By Roy Blunt and Dean Heller As a melting pot, the United States offers one of the most diverse and culturally unique travel experiences in the world with something for every traveler -- world-class food and shopping, endless museums, towns both small and large, and every type of scenic landscape imaginable. One day you can be in Las Vegas, the Entertainment Capital of the World known for its shows, shopping, and exceptional hospitality, and the next you can take a quick flight to amazing parks, outdoor concerts, and one-of-a-kind dining discoveries in Branson, Mo. Despite all we have to offer, our country is not keeping pace with the global travel boom. More people than ever before are getting on planes to visit places outside their own country--up a whopping 7 percent in 2017 alone to 1.3 billion. And those globetrotters are some of the most lucrative drivers of economic activity, spending an average of $4,360 per person, per trip when visiting the U.S. However, our market share of total long-haul travel fell from 13.6 percent in 2015 to 11.9 percent last year. That's a missed opportunity of seismic proportions--7.4 million fewer visitors, $32 billion in missed spending, and 100,000 fewer U.S. jobs than if we'd kept our market share of just two years ago. Consumer markets don't shift on a whim. Whenever you see a TV commercial inviting you to visit Mexico, or Italy, or Australia--or Las Vegas or Branson, Mo., for that matter--it's because an agency called a destination marketing organization paid for the ad. As you can tell just by watching an afternoon of TV, it's a hyper-competitive marketplace. But the U.S. didn't have a destination marketing organization for the entire country until 2010, the year Brand USA was created by Congress. Never heard of it? That's likely because its mission is to entice travelers to come to America from abroad. All of its activities, from advertising to providing information on how to get a U.S. visa to what to expect at U.S. Customs, take place in other countries. Brand USA has added more than its share of value. In 2017, Brand USA spent $140 million on its marketing expenses while generating $4.1 billion in incremental visitor spending, resulting in a marketing return on investment of 29:1. Other countries spend what we would consider to be insane amounts of per-capita tax dollars on this kind of activity. Not so for Brand USA, whose funding comes from a fee on foreign travelers entering the U.S. along with matching private-sector funds kicked in by the travel and tourism industry. It is the very model of an effective public-private partnership, a framework increasingly sought after by federal policymakers for many different kinds of programs. The international travel spurred by Brand USA is more important than ever. Travel, a services export, has a net-positive trade balance of $77 billion. Travel overall supports 15.6 million jobs that cannot be outsourced to other countries. Brand USA is due to be renewed by Congress. All members should support the renewal so that private-sector supporters have the certainty they need to continue investing in this program. Reauthorizing will also allow BrandUSA to effectively plan its promotion activities over the long-term, as well as to send the message to travel-dependent businesses and communities--not to mention people all over the world--that America is serious about wanting legitimate business and leisure travelers to come here. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are firmly aligned with each other and with the White House in our desire to see America prosper from coast to coast and everywhere in between. Renewing Brand USA long-term is important for the economy, as well as the perfect opportunity for bipartisan cooperation--something the American people tell us over and over again they crave. We join together in supporting the renewal of Brand USA.

