Issue Position: Jobs and the Workforce

Issue Position

As a life long owner of a union printing business, a staunch defender of worker's rights and a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I believe Congress has a responsibility to take proactive and commonsense measures that can provide business owners with certainty, promote economic growth, and create jobs for Wisconsinites. I want to make strategic investments in education, research and development and infrastructure, and to support small business owners who create jobs in our communities. I have made creating jobs a number one priority and will fight to put Wisconsinites back to work and ensure long-term, sustainable growth that will power our economy for years to come.

As a small business owner who has seen the effects of massive trade deals and their impact on American products, I have also been a leader in fighting for fair trade deals that protect American jobs and American industries. Twenty years after the NAFTA trade deal was signed, the U.S. has a $181 billion trade deficit with Mexico and Canada and a related loss of one million net U.S. jobs, according to Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. Recently, I led a letter with 35 other freshman lawmakers calling for increased transparency from the administration on Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Pacific Rim trade deal, and urging Congress not to give up our constitutional authority to oversee foreign trade agreements.

I am also a strong proponent of raising the minimum wage and am a cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would raise the minimum wage, over the span of two years, to $10.10 an hour.

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