Hi, I’m Mark Amodei. I’m proud to represent Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District and call Nevada my life-long home, and I’m committed to improving the lives of my constituents by solving issues the old-fashioned way – listening to the concerns of the Nevadans I serve, keeping an open dialogue, and always explaining why I voted the way I did. Thank you for trusting me to bring your voice to Congress. We’ve accomplished so much, and together, I’m confident we can continue making a difference for the Silver State.

I would be honored if you choose to send me back to Washington for another two years. I will keep up the fight against the far-Left, progressive, woke, job-killing, Green New Deal, liberal policies that will devastate the economy and Nevada families, and I will continue to put forward legislation and sound policy solutions that will protect life, preserve the right to keep and bear arms, prioritize veterans’ needs, secure the border, ensure American energy independence, save the mining and agriculture industries from woke environmental policies, grow Nevada businesses, encourage innovation in the private sector, and keep more money in the pockets of hardworking Nevadans.

Mark E. Amodei (R-NV) has served as the U.S. Representative for Nevada’s Second Congressional District since 2011. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and serves on the Financial Services, Legislative Branch, and Interior subcommittees.

Mark was born in Carson City, Nevada on June 12, 1958. He graduated from Carson High School in 1976, where he was Student Class President. Mark graduated from the University of Nevada in 1980, and received his law degree from McGeorge Law School, University of the Pacific in 1983.

Mark served with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, from 1983 to 1987 and was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Meritorious Service Medal.

Mark served in the Nevada Assembly from 1996 to 1998 and in the Nevada State Senate, representing the Capital District, from 1998 to 2010. He served as chairman of the Nevada Republican Party until May 2011. From 2007 to 2008, Mark was the President of the Nevada Mining Association. He was an attorney with law firms Allison MacKenzie in Carson City from 1987 to 2004 and Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw and Ferrario (now Kaempfer Crowell) in Reno from 2004 to 2007.

In Congress, Mark also serves on the Congressional Western Caucus, Army Caucus, Congressional Joint Strike Fighter Caucus, USO Caucus, Veterans Job Caucus, Italian American Caucus, Conservative Climate Caucus, Travel and Tourism Caucus, Public Broadcasting Caucus, Postal Preservation Caucus, and ALS Caucus.

Mark is close to his family and has two adult daughters, Erin and Ryanne. Amodei enjoys working on his old trucks, do-it-yourself projects, and exploring Nevada history.

Education

I am a proud product of the Nevada public school system and a supporter of our public schools and teachers across the state.

I believe education is a top priority for Nevada and the nation and that we must work to strengthen educational opportunities for all students. However, I do not believe that unelected federal bureaucrats are a better judge of educational practices than our local teachers, school administrators, parents and community leaders. Every school system has their own unique challenges, and I strongly support allowing our communities to make decisions about their students’ educations rather than a one-size-fits all federal approach to education.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most recently passed as the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, replaced many of the unwise and impractical provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The Every Student Succeeds Act included provisions that give our children every opportunity for success by eliminating bureaucratic roadblocks and implementing best practices in education quality and school policy.

While I believe America’s children have unlimited potential, the schools that serve them require significant improvement. America is increasingly losing its global competitiveness, which we must regain through educational curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses.

I also believe it is vital that schools provide ample career and technical education (CTE) opportunities for our students. CTE provides hands-on training that prepares students to be career ready. This training often focuses on high-demand fields and trades and sets many of our students on a pathway to success and financial stability.

I care deeply about the future of our nation’s educational system and believe we need to empower local leaders to improve student achievement and determine the best path for their students.

Defense And Veterans

America’s military veterans deserve to receive the benefits they were promised, and I am committed to continuing to ensure that those promises are fulfilled.

May we never lose sight of their needs in the field and at home.

I proudly served in the United States Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps from 1983 to 1987, and one of my daughters is a Desert Storm Navy veteran. I know firsthand how important it is that we fulfill our commitments to our servicemembers and their families, all of whom sacrifice dearly on our behalf. Even as we come to terms with the reality of the fiscal crisis, we must never lose sight of our veterans’ needs, both in the field and at home. America’s military veterans deserve to receive the benefits they were promised, and I will continue to fight to reform our current system to offer veterans more choices, better services, and greater independence.

My staff and I are working to address the disability benefits claims backlog and continue to meet with officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs and local Veterans Service Organizations to find solutions. I have a dedicated team ready to help veterans navigate the federal resources and benefits available to them. I take casework very seriously, so if you or a veteran you know is having an issue with their benefits, please reach out to my Reno office to see how we can assist.

Energy

The energy sector is crucial to our economic growth, and high energy costs have a major impact on job creation. We have an abundant supply of natural resources in Nevada and across the country that we must use to meet our nation’s energy requirements. We need policies that allow us to harness our own resources, develop new sources of energy, improve our permitting processes, and create jobs here at home.

