Dear Friend,
 
Riots, looting, and lawlessness ravaged the nation in the summer of 2020 as a result of the Democrats’ ‘defund the police’ movement, soft-on-crime policies, and reckless bail reform efforts.
 
The U.S. murder rate shot up 30% between 2019 and 2020 – the largest increase in more than a century.
 
You would think that our elected officials who take an oath to uphold the law would condemn acts of violence and speak out to diffuse the situation.
 
Unfortunately, you would be wrong.
 
Prominent politicians, including Vice President Kamala Harris, announced their support for criminals wreaking havoc on American cities – and went so far as to help spring them out of jail. President Biden took it one step further, announcing plans to end cash bail altogether.
 
Many local progressive leaders bought into this self-destructive, woke agenda. Some even allowed their communities to burn to the ground after refusing the federal government’s offer to send in backup to help them regain control of their cities.
 
In response, President Trump issued an executive order cutting off federal funding to State and Local governments that refused to uphold the law, which the Department of Justice designated as anarchist jurisdictions.
 
Shockingly, President Biden immediately reversed this law and order policy almost immediately after being sworn into office. Not surprisingly, crime rates surged.
 
Turns out giving criminals a “free pass” doesn’t deter predatory criminal behavior. And we have all seen the results. Nearly every week there’s a new headline about victims being re-victimized by a career criminal or a rogue district attorney that refuses to hold habitual predators accountable.
 
Enough is enough. It is time for politicians to stop kowtowing to criminals and start putting the well-being of American neighborhoods first.
 
The American people want something done to make their streets safe again, which is why this week I introduced the Combating Violent and Dangerous Crime Act. It will crack down on crime by strengthening federal law on violent crime, enhancing penalties, protecting our children from drug poisonings (more on that later), and putting dangerous predators where they belong – behind bars. 
 
Thanks again for starting off your weekend with us! We hope you enjoy this week’s edition of the Tiffany Telegram.

Sincerely,





Tom Tiffany
Member of Congress

Does Biden celebrate inflation?
On Tuesday, the Department of Labor released its latest inflation numbers, and they weren’t pretty. Even worse than experts' expectations, the latest inflation numbers rose 8.3% in August – despite a modest dip in sky-high gas prices. That means that other items such as groceries, rent, and medical treatments are becoming even more expensive. Despite this grim report, just hours after the new numbers were released, the White House held a celebration to toast the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.” Unfortunately, the only thing shrinking is American paychecks. As Telegram readers might recall, the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” will deploy an army of 87,000 IRS agents and shells out $400+ billion for Green New Deal mandates that will further the potential for third-world style rolling blackouts. It also raises taxes on American manufacturers, disproportionately hurting Wisconsin, and slaps a new tax on the natural gas we use to heat our homes. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the “Inflation Reduction Act” would actually increase inflation. Ironically, as President Biden was holding his victory lap celebration, the stock market tanked more than 1,200 points. You can watch a CNN clip of the freefall in real-time here. With grocery prices at a 43-year high, electricity costs skyrocketing 15.8% in the last year, and the steepest monthly rent increases since 1991, this is hardly the time for a White House party.
 
Taiwan inks grain purchase deal with US
On a brighter note, this week I met with members of Taiwan’s Agricultural Trade Goodwill Mission, who were in Washington, DC to sign letters of intent to purchase $3.3 billion worth of U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans. Taiwan has been a reliable, longtime trading partner, and a key market for American farm exports for many years. In fact, since 1998, Taiwan’s goodwill trade missions have resulted in the purchase of some 5.4 bushels of American grain valued at $34.7 billion. It is a win-win relationship that provides new export opportunities for American farmers while enhancing Taiwan’s food security. Even more importantly, this deal represents an important step toward negotiating a formal US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement, something I have been pushing for since I first came to Congress in 2020. In a global trading system that has been increasingly disrupted and manipulated by bad actors such as China, it is vital for us to open new markets and strengthen our trade links with like-minded nations – so we can export American products, not American jobs. If we’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that “free trade” only works when it is between free countries. I also spoke to the international media after the signing ceremony about US-Taiwan relations. You can see that interview here.
 

Pre-K: Reading, writing, math, and gender ideology?
This week the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) drew national attention, for all the wrong reasons. Apparently, Governor Evers the self-proclaimed “education governor” decided to take a page out of Biden’s playbook, as it recently came to light that his DPI is pushing woke gender ideology on children as young as three years old. The resource guide, titled “Resources for Gender Expansive Preschoolers” includes a number of videos and books for toddlers to learn about “transitioning.” The DPI endorsed materials also labels parents as “trolls” if they express concerns or question the appropriateness of public educators teaching very young children about such sensitive topics in school. It's an escalation from last year when the Biden administration tagged concerned parents as “domestic terrorists,” if they dared to speak out. And you can probably guess what happened next. In true “big tech” fashion, Twitter has already began taking steps to suppress the story by suspending the author who broke the story.
 