By Dean Heller Six months ago today, President Trump signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of our country's tax code. Dean Heller helped craft and pass into law the bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to help Nevada's hardworking families get ahead. And only half a year later, the law is doing exactly just that. With more money in their paychecks, thousands of Nevada's workers have already seen tax reform's positive impact in homes and businesses across the country. From Sparks to Las Vegas, local job creators, as well as larger companies like Walmart, CVS, Costco, Southwest Airlines and more which employ Nevadans, have handed down their savings from tax reform directly to Nevada's workers. South Point casino in Las Vegas has doubled its 2,300 full-time employees' bonuses. Prospector Hotel in Ely decided to raise workers' wages. And A-1 Steel in Sparks, a family-owned company, committed to giving its employees eight paid holidays next year.Under this historic law, every income category of Nevada's roughly 1.4 million individual tax return filers will receive a tax cut. Additionally, since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed, nearly 13,000 Nevadans have seen pay increases, another 13,000 have received special bonuses of up to $2,000 and almost 25,000 workers are expected to benefit from expanded employee benefits like college tuition assistance and maternity leave. But that's not all. Dean Heller spearheaded a key provision in the tax reform law that will give families a much-needed break and help them save more of their money for groceries or a summer vacation rather than handing it over to the IRS. Heller took action to include a doubling of the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child into the tax relief package. Thanks to tax reform, Nevada's economy is finally booming again after years of sluggish growth. Nevada a state hit terribly hard by the Great Recession now has one of the fastest growing workforces in the nation and continues to attract business leaders to invest in and grow the state's economy.Fontainebleau, recently re-named The Drew, is just one example of how tax reform has transformed Nevada. This once-stalled resort on the Las Vegas Strip is undergoing construction again after closing up during the Recession. The project is expected to create thousands of jobs in Southern Nevada alone. While Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Jacky Rosen continue to claim that workers' pay raises and bonuses are "crumbs,' Dean Heller couldn't disagree more. Why? Because as the son of an auto mechanic and school cook he knows how much work goes into every paycheck, and that an extra $500 will go a long way toward making ends meet. And that's why as Nevada's U.S. Senator Dean Heller will continue to push for more pro-growth policies that lower taxes and create jobs.

By Sen. Dean Heller More than three decades ago, the federal government took a significant step toward helping survivors of domestic, family, and dating abuse when Congress passed -- and President Ronald Reagan signed into law -- the historic Family Violence Prevention Services Act. Now, Congress must act again to ensure that survivors continue to have access to the critical programs supported by the first federal law to address domestic violence. Enacted in 1984, the Family Violence Prevention Services Act provides federal grants to help states and tribes operate more than 1,600 domestic violence shelters and provide counseling, legal assistance, and other supportive services to victims of abuse and their children. It also supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a toll-free 24-hour helpline in which highly trained advocates offer victims of abuse assistance over the phone and through their website at http://www.thehotline.org/. According to the 2016 National Census of Domestic Violence Services, in one day alone --73,000 victims throughout the country were served by programs that the Family Violence Prevention Services Act supports. To put that into perspective, the number of people helped by these programs on a single day could fill a professional football stadium. While the nature of domestic violence has changed since 1984, the need for legislation to respond to it remains constant. That is because domestic violence transcends demographics such as gender, race and religion as well as socioeconomic status. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about four in 10 women said they experienced sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking in their lifetimes. Furthermore, my home state of Nevada has some of the highest rates of domestic violence-related homicides in the U.S. That is why I introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) to reauthorize the landmark Family Violence Prevention Services Act so that victims and their children can continue to access programs to help them escape abuse and find safe haven. In addition to robbing victims of a safe place to call home, domestic violence has a lasting impact on survivors, especially children. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has reported that exposure to occurrences of domestic abuse can cause immediate and long-term effects that range from anxiety to depression. Consider this: as reported by the National Network to End Domestic Violence, during a single day in Nevada last year, 462 victims of domestic violence accessed services that included emergency shelters, transitional housing, and non-residential assistance programs such as counseling and legal advocacy. Further, during a 24-hour survey period, local and state hotline staff, who provide support, information and resources, answered more than 20,000 domestic violence hotline calls in a single day. At the same time, the national hotline staff answered on average 14 calls every minute. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is often the first place that victims turn for help. The bipartisan Family Violence Prevention Services Act ensures that these programs and services alike can remain operational, and this week, more than 100 domestic violence advocates will converge on Capitol Hill to urge its passage. I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to listen to them, and to serve as a beacon of hope to victims of domestic violence by supporting this legislation and sending it to the president's desk. U.S. Senator Dean Heller represents Nevada in the United States Senate and is the author of bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the landmark Family Violence Prevention Services Act, which helps states and tribes provide supportive services to victims of abuse and their children.