As the year comes to an end, most Americans won’t remember the specifics of this year’s biggest policy fights. They will feel how those policy fights affected them and their bottom line — what their local lawmakers, Congress and the administration did to make life more affordable and to unleash opportunity.
Americans came into this year seeking change. After soundly rejecting top-down government control in the 2024 election, they sent a bold message to Washington that it was time for change.
I’ve heard this firsthand.
This year, I’ve traveled around the country, met with Americans, and asked them what matters most to them. Their answers are usually simple — affordable groceries and necessities, healthcare options that don’t break the bank, and freedom to build the kind of lives they want for their families.
This has been a giant step forward on all those fronts.
The Trump administration and leaders in Congress put an end to Bidenomics, the top-down government-controlled economic philosophy that caused 40-year high inflation, leaving Americans paying $11,000 more just to maintain their lifestyles.
What’s more, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, preventing the largest tax increase in American history, which would have hit families in 2026. This landmark law also cut more than $1.6 trillion in wasteful spending, ended needless energy subsidies, expanded access to healthcare options, and delivered long-term certainty for families and businesses.
The law also provided funding for border security. President Trump and the Republican-led Congress heard the voices of Americans shouting for greater border security, and they delivered. Congress strengthened security through funding and personnel, resulting in the lowest border crossing numbers we’ve seen in 50 years.
This sets Washington up to work on more comprehensive immigration reforms that allow those who want to contribute to enter the country while keeping out others.
Across the country, state reforms restored accountability, limited government overreach, and returned decision-making rights to the states.
In Texas, citizens worked to deliver a historic expansion of education freedom by passing the largest universal education savings account program in the country. This allows parents and students more control over their education, all because Texans knew that students deserve better than a one-size-fits-all education system, and that parents should decide how to meet their child’s needs, not Washington.
States including North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Utah, Oklahoma and Wyoming passed the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, a tool that creates safeguards against excessive regulation by requiring legislative approval for regulations that would significantly affect the state’s economy.
Americans in these states have greater protection from overly burdensome regulations that hurt their states’ economies. federal lawmakers now have a blueprint for REINS reforms on the national level.
The year 2025 has been about putting freedom and control (and tax dollars) back in the hands of the people.
However, it wasn’t all good news.
The historically long government shutdown brought government and needed policy work to a screeching halt. Too many congressional Democrats proved they were willing to hold the government and taxpayers hostage to score political points with their base.
Shutdown fights are precisely the dysfunction Americans hate to see from Congress. Going into next year, we’ll work with members to clean up the messes made during the shutdown and in the Bidenomics era with the best solution we have — freedom and opportunity.
Where Democrats and some Republicans fought for Affordable Care Act subsidies that line the pockets of insurance companies, we’ll fight for actual affordable healthcare along with innovative options to drive down costs and give citizens more choices.
Where energy options and production have long been held back by red tape and excessive bureaucracy, we’ll fight for an “all of the above” approach to energy. We’ll push Congress to let Americans produce our energy and drive down prices through reforms, including the SPEED Act.
As we see the rise of the belief that the government should solve every problem, we will instead seek to empower free people to accomplish incredible things by getting government out of the way.
Greater prosperity is within reach for our country, but only if we end out-of-control spending, deliver on affordability, provide for abundant energy, increase healthcare choices and strengthen our economy.
The country’s biggest successes this year were not temporary wins but real reforms that provided relief to the American people, which will serve as a springboard for more prosperity to come.
