Dear Friend, 

We’re back in Washington for another week of votes, and government funding is at the top of the docket. Congress is up against a deadline: Friday is the end of the fiscal year when funding for government programs and functions expires. I’ve long opposed short-term spending bills that kick the can down the road, and unfortunately that’s likely what we’ll see on the floor this week. Instead, we should be looking for solutions that reduce federal spending and tackle our debt, which now tops $245,000 per taxpayer.

Digging ourselves out of debt is just one of our goals looking forward. Last week, I traveled to Pennsylvania with several dozen of my colleagues to roll out our Commitment to America. The Commitment is a set of priorities that will guide our work in the next Congress.

The Commitment is the result of over a year of conversations between members of the Republican conference. Last October, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference roundtable on IRS surveillance, where I voiced concerns I had heard from Sixth District constituents that Democrat proposals would lead to the IRS nickel-and-diming law-abiding taxpayers who spent just $28 dollars per day. Not only did we bring this proposal to a halt, but defending financial privacy is now a plank of the Commitment to America. With Democrats recently adding an army of 87,000 agents to the IRS, we need to defend this right to financial privacy more than ever.

You can read more about the particulars of the Commitment to America here. But what you need to know is this: Republicans are committed to an agenda that allows our economy to thrive, restores our safety, holds government accountable, and defends American freedom.

Stay tuned for more on our work in Minnesota and Washington and subscribe to in-depth updates on priorities like the economy, personal freedom and more on our website, here. You can read this week’s blog about food security, here.

Sincerely,