Dear Friend,

On Sunday, we celebrated one of the most important days in our nation’s history—the 245th anniversary of our founders declaring independence from an oppressive monarchy. As we recognize their historic actions, we have Americans quietly standing up for our freedom every day. Whether it’s the sacrifice of our servicemen and women, or the simple act of participating in the democratic process, each of us contributes to keeping our nation free.

Since its founding, our nation has weathered turmoil and strife. It has been at war with itself and survived. No matter what the future holds, if we remain committed to the principles of freedom and opportunity, we will persevere. I hope you all had a happy Independence Day and that you will join me in working to usher in a brighter tomorrow for these United States of America.

ICYMI: Emmer on WCCO Radio with Roshini Rajkumar 

Listen to my conversation with Roshini on WCCO here.

On Sunday, I joined Roshini Rajkumar on WCCO Radio where we talked about the growing concerns over rising inflation, the lack of progress on a bipartisan infrastructure package, and more. We also talked about the vital need for broadband development, which I also wrote about recently, here.

Many of us have seen the signs of inflation when purchasing the everyday items our families need. Gasoline is now 56.2% MORE expensive than it was a year ago! We’re seeing other items rising like bacon, which is up 13%, and whole milk, which is up 7.2%.

After spending $1.9 trillion on a COVID-19 “relief” package that directed only 9% of its funding to public health efforts, the government continues to print nearly $2 trillion in new money, despite more than $1 trillion in unspent COVID funds from previous relief packages. Instead of paying attention to the rising inflation our growing national debt, President Biden is focused on passing trillions more in new spending under the guise of transportation investment.

We need to focus on traditional transportation infrastructure, like roads, bridges, instead of leveraging these priority items to spend our country deeper in debt and further a political agenda.

I'm still hopeful that we can find common ground on infrastructure that establishes a long-term, sustainable formula to fund things like the Highway Trust Fund and streamlines our regulatory system so it doesn’t take 5-7 years to build a road or a bridge.

Until next week, if you are in need of assistance or would like to share your thoughts with me, please write me an e-mail here.

To keep up with what we’re doing in Washington, follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more updates!

Once again, thanks for staying up to date with the work we are doing for Minnesota’s Sixth District.

Sincerely,