Over the past 220 years, America has created the greatest economic success story in the history of the world. Our innovative society has dramatically improved the length and quality of life for billions of people around the globe. This same ingenuity must be unleashed to meet our energy and employment challenges.

In Nevada, new sources of energy, such as geothermal and solar are showing promise. Geothermal in particular brings jobs and growth to Nevada with 20+ plants in operation providing clean, reliable electrical capacity to the grid and significant additional capacity under development.

Environment

I believe Congress should promote policies that protect and preserve our environment for future generations. Responsible stewardship of our environment requires a commitment to sound science and continuous research. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to support responsible, commonsense reforms that will help conserve our precious natural resources. It is important that we take practical steps today so that our environment is healthy for our children tomorrow. That is why I am a member of the Conservative Climate Caucus, as well as the Climate Solutions Caucus, both of which aim to find sound environmental policy to reduce emissions and foster a cleaner environment for all.

Health Care

After more than a decade under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we’ve seen plenty of arguments on how to fix our nation’s health care system. Regardless of your political views, I do not believe wiping the slate clean and starting over is the answer. I believe Congress should focus on the biggest problem areas and fix them. I also believe there are some successful aspects of our current system that we should keep, such as ensuring individuals with pre-existing conditions have access to the care they need, and that young adults have the option to stay on their parent’s health care plan until the age of 26.

As the core provisions of the ACA have been ruled as constitutional by the United States Supreme, I accept that the law is most likely here to stay. Unfortunately, that is not enough for many House Democrats, who instead are committed to pursuing further federal overreach into the U.S. health care system through a proposal commonly known as “Medicare-for-All.” According to a 2018 study, the Medicare-for-All proposal would add an additional $32.6 trillion over the next 10 years to the national debt, which even doubling current tax rates for individuals and corporations would not cover.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach with Medicare-for-All, I support giving control to individuals and families to choose a health care plan that works for them by allowing insurance companies to work across state lines. By creating a government run single-payer system, incentives to open competition and lower costs for everyone to have quality care for an affordable cost are eliminated. Please be assured that I will continue working with my colleagues in the House toward solutions that will increase people’s access to quality and affordable care.

Immigration

Immigration reform and border security are complex, emotional debates, with passionate beliefs on all sides. Some view the issue as one of humaneness. Many see it from a perspective of fairness. And still others approach immigration on the basis of practicality. We are a nation of immigrants. My Irish and Italian forebears made their way to Nevada in search of a better life. We are also a nation of laws with the right to control our borders. While I don’t think any of those perspectives are mutually exclusive, it seems the one thing all sides can consistently agree on is that our immigration system, as presently constituted, is not working.

I am committed to evaluating each immigration proposal on its merits and understanding the impact on Nevada. While many of the recent immigration-related bills have been overreaching and have lacked necessary protections for current American citizens, I continue to believe that just doing nothing is not a solution.

Jobs And The Economy

After years of struggling to get ahead, Americans finally saw jobs, opportunities, and consumer confidence come roaring back as a direct result of Congress passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – with my support. In Nevada’s second congressional district and across the nation, unemployment hit historic lows, and residents saw an increase in income. Now, with the economic challenges we face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must be focused on getting America back on track and advancing solutions that provide certainty.

As your Representative, you can rest assured that I will continue delivering on your behalf by supporting pro-growth policies that will lift up our workers, increase economic development, create jobs, and make our country more competitive.

To date, I have backed legislation that has supported more than 51 million jobs nationwide amid the pandemic and allocated more than $25 billion in coronavirus relief funding for Nevada – which is an unprecedented level of relief in our State’s history.

As Congress continues to explore solutions to address and mitigate the impacts of the ongoing pandemic, please know I will keep your thoughts in mind.

National Debt

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress has passed almost $6 trillion in stimulus packages, which is more than the GDP of every country in the world except for China and the U.S. This comes out to $17,000 per person, or $69,000 per family of 4 in new spending.

With the U.S. National debt nearing $30 trillion at the start of 2022, it is abundantly clear that unchecked government spending must be reeled in. I firmly believe that we should not be saddling our children and grandchildren with the burden of paying for reckless spending habits, and I will continue to seek areas that merit cuts in spending.

Public Lands

A significant issue for Nevadans, which dovetails with economic growth, is public land management. I believe that it is possible to leverage our natural resources in an economically and environmentally responsible way.

As a member of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, I continue to advance legislation to strengthen local control over the federal lands, which compromise more than 85 percent of the state. I think that local communities should be able to decide for themselves the best uses for public lands to spur economic growth.

