Dear Friend,

As the leaves and the temperature continue to fall in Minnesota, I’m headed back to Washington this week to defend the interests of the Sixth Congressional District. Stay tuned on Twitter for updates! 

One area of concern we’ve heard about from constituents throughout the Sixth District is with the Biden Administration’s plan to expand IRS’s collection of your bank and/or credit union account information. Last week, I led a letter with more than 200 of my colleagues pushing back against this overreach, in addition to fighting for increased oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and opposed Washington D.C.’s overreach of Minnesota’s land and natural resources.

It’s a busy time, so keep reading to learn more about what we’ve been working on…

Protecting Your Privacy from the IRS

Since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, they have doubled down on their efforts to expand the reach of the IRS despite repeated examples of abuse and mismanagement. You may remember earlier this year when ProPublica released a series of stories based on illegally obtained taxpayer information. It’s no secret that the IRS’s track record when it comes to protecting your information is suspect, at best. Nevertheless, House Democrats and the Biden Administration are proposing to give the IRS more financial information about the American people.

Last month, I, along with 140 of my colleagues in the House, expressed our concern with the Biden Administration’s proposal to require financial institutions and third-party providers to report a range of new data points on accounts with annual gross inflows and outflows totaling more than $600 to the IRS. The Treasury Department responded to our letter attempting to justify their actions as an effort to “close the tax gap,” but they failed to address the privacy implications associated with an entity like the IRS gaining access to new information about millions of Americans. Instead, the Administration suggested it will increase the threshold from $600, to $10,000.

The Administration clearly doesn’t understand why so many Americans are concerned with this proposal. Even with the increased threshold, the data of tens of millions of Americans will still be sent to the IRS. To that end, if the threshold was increased to $50,000, workers who make $18/hour and pay basic living expenses on an annual basis will still qualify.

So, 201 of my colleagues joined me in sending another letter to Secretary Yellen last week, reasserting our concerns and urging the Administration to jettison this ridiculous proposal.

Bottom line: Democrats have resorted to digging around in the bank accounts of working families looking for additional taxes to account for their out-of-touch agenda. You deserve to keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket and the government should never spy on your transaction history. 

Ensuring Accountability for Consumers

As many of you know, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created following passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. The CFPB was given the power to regulate dozens of industries, including auto lenders, credit unions, community banks, student loan servicers, and more.

In its short time as a new regulator, the CFPB has placed burden after burden on the financial services industry, making it harder for the American consumers they are obligated to protect to access the financial products and services they need to thrive.

Yesterday, I introduced the CFPB Whistleblower Incentives and Protection Act to create a whistleblower program at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Whistleblowers have proven to be an effective means of exposing conduct within the CFPB that does not serve the American consumer. This legislation encourages whistleblower reporting by offering compensation and protection to whistleblowers, similar to what is done with other federal agencies and departments.

This common-sense fix would ensure that we fairly reward whistleblowers while also keeping our focus on being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Our efforts to reform the CFPB should put the American consumer first, and this legislation does that.

Last week, I also joined the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry to send a letter to the Inspector General (IG) for the CFPB Mark Bialek. We demanded the IG turn over any findings from his investigation into reports of CFPB career staff being improperly pushed out due to their political affiliations, which would violate federal employment laws.

I’ll continue to keep my eye on the CFPB and ensure they are staying within the scope of their narrow role.

Fighting for Working Families

For as long as I have served in Congress, the federal government, and specifically the Executive Branch has attempted to threaten an important piece of Minnesota’s economic landscape.

With just days left in office, President Obama’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rejected Twin Metals Minnesota’s application to renew two hardrock mineral leases in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest – leases that were signed in 1966 and renewed without controversy in 1989 and 2004.

In conjunction with cancelling these leases, on January 19, 2017, the day before President Trump was sworn in, the Obama Administration also published a 234,328-acre federal mineral withdrawal application in the Federal Register, to restrict for a 20-year moratorium, lands within the Superior National Forest in Northern Minnesota.

This action immediately placed this vast area off limits to future mineral leasing, exploration, and potential development for two years while a study pertaining to the withdrawal is conducted. The total withdrawal application spans approximately 425,000 acres, including 95,000 acres of state school trust fund lands.

In response, I introduced the Minnesota’s Economic Rights (MINER) in the Superior National Forest Act which was met with strong bipartisan support to unleash our state's mining potential. The bill aimed to restore Minnesota’s right to explore and, if environmentally appropriate, mine valuable precious metals.

With help from President Trump, his Administration rescinded the mineral withdrawal and by May of 2019, Department of Interior Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management Joe Balash had signed the Twin Metals Hardrock Mineral Leases. 

However, once again, Democrats are trying to threaten our ability to responsibly manage our natural resources.

Last week, the Biden Administration reinstated President Obama’s land-withdrawal request, restarting the study – which is wholly duplicative of our current State and Federal environmental review process - as a means to halt mining permits and leases in the area for two years

While not surprising, it’s disappointing that President Biden has chosen to continue the Obama Administration’s anti-mining legacy as a means to score political points.

Minnesotans deserve the opportunity to oversee their own natural resources. We have proven we can preserve our beautiful state without permanently destroying any future job creation or economic development. It is possible to utilize the largest untapped copper-nickel deposit in the world in an environmentally sound way. These minerals are a critical piece of a clean energy future, and without them, we will be left to rely on authoritarian regimes who mine using child and slave labor.

President Biden won’t stop with canceling the Keystone Pipeline or revoking mineral leases in northern Minnesota – his agenda will leave us entirely reliant on foreign nations for energy and critical minerals leaving us vulnerable to national security threats.

This is another example of Democrats putting their socialist agenda above the will of the American people and the needs of working families. I’ll continue to do everything I can to protect Minnesota jobs and our ability to unleash our mining potential.

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!

Sincerely,