FreedomWorks' Member of the Month for January 2019: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)

FreedomWorks is proud to honor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) as our member of the month for January of 2019. Rep. Massie serves the people of Kentucky’s fourth congressional district, which encompasses the northernmost part of the state, running along the Ohio River. His district includes suburbs of Cincinnati and Louisville, and a small portion of the city of Louisville itself.

Rep. Massie has served as the representative for his district since 2012, when he won the special election to replace the retiring congressman, Geoff Davis. Prior to running for Davis’ seat, Massie was the Judge Executive for Lewis County from 2011 to 2012. He also studied robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and ran a start-up company based in Massachusetts. Rep. Massie is also the owner of a number of different patents, and is often dubbed the “Inventor Congressman.”

During his time in Congress, Rep. Massie has been the foremost champion of the effort to audit the Federal Reserve. Just this week, he re-introduced the bipartisan Federal Reserve Transparency Act, H.R. 24, which would accomplish that. Thanks to his work, the White House has begun to express sympathy with his view that we need more transparency at an organization that controls so much power over the U.S. economy.

Rep. Massie has also demonstrated he is unafraid to take on important fights, even if they make him unpopular amongst his colleagues. After GOP leadership shamefully used the rules for Farm Bill debate to bar an unrelated resolution on war powers in Yemen from coming to the floor, Rep. Massie could not stay silent. He used the ensuing days to demand roll call votes on measures that would ordinarily go through without one. He also made sure leadership was unable to flout rules they normally ignore to rush legislation through. We need more adamant defenders of good process in Congress, and we hope Rep. Massie’s efforts inspire new members to join that fight.

He has also fought against big government surveillance programs with a bipartisan group of legislators to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. He was one of the co-sponsors of the USA RIGHTS Act, which would have promoted transparency and accountability over domestic surveillance programs. With Section 215 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act set to need re-authorization at the end of this year, Rep. Massie’s leadership will again be crucial.

Rep. Massie is the owner of a lifetime 96 percent score on the FreedomWorks congressional scorecard. He has earned a FreedomFighter award in each of his six years in Congress. FreedomFighter awards recognize members who consistently vote to uphold the free market and personal freedom.

As he has demonstrated in his votes and in his initiatives while in Congress, Rep. Massie can be counted on as a champion for the limited government principles central to constitutional conservatism. FreedomWorks is proud to feature Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) as January’s member of the month, to recognize and honor those who defend our liberties in Washington every day.