Additionally, I have worked closely with the U.S. Navy and Northern Nevada stakeholders for the last 3 years to find a comprehensive and consensus solution to provide the Navy with the adequate training capabilities they need at the Fallon Range Training Complex (FRTC), while ensuring the appropriate mitigations to the counties, tribes, and other stakeholders who are affected.

I’ll continue to work with the support of my western colleagues to pass legislation to help Nevada leverage its vast public lands, while preserving our unique landscape and way of life. In these efforts, I am always cognizant of the importance of water rights and multi-use access.

Common sense federal solutions to our public land designations are possible, but local communities must have a seat at the table to overcome the “Washington knows best” mentality that routinely ignores the best interests of local stakeholders.

During my time in Congress, I introduced more than a dozen bills related to land-use decisions in Nevada. The ultimate goal for each individual bill is to support what the counties, municipalities, and other stakeholders identify as priorities through their local planning and zoning processes, and increase the land-use decision-making process to locally elected officials, communities, and stakeholders – not by bureaucrats at the BLM or Forest Service.

Second Amendment

The Challenge

In the aftermath of tragedies that have occurred across our country in recent years, we struggle to find the answers to adequately address violence in America. The temptation is to do something, anything, to prevent such evils from ever happening again. That is a natural response. Unfortunately, powerful emotions and kneejerk political reactions do not typically make for smart policymaking.

One thing is clear: we must take responsible steps to keep firearms out of the hands of mentally disturbed individuals and criminals attempting to circumvent the federal background check process. When taking action to keep Americans safe, however, we must also ensure that we are not creating unintended consequences for the law-abiding citizens who responsibly exercise their right to bear arms. Millions of law-abiding, gun-owning American citizens go to sleep each night without harming others, their families, or themselves.

Current Law

Under current Federal law, there are already a number of prohibited individual categories that prevent a purchase of a firearm from a licensed firearms dealer. Those categories include: felons, fugitives, unlawful users of controlled substances, adjudicated mental defectives, illegal aliens, persons dishonorably discharged, those who renounce citizenship, and persons with restraining orders, in addition to state laws.

For dealers, an individual who is engaged in the business as a firearms dealer is required to have a Federal firearms license. A dealer is any person who deals in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchases and reselling of firearms.

However, an individual who make occasional sales, exchanges or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms, is not considered a dealer, and is thus exempt from licensing requirements.

Nevada also currently uses the ‘Point of Program’ for firearm purchases in the state, which requires all Federal Firearms Licensees to Nevada Department of Public Safety staff to run a more thorough background check against Nevada’s own databases and systems, as well as the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Moving Forward

Our liberties, including the right to bear arms, pre-exist the founding of our government. There are no provisions in our founding documents to deprive the people as a whole of these freedoms when certain individuals abuse theirs.

Our law enforcement communities need to be given the tools and resources to enforce the laws that are already on the books while Congress works to enact meaningful solutions that will– without infringing on due process or privacy protections– keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally disturbed.

My colleagues and I in the House will conduct vigilant oversight on this issue and I will continue to support legislation that defends the Second Amendment and improves the enforcement of current law.

Seniors

Preserve Medicare for current beneficiaries. Make it sustainable for future generations.

I will not allow seniors to lose coverage at a time in their lives when they need it most. The program is vital to our nation’s seniors and be protected.

However, I think everyone can agree that we must reform the Medicare program because will reach insolvency by 2026. We must reform the Medicare program because it is not solvent in its current form and it will reach insolvency by 2026. However, we also must be sure to keep our promises to those current beneficiaries and those nearing eligibility that have planned their health care needs in retirement around it. As we work to ensure that Medicare will serve our nation’s seniors for decades to come, we must keep health care providers in mind - years of Medicare reimbursement cuts have disincentivized critical providers from participation in the program, thus further exacerbating lack of access to care in communities all over the country, especially in rural areas.

I also believe we must reform the health care system generally. Bringing down the costs of services, equipment, and pharmaceuticals overall will carry over to the Medicare market. True health care reform will lower costs, improve care, provide greater patient choice, and increase access to care for all Americans—not increase Americans’ dependency on failed federal programs.

We have the greatest health care community in the world, and I continue to examine ways to improve its quality, cost, and accessibility.

Social Security

Protecting and preserving Social Security is one of the most important issues facing Congress. I believe Social Security is a promise that must be kept. And while the fund is solvent for current recipients as well as those nearing retirement age, it will be insolvent by 2033. We must enact reforms in order to preserve Social Security for future generations, but I will not support legislation that will change Social Security for those already receiving benefits.

I agree with the concept of a “lock box” because time and again, leaders in Washington have dipped into the Social Security trust fund to pay for unrelated, wasteful government spending. We need to lock away these funds by taking Social Security “off-budget” to ensure our future retirees receive the promises that have been made to them. America’s senior citizens have worked hard for their retirement. Congress needs to change the status quo to make sure Social Security is there for senior citizens and for future generations.

