Dold Spends August in 10th District

Illinois’ 10th District Congressman Robert Dold, R-Kenilworth has spent the entire month of August in the district, on what he says is a goal to communicate with as many local businesses, leaders and citizens as possible to discuss issues that matter to them.

“We are doing a tremendous amount of listening,” Dold told Patch during a mid-August interview at his Lincolnshire office. “We want to be able to give businesses the opportunity to tell their story and how they want to move forward.”

During his listening tour, Dold has found jobs, national security and education to be the common threads of concern at the local level. Focusing on education, Dold is proud of the Student Success Act, which recently passed in Congress. An amendment authored by Dold and added to the bill unanimously would stop states from diverting federal education dollars, specifically intended to help schools and children, to pay unrelated past state pension obligations. Illinois is one of the only states that penalizes students in this manner through its distribution of Title I funds.

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“We shouldn’t be using federal dollars intended to help our children in the classroom to bail out state legislators who can’t agree on a fiscally responsible budget,” Dold said. “This bill ensures that we are giving our most vulnerable children the best chance to succeed.”

Dold, who has previously been recognized as one of the most bipartisan representatives in the nation, is working on what he calls another “bipartisan bill” with Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell focused on a zero tolerance policy for domestic violence perpetrators.

“These are the things that should unite us,” Dold said. “Just like we should all agree on better education, we should obviously all agree on standing up to domestic abuse. No one should have to live in fear.”

To that, Dold has a “Violence Against Women Prevention” event planned for September 2 at the Mundelein Police Station from 6:30p.m.-8:00p.m .

The Congressman with early ties to the area as a New Trier High School grad also expressed desire to “stand up and protect” Medicare and pass legislation (the 21st Century Cures Act) to enable researchers to “crack the code” on Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer.

“We spend $330 billion a year treating diabetes. But if we came up with a cure, just think of how we could put that $330 billion to use. It’s the right thing to do for people’s lives and the right thing to do dollars and cents-wise.”

Focusing on a long-term service transportation bill is another priority, said Dold. But the congressman did not offer a strong opinion on the proposed Route 53 extension as it stands now in Lake County other than to say talk on (the issue) has been happening since the 1960s.

Protecting (Lake Michigan) with the (Great Lakes Water Protection Act) and the emergence of a Tenth District Young Women’s Leadership Academy are other priorities Dold mentioned.

“As a District, we need to make sure we are a leader in the nation,” he said. “We have all the assets to do just that.”