press: releases: 10 rows where party = "Republican", state = "MN" and year = 2013 sorted by date descending

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10 rows where party = "Republican", state = "MN" and year = 2013 sorted by date descending

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url	title	date ▲	year	month	party	chamber	state	member_name	bioguide_id	domain	date_source	text	has_text	collected_at	updated_at
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1380	Star Tribune Editorial: Broaden the fight on sex trafficking	2013-11-03	2013	2013-11	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Article by: EDITORIAL BOARD , Star Tribune November 2, 2013 - 5:26 PM Minnesota’s position at the crossroads of two nation-spanning interstate highways. Its proximity to the oil fields of North Dakota. The bustling international shipping port in Duluth. Year-round professional sporting events that make the rapidly growing metro area a popular tourist destination. The reasons why the Twin Cities area is one of the nation’s hubs for child prostitution, according to the FBI, are both varied and debatable. What isn’t in dispute is that this shocking designation is a horrifying blight on a state typically known for its natural resources and healthy lifestyles. As a longtime health care leader, Minnesota has a moral obligation to be at the forefront in fighting a public-health threat and human-rights abomination: the buying and selling of young girls and boys on the Internet for sex. While state lawmakers have taken some solid but beginning steps to help prostituted children here, Minnesota’s entire congressional delegation needs to rapidly ramp up the fight at the federal level for broader protections. The disturbingly youthful victims whose services are advertised in Minnesota and elsewhere on websites like Backpage.com are but a few of the millions entrapped in the commercial sex industry. While many are brought in from other countries, up to 300,000 American children under the age of 18 are recruited into prostitution annually, according to statistics compiled by the respected nonprofit Ark of Hope for Children. Between 8,000 and 12,000 people are involved in prostitution or sex trafficking in Minnesota each day, according to information from Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s office. Some estimates suggest that the average age of girls trafficked is between 12 and 14 — a finding that is mirrored in the day-to-day work of one of Minnesota’s foremost advocates for exploited children. “There are two undeniable trends. There are just more and more of these kids … and they are also gettin…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1359	MinnPost: Tax unites medical device industry and Minnesota's lawmakers	2013-10-22	2013	2013-10	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Tax unites medical device industry and Minnesota's lawmakers By Devin Henry \| 10:00 am WASHINGTON — For about six hours last Tuesday, it looked like House Republicans would take another stab at Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen’s top legislative priority: repealing or delaying the tax on medical device sales under President Obama’s health-care law. Their effort petered out that night, and Republicans would eventually accept a short-term government funding bill with hardly any GOP demands included. But Paulsen and tax repeal advocates say they see an opening, and, more importantly, momentum for repealing the 2.3 percent tax that is expected to bring in $30 billion to fund Obamacare over the next 10 years. “So many people are aware of it because it’s been in the news so often, it’s going to be right there again when we’re talking about the budget issues again in two and a half months,” Paulsen said. Device industry groups say the tax, which has brought in about $2 billion in new revenue so far this year, is stifling innovation and growth across the board. Tax supporters have dismissed the concerns, at least for large companies like Medtronic, while admitting the tax — levied on profits as opposed to revenue — might be squeezing small device companies. “The 10 largest manufacturers have 86 percent of the sales covered by the tax,” said Topher Spiro, an analyst for the liberal Center for American Progress and a former congressional staffer who helped write the Affordable Care Act. He dismissed full repeal efforts, but said, “I think the tax could be even better targeted than it is. The big guys can definitely afford it.” Lawmakers' focus has been either a full repeal — Paulsen’s preference — or a delay of the tax, which Republican leadership pursued in the final stages of the shutdown fight. Though that effort failed, repeal supporters say congressional support is growing. Paulsen’s bill has 266 co-sponsors — more than half the House — and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is he…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1360	Star Tribune: Tea Party may have hurt chances for device tax repeal	2013-10-21	2013	2013-10	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Tea Party may have hurt chances for device tax repeal Article by: JIM SPENCER , Star Tribune Updated: October 21, 2013 - 4:29 PM WASHINGTON – Business and political leaders trying to repeal the medical device tax connected to national health care reform hope to build on the publicity the tax received during the recent government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis. But as the nation’s budget negotiations continue in the weeks ahead, the push to kill the device tax as part of the ill-fated