Congratulations to Minnesota's Principals of the Year

I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to Efe Agbamu and Jeff Scherber for winning the Minnesota Principal of the Year award for Park High School in Cottage Grove and Monticello Valley Middle School, respectively. Principals are the backbone of our schools and research shows that school leadership has a big impact on student achievement.

I had the honor of meeting Efe and Jeff to discuss the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as "No Child Left Behind," and talk about education strategies that they've implemented in their schools. Efe Agbamu and Jeff Scherber show that great principals really can make a difference. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I introduced legislation with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would help schools recruit talented principals, who are critically important to the success of these schools.

Convincing OnStar to Change its Policy

I was concerned that OnStar was violating the privacy of its nearly 6 million customers when the company announced its decision to track their locations and sell their information even after they had canceled their subscription to the service. I reached out to them to express my concerns and asked them to reverse their position, and I'm proud to say that soon after, they did. I still have more questions about how they are using customers' location data, but OnStar made the right decision to respect its customers' privacy. Ultimately, I hope this situation spurs Congress to pass my location privacy bill to prevent situations like this in the future. You can read about my Location Privacy Protection Act on my website.

Repairing Bridges Will Create Jobs

I recently released a report showing that nearly one in ten bridges across Minnesota is structurally deficient and that over one thousand bridges in our state are in need of repairs. Investing in rebuilding these bridges and other infrastructure throughout the state is a win-win situation. Minnesota has so many men and women in construction who are on the bench—and have been for a long time—and so many projects in need of their skills. We should get them back to work rebuilding roads and bridges across the state that are in need of repair. Investing in infrastructure is a great way to help our economy get back on its feet and put people back to work. A county-by-county breakdown of the bridges in need of repair can be found on my website.

Service Members: Claim Your Retroactive Stop Loss Pay before Oct. 21

Service members whose military deployment was involuntarily extended under the Stop Loss program between September 11, 2001 and September 30, 2009 are eligible for $500 each month they were stop lossed. The deadline for claiming that money is October 21st, so service members have to act quickly. To apply for your retroactive pay, go to http://www.defense.gov/stoploss.

Congress provided over $500 million for veterans, service members, and primary beneficiaries of service members whose military service was involuntarily extended through the Stop Loss program to receive pay. However, to date only about 40% of the funds have been distributed, so eligible applicants should apply by October 21st to claim their benefits.