Mattsletters: Former U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan from North Dakota

3/28/2016

Senator Byron Dorgan

Senior Policy Advisor

c/o Arent Fox LLP

1717 K Street,, NW

Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Senator Dorgan,

My name is Matthew Winick and may strong interest is in history and public policy. These subjects are my favorite to learn because I like to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, protect the environment from pollution, have regulations on financial industries so they won’t commit fraud with waste on taxpayer’s money, have healthcare reform to help people get the care they need, and many others. Senator Dorgan, I find your work as U.S. House of Representative from North Dakota’s At-large district and as U.S. Senator from North Dakota very inspiring to me.

When you served as U.S. House of Representative from North Dakota’s At Large district, I liked on how you supported the American With Disabilities Act of 1990 with other Democrats including moderate Republicans to help protect people with disabilities from being discriminated in education and public places. Also when you served in the U.S. House, I liked on how you continue being a strong supporter of advancing on Civil rights to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities. In the U.S. Senate from 1993-2011, I was very proud on how you joined nine Democrats including one Republican to vote against the Graham Leach Bliley Act that deregulated Wall Street where they commit fraud that resulted in an economic recession for the future when both political parties voted in favor of it. During that debate, I was amazed on how well you gave the argument about repeating the same mistakes and how regulations on financial institutions are important to protect the American people including taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse. When President Obama became president, I liked your commitment to work with the President to help move our country forwarded. To help stimulate the economy, I was very proud on how you joined all the Democrats including three moderate Republicans to support the American Recovery Act of 2009 for President Obama to sign in order to create job-training programs to help train workers including youth to develop job skills. In 2010 during the healthcare debate in the U.S. Senate, I was amazed on how you had the courage to support the Affordable Care Act to help people with pre-existing conditions get the care the need including people under 26 years old gets to stay on their parent’s health insurance. Your environmental record like support funding research to help reduce co2 emissions, push for renewable energy to reduce addiction to oil with gas, and expand on legislation to help protect water including public lands from being polluted is common sense for society.

Senator Dorgan, I have Autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects and struggle with speech when communicating with other people. The American With Disabilities Act of 1990 helped benefit me to get an education and be protected from being discriminated based on a disability. In Education, it gave me accommodations like extra-time on exams, have a T.A. or tutor work with me on different subjects, have educational technology to help improve my comprehension with improve my note-taking skills when listening to lectures, have special education program including learning support services help set up accommodations or pick which classes to take. Also the ADA of 1990 helped set up subtitles with close captions when watching tv or documentaries to help me understand what people are saying, improve my vocabulary, and learn different topics. Another thing is the ADA of 1990 helped me get an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts in 2014 at Washtenaw Community College. My main focus in Liberal Art is history, government, some science, some business, and criminal justice. The American Recovery Act that you supported helped me get into a job-training program called the B. Side of Arts at EMU College of Business in Michigan. At the B. Side of Arts I and other people had lectures about how business works and had different classes to develop job skills. As the result, The American Recovery Act helped me develop job-skills to help me feel confident to work full-time. The Affordable Care Act helped me stay on my parent’s health insurance until I turn 26 since I’m 25 years old. Without the ACA, I would have trouble affording health insurance on my own. I enjoyed reading “Reckless! How Debt, Deregulation, and Dark Money Nearly Bankrupted America And How We Can Fix It” and “Take This Job And Ship It How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America” because I enjoyed learning about how different ideas like regulations to prevent Wall Street from crashing or commit fraud, have trade reform to reduce sending jobs overseas including protect worker’s rights, have environmental protection to reduce pollution, and many others. Senator Dorgan, your work in the U.S. Senate, advocating for the need to regulate financial institutions, and your books got me inspired to take a business course in 2010 called Intro to Business. My business teacher Ms. Kimberley Hurns did a great job explaining to me about how small business works, how different legislations affect business or economy, learn different business terms, and watch documentaries about the financial collapse to learn the need for reform including why it is important to help middle class with small business.

Senator Dorgan, I strongly believed that you made a great difference serving as U.S. House of Representative and as U.S. Senator from North Dakota on different issues. You have made a great impact on me to work hard on Autism, stay on my parent’s health insurance, develop job-skills for the workforce, and to get an education. Also you have inspired me to continue my interest in learning history to understand the need for reform to make society better and to continue being interested in learning different ideas about how to fix the financial system including the economy. Here is a picture of me as a gift to you for inspiring me. I was wondering if you could give me advice about if I want to run for public office or work in public policy and share with me what it was like writing these books. My future goal is someday to teach history or work in public policy to help people learn the need to improve society. I hope someday I can get a chance to meet you because you helped made a great difference for me. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, making great achievements to make society better, and inspiring me. I wish you well and please continue advocating for good ideas.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick