I hope everyone’s summers are off to a great start! I’ve already welcomed a bunch of Minnesotans to Washington on their summer vacations and look forward to welcoming more. I’m also looking forward to spending the Fourth of July weekend in Minnesota!

 

 

 

One special guest I met this week was 6-year old Shelby Ullom from Plymouth, who visited with her parents Dan and Suzanne. They shared their family’s experience and the tremendous work being done at Children’s Hospital, where Shelby spent more than six months after being born 23 weeks premature. I support many initiatives important to helping Children's Hospital continue its amazing care for so many young patients.

 

 

 

I also met with students from Normandale Community College, who were in Washington for the Community College Innovation Challenge administered by the National Science Foundation. They were among 10 teams selected from community colleges around the country taking part in a challenge to create STEM-based solutions for real world problems. I was impressed with their Wastewater Hydrokinetic Turbine!

 

 

 

Have a great week as you prepare for the Fourth of July. Please let me know whenever I can be of assistance to you or your family.  Join the conversation online by visiting my website, Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and please watch the latest Erik's Correspondence Corner video.

As many of you know, I authored a bill to help reunite families by solving abducted and missing children cases. I discovered that every year nearly 200,000 children are abducted by a relative or family member and that in up to 46 percent of the cases the relative who abducted the child is filing a tax return with the child's Social Security Number or an address that could be used to locate the child.

 

 

 

Here's the good news: my bill, The Recovering Missing Children Act, passed both the House and the Senate and is now on its way to the President’s desk for his signature. On Wednesday, I joined Speaker Paul Ryan for the bill’s signing before it heads to the White House to become law. The bill has widespread support, and was endorsed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as well as various law enforcement groups. 

 

 

 

This commonsense legislation will help law enforcement locate and rescue missing children by filling in the “information gap” that investigators often face when trying to reunite a child with loved ones. For more information, be sure to click here.

 

 

• Promote savings and investment

• End the practice of shifting jobs overseas

• Make filing taxes so simple the return can fit on a postcard

• Help Americans’ greatest asset – our small businesses

• Modernize the IRS and make it a service-first agency for all Americans

We all know about the challenges being presented by the Zika virus that is spreading throughout South and Central America, and now into the United States. This week, I supported important additional funding to address the Zika threat assuring we have the needed resources to protect the public. As we head into the summer with more Americans traveling overseas and more mosquitoes coming out, it's crucial to protect the health of Americans and form a global fight against the virus.