The wrong kind of “Catch and Release” in Wisconsin
Like many of you, I was shocked this week to learn that at least
884 convicted criminals have been released by Governor Evers’ Parole Commission, including more than 300 murderers, child rapists and even a cop killer. What’s more shocking is that these were discretionary paroles, meaning that many of these felons weren’t eligible for parole. Some were even serving life sentences. Not surprisingly, many have already re-offended. Sadly, over the last few years, we’ve seen too many progressive leaders, including soft-on-crime prosecutors and judges
allow hardened criminals treat our justice system like a revolving door. It’s wrong. People are tired of politicians that prioritize the comfort of criminals over the rights of victims. That’s why I introduced bills like the
Combating Violent and Dangerous Crime Act and The Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act, which will make sure we hold violent menaces – and the rogue public officials who enable them – accountable.

                          Committee Update

Natural Resources
Northern Wisconsin Forest Products Tour
Northern Wisconsin produces one-of-a-kind forest industry products, and last week, I had the pleasure of welcoming the House Natural Resources Committee’s top Republican member, Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, to Wisconsin. We sat down with timber professionals whose livelihoods have been harmed by extreme Biden administration policies. Our first stop on the tour was with the Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo. We even opened the ceremony in front of Lambeau Field (click here for the video). I also signed a section of pipe for the Line 5 relocation project. As Telegram readers know, Line 5 – which transports 540,000 barrels of light crude oil, light synthetic crude oil, and natural gas liquids every single day – is vital to the regional economy. Line 5 also provides propane to Wisconsin, which many of us rely on to keep us warm in the winter. It doesn’t just deliver fuel safely, it is also a major job creator in Northern Wisconsin. At our second stop, we had a great tour of Cleereman Industries in Newald and Crandon. For over 60 years, Cleereman has developed and manufactured cutting edge sawmill machinery that is used in mills all across America. For our final visit, we met with The Paper People in Elcho, where we enjoyed seeing some innovative, one-of-a-kind packaging that could replace plastics, offering a completely recyclable and sustainable product. Wisconsin’s forests and paper-making industry supports our local economies, creates rural jobs, and helps protect our unique environment by mitigating catastrophic wildfires and maintaining forest health.

Click here or on the image above for a recap of Ranking Member Westerman’s visit to Northern Wisconsin.

                          Recent Legislation

Fentanyl – one pill can kill
Yesterday, I participated in a heart-wrenching Republican Study Committee roundtable on fentanyl, where we heard from multiple individuals who have lost their son, daughter, brother, sister, or loved ones to the devastating fentanyl crisis – and they are not alone. Last year, the U.S. saw a tsunami of more than 100,000 drug-related deaths. This crisis has become so serious that overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans from age 18 to 45. It doesn’t have to be this way, and as I told the families at the roundtable yesterday, this shouldn’t be a political issue. Unfortunately, many of my Democrat colleagues simply refuse to admit our border isn’t “secure” – despite not even visiting to see for themselves. If they would go talk to Border Patrol, they would know that enough fentanyl to kill every American nearly seven times over was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection last fiscal year. You would think that would spark a light under Democrats to pass meaningful legislation to secure our border, but instead, the Biden administration continues to allow criminal cartels to poison our neighbors. As a result, drug traffickers are coming up with new ways to drive fentanyl addiction – including manufacturing it to be brightly colored – to entice our youth. We have to take this seriously, and it starts with making sure your children know that one pill can kill. To help stop this crisis, I introduced the Combating Violent and Dangerous Crime Act (which I have mentioned above). This legislation would target, among other things, candy-flavored drugs, such as “rainbow” fentanyl, to minors.

Discussing how Congress can address the deadly fentanyl crisis with more than a dozen parents whose children passed away due to opioid-related overdoses.

De-facto gun registry?
This week I joined my colleagues in sending a letter to the major credit card companies demanding answers about a dangerous new backdoor gun registry scheme. News about this controversial plan became public after Amalgamated Bank petitioned the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an multilateral group with ties to the United Nations, for a new Merchant Category Code (MCC) to track firearm sales. Major credit card companies have opposed this new coding in the past, with Visa recently stating, “[they] believe that asking payment networks to serve as a moral authority by deciding which legal goods can or cannot be purchased sets a dangerous precedent.” However, it now appears some have reversed course. Sadly, the Biden administration and many in Congress have spent the last few years attacking the rights of law-abiding citizens – working overtime to devise creative ways to create a national gun registry, despite it being prohibited. They’ve recruited banks to sever ties with gun manufacturers, they passed a so-called “Assault Weapons Ban” through the House of Representatives, and now they are pressuring credit card companies to join their unconstitutional campaign. I am committed to getting to the bottom of this shady effort to chip away at the rights of law-abiding Americans.

                             Upcoming Events

Service Academy Days
Senator Ron Johnson and Minnesota Representative Pete Stauber will each be hosting their annual Service Academy Days this month. Tomorrow Senator Johnson will be hosting his from 9:00am to 12:30pm at the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, and on September 29th, Representative Stauber will be hosting his from 6:30pm to 8:30 pm at the Proctor High School Auditorium in Duluth. If you are a high school student with a desire to serve our nation as a military leader, you won’t want to miss the chance to hear from representatives from all five military branches. Students must first receive a nomination from at least one of their state's members of Congress, the Vice President, or the President of the United States to be admitted to our nation’s military service academies. Admission is free, and parents, teachers, and students at any grade level are welcome to attend.

                                  Resources  

September is Passport Awareness Month which means that now is the time to apply for and renew your passport while demand is low. For more information, please visit the State Department website here. We recommend to apply at least six months before planned travel as routine service may take up to about 18 weeks.

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. 

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