effort to defund the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, may have created as many problems as opportunities for those who want the tax dead. Repealing the device levy became “the shield at the front of the army” of Tea Party congressional lawmakers who pushed for a shutdown and near default to eliminate Obamacare, said Don Kettl, dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Fair or not, the medical technology industry’s goal to kill the tax will be associated with the fallout of that political failure, he added. “[Devicemakers] were swept underneath the same tent,” Kettl said. “They ended up finding themselves aligned with it.” Lawmakers who pushed the device tax repeal into the battle strongly reject the notion that their goal has been compromised. “I don’t have any reservations that [device tax repeal] has been tarnished at all,” said Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota, who wanted the tax’s repeal made part of any House budget bill. “If anything, we have gained more support going forward.” Devicemakers, including hundreds from Minnesota, have been paying the 2.3 percent tax on certain device sales since Jan. 1, pouring an estimated $2 billion into the federal treasury. The collections help pay for the expansion of health care coverage under Obamacare. But the device tax is the bane of Minnesota’s mammoth medical technology sector. Device companies say the levy will stifle employment and innovation, asserting that the tax could cost 43,000 jobs over the nex…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1362	Minnesota Republicans saw little choice on fiscal compromise	2013-10-17	2013	2013-10	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	MN Republicans saw little choice on fiscal compromise Article by: Kevin Diaz Star Tribune October 17, 2013 - 10:36 AM WASHINGTON – From Congress, a pair of Minnesota Republicans send their regrets. “It’s not where we wanted to be, there’s no question about that,” said Rep. John Kline, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner. “We had hoped to make more progress toward getting more fairness in Obamacare. We didn’t get that.” But Kline, along with Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen, felt he had no choice but to take the deal that emerged Wednesday from frenzied negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate. “I think the Republican brand has suffered under what has taken place,” said Paulsen, who, like Kline, represents a district that went to President Obama in the 2012 election. Both took flak from the right and left, particularly from Democrats, who portrayed the two swing-district Republicans as hostages to the GOP’s Tea Party wing, which sought to make the government spending resolution a referendum on blocking the new health care law. The only other Minnesota Republican in Congress, Tea Party stalwart Michele Bachmann, voted against the 11th-hour agreement that ended the government shutdown and averted Thursday’s deadline to begin defaulting on the national debt. Bachmann, however, has long since announced she is not running for re-election. It will be up to Kline and Paulsen — and much of the House GOP leadership — to pick up the pieces of what some Tea Party groups are calling “unconditional surrender.” Both men, who were among 87 Republicans voting for the deal, vowed to fight on in the next round of debt and deficit negotiations that will follow what has been a 16-day impasse. The deal passed the House on a 285-144 vote; no Democrats voted against the deal. “It’s fair to say virtually none of us like this deal,” Kline said after coming out of a sobering GOP caucus meeting. “But it’s a question of tactics now. Do we move forward? We …	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1363	Republicans say Obama might deal on medical device tax	2013-10-11	2013	2013-10	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Republicans say Obama might deal on medical device tax Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: October 11, 2013 - 5:31 PM Repeal of a device tax that has hit Minnesota medical technology companies hard could be the sweetener that breaks the deadlock over the debt limit and the government shutdown, which went into its 11th day Friday. A repeal the 2.3 percent medical device tax levied under President Obama’s health care law was part of a package Senate Republicans brought to the White House Friday. The offer would temporarily raise the debt ceiling and fund the government, which has been shut down since Oct. 1. Maine Republican Susan Collins told reporters afterwards that Obama did not reject the idea of repealing the medical device tax out of hand. She was quoted saying “he clearly also recognizes that it is not the heart of Obamacare.” Her account was seconded by Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who said the president called the tax a “legitimate concern” that might not be an integral part of the new health care law. The Minnesota congressional delegation has uniformly opposed the tax, which has cost large medical technology companies like St. Jude and Medtronic millions of dollars already. But Democrats in the delegation largely oppose making the device tax, or any aspect of Obamacare, part of the budget fight. Republicans, on the other hand, have tied several measures defunding or delaying Obamacare to a spending resolution that would reopen the government. Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen, working with Democrat Ron Kind of Wisconsin, has been pushing behind the scenes in the House to offer up a device tax repeal as a compromise. The question remains, however, whether that alone would be enough for Republicans, or whether Democrats would even put it on the table. Some House Democratic leaders reacted with dismay at the prospect of repealing a tax that is expected to raise $30 billion to help fund the new health care law over the next decade. New York Democrats Joe Crowley, vi…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1270	Patent trolls collect "nuisance fees" and political enemies	2013-06-17	2013	2013-06	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Article by: JIM SPENCER , Star Tribune Updated: June 15, 2013 - 9:32 PM Firms insist they perform a valuable function in buying up intellectual property. WASHINGTON – Mason Cos. of Chippewa Falls, Wis., sells shoes, women’s clothing and general merchandise on the Internet and through mail-order catalogs. It does not produce or market computers or their components. Yet six times in the past three years the 100-year-old business has been sued for infringing on software patents. Each time, the company felt no choice but to pay a licensing fee to avoid litigation costing 10 times as much to adjudicate. “It’s a shakedown,” Mason’s general counsel Tim Scobie said. Mason is one of thousands of U.S. businesses targeted each year by patent trolls, companies that invent nothing but buy patents from companies and individuals that do. Critics say the trolls then file multiple suits in hopes of collecting licensing fees from people and businesses too poor or too busy to fight them in court. “You end up with companies that aren’t making anything, trying to extract a nuisance fee,” explained Tom Cotter, a patent expert at the University of Minnesota Law School. Cotter said the number of “patent assertion entities” and “non-practicing entities” — the formal names for trolls — has increased dramatically in the past few years. The growth stems from an explosion of patents for minute bits of information technology and broadly applicable business methods. For example, a single smartphone may contain thousands of patented parts, or a single patented business method could be applied to thousands of different circumstances. Companies that buy and enforce patents generally reject the label of trolls. They say they have a legitimate business and provide a necessary way for small companies or individuals to receive payment for their intellectual property. A spokeswoman for Intellectual Ventures, one of the country’s biggest non-practicing entities, declined to be interviewed. But a blog entry by the…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1234	Paulsen Talks Tax Reform for Politico's Morning Tax	2013-05-03	2013	2013-05	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Morning Tax By Lauren French \| 5/2/13 6:01 AM EDT With help from Alysha Love PAULSEN: SUMMER WILL BE FILLED WITH DISCUSSION DRAFTS, HEARINGS. Rep. Erik Paulsen is ready. Ready for more meetings, discussion drafts and hearings if the process could push lawmakers toward a true comprehensive scrub of the tax code — and he’s about to get this wish with the Ways and Means Committee slated to begin meetings next week. “I think these meetings are going to be opportunities to show where there is consensus, but there is still going to be differences of opinion, so it will be helpful to show everyone where those differences of opinions might be. It has been a helpful process for all of us to learn what is important to different members or constituencies. We need to come together and see where we can add some consensus and just move forward,” Paulsen told Morning Tax from a snowy Minnesota. As lawmakers spend the summer in and out of D.C., Paulsen, who joined the retirement and pensions reform group, said there will be continued efforts to better understand the code — and how to reform it. “The chairman has been very clear that we’re going to produce a bill this year, a tax reform measure. I would not be surprised if additional discussion drafts were released that were products of the workings groups because those discussion drafts have allowed us to build a good basis upon some needed reforms. We’ll easily fill the summer months with additional hearings and some of the working groups actually are likely to continue to meet on their own,” he said. ####	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1213	Trade pact with E.U. would benefit Minnesota	2013-04-22	2013	2013-04	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	Trade pact with E.U. would benefit Minnesota Lowering tariffs, streamlining regulations means more jobs. By Star Tribune Editorial Board The Obama administration may have signaled a strategic “pivot” to East Asia, but it hasn’t forgotten that the world’s largest economic relationship is between the United States and the European Union. So it was welcome news when President Obama announced in his State of the Union Address in February that the administration would begin negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the E.U. As with previous free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and bilateral pacts with South Korea and other countries, an eventual agreement would seek to eliminate, reduce or prevent tariffs and quotas on goods and services, as well as make regulations more compatible between the United States and the 27 nations that comprise the E.U. U.S.-E.U. trade is already robust. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, about $2.7 billion in goods a day flows between U.S.