Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, filed the Monetary Enhancement for Distinguished Active Legends (MEDAL) Act. The MEDAL Act increase the monthly pension for living Medal of Honor recipients to $100,000 annually. The Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest military decoration. There are only 61 living recipients. About the legislation, Sen. Cruz said, “Our Medal of Honor recipients are true heroes whose acts of valor inspire...

Good Evening, After a month traveling across the state meeting with Texans and hearing about the issues confronting the Lone Star State, I made my way back to Washington. This week, I was honored to attend the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the fallen military heroes who lost their lives in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 26, 2021 as U.S. troops conducted evacuation operations. One of those fallen heroes was Marine Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza of Laredo, Texas who was posthumously...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken raising national security concerns about the Biden-Harris Administration’s decision to give nonimmigrant visas (NIV) to Cuban nationals. In the letter, the Senators wrote, “Rather than compelling the Cuban dictatorship to end its human rights abuses and bring democracy to the island, the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the following comments after Marine Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza of Laredo, Texas was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal after he was killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 26, 2021 as U.S. troops conducted evacuation operations: “Marine Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza, at only 20 years old, made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, putting the safety and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Department of State Secretary Anthony Blinken questioning their ability to crack down on illegal aliens linked to terrorist organizations.  In the letter, the members of congress wrote, “It is clear under the law that anyone in the country who is a non-citizen should have their visa...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) released the following statements after their bipartisan Starr-Camargo Bridge Expansion Act, which would give authority to increase the number of lanes for the  bridge between Rio Grande City, Texas, and Mexico and facilitates hundreds of millions of dollars in cross-border trade, passed the U.S. House of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, today sent a letter with Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Pete Ricketts...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, issued the following statement after testimony in the House Judiciary Committee by Alexis Nungaray, the mother of Houstonian Jocelyn Nungaray. In June, 12-year-old Jocelyn was assaulted and murdered by two illegal aliens from Venezuela. The Justice for Jocelyn Act addresses the critical failures of the Department of Homeland Security’s...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released the following statement after the United States secured the freedom of 135 political prisoners on humanitarian grounds, including 13 individuals affiliated with Texas-based religious organization Mountain Gateway. These political prisoners were being wrongly detained by Nicaraguan authorities. In a statement, Sen. Cruz said, “Today, we celebrate a significant victory for freedom as over one hundred political prisoners have been released...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week applauded the House introduction by Reps. Vince Fong (R-Calif.-20) and Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.-7) of companion legislation to the Strengthening Tracking Of Poisonous Tranq Requiring Analyzed National Quantification (STOP TRANQ) Act. Sen. Cruz and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the legislation in the Senate earlier this year. The STOP TRANQ Act would require the Department of State to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on The Constitution, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.-48), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, sent an oversight letter today to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and Secret Service Vault Supervisor for the Forensic Services Division Matt White regarding Secret Service’s handling of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement today during the week of the twelve-year anniversary of Austin Tice’s wrongful detainment and captivity. Sen. Cruz said, “Austin Tice has now endured twelve years of wrongful detainment, an unconscionable and unbearable crime against him and his family. This horrible anniversary is a reminder of the need to redouble our efforts to bring Austin home, and to secure the freedom of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) in applauding the Senate’s unanimous passage of the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024. The JUDGES Act would address judicial emergencies and shortages across the country by increasing the number of federal district judges in the most overworked regions of the country. The bipartisan legislation will now...

Good Evening, The attempted assassination of President Donald Trump was the largest security failure since 1981 when Ronald Reagan was almost killed. To be clear: The agents who protected President Trump were brave and honorable. This was a catastrophic failure from the leadership of the Secret Service, and I’m not going to rest until we get answers. “We now know that one minute and 57 seconds before the first shot was fired bystanders spotted the shooter on the roof with a rifle. We've all...

HOUSTON, Texas – Today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) led a press conference on the Justice for Jocelyn Act to crack down on the Department of Homeland Security’s “Alternative to Detention” program. Sen. Cruz was joined by Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was assaulted and brutally murdered by two illegal aliens from Venezuela. Sen. Cruz was also joined at the press conference by Harris County District Attorney, Kim Ogg, Representative Troy Nehls, Texas businessman and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has introduced the Guarding and Administering Trespass Enforcement, Controlling Restricted Areas, and Stopping High-Risk Encroachment Recidivism and Sabotage (GATE CRASHERS) Act. Sen. Cruz’s bill would strengthen criminal penalties for trespassing on Department of Defense (DOD) installations. Recently, significant numbers of Chinese nationals and other illegal immigrants have sought to gain...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) introduced the bipartisan Improving Military Recruitment at Senior Military Colleges Act to establish a system to allow applicants to the Nation’s Military Service Academies (MSAs), including the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy to elect to have their information shared with Senior Military Colleges. This bipartisan bill ensures that highly qualified candidates not...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released the following statement after the Senate unanimously passed the 2024 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which included several provisions to support infrastructure throughout Texas. Following passage, Sen. Cruz said, “I was proud to secure key legislative priorities for the Lone Star State in this year’s Water Resources Development Act. The provisions I championed bolster infrastructure projects throughout our state—improving coastal...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement today following news that multiple Americans will be released from their wrongful imprisonment in Russia. Sen. Cruz said, “I’m pleased that these wrongfully detained Americans will finally be reunited with their loved ones here at home. Their release was long overdue. I have long called on Vladmir Putin and the Russian government to release them and for the United...