Dear Friend,
 
I don’t open the Telegram with a question often, but I have to ask. Why should the U.S. depend on Russia, Communist China, and other foreign adversaries for oil, gas, and critical minerals when America produces the world’s cleanest and it's our right under our feet?
 
That’s the question I’ve been asking President Biden from his very first day in office when he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline – only to sign off on a Russian pipeline a few short months later (despite American natural gas being 41% cleaner than Russia’s).
 
He also followed up the job-killing Keystone XL pipeline decision by suspending new oil and gas leasing and drilling on America’s federal land and waters. And he didn’t stop there.
 
Over the past two years, Joe Biden made the radical Left’s dreams come true by dishing out billions on Green New Deal-style boondoggles under the guise of “infrastructure,” and by imposing a massive $6.5-billion natural gas tax.
 
And we all know what happened next: Crippling prices at the pump, higher home heating bills, and one out of six American households falling behind on their utility bills.
 
Unfortunately, that’s what you get when you wage an all-out war on American energy producers, stifle domestic mining, and turn to foreign foes to try and fill the gap.
 
Fortunately, House Republicans passed a solution this week to get us back to producing Made-in-America energy and critical minerals.
 
Unlike the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, will do exactly what the bill title states: Bring prices down.
 
By rolling back the failed policies of the Biden administration, unleashing Made-in-America energy, and streamlining the complicated and time-consuming permitting process, H.R. 1 will ensure that we are able to build American, mine American, drill American, and protect American dominance in the 21st century.
 
It will also ensure that we can supply responsibly produced oil, gas, and critical minerals to the world.
 
It’s hard to understand why so many far-left progressives would rather shop in China for slave-mined critical minerals and enrich foreign energy exporters in places like Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
 
The good news for American families is that we began to reverse course this week, when H.R. 1 passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support.
 
We have a lot more to tell you in this edition of the Telegram. We will be back in two weeks with more. I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend next week.

Sincerely,





Tom Tiffany
Member of Congress

Click here or on the image above to listen to my H.R. 1 floor remarks.

Holding Communist China accountable
When a foreigner commits a crime in the U.S. or violates the terms of their visa, we are supposed to send them home. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t always happen. In some cases, the home government of that foreigner flat-out refuses to take them back. These uncooperative regimes are known as “recalcitrant countries.” You probably won’t be surprised to learn that one of the worst offenders is Communist China, which effectively uses our country as a dumping ground for their criminals. Even more troubling, China’s rulers have been taunting the Biden administration by publicly bragging about their “non-cooperation” policy. The good news is that President Biden has a powerful tool to hit back at China. In fact, existing immigration law actually requires him to halt the issuance of new visas in China until Beijing starts taking their criminals back. The bad news is that President Biden is ignoring this law. That doesn’t just make the U.S. look weak, it’s also dangerous – and it doesn’t make any sense. After all, why would we continue admitting foreign nationals who we may never be able to send back to their own country – even after they commit serious crimes in ours? That’s why this week I led several lawmakers in demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken do their job. You can read a copy of our letter here. 
 
Lymphedema Awareness Month
March is Lymphedema Awareness Month, and I wanted to provide an update for lymphedema patients and their loved ones. As Telegram readers might remember, I cosponsored and voted for H.R. 3630, the Lymphedema Treatment Act, to ensure that Medicare Part B covers compression garments last Congress. As a result of this effort, the Lymphedema Treatment Act was included in an end-of-the-year package and signed into law. This means starting on January 1, 2024, lymphedema patients will be able to use Medicare insurance coverage for their compression supplies. This is great news for lymphedema patients, and it will help over a million breast cancer survivors and Medicare beneficiaries save on their healthcare costs.
 
Art Competition deadline is ONE week away
Reminder, my Congressional Art Competition deadline is one week away. Each submission must be mailed or hand-delivered to my Wausau Office by Friday, April 7th at 5 PM. This year’s theme is: A day in the life of Wisconsin, and guidelines and regulations to participate can be found on my website. If you have any last-minute questions, please call my office at (715) 298-9344. I look forward to seeing all the talented submissions.
 
Ending Biden’s perpetual state of emergency
It’s been over three years since the COVID-19 national emergency began and six months since President Biden declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, but the emergency declaration – and the extra emergency powers – are still going strong. We cannot continue to live in a perpetual state of emergency, which is why I introduced H.J. Res 7 along with my colleague Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09) to officially end the national emergency once and for all. The House of Representatives passed our resolution last month, and I’m pleased to report that this week it passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support and is now on its way to President Biden’s desk. Although the President has expressed opposition to ending his emergency powers, I am hopeful that he will sign it, it’s far past time for Joe Biden to end this authoritarian abuse and put the freedoms of the American people first. If you would like to read more about our resolution to end the national emergency, click here.

This week House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signed H.J. Res 7 to officially end the COVID-19 national emergency, it is now on its way to the President’s desk for his signature.

Committee Update

Judiciary Committee
The weaponization of our justice system
As you might have heard on the news last night, former President Donald Trump was indicted yesterday as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s scheme to pursue a politically motivated prosecution. In last week’s Telegram, I mentioned that DA Alvin Bragg’s inquisition into President Trump seems to be a higher priority than addressing the rising crime wave gripping his city (he has downgraded 52% of New York City’s felony charges to misdemeanors, for example). In any case, Mr. Bragg’s conduct is incredibly troubling. What he is doing represents a dangerous effort to weaponize our justice system and that should worry every fair-minded American – regardless of political affiliation. You can read more about the issue here.
 
