{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/columns/star-tribune-sixth-district-rep-tom-emmers-eyes-opened-congressional-african", "Star Tribune: Sixth District Rep. Tom Emmer's eyes opened on congressional African trip", "2015-04-20", "2015", "2015-04", "Republican", "House", "MN", "Tom Emmer", "E000294", "emmer.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Allison Sherry, Star Tribune\nGOP Rep. Tom Emmer is the first to acknowledge how much he is learning in his first 100 days of his first term in Congress serving Minnesotas Sixth Congressional District: the Capitol Hill hierarchy, the importance of making a few early friends on the other side of the aisle, and the reality of a good nights sleep on an air mattress. (Emmer isnt renting a D.C. apartment; he sleeps in his office.)\nThis House committee was not something Emmer initially sought. He wanted a higher profile, more prestigious perch on Transportation or Financial Services. But after the assignments were doled out by leadership, Emmer pledged to dive in.\nTaking a trip earlier this month with other lawmakers to Ethiopia and Kenya opened his eyes more than any Washington briefing.\nI know the attitude, and Ive been guilty of it myself: Why would you invest over there instead of building bridges, building schools, doing stuff here? he said. It is all about economics and national security. People dont realize that. Im learning in even more detail that our national defense and our diplomacy are intertwined.\nIn an interview, Emmer talked about what the streets smelled like, how strong the coffee there was and how he ran into a herd of goat farmers while trying to get to a meeting.\nThen he shifted to his grand lesson: the importance of the U.S. investments abroad. The U.S. distributes about $40 billion through 21 agencies in foreign assistance a year  roughly 1 percent of the annual budget of $3.65 trillion. Of that $40 billion, Africa gets about $9.5 billion.\nEmmer spent the week mostly meeting with farmers and entrepreneurs. He talked about a dairy co-op in Eldoret, Kenya, where the owner was hacking out a living on one-third of an acre using hydroponics and a special feed that boosts milk production. He told the story of a woman who was amid managing several residential construction projects and developing a telecom business.\nAsked whether he believed in increasing the foreign aid budget, Emmer said he wasnt sure, but he was impressed with the programs he saw and would favor expanding them.\nYou could make a choice certainly to spend it  on bombs, bullets and boots on the ground or you could help these emerging countries on imparted knowledge and technical support and experience to allow them to improve their economic status, he said. If these programs keep raising peoples economic situation, their quality of life, their standard of living, it actually results in a direct benefit for us. Because they dont want anything to do with Al-Shabab.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/columns/star-tribune-sixth-district-rep-tom-emmers-eyes-opened-congressional-african"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7235330995172262, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}