by Matthew Holloway | Oct 7, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Six Arizona GOP House members—Reps. Andy Biggs, Juan Ciscomani, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, Abe Hamadeh, and David Schweikert—urged Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego in a letter to “do the right thing” by backing H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government.
In the letter, the congressmen told Sens. Kelly and Gallego, “Every single one of us voted for this seven-week, clean continuing resolution when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives on September 19th. This same kind of resolution, with no partisan extraneous policy riders, has garnered bipartisan support routinely in the past.” They also stated that the funding levels called for are precisely those that both Kelly and Gallego have supported in the past.
The congressmen explained, “Our goal in passing this bill was quite simple: keep the government open and functioning for all those who depend on it for a paycheck, and the critical services that our federal government provides. Our state is home to ten military installations, over 34,000 federal civilian employees, approximately 20,000 active-duty service members, over 450,000 veterans, and countless additional federal entities.
“Senate Democrats, yourselves included, are making unrelated policy demands that have nothing to do with government funding. It is far past time to stop holding Arizonans hostage and to put the American people first. Our constituents demand that you stop playing political games with their livelihoods.”
Ciscomani wrote via X, “Arizona’s House Republicans are united — and we’re calling on Arizona’s Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego to stop playing politics and prioritize Arizonans.”
In a statement on Monday, Rep. Crane added, “Last month, the House of Representatives passed a funding extension to prevent a government shutdown. Unfortunately, Senators Kelly and Gallego have repeatedly voted against this approach. A prolonged shutdown harms Arizonans, with many federal employees furloughed or working without pay. I urge our senators to back this sensible measure and help end the government shutdown.”
Hamadeh’s office also offered a statement in support via X writing, “Congressman Hamadeh is proud to stand with his Arizona Congressional Republican colleagues in demanding that Kelly and Gallego start putting Arizonans’ interests over Chuck Schumer’s.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 3, 2025 | Economy, News
By Matthew Holloway |
Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ09) recently shared an article from Newsweek, highlighting the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows corporations to hire student visa holders to sidestep tax liabilities, such as Medicare and Social Security. Commenting on the article, Gosar offered a scathing condemnation of the companies that benefit from this underhanded method for evading the laws governing the hiring of foreign nationals.
According to Newsweek, Anne Walsh, a partner at the San Francisco-based law firm Corporate Immigration Partners, explained the OPT program, saying, “There’s no wage obligation in the way that there is in H-1B where we’re very tied to an obligated wage.” The outlet noted that in fiscal 2024, 109,661 were enrolled by American companies, allowing the firms to take them on as students under F-1 visas, with the heaviest hitters including Amazon, the University of California, and Google as the top three.
In his post to X, Gosar wrote, “OPT incentivizes greedy businesses to fire Americans & replace them with inexpensive foreign labor by avoiding having to pay FICA and Medicare payroll taxes and other employee benefits. My bill, HR 2315, would terminate the OPT Program.”
Rep. Gosar’s bill, the Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act, reintroduced in March, would terminate the OPT program entirely.
“The OPT program completely undercuts American workers, particularly higher-skilled workers and recent college graduates, by giving employers a tax incentive to hire inexpensive, foreign labor under the guise of student training. Never authorized by Congress, OPT circumvents the H-1B visa cap set by Congress by allowing over 100,000 aliens admitted into our country on student visas to continue working in the United States for another three years after completing their academic studies,” Gosar said in a statement.
He continued, “OPT incentivizes greedy businesses to fire Americans and replace them with inexpensive foreign labor by avoiding having to pay FICA and Medicare payroll taxes and other employee benefits. The OPT program completely abandons young Americans who have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics only to be pushed out of those fields by cheap foreigners. Our government should not be incentivizing foreign employees over Americans. This badly flawed government program should be eliminated.”
While the bill does nothing to prevent students on F-1 visas from working in the U.S. while enrolled in a College or University, it does eliminate the program that allowed them to remain in the U.S. for three years beyond their F-1 visa, preserving jobs for highly-skilled Americans, per Gosar’s office and saving the Social Security and Medicare trust fund $4 billion annually according to Numbers USA.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jul 28, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to meet with Trump administration officials, including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, to coordinate with federal authorities on the Dragon Bravo wildfire, which has claimed over 16,000 acres and is 26% contained as of this report. The move from Hobbs represents a rare departure from the governor’s antagonistic stance with Republicans in general, and the Trump administration in particular.
