IDAHO VOICES: “Jim Risch and the Idaho approach to affordability, energy, and security”

“Idaho seniors don’t need Washington to explain inflation to them.

They see it at the grocery store, pharmacy, gas pump and in their monthly utility bills.

Sen. Jim Risch has made reducing those everyday costs a central part of his 2026 agenda, combining tax relief with something Washington too often forgets: government eventually has to control its own spending.

Risch supported and applauds the new $6,000 tax deduction for qualifying seniors, along with broader tax changes intended to allow Idaho families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn. He will fight to renew the Big Beautiful Bill tax cuts when they expire in 2028. His affordability agenda also includes his Zero-Based Budget Act, which would require federal agencies to justify spending rather than simply assuming yesterday’s budget should become tomorrow’s starting point.

That idea should sound familiar to anyone who has ever managed a household.

When expenses increase faster than income, families make choices.

Businesses make choices.

Washington should too.

Fiscal responsibility is a senior issue because America’s enormous debt ultimately competes with Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, defense, infrastructure and practically every other federal priority.

Energy is another area where Risch’s Idaho perspective matters.

Idaho is home to the Idaho National Laboratory, one of America’s premier nuclear research facilities. Risch has become one of the Senate’s leading advocates for advanced nuclear power and co-founded the Senate Advanced Nuclear Caucus.

In 2026, Idaho reached an important milestone when a new advanced reactor achieved criticality at INL— the first new reactor there to do so in nearly 50 years.

Risch argues that nuclear energy can simultaneously provide reliable electricity, strengthen American energy independence, create high-paying jobs, and help the United States compete technologically with China and Russia.

He has also defended Idaho’s hydropower system and pushed development of geothermal energy. His CLEAN Act would require annual federal geothermal lease sales and streamline permitting.

That’s an authentically all-of-the-above energy strategy.

For seniors, the important words are reliable and affordable.

An older Idahoan shouldn’t have to worry about whether turning up the heat during winter will wreck the household budget.

Risch’s work on veterans provides another important connection to older Americans.

In 2026, he joined Sen. Angus King of Maine on the bipartisan Veteran Burial Benefit Correction Act. The legislation would correct a disparity affecting veterans who die from service-connected disabilities by increasing their burial benefit and tying it to inflation.

Risch has also introduced legislation addressing veterans’ access to disability benefits when separation pay is being recouped.

These aren’t enormous ideological battles.

They’re examples of government keeping promises.

Someone who served the United States shouldn’t discover that an unintended technicality in federal law leaves his or her family receiving less than Congress intended.

Rural Idaho also shapes Risch’s priorities.

Nearly two-thirds of Idaho is public land. Federal land-management decisions therefore affect communities, agriculture, recreation, infrastructure and local economies in ways politicians from heavily urban states may not fully appreciate.

Risch is both a rancher and the Senate’s only trained forester.

That background is especially relevant to wildfire prevention.

His bipartisan Wildfire Prevention Act seeks to remove federal obstacles to forest-management projects and make greater use of existing tools for reducing wildfire risk.

For seniors living in vulnerable communities, wildfire isn’t an environmental-policy abstraction.

It can mean losing a home, evacuating under dangerous circumstances, breathing unhealthy smoke or watching insurance become increasingly unaffordable.

Risch has also worked to protect the Secure Rural Schools program, which delivered $24 million to Idaho counties for schools, roads, bridges and other essential infrastructure in fiscal year 2025.

Taken together, these issues reveal something important about retirement security.

It isn’t just Social Security.

It’s whether seniors can afford electricity.

Whether rural communities have roads and infrastructure.

Whether veterans receive the benefits they earned.

Whether government spends responsibly enough to preserve important programs.

And whether America’s economy remains strong enough to support the next generation.

Jim Risch’s work reflects a distinctly Idaho approach: use America’s resources, encourage innovation, protect rural communities, honor veterans and make government justify what it spends.

Washington could benefit from paying closer attention to those principles.”

Saulius “Saul” Anuzis is the president of the 60 Plus American Association of Senior Citizens.