-E.U. borders. In 2012, the United States shipped $265.1 billion worth of goods to E.U. nations. While that was down 1.2 percent from 2011, it represented a 57 percent increase since 2000. THE UPSIDE “The reality is with so many different countries involved in bilateral trade negotiations, having the E.U. and the United States work together on this transatlantic opportunity is really going to bring other trade agreements up to the 21st century, as well as leverage the opportunity for countries like China that haven’t been playing by similar rules to make sure that their standards are brought up to ours. And I think that is going to help the entire world economy.” -Rep. ERIK PAULSEN, R-Minn. U.S. exports of private commercial services were valued at $194 billion in 2012 — a 2.8 percent increase from 2011 and a 108 percent spike since 2000. U.S. …	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1214	Op-ED: Medical Device Tax Needs To Go	2013-04-22	2013	2013-04	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	By Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) & Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) An encouraging thing happened last month in the U.S. Senate. An overwhelming number of Republicans and Democrats came together in taking a step toward ending a policy that is having unintended consequences on job creation and innovation. Americans are clearly frustrated, and rightly so, by the lack of progress in Congress to spur job creation, economic growth and the entrepreneurial spirit that makes America unique. This is why we were pleasantly surprised at the strong measure of bipartisan support the Senate gave to repealing the medical device tax, an onerous policy that is harming a great American success story. As the lead cosponsors of legislation in the House of Representatives to put an end to this unfortunate policy, we know that repeal can’t come soon enough for patient care and job creation. The medical-device industry is responsible for nearly 2 million American jobs and has led the world in developing new technologies. In an economic environment where domestic manufacturing is an important part of our recovery, these are the very-high-tech manufacturing jobs we need to ensure stay here at home. American workers are now competing on a global stage, and medical technology is one of the few successfully exporting industries in the country. In fact, medical exports doubled between 1998 and 2008, to $33 billion annually. We often hear that America needs to “start making things again” to help turn this economy around. Medical-device innovators are doing just that. Unfortunately, in an effort to fund the Affordable Care Act, a new 2.3 percent excise tax was placed on medical devices. For full disclosure, one of us opposed the Affordable Care Act and the other strongly supported it, while wanting to make sure the bill was fully paid for. We both agree that the tax is harmful, and now, as the Affordable Care Act is being implemented, the impact is even more apparent. As we move forward in repealing the tax, with a bipartisan group …	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://paulsen.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=105&itemid=1207	The Hill: Restoring financial flexibility in healthcare	2013-04-11	2013	2013-04	Republican	House	MN	Erik Paulsen	P000594	paulsen.house.gov	legacy	By Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) Three years to the day after President Obama signed into law his massive healthcare overhaul, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure to repeal two provisions limiting families’ freedoms. For a brief moment in Washington, politics took a back seat, and the needs of nearly 33 million Americans were addressed. These families, who take the initiative to budget for their healthcare expenses using flexible spending accounts (FSAs) or health savings accounts (HSAs), were some of the first to feel the impacts of the president’s health law. It requires them to obtain a doctor’s prescription to purchase over-the-counter (OTC) medications with their own money set aside specifically to cover health-related expenses. Beginning this year, it places a $2,500 cap on FSA contributions, limiting families’ abilities to use specialized accounts to pay for medical expenses sometimes not covered by health insurance. The amendment that passed as a part of the Senate budget resolution mirrors legislation we recently introduced to restore fairness and flexibility for the millions of Americans affected by these mandates. The Family Health Care Flexibility Act reinstates the original functions of these plans by eliminating the HSA and FSA prescription requirements for OTC medications and removing the arbitrary FSA cap. Recognizing the need to restore flexibility, the Senate approved this legislation in a bipartisan fashion. Without repealing these restrictions, patients in need of real medical care must endure longer waits as physicians’ schedules become cluttered with folks seeking OTC prescriptions to remedy minor maladies. Doctors are already in short supply, and demand will dramatically increase next year when 30 million more patients enter the health care market because of the law. But the health law’s penalties on these families don’t stop there. The new cap, limiting FSA annual contributions to a mere $2,500, places significant burdens on families with…	1	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z	2026-03-30T12:14:52Z

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Press releases

10 rows where party = "Republican", state = "MN" and year = 2013 sorted by date descending

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