On Monday, I was thrilled to welcome residents of our district to Harper College in Palatine for my 2024 Meet and Greet. I was grateful to have so many constituents in attendance and look forward to continuing our discussions as to how we can best serve our community in the year ahead.

This week, I held a series of events based on my work as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Through our Committee, I brokered a landmark, bipartisan agreement on 150 policy recommendations to reset the economic and technology competition with the CCP to benefit American workers, companies, and consumers. Among these proposals were investing in infrastructure projects including the Elgin O’Hare Western Access (EOWA) project, strengthening our workforce through legislation such as my bipartisan Opportunity to Compete Act, and committing to making more critical supplies and products in America and allied nations, which a number of companies are doing throughout our district. If we are to protect and empower our economy and American families, we must make critical commitments to American manufacturing, AI research, and general technological development.

To highlight my proposals to boost American competitiveness, I joined Illinois Tollway Executive Director Cassaundra Rouse and other local leaders on Monday to review the ongoing construction of the EOWA project, which will connect Illinois 390 and Interstate 490 and provide access to O’Hare International Airport from those traveling from the west. In addition to cutting travel time, this project will reduce congestion on local roads, attract more businesses west of O’Hare, and create as many as 65,000 new, good-paying jobs across our region by 2040. I have been proud to support this project in Congress and to work with members of both parties at every level of government. The progress we have seen already and the work that remains on this project are critical to allowing businesses in our region to thrive and better compete across our country and the world. You can read more about the EOWA project in the Daily Herald by clicking here and watch my interview on the status of the project with WGN News by clicking here.

Secure supply chains are crucial to our economic security, and on Monday, I had the opportunity to meet with businesses and organizations focused on investing and revitalizing American manufacturing in our district and throughout the greater Chicago area, including Motorola Solutions, the IT governance organization ISACA, and Becton Dickinson (BD). At BD, our discussion at their manufacturing facility focused on the importance of strengthening American manufacturing and supply chains. As my Select Committee’s recent economic report noted, our dependence on the CCP for our pharmaceutical and medical device supply chains poses a distinct national security risk. That is why our committee recommended initiating a “Buy America” pilot program to require Medicare, Medicaid, and other federally funded health systems to purchase basic medical devices from U.S. production facilities or from allies and trading partners. Building an environment in which American manufacturers, including BD, can thrive is critical to the future and security of our regional and national economies.

I also met with the IT governance organization ISACA (formerly known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association) to discuss workforce development and cybersecurity in the greater Chicago area. As my Select Committee’s bipartisan economic report noted, as our world grows increasingly dependent on technology, the importance of investing in training and retraining our workforce to meet those demands only grows. ISACA has led the way in setting effective training standards for cyber security professionals to meet these demands along with the global gold standard for performance improvement in service, product, and software development. ISACA’s latest update will help companies reduce their vulnerability to these types of cyber-attacks and intellectual property theft that threaten our economic competitiveness with the CCP. As my committee noted in our report, we cannot meet the technological demands of the future without meeting the cybersecurity and workforce development demands of today.

At Motorola Solutions in Elgin, we had a series of discussions on the rapid advancements of artificial intelligence, and how such technology, if handled responsibly, can be used to accelerate analysis, protect communities, and increase innovation at all levels. As my committee recently reaffirmed in our report on the strategic competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, we must ensure that the United States remains the world’s leader in AI and that our adversaries cannot leverage our advances in AI, such as those we discussed today, to undermine our national security or economic competitiveness. Fundamentally, that means helping to set global standards governing artificial intelligence developments, investing in research into them, and working effectively with our business community to safely harness their full potential.

If you are unable to make it to our district office in Schaumburg, our staff is available at mobile office hours throughout the district. Share your concerns, questions, issues and get help navigating federal agencies at convenient locations across the district.

Our Next Wood Dale Office Hours: Wednesday, February 7^th: 10:00am – 1:00pm in the Wood Dale Public Library at 520 N Wood Dale Rd, Wood Dale, IL.

We will continue to hold additional office hours in Wood Dale on the first Wednesday of each month: March 6^th, April 3^rd, May 1^st, June 5^th, July 3^rd, August 7^th, September 4^th, October 2^nd, November 6^th, December 4^th.

Our Next Elgin Office Hours: Tuesday, February 13^th: 10:00am – 1:00pm at the Gail Borden Public Library (Elgin Branch) at 270 N. Grove Ave, Elgin, IL.

We will continue to hold additional office hours in Elgin on the second Tuesday of each month: March 12^th, April 9^th, May 14^th, June 11^th, July 9^th, August 13^th, September 10^th, October 8^th, November 12^th, December 10^th.

Our Next Des Plaines Office Hours: Tuesday, February 13^th: 9:30am – 11:30am in the Des Plaines Public Library at 1501 Ellinwood St, Des Plaines, IL.

We will continue to hold additional office hours in Wood Dale on the second Tuesday of every other month: April 9^th, June 11^th, August 13^th, November 12^th.