Federal Lands Subcommittee
Ensuring public access to our public lands
This week the Federal Lands subcommittee had a hearing on eight different bipartisan bills that would promote recreation and access to our federal lands. I know firsthand the importance of access to public lands, dating back to my time as the owner and operator of Wilderness Cruises with my wife in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. While America has a wealth of multiple-use federal lands, they are not always easily accessible to all Americans. Rising costs, complex regulations, and inefficient permitting processes, often limit the ability of people to access and enjoy these spectacular areas. The bills we considered this week will help reduce some of those barriers, and expand their ability to ski, bicycle, rock climb, shoot, and camp. Each of these pieces of legislation will allow more people to get outdoors, enjoy our lands, recreate, and make memories to last a lifetime. This is just the beginning of many hearings my Subcommittee will have on recreation, and we will continue to identify solutions to allow more people to take advantage of some of the best places America has to offer. If you would like to see some of the questions I asked our witnesses, you can do so here.
 
Only we can prevent forest fires
This week, I had the pleasure of moderating the Western Caucus Foundation’s Forestry and Wildfire Policy Forum with guests Jeff Marsolais and Mark Rey. We discussed the need for active forest management and steps the United States Forest Service can take as we move into this year’s wildfire season. As the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands Chairman, I understand how important it is to address the catastrophic wildfire crisis happening across our nation, particularly in the West. It’s time we hold our federal agencies accountable when they are reporting wildfire treatment to make sure they are actually doing the work to reduce this crisis. That’s why I introduced the ACRES Act to hold federal land management agencies, like the U.S. Forest Service, accountable by requiring transparency in the work they are doing to reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires on our public lands. Steps must be taken to save lives, protect communities, and contain wildfires, and this legislation will help do just that.

I had a great time moderating a panel on the ways that active forest management can help reduce wildfires.

Recent Legislation

Politicians pocketing campaign money?
Sounds crazy, right? Want to know what’s even crazier? It’s also perfectly legal. That’s because current campaign finance laws allow elected officials to funnel political donations into their personal bank accounts by “hiring” their spouses as campaign operatives. Sadly, this is an unsavory practice that politicians from both parties have engaged in over the years. In perhaps the most egregious example, one current House member paid her husband almost $3 million in a single election cycle. It is outrageous for lawmakers to convert campaign contributions into personal funds in this way. It feeds public perceptions of corruption and undermines public trust in Congress – and it’s long past time we put a stop to it. That’s why this week I introduced the Oversight for Members and Relatives Act (or OMAR Act for short) with Reps. Mike Gallagher (WI-08), Nancy Mace (SC-01), and Claudia Tenney (NY-24). Our common-sense legislation would close this troubling money laundering loophole once and for all. You can read more about my bill here.
 
Investing in our children
Once the pandemic began to wind down and schools started putting an end to remote learning we saw teachers’ unions across the nation strike to not to return to the classroom – despite the horrendous impact distance learning had on their students. In the past two years, we’ve seen all three of the nation’s largest school district's teachers’ unions go on strike keeping millions of kids out of the classroom without any instruction for days on end. While the pandemic is over, the teacher’s union strikes are not. Unfortunately, when schools close due to strikes it hurts the poor and most vulnerable students the most. For those students, remote learning can be a challenge and their families can’t afford to send their child to a new school district with fewer personnel issues, leaving them stuck in a bad situation. That’s why I recently signed on to H.R. 1733, the Kids in Classes Act, which will require Title I schools that shut their doors for more than 3 days due to a strike or public health emergency to allocate the funding they receive for those students directly to their parents for educational expenses. That way parents can use those funds for private school tuition, tutoring, or online education materials. We cannot afford to lose an entire generation of students, if a school district is unable to offer instruction, parents should be able to transfer their child and their funding to a school that is open for education. You can read more about our bill here.

District Update

Idatrod race
Congratulations to Ryan Redington on winning the 2023 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race – traveling almost 1,000 miles in 8 days 21 hours 12 minutes and 58 seconds! Ryan isn’t from Wisconsin’s Seventh District but spends his falls and winters training his sled dogs in Douglas County. He showed all of us what hard work, patience, and dedication look like when two of his dogs made a full recovery after being hit by a snowmobile in January of 2022. Congratulations Ryan on achieving your lifelong dream; I am proud that my district got to assist you in bringing your dogs to victory. 

Click here or on the image above to watch my House floor remarks congratulating Ryan on winning the 2023 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Photo of the week: Easter Edition
While we will be skipping the Telegram next week to celebrate the Easter weekend, my team and I have an egg-stra special photo of the week lined up for you this week. I’d love to see more of your spring-themed photos. If you would like your picture to be featured next, please email it to [email protected] with your name and location.

“Hoppy Easter” – Submitted by Jeanne in Saint Germain

Upcoming Events

Upcoming spring election day
This upcoming Tuesday is the 2023 Spring Election. If you have not yet voted, you can find your closest polling location here.

Resources  

Summer is just around the corner, so don’t wait until the last minute to apply for or renew your passport for your upcoming vacation. The current processing time is 10 to 13 weeks, so we recommend getting this done as soon as possible. For more information, click here.

The USDA continues to make resources and assistance available to agricultural producers and working families to ensure access, safety and stability for food markets and supplies. 

If a friend forwarded you this newsletter, and you would like to receive it in the future, you can subscribe here for weekly updates and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

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

Follow Rep. Tiffany