WASHINGTON >> Former President Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance, has made two main issues his focus during his brief Senate tenure: opposing aid to Ukraine and pushing for railway safety following last year’s freight train derailment in his home state involving toxic chemicals.

Vance, first elected in 2022, has also struck interesting positions in the spending and tax spheres, including pushing a bipartisan effort to compensate former hostages in Iran. Despite opposing the final fiscal 2024 spending package, he successfully got a provision included that would ban mask mandates for the Transportation Department.

He’s also pushed for partisan culture war-related bills that could signal priorities in a second Trump administration. This includes an effort to tax elite university endowments and block funding to colleges that allow protest encampments, among others.

A skeptic of government spending overall, Vance does not participate in the Senate’s earmark request process and has voted against every major spending bill that has been put forward during his tenure in the Senate, including last summer’s debt limit deal; both final fiscal 2024 appropriations packages and the $95.3 billion war supplemental, though he backed standalone Israel aid legislation.

Mask mandate

Vance’s provision blocked the Transportation Department from enforcing mask mandates on planes, trains, buses or other federally-funded modes of transport through the end of the fiscal year. The department did not have any active mask mandates in place, but would be unable to implement any new ones through September.

“Mask mandates were an outrageous overstep by the public health establishment,” Vance said. “We cannot allow this mistake to be repeated.”

Vance had originally offered the provision as an amendment to the bill as the Senate considered it on the floor last fall, and it was adopted 59-38 with 10 Democratic senators and Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema in favor.

Democratic senators in tight reelection races including Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, Nevada’s Jacky Rosen and Montana’s Jon Tester, voted for Vance’s amendment.

During Senate debate on its version of the Transportation measure, Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Brian Schatz called Vance’s amendment “counterproductive.”

Schatz, D-Hawaii, said that if there were to be a future COVID-19 variant that spread faster and was more deadly, he believes the administration should be able to enact a mask mandate on public transit.

“I do think public health officials should be able to consult with agencies to try to figure out what measures ought to work,” he said.

Diversity initiatives, campus protests

Vance has proposed a series of bills relating to taxpayer funding that center on culture war issues, including trying to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Vance introduced a bill last month that would eliminate all federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. It would also prevent federal grant recipients from “employing DEI practices.” Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, introduced his chamber’s version.

Vance has also introduced a pair of bills focusing on colleges and universities, one that would block funding for institutions that do not remove encampments from their campuses and another that would prevent colleges from hiring undocumented immigrants.

That’s not the only bill Vance has put forward targeting undocumented immigrants. He and Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., introduced bills that would block Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals beneficiaries from receiving federally-funded health care benefits and prevent waivers for undocumented immigrants to get insurance coverage under the 2010 health care law. And Vance proposed a bill that would block so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal housing grants.

Along with the conservative priorities, Vance has pushed for funding for key programs for his home state. He supports a bill that Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has pushed that would appropriate $7 billion for a Federal Communications Commission program that helps lower-income and rural households afford high-speed internet. That program ran out of funding last month.

In another bipartisan effort, Vance has partnered with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., to provide additional compensation to former Iranian hostages. Their bill would supplement a previous $3 billion deposited into the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism fund in late 2022 that applies to a broader group of terror victims with whatever amounts are necessary to ensure that the Iran hostages and their families specifically receive their full claims.

Tax bills

Targeting colleges and universities seen by critics as being not sufficiently tough on antisemitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has also been a focus of Vance’s forays into tax legislation.

Vance has introduced three tax bills during his short time in Congress, two of which seek to bring colleges and universities to heel, and signed on as a co-sponsor to at least eight others. Taken together, the bills blend traditional business-friendly tax policies with Vance’s brand of “America First” populist protectionism.

Of the three tax bills Vance has introduced, two would impose a higher tax on some college and university endowments. Vance has pushed to increase taxes on the university endowments, saying the institutions pay a lower rate than working families. University endowments face a 1.4% tax on gains to their endowments, if they hold more than $500,000 per student.

Vance’s bill, which has no co-sponsors, would increase the rate to 35% on private secular schools with at least $10 billion in endowments. It would affect Yale University, where Vance went to law school.

The second bill would impose a 50% tax on endowment assets and revoke federal student aid for schools that do not dismantle encampments that impede academics or other institutional functions within seven days.

Vance has also prioritized tax legislation that would protect the domestic auto industry, a major employer in his home state. Ohio has the second-largest workforce devoted to motor vehicle and parts manufacturing in the country, according to Jobs Ohio. Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Stellantis, the Netherlands-based owner of Chrysler, all have manufacturing operations based in the state.

A bill Vance introduced in September last year would repeal electric vehicle tax credits Democrats established with the 2022 climate budget law, a common goal among Republicans. But unlike other measures rolling back subsidies for EVs, Vance’s would replace it with a tax credit for cars manufactured in the U.S.

Vance also co-sponsored a bill introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose name was also floated as a possible Trump vice presidential pick, that would disqualify auto manufacturers that move jobs offshore from qualifying for federal subsidies, including EV tax credits.

Vance backed at least three other Rubio bills protecting the domestic auto industry through trade policy, including one measure that would impose a $20,000 tariff on cars produced in China.

The Ohio Republican also co-sponsored a measure introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that would eliminate the ability for shareholders to delay tax on stock they receive through mergers and acquisitions, if the company’s gross receipts exceed $500 million.

Vance has also supported more traditional business-friendly measures, including a bill introduced by Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., that would restore full, upfront deductions of investments in research and development. Semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corp. is building facilities in Ohio worth $28 billion, in part with subsidies from the “chips and science” law enacted before Vance was elected.

Hassan’s bill was incorporated into a $79 billion tax package negotiated by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo. Vance, who grew up poor in a family receiving government assistance, has spoken positively about elements of the Wyden-Smith bill, which includes an expansion of child tax credits for low-income households. The bill faces opposition from Senate Republican leaders who believe it would reduce incentives to work.

Vance also co-sponsored a bill introduced by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., that would make permanent a 20% deduction for small businesses and partnerships established by the 2017 tax law and due to expire at the end of next year.

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