IMPORTANT: A Commonsense Economic Agenda

Dear Friend,

Inflation is on the rise, imposing a costly tax on every purchase you make, and yet legislation currently being considered by the House would raise taxes and spend unprecedented amounts – taking more of your hard-earned dollars and further weakening the spending power of what they decide to let you keep. This is not an acceptable economic agenda.

On top of all this, a version of this legislation sought to track all bank account transactions over $600. For many Americans, that’s every paycheck, every rent payment, every car payment, and potentially much more – all tracked by the federal government with appropriations to the IRS paid for by the taxpayer dollars the legislation takes from you. These should not be Congress’s priorities, and yet this is what they are focused on as many Americans are still finding their footing in the post-COVID economy.

And as if this weren’t enough, our country is facing a historic supply chain crisis, resulting in shortages and higher prices, further fueling inflation. According to a New York Times report, the cost of shipping a good from Shanghai to Los Angeles has skyrocketing from $2,000 before the pandemic to as high as $25,000 in 2021. Additionally, because China used shipping containers to transport COVID-related supplies, like masks, around the world to countries that do not send many goods back to China, this reduced those containers’ availability for transporting other goods. These problems in addition to labor shortages caused by stay-at-home orders early in the pandemic caused backlogs that then resulted in additional orders, further encumbering supply chains.

To reiterate, our country is confronting a historic supply chain crisis, shortages, inflation, and the lingering effects of pandemic lockdowns, and yet instead of confronting these crises with the policy solutions we need, the Administration’s and Congress’s proposed policies would levy more taxes, increase surveillance of your bank accounts, and ramp up spending, which would only worsen inflation. These proposals are not only unrealistic; they are the opposite of what our country needs right now and would do serious damage to our economy.

To confront these historic supply-chain shortages, we should consider the following options:

Investing in port infrastructure, such as the widening of the Houston Ship Channel, which I support.
Passing the DRIVE Safe Act (H.R. 1745), which I cosponsored, to address the shortage of truck drivers.
Encouraging communities around ports to change local laws to allow for container storage and higher container stacks around ports.
Expanding port hours of operation and expanding apprenticeships to deal with workforce shortages.
Unleashing our energy industry to explore for oil and gas by allowing for offshore leases and exploration on federal land.

No single one of these solutions is guaranteed to completely solve the supply-chain crisis, but these are some of the commonsense solutions Congress should be considering to make sure we address the needs of the American people. I am committed to opposing destructive inflationary policies and to pursuing commonsense solutions that will address the problems the American people are facing.

As we continue our work in Congress, please do not hesitate to contact my team in Washington, DC at (202) 225-6565 or visit https://crenshaw.house.gov to share your thoughts on legislation or issues of importance to you. In addition, I encourage you to sign up for my weekly e-newsletter to stay up-to-date on what I’m working on each week in Congress.

It is a privilege to serve you in Congress, and I look forward to your continued input throughout my term.

Sincerely,

Dan Crenshaw

Member of Congress

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