Dear Friend,
This week, Congress looked both to the past and to the future when it comes to our nation's veterans. To honor the past, I attended a presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal, our nation's most prestigious civilian award, where World War II veterans of the First Special Service Force were honored. Kate Brooke-Beyer of Eden Prairie came to Washington with her husband, Marc, for the ceremony because Kate's father, Francis, was a member of the unit. Take a look at pictures from the ceremony here.
And very importantly, Congress took a big step in helping our servicemen and women by passing and finalizing legislation for the President to sign into law. The bill improves mental health and suicide prevention programs at the VA and the Department of Defense to help soldiers transition to civilian life after the military. With an average of 22 veterans taking their lives each day, action needed to be taken. I want to congratulate my Minnesota colleague, Tim Walz, for his leadership in moving this important bipartisan legislation forward.
Finally, I joined many of my colleagues this week in introducing legislation to ensure that private emails are protected from searches by the government unless a warrant is obtained. Email privacy laws haven't been updated since 1986 and under current law, a warrant isn't neccesary to look through emails that are over 6 months old. It's time to modernize the law and protect privacy.
Also, if you haven't had a chance to listen to my interview with WCCO's Dave Lee, you can find it here. We talked about my anti-sex trafficking legislation and the President's budget.
Have a great week and if I can be of help to you or your family, please give my office a call. Join the conversation online by visiting my website, Facebook page, Twitter, and please watch my most recent video, Erik's Correspondence Corner.
Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation Passed by House
The House of Representatives took action to go after the horrific crime of sex trafficking by passing 12 seperate bills to combat this problem. One of these bills was legislation I authored, the Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act, to encourage states to adopt "Safe Harbor" laws and treat children involved in trafficking as victims, not criminals. These bills all passed with broad, bipartisan support and improve victim services like the funding of more beds for trafficked children, and go after websites, like Backpage.com, that profit from sex trafficking advertisements. Currently, there are only 200 beds nationwide for victims of sex trafficking despite estimates that over 100,000 children are at risk of becoming a victim annually.
Supporting Our Fallen Police Officers and Firefighters
Behind every safe community are police officers and firefighters that are unafraid to put their life on the line. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the work they do day-in and day-out. I've introduced legislation, the Don't Tax Our Fallen Public Safety Heroes Act, to ensure that families of these officers don't face an undue tax burden should their loved one give their life in the line of duty. Because of ambiguities in the tax code, these families could face federal taxes on death benefits paid by the federal government or their state. We must ensure that full benefits go to these grieving families in their time of need.
Helping People with ALS
Medical technology has made a world of difference for patients with neurological and degenerative disablities by allowing them to communicate with friends and family through the use of Speech Generating Devices (SGD). Sadly, shortsighted and cumbersome government policies threaten access to these critical devices for the millions of people that use them. I am cosponsoring a bill, called the Steve Gleason Act, to protect patient access to these life-improving devices. Steve Gleason is a former NFL player diagnosed with ALS and now communicates through the use of an SGD that tracks eye movement. He is also a recognized leader in the ALS community.