The Tiffany Telegram: June 26, 2020

News From the Seventh District

Dear Friend,

We've got a lot to share with you this week.

• Congress reconvened with a focus on competing visions of public safety and policing in America.
• Eye-opening data underscored how critical it is to get our kids back into classrooms this fall.
• An infrastructure package may soon be coming down the road in Congress.
• Measures to improve health care quality and transparency are on the way.

Partnering with Our Police
I spent a lot of time this week meeting with our local sheriffs to get their feedback on the potential changes being discussed in Washington.

Let me begin by saying how encouraged I was by these conversations. The overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are committed to keeping us safe. They work hard every day to protect our neighborhoods and uphold our laws, and it is disappointing to hear some politicians smear the entire law enforcement community to advance an ideological agenda.

Our law enforcement agencies in northern and western Wisconsin have led the way in developing enduring partnerships with our communities and have already adopted many best-practices that characterize responsible and effective policing – and that's the way it ought to be. It is incumbent upon local leaders across the country to step up to the plate and take steps to protect public safety the way our local sheriffs have, not to sit back and wait for politicians in Washington to do it for them with a one-size-fits all mandate.

I've also been alarmed by calls to "defund the police," a radical concept that has only encouraged and incited the kind of widespread lawlessness that we've seen in places like Madison as recently as a few short days ago. Peaceful protest is a constitutionally guaranteed right. But rioting, vandalism, destroying statues and monuments, looting and physical assault are not forms of peaceful protest, they are criminal acts.

The good news is that only a very small percentage of people – less than 1 in 5 – support reducing funding for the police – let alone totally "defunding" or "eliminating" whole police departments. Abolishing the police in response to the isolated actions of a few bad actors is both foolish and dangerous, a fringe idea that all decent people rightly reject. No Americans are well-served by the enactment of extreme and misguided policies that would hamstring the ability of police to keep us safe or give criminal elements free rein of our communities.

Unfortunately, partisan politics and obstruction characterized this week's discussion of policing legislation.

Senate Democrats used procedural tactics to prevent debate from even starting on policing legislation authored by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. In the House, Democrats rushed legislation through the process on a largely party-line vote, offering no opportunity to offer amendments or seek compromise.

I supported an alternative proposal that called for increased transparency, improved information sharing and sought to provide local police with the tools they need to better protect and serve their communities. I hope that as the legislative process continues, all representatives will have a more meaningful opportunity for discussion, input and debate than what we saw this week.

Rep. Tiffany meets with constituents in Washington, D.C.

Getting Back to School
Mandatory one-size-fits-all distance learning remains a serious challenge for rural areas and low-income families who often find themselves on the opposite side of the digital divide.

A recent Pew Research Center analysis of data gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for example, found that 15 percent of households with school-aged kids do not have internet access. The numbers are even more stark for families making less than $30,000 per year – 35 percent of whom lack an internet connection.

The good news is that there is more and more data indicating that we can safely and responsibly get kids back to class. A recent assessment of more than 900 child care centers serving 20,000 children by a Brown University economist found that as of Tuesday, confirmed infections of staff and children were just 1 percent and 0.16 percent, respectively.

Evidence continues to mount that open-ended school shutdowns have set students back, made it harder for teachers to teach, and pushed many parents to the breaking point. It also shows that we can get students back on track with their studies in the classroom while also protecting vulnerable and at-risk populations.

Breaking Through Gridlock
The President and Members of Congress from both parties continue to discuss the possibility of taking up a package to repair and modernize America's roads and bridges. And while there is general agreement that government has a role to play in maintaining and improving the backbone of our transportation system, there is a lot of disagreement about what such a package ought to look like.

I believe we must start by making sure that the gas tax dollars people are already paying into the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) are spent responsibly. Unfortunately, that's not happening now.

A recent study by the Government Accountability Office, for example, found that as much as 50 percent of HTF spending went to projects that have nothing to do with roads or bridges. That means while motorists sit in traffic or dodge pot-holes, their federal gas tax dollars are being frittered away on boondoggle pet projects that include local subways, bike paths, and landscaping.

Worse, highway planners often spend as much time and money complying with red tape as they do putting down concrete and asphalt. Major federal highway projects can now take up to 200 steps of analysis between 9 and 19 years to complete thanks to heavy-handed permitting requirements that unnecessarily lengthen project delays, boost costs and short-change taxpayers.

Congress should definitely look at ways to get traffic moving, but we must make sure that we take a hard look at spending reforms instead of hitting motorists with higher taxes at the pump.

Putting Patients First
Health care continues to be a top issue for all of us during these challenging times.

This week, I added my support to the Patient Fairness Act, which would give Americans better information about health care services and more control over their own health care choices.

This proposal builds on new regulatory reforms by expanding access to Health Savings Accounts and increasing the options for which they can be used, including the ability to use HSA dollars to pay for premiums.

It also expands transparency requirements, giving Americans real-time access to pricing information. This will help foster more price-conscious "shopping" by health care consumers, fostering more vigorous market competition, spurring innovation in the health care sector and lowering prices – including for prescription drugs

I believe that people ought to have the freedom to make their own health care decisions instead of having politicians and bureaucrats do it for them. We need less Washington interference in our health care, not more.

Coronavirus Response Resources
As I mentioned last week, the USDA continues to make resources and assistance available to agricultural producers and working families to ensure the stability and safety of, and access to food supplies.

The USDA is accepting applications for assistance under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) through August 28, 2020 to assist farmers and ranchers who have been adversely affected by price instability, supply-chain problems and cost spikes.

You can learn more about how this program applies to soybeans, dairy, corn, livestock and a variety of other agricultural products here, and a useful fact sheet on the program can be viewed here.

The Small Business Administration also continues to provide assistance to employers negatively affected by the public health emergency through the Paycheck Protection Program, and Economic Injury and Disaster Loan program.

And once again, remember to make sure that you and your family are counted in the census. Please be sure to visit 2020census.gov to learn more.

Don't forget to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

As always, you are welcome to visit my website or to contact my offices in Washington, D.C. or Wisconsin, which remain open, if you have any questions or need assistance.

Sincerely,

Tom Tiffany
Member of Congress