Fellow Conservative,

The first year of President Trump’s return to the White House is coming to an end. Under his leadership, Republicans have made great strides towards reviving America, but more needs to, and can be, done to fulfill the mandate they were given.

President Trump is correct when he says that he inherited a mess.

One of the biggest issues Americans are dealing with is affordability. Under the failed Biden administration, inflation skyrocketed thanks to their exorbitant spending levels and expansion of the regulatory state. The unfortunate truth is that there’s no magic button to make prices go back to pre-Biden levels.

But that doesn’t mean we are powerless to make things better. If Republicans are going to make the case to voters that they deserve to retain control of Congress in 2026, they need to campaign on results, not promises. Thankfully, this week brought some movement on that front.

The Obamacare Albatross

Year after year, healthcare costs continue to be one of the largest household expenditures. Obamacare is a big part of that by causing soaring premiums, skyrocketing deductibles, and overall worse coverage.

To make health care more affordable, policy changes are needed to fix what is wrong with Obamacare -- and to also provide relief to those not under Obamacare, including the 160 million Americans on employer and union plans.

That’s why House Republicans passed legislation this week to help lower health care costs for millions of families. Although a complete overhaul of the healthcare system is needed, this bill is a step in the right direction for providing relief for millions of families who are bearing the brunt of Obamacare’s failed policies. This is in stark contrast to the Democrat plan — they want to keep up the guise of lower premiums by giving your hard-earned tax dollars to insurance companies with no incentives to lower prices.

But the wins didn’t stop there.

Gender ideology is an insidious and pervasive threat to both children and adults' minds, bodies, relationships, and every part of their lives. We know that leftists consistently target our kids. The Biden Administration famously experimented with “gender affirming care” on minors — aggressively pushing life-altering surgeries on kids as young as 12.

Thankfully, the tide is turning. President Trump has already signed an executive order to protect kids from irreversible sex-rejecting procedures and further stipulated that institutions receiving federal grants must officially stop the mutilation of American children. However, to fully defeat the evil of gender ideology, Congress needs to act. This week the House passed an important bill aimed at doing just that.

The Heritage Action-backed Do No Harm in Medicaid Act (H.R. 498) prevents Medicaid funds from funding sex-rejecting procedures on minors. This is the continuation of Republican efforts to stop taxpayers from funding these harmful drugs and irreversibly damaging surgeries. The Senate should immediately take up and pass this legislation.

But not to be outdone, the Trump administration also scored a second important victory against gender ideology. This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced a sweeping set of regulatory actions to end sex-rejecting procedures on minors, following President Trump’s January executive order to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation. It would:

  • Bar hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries on minors.

  • Send warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to companies marketing breast binders to children.

  • Reverse the Biden-era rule that labeled gender dysphoria as a disability under federal law, restoring clarity on civil rights requirements.

  • Cancel National Institute of Health (NIH) grants supporting transgender medical interventions for youth.

  • Declare that sex-rejecting procedures on minors does not meet professional medical standards.

The Trump administration is rightly pushing back against left-wing, ideology-driven medical experiments targeting our children – and rejecting the Left’s framing. This announcement tells the truth to the American people and uses the “sex-rejecting procedures” language and principles long championed by Heritage and Heritage Action and crafted with movement allies. For too long, so-called “gender-affirming care” has been an egregious evil, causing irreversible physical and psychological harm to children and destroying families. We say, “no more.”

Americans don’t want woke gender ideology and other Marxist priorities. So why is the Senate including millions of dollars in absurd left-wing earmarks in their Labor-HHS appropriations bill?

Earmarks can enable woke organizations to continue receiving federal funding, even though Republicans control Congress and the White House. A Republican Congress should use the appropriations process to fund Republican priorities and President Trump's agenda, not late-term abortions, DEI, and gender ideology.

Read Heritage Action’s breakdown of these earmarks here.

It’s official. The Kennedy Center has been renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Cue the permanently outraged, online liberal activist class, posting “THE END OF DEMOCRACY” between sips of $9 oat milk lattes.

The board voted unanimously (yes, unanimously) to rename the iconic arts institution after President Trump, crediting him with pulling the center back from financial disaster and modernizing a building that hadn’t seen a glow-up since Nancy Pelosi was first sworn into Congress. We are happy to see the Kennedy Center refocused on sharing art rather than promoting woke politics.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

This Christmas, we are grateful for all the victories we have helped achieve together this year. Because of your partnership, Heritage Action has been at the forefront of the fight raging on Capitol Hill and in states across the country.

We look forward to continuing the important work of fighting for the American people, remaining steadfast in our commitment to restoring human flourishing through self-governance for all Americans and championing the policies that get us there in 2026.

We wish you a merry, blessed, and wonderful Christmas.

- The Heritage Action Team

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