A couple of things to mention off the top: The President gave his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday.  Vednita Carter, the Founder and Executive Director of Breaking Free attended as my guest.  Breaking Free is a non-profit in the Twin Cities that educates and provides services to women and girls who are victims of sex trafficking.  I'm pushing bipartisan legislation to combat sex trafficking.  Also, the Minnesota Economic Club paid a special visit to Washington to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of trade with Canada and Mexico and honor my friend, former Minnesota 3rd District Congressman Bill Frenzel.

Have a great weekend and week!  Please feel free to contact me if I can assist you or your family in any way. Join the conversation online by visiting my website, Facebook page, Twitter, and don't forget to watch my weekly video, Erik's Correspondence Corner.

Minnesota Economic Club Praises Former Congressman Frenzel

This week, the Minnesota Economic Club was in Washington to present former Congressman Bill Frenzel with the Champion of Free Trade Award.  I was happy to see my mentor and predecessor recognized for this well-deserved accolade.  I'm involved with trade issues and spoke to the group about the importance of increased trade and exports, as 750,000 jobs in Minnesota are tied to trade.  I am excited about several bipartisan trade agreements for both the Pacific and Atlantic regions that are moving forward. Finally, the President also highlighted this issue in his State of the Union speech.  These agreements will strengthen the opportunities for Minnesotans to export goods to new markets around the globe. 

Impact of the Employer Mandate on Jobs and Opportunity

The Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the impact of the so-called "30 hour rule" employer mandate that is part of the President's new health care law.  It mandates employers to provide health care for all employees who work more than 30 hours or face a crippling fine.  The result is that many small businesses are moving their full-time employees to part-time. The consequence is that workers with good full-time jobs are now being forced to work part-time.

This is a very real issue.  One Minnesota small business owner explained his situation to me.  He employs 535 people at 7 different restaurants and 41 percent of his workers are full-time.  But because of the new health care law he's being forced to move nearly all of these employees to only 29 hours a week. This is a 25% reduction in weekly pay for hard-working families who need it the most.  We should be implementing policies that encourage work, productivity and a healthier economy, but the new law is doing the opposite. 

Even our local volunteer fire departments are negatively impacted, as several Minnesota fire chiefs have said unless the law is changed a lot of city fire departments will have to either cut back hours for volunteers, or cities will have to drastically increase taxes to expand the budgets for fire departments.

Watch the video of me raising these issues in committee here.

Education and Schools

As many of you may know, Minnesota was the pioneer for charter schools in the country decades ago. On Wednesday, Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) and I toured the DC Prep Charter School. In too many communities across the nation students are trapped in failing schools with few options of gaining a better education. Often these students are forced to attend failing schools simply because of where they live, and so public charter schools can play an important role in getting our students into high quality schools.  Charter schools like Beacon Prep in Bloomington and the World Learner School in Chaska are helping to make Minnesota a blueprint of success for the rest of the country.

Paulsen Pics

Congressman Paulsen discusses trade at a Minnesota Economic Club Event in Washington honoring former Rep. Bill Frenzel

Congressman Paulsen responds to media inquiries after the President's State of the Union

Erik visits DC Prep School in Washington as part of National School Choice Week

###