Congress has an opportunity and an obligation to address this issue in an honest and forthright fashion. It is wrong to ignore the problems facing the program for younger workers and it is wrong to frighten senior citizens who are currently reliant upon Social Security benefits. I pledge to work towards a common-sense solution that respects Americans of all ages.

Transportation and Infrastructure

I believe transportation infrastructure is one of the most important elements in creating a thriving, job-creating economy. To ensure tax payer accountability, the current highway program needs to be seriously examined and I believe we need to also look at reasonable methods to respect the autonomy of communities to receive funding for priorities that are important. Nevadans need predictability and sustainability for our infrastructure needs.

As Nevadans, we are privileged to have some of the more breathtaking and elaborate trail systems in the nation. We have also historically enjoyed the reputation as a world-class destination for outdoor recreation. Encouraging and expanding continued visitation to our state will help our recovering economy.

As you know, having good transportation infrastructure is a critical component towards economic growth - especially in a state as economically diverse and expansive like ours. This means that roads, rails, and airports need to be able and ready to alleviate increased congestion to attract additional employers to Nevada. I remain committed to doing whatever is reasonable and prudent to ensure that the transportation funding is sufficient to meet our national needs.

Interstate 11

Congress passed the FAST Act, a five-year federal surface transportation law in 2015. While providing general transportation needs and funding, the law also includes the extension of the Interstate 11 Corridor from Las Vegas to Interstate 80, with the route generally taking place along the western portion of the state.

The vision for the corridor is to connect Mexico with Canada through Nevada, a plan that could take 50 years to complete. State and local stakeholders need to provide input now on the importance of I-11 to meet the growing economic and transportation needs of the state. I will continue to have meaningful discussions with all those who have a say in Nevada’s transportation future.

Yucca Mountain

Let me be clear, I do not believe Yucca Mountain should become a simple dumping site for the nation’s nuclear waste. This position is proven by my voting record in Congress.

In fact, when the 115th Congress considered the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (H.R. 3053), a bill to make Yucca Mountain the nation’s permanent repository for nuclear waste, I voted against it. After considering the possibility of this legislation becoming law, I worked to give Nevada a seat at the table through an amendment that would have instituted comprehensive and responsible measures in Nevada’s best interest.

Unfortunately, after three years of work on these priorities, the House Rules Committee deemed my amendment out of order because it included a transportation component. The reason being, if nuclear waste is going to potentially be transported across state lines via surface or rail transportation, then it’s probably responsible to begin discussing transportation plans at the beginning stages of this project. My amendment being ruled out of order led me back to where this entire discussion started: if I am only given a chance to vote on a bill to designate Nevada as the nation’s nuclear land fill – I will not support it.

However, in February 2020, President Trump committed the U.S. Department of Energy to finding alternative solutions to Yucca Mountain, while still fulfilling its legal obligations to manage and dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste and will not stand idly by given the stalemate on Yucca Mountain. President Biden has continued this stance, and is in the process of soliciting public feedback for alternate solutions. As the Department of Energy continues to weigh other options, I believe Nevada should have a seat at the table, and dictate the terms of any proposal that impacts our state.

accomplishments

Natural Resources, Land and Economy

Mark advocates for Nevada’s self-determination, the protection of our resources and the ability for all Nevadans to earn a living. His office drafted seven Nevada land transfer bills as part of the Northern Nevada Land and Conservation Economic Development Act and succeeded in passing them into public law with bipartisan support, a key victory for Nevada.

Veterans & Military

Since his first election to Congress, Mark has advocated for veterans and is committed to providing them with the services and benefits they deserve and need. He believes we should not lose sight of those who have sacrificed so much for our country, and will continue his work to reform our system and bring independence to veterans. Mark successfully passed legislation in Congress for that got the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and Crew Member Monument installed at Arlington National Cemetery.

Immigration

Mark understands that immigration issues have many facets and believes that we must consider a new solution for immigration laws in the United States, fix our broken system, and protect our sovereignty. Mark considers the many factors in changing the system, including the current undocumented population, impact on federal budgets, and impact on employers and families. Mark believes in border security and protecting the rule of law, and that the situation now at the southern border is a humanitarian and national security disaster.

Taxes & Tax Reform

Mark votes consistently to cut taxes on American families and small businesses. Mark has worked to protect 99 percent of Americans from a tax increase on a permanent basis. He’s advocated to take the annual guesswork out of tax cuts and make them permanent, including lower rates on capital gains and dividends. Under President Trump and Republican control of the House, Mark voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to foster economic growth, job creation, and innovation.