U.S. Senator Katie Britt, originating in the Wiregrass region of Alabama, hosted a Washington update on March 19 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, stating her concerns for defense budgeting and attacks in Israel as well as reflecting on her time in the senate so far.

Having been a member of the senate for only 14 months as the first female Republican senator from Alabama, as well as the youngest female Republican senator overall, Britt represents Alabama in committees regarding banking, rules, and appropriations.

Britt expressed confidence in Alabama’s Secretary of State, Wes Allen.

She spoke of his intention to encourage more people to volunteer as poll workers as well as his initiative called Heroes to the Polls, encouraging veterans to serve in that capacity. Britt also stated that those in need of voter IDs can have them delivered to their doors free of charge by the Alabama Secretary of State.

That said, Britt didn’t avoid talking about the tough issues, advocating for heavy trade sanctions on Iran, noting that Iran’s oil revenue has increased under the Biden administration as Trump enforced “bone crushing” sanctions.

“We know the more money they have, the more money they have to finance terrorism, and the more money they have to advance their nuclear agenda. What we need to do is put maximum pressure when it comes to sanctions. When we talked to Secretary Yellen and tried to point out the discrepancies under the previous administration. The last of the Trump administration, Iran was making about $7 billion off of oil revenue…Now they’re making $80 billion in oil revenue. I was disappointed to see last week, this administration knowing what we’ve just been through, just did a waiver, and Iran will have another $10 billion to work with. This isn’t rocket science,” Britt said of Iran, also calling the country “the largest state sponsor of terrorism.”

Britt then discussed a bipartisan delegation totaling at 5 republicans and 5 democrats to Israel 2 weeks after the wave of attacks on the nation in October. Meeting with leaders in Israel, Britt noted differences and parallels in regards to Hamas’ attacks to those of 9/11.

“Those men and women woke up the next day, and the enemy was only a few miles away. And it was an enemy that said and continues to say, ‘we will come back again and again and again. And we will repeat October 7th until we eradicate the Jewish people and the Israeli state.’ When we woke up, that would have been when the people of New York, knowing that those people were in Brooklyn, we would have never asked moms and dads to tuck their kids in at night and say, ‘I hope you’re safe.’”

According to Britt, allies of the U.S. have lost respect for it, and enemies no longer fear it as a result of weakness in the White House, using Biden’s 1% cut in the Homeland Security.

Britt noted that China has had 3 years of security spending in a row, averaging at around a 7% increase each year.

“I believe in order to achieve peace through strength, we need to be investing in the right things,” Britt said.

Britt concluded her update in saying that despite the difficult times the U.S. finds itself in, she still has faith in the nation and its ability to recover.

“We have faced harder times before, and we have gotten knocked down, and it’ll happen again. But I am counting on the men and women in this room, the men and women of our state, the men and women of this nation to continue to stand back up,” concluded Britt.