On Wednesday, President Biden announced another $9 billion in debt "forgiveness". That's another $9 billion that hardworking American taxpayers will have to pay to cover others' expenses.

The Supreme Court has ruled these schemes unconstitutional, but that hasn't stopped President Biden from trying new workarounds. Altogether, he's given away more than $127 billion in taxpayer money to bailout his supporters. To put it in perspective, that could build President Trump's border wall nearly six times over.

A few months ago, I voted to restart student loan payments and put an end to this madness. A so-called "debtor's union" didn't like that. I guess they thought making noise on social media this week would encourage me to change my position, but they were wrong:

Bidenomics has wrecked our economy, and people are struggling, but we don't fix that by making plumbers and electricians pay off others' masters degrees.

The only way we'll overcome these challenges is by getting government out of the way, and that starts with personal responsibility. It's not rocket science: if you took out a loan, you pay it back.

On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced there is "an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States."

In addition to recognizing the need to build these "physical barriers", Secretary Mayorkas announced his plan to waive 26 of the laws Democrats have historically used to oppose or slow border security construction.

The crisis is so dire that the administration is willing to set aside the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act (but apparently not dire enough for Mayorkas to call this structure a wall).

Here's what he had to say on Thursday:

If you're feeling whiplash from all of this, you're not the only one. The Biden Administration has done this same dance tons of times since they took office.

Defunding the police, unlimited spending, and a wide-open border don't work, but the president and his administration seem dead set on not angering their far-left allies. Instead of telling the truth and pursuing policies to fix our problems, they play word games and try to ignore crises.

I've been to the border, and I know what it will take to secure it. Here's the truth: our border patrol agents work hard to keep this country safe, but the Biden Administration and left-wing DC bureaucrats have been actively working against them. 

I hope Secretary Mayorkas's "physical barriers" slow the waves of illegal immigration and drugs coming across our border — even if he's too afraid to call what he's building a wall. But we can't stop at just 20 miles of new border wall. 

I worked with my colleagues on the House Homeland Security and House Judiciary Committees to build a plan that would secure our entire border and start reforming our broken immigration system.

Our plan would force the Biden Administration to restart wall construction along the entire southern border, hire more border patrol agents, and give current agents raises and retention bonuses.

At the same time, it would strengthen anti-human trafficking laws, end "catch-and-release" policies, and close the asylum loopholes this administration abuses.

I hope this new announcement from Secretary Mayorkas means the Biden Administration is taking this crisis seriously and will finally work with House Republicans to secure the border (but I'm not holding my breath).

Both the student loan scheme and Biden's border flip-flop were overshadowed this week by drama within our House Republican conference. Those aren't the only stories that the media chose to ignore. Here are a few more things you might have missed:

• House Democrat Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) admitted to a felony
• California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed an abortion lobbyist from Maryland to be California's new US Senator
• The lead negotiator of the Obama-Biden Iran deals was caught in an Iranian spy ring
• Hunter Biden plead not guilty to a gun charge — and his attorney threatened to call Joe Biden as a witness
• Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took bribes from Egypt — including over $100k in gold bars
• House Democrat Henry Cuellar was carjacked just blocks away from the Capitol after Democrats cut millions from DC police budgets

Democrats are in disarray, and we have a great opportunity to show the American people that Republicans mean business. It's past time for our Conference to unify behind a candidate who can get 218 votes and get back to doing the jobs we were elected to do.

I have strong relationships with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, and Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern. All three of them have been strong, conservative leaders where they are currently serving, and all three of them would be strong conservative leaders for the House.

I'm still praying about who I'll support in our conference vote for Speaker, but that's not what really matters. What matters is making sure whichever conservative our conference elects has the support they need to win the full House and get Congress back to work.

It's my honor to serve you in the United States Congress. My office and I are continuing to work for you and for all of South Mississippi.

Sincerely,