Along with Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle, including fellow Democrats, Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and Republican Congressmen Paul Gosar and Eli Crane, Hobbs has called for an investigation into the measures used to control the fire and the policies that led to it as well.
In a post to X, Hobbs stood for a photo-op with the former North Dakota Governor-turned-Interior Secretary writing, “I was glad to meet today with @SecretaryBurgum. We both agreed to work together to combat the Dragon Bravo Fire and rebuild from the destruction. The Secretary also committed to an independent review of the decisions made during the Dragon Bravo Fire containment process. This accountability is essential as we work to ensure this never happens again.”
Following a tour of the devastated National Park lands on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Hobbs said, “This is federal jurisdiction, but fire doesn’t know that boundary, and we all have to work together.”
“Seeing the complexity that goes into managing an incident like this is helpful, and certainly, I feel good about going back to Arizonans and saying, ‘Look, everyone’s concerned about making sure that we’re protecting as much as possible, and that we can rebuild, because the Grand Canyon is so important to our state,’” Hobbs said.
Congressman Gosar said in a statement last week:
“I am concerned that the Dragon Bravo Wildfire is the direct result of recently inherited policies from the Biden Administration.
“We must not waver in our efforts to seek answers for the people of Arizona. Today, I call on Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Burgum, to seek answers for the people of Arizona, who want answers as to the causes of this disaster and what can be done to prevent tragedies like this in the future.
“The people of Arizona will not be calling for answers alone. I will continue to seek answers and solutions, because these wildfires deeply impact Arizonans and our state.”
Speaking with KAFF News Tuesday, Rep. Eli Crane described the fire’s devastation as “heartbreaking” and said, “Generations of Arizonans have made priceless memories at the North Rim, so this is a very tragic loss. I also want to see the North Rim built back bigger and better than ever.”
Answering a caller’s challenge to rebuild the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, lost to the flames, Crane said, “We will continue to do what we can on this issue. I know how important it is to Arizona and our district. Let’s also modernize it so it can be open year-round.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jul 23, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ09) joined a growing bipartisan chorus calling for an investigation into the Dragon Bravo Wildfire.
Gosar’s statement differed slightly, however, from Democrat leaders in one key concern: the culpability of the Biden administration.
Raging across the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, the wildfire escalated quickly, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge as well as park administrative offices and residences. As of this report, the massive blaze is currently 8% contained and has burned over 12,000 acres. Approximately 70 buildings have been destroyed.
According to the Grand Canyon National Park Service, the fire was started by a lightning strike on July 4th and was allowed to burn for a few days for “resource objectives.” It was behaving as planned until “really strong aggressive winds” arose from the canyon and “changed the fire behavior dramatically very quickly,“ National Park Service Public Affairs Officer Joëlle Baird told AZ Family.
Robert Rickey, a National Weather Service science operations officer in Flagstaff, told the outlet that a mixture of high-pressure, disappearing humidity, and high winds triggered the explosive expansion of the fire.
“We had this big area of high pressure. All that moisture basically evaporated,” he said. “In terms of humidity, we consider 15% to be a critical threshold, so when we’re seeing humidities in the single digits, I mean that’s about as low as it can possibly get.”
Wind gusts at Grand Canyon National Park reportedly hit as high as 40 mph.
“The winds shifted more toward the northwest, and I think that really caused them some issues,” Rickey said per AZ Family. “When you get more of a northerly flow at night time, all that air just drops right down into the Grand Canyon and so basically it accelerates right along the rim.”
In a single day, the fire exploded from 120 acres to 1,500 acres.
Ken Phillips, a 27-year veteran employee at the Grand Canyon and former chief of emergency services told The Guardian that he believes the decision to “control and contain” the fire initially was a mistake.
“The North Rim did not need to burn the way it did and put firefighters in harm’s way,” he said. “There is a history of escaped managed wildfires at Grand Canyon. It is very tragic that the lessons learned from those fires weren’t heeded in this situation.”
