.” The Pandemic Treaty was given a 12-month extension and, despite the WHA’s best efforts, will not be adopted before President Biden leaves office. This was their desire as President Trump began the process of removing the U.S. from the WHO in 2020 and has promised to reject any WHO Treaty this term as well. The House passed HR 1425, the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act, that would ensure the White House does not enter into any agreement with the WHO on pandemic preparedness without first getting the constitutionally required advice and consent from the U.S. Senate.  The Senate failed to stand up for its own authority in this regard, but we are hopeful that Trump will reject all WHO agreements as an assault on our sovereignty.

Government Spending

In the Lame Duck session of the 118th Congress, the House and Senate considered two controversial bills that affected the wallets of taxpayers. The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) expanded social security benefits to retirees who did not pay into the system. This is projected to have dangerous ramifications on the program within ten years. Eagle Forum opposed this legislation, however, the House and Senate passed the bill, and President Biden signed it into law.

The last bill of the year was to fund the government and avoid a Christmas shutdown. With little to work with, House and Senate Leadership presented a continuing resolution (CR) loaded with emergency supplemental funding for hurricane victims, pay raises for Congress, Democrat pet projects, and more. This appeared more like an omnibus rather than a “clean” CR. Members of the House Freedom Caucus and the Trump administration voiced their opposition. Eagle Forum encouraged the House to offer a “clean” CR instead. After other iterations of this bill, Congress passed the American Relief Act (H.R. 10545) which dropped the most egregious “extras” from the original CR to fund the government until March 2025.

Comprehensive List of Scored or Supported Legislation

2024 GOP Platform

Eagle Forum was very active in the GOP Platform this year. We worked with like-minded organizations to form a conservative coalition of Platform delegates. Together, we crafted language on topics such as life, gender identity, marijuana abuse, American sovereignty, military superiority, and more. Unfortunately, much of the pre-existing conservative language, especially the pro-life plank, was stripped from the document. The Platform delegates were unable to introduce, amend, or debate language in the Platform this year.

While we were disappointed in the process and the results, we will continue to work with our elected officials in all branches of government to implement conservative principles. We are actively encouraging people to get involved with their local GOP chapters and to run for the GOP Platform in 2028.

Eagle Forum PAC

In the 2024 election cycle, Eagle Forum PAC endorsed 29 candidates for various offices on the state and federal levels. 23 of those candidates — 15 Congressmen, 5 U.S. Senators, 2 Board of Education members, and 1 Attorney General — were victorious in the November elections!