Dear John,

I hope you all had a great week! I am enjoying being back in Minnesota and getting to meet with more constituents and local partners.

During this District Work Period, our work in the district is full steam ahead.

Last week, an NBC news investigation revealed that nearly one-third of the surveillance cameras used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection are not working. That’s unacceptable.

Border patrol agents cannot keep the southern border secure with broken cameras. So last Friday I wrote to Speaker Johnson urging him to bring legislation to a vote to fund remote video surveillance towers and update the mobile surveillance systems. The bipartisan border security deal that I pushed for earlier this year included funding for these cameras, but Republican leadership blocked it.

Congress can’t keep getting caught up in these partisan fights. We must find common ground.

For example, earlier this year, I led the efforts to install new state-of-the-art fentanyl scanners at the southern border to support border patrol agents as they work to keep our border secure. The scanners were sitting in a warehouse instead of at the border because funding hadn’t been passed to install them. So I got it done.

Issues like border security don’t have to get caught up in partisan gridlock. Like I’ve seen firsthand with the fentanyl scanner problem, common sense can win in Congress if we’re willing to work together. The bipartisan border security deal should be no different. Our national security cannot be a political issue. I’ll keep pushing for commonsense fixes like these and solutions to secure our southern border.

Here’s what else I was up to this week:

Bringing federal dollars home

On Tuesday I was in Rosemount for the Mississippi River Greenway ribbon cutting ceremony. I was grateful to work with Dakota County leadership on this long-term collaboration that brought home over $9 million in federal funding to our communities. I’m excited to see this greenway now open for our communities to enjoy.

Behind the scenes with Rep. Craig:

Meet my interns working in my Eagan District Office – Samra and Boden! They are doing great work supporting our team as we address constituent problems and get results for MN-02.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and this beautiful fall weather!

Until next time,
 

Angie Craig

Member of Congress