Rachel Pawlitz, a National Park Service (NPS) spokeswoman, offered a different view in an interview with the Arizona Republic. She defended the park’s response saying, “The National Park Service and our interagency partners actively fought the Dragon Bravo fire employing tactics that met the suppression objectives and mitigated risk. Firefighters had constructed containment lines and were prepared to conduct a defensive firing operation before conditions rapidly changed.”
NPS told the outlet that the fire was “expertly handled.”
In a statement to the Republic, Gosar’s spokesman, Anthony Foti, said, “The Congressman is both sickened and troubled by the fire. As the dean of the Arizona congressional delegation and as member of both the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee he will be calling for a full and complete investigation. More details very soon.”
Congressman Gosar said in a statement, “I am concerned that the Dragon Bravo Wildfire is the direct result of recently inherited policies from the Biden Administration.”
“We must not waver in our efforts to seek answers for the people of Arizona. Today, I call on Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Burgum, to seek answers for the people of Arizona, who want answers as to the causes of this disaster and what can be done to prevent tragedies like this in the future.
“The people of Arizona will not be calling for answers alone. I will continue to seek answers and solutions, because these wildfires deeply impact Arizonans and our state.”
In a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Gosar wrote, “I am concerned that the spread of the Dragon Bravo Wildfire is the direct result of the recently inherited policies from the previous administration. Specifically, the Biden-Harris administration promoted policies that allowed for the mass overgrowth of brush, prohibited effective fuel reduction operations, and locked up the lands from resource development.”
He added, “President Trump’s Executive Order 14308, published on June 12, 2025, sought to correct this mismanagement and empower the Department of the Interior (DOI) to identify the steps necessary for innovative wildfire response—with some actions already identified by Congress, like forest thinning and improved suppression response times.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jul 9, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Months after its reintroduction to Congress, H.R. 1362 the Downwinders Parity Act, sponsored by Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ09) and cosponsored by Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ08), passed by inclusion within the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill.’ The act, which reauthorizes the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), passed through the Budget Reconciliation process and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4th.
“Atomic weapons testing conducted during the Cold War at the Nevada Test Site came with a heavy cost to Americans living in Arizona, Nevada and within tribal communities. Every person, known as ‘downwinders,’ who developed cancer or other related illnesses after being exposed to radiation from atomic weapons testing deserves to be compensated by the federal government,” explained Gosar.
“Downwinders,” their survivors, and uranium industry workers affected by the testing are now eligible for up to $100,000 in federal compensation.
The RECA bill originally authorized compensation for “downwinders” for 20 years in 1990 and was subsequently extended for 22 years and expanded in scope to include Apache, Coconino, Gila, Navajo, and Yavapai Counties, in Arizona, but only included parts of Mohave County and only included townships 13 through 16 at ranges 63 through 71 of Clark County, Nevada. As Gosar notes, despite the revisions and even another two year extension in 2022, the entirety of Mohave County or Clark County were not included.
“Not only were downwinders residing in Mohave and Clark counties closer to the Nevada Test Site than residents in other eligible counties, but they also have the second-highest overall incidence rate of cancer in their respective states,” Gosar said.
He added, “Since first being elected to Congress, I have worked tirelessly to fix the error that excluded Downwinders from Mohave and Clark Counties from filing claims with the federal government. Congress has a moral responsibility to reauthorize RECA and update it by including both Mohave and Clark counties as affected areas.”
Cullin D. Pattillo, a surviving son of Eddie Pattillo of Kingman, told ABC15 that his father suffered for thirty years against three different forms of cancer after being exposed to radiation in the 1950s from nuclear testing 120 miles north of his Mohave County home.
“It killed my father and killed thousands of other people around the state of Arizona,” Pattillo said.
He told the outlet that his father never benefited from RECA compensation and screenings.
“I know of at least 100 claims that’ll be submitted here in Kingman, and there’s probably going to be a lot more,” he added.
Pattillo who has advocated for the expansion of RECA told the outlet, “It was always something that he fought for. We got close several times while he was still alive, and it was something I wanted to at least push through to the bitter end.”
In a statement marking the passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Rep. Gosar said, “Following the four disastrous years of the failed and corrupt Biden administration that created historic inflation, destroyed our economy and welcomed nearly 20 million illegal aliens into our country, I am very pleased to have voted in favor of legislation advancing President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
