Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (21st District of New York)
Stefanik Joins in Reintroducing Bipartisan Bill the Countering Hate Against Israel by Federal Contractors Act | Press Releases | Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
Facebook Icon
Google Plus Icon
Instagram Icon
LinkedIn Icon
Twitter Icon
YouTube Icon
Vimeo Icon
Clients Icon
Email icon
Map Icon
Print Icon
Quote Icon
icon_share
Carousel Arrow – Left
Carousel Arrow – Right
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (21st District of New York)
ICYMI: Stefanik Joined Squawk Box to Discuss Holding Higher Education Accountable | Press Releases | Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
Facebook Icon
Google Plus Icon
Instagram Icon
LinkedIn Icon
Twitter Icon
YouTube Icon
Vimeo Icon
Clients Icon
Email icon
Map Icon
Print Icon
Quote Icon
icon_share
Carousel Arrow – Left
Carousel Arrow – Right
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (12th District of Michigan)
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06) held a seniors’ forum this morning at Fox Run Senior Living to highlight the importance of protecting Social Security. Hundreds of seniors gathered to express their anger, anxiety, and fears about cuts to Social Security.
“Social Security is a part of the fabric of who America is and how we care for our seniors. Two out of every three retirees rely on Social Security for the majority of their income, and millions of families depend on the program for disability or benefits after the loss of a loved one. But Elon Musk and DOGE have fired 7000 Social Security employees, made it more difficult to call and use the website, continue to make the Social Security Administration less effective, and have threatened to shut it down,” Dingell said. “The Commerce Secretary has said his mother-in-law would be fine if she missed a monthly Social Security check, but the fact is that most Americans wouldn’t be. I will continue to fight in Congress to make sure we keep the promise of Social Security and will continue to look out for the wellbeing of aging Americans and vulnerable populations who need our help.”
There are 2.3 million Social Security beneficiaries in Michigan, including more than 137,000 children. In response to Social Security Administration (SSA) field office closures, Rep. Dingell is co-leading the Keeping Our Field Offices Open Act, which would place a moratorium on the closure of field offices for the rest of the Trump Administration. Rep. Dingell also co-leads the Beneficiary Data Protection Act that would stop DOGE and political appointees from accessing sensitive data systems at SSA. It would also codify SSA data privacy requirements into law, and strengthen oversight and civil penalties for any privacy and disclosure violations of Social Security beneficiaries’ personal information.
View photos from the event here.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California
San Francisco – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi hosted a Save Social Security Day of Action roundtable, bringing together San Francisco community leaders, advocates, seniors and people with disabilities to discuss the critical importance of protecting Social Security for the over 109,000 recipients in San Francisco.
The roundtable featured key speakers, including Anni Chung, President and CEO of Self-Help for the Elderly; Kelly Dearman, Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services; and American Federation of Government Employees, Social Security beneficiaries and storytellers.
The event highlighted the struggles that seniors and individuals with disabilities face under current conditions, with many reporting service delays and system failures at the Social Security Administration. The discussion also focused on the Trump Administration’s decision decision to gut SSA staffing, close SSA field offices and restrict access to essential services, which disproportionately affect seniors, Veterans, and people with disabilities.
Watch the full roundtable here. View photos from today’s event here.
Read Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s remarks as delivered below:
Speaker Emerita Pelosi. Thank you very much, Anni.
As I have been working as suggested on all of these issues you have been a tremendous intellectual resource on all of this, especially those issues that relate to the health and the well-being of our seniors. For decades—decades, several decades—Anni has been a great resource.
She has been wise. She has been dissatisfied from time to time, and patient. But always, always focused and strategic. So, thank you. It’s so appropriate we’re here. Appropriate that we are here at self-help, because that term is so important for the elderly.
I thank all of you. We will hear from our panel from the standpoint of policy and personal experience, because nothing is more valuable than the stories that people tell about their own experiences.
What’s so sad about what’s happening now is they’ll say, “Oh, we’re not touching benefits,” but they’re closing offices and shutting down the phones. Now, there’s been resistance to the phone thing, but it’s still taking a long time.
And then, at the end of the day, they say “the office is closed and use of the phones is over.”
That is just such bad news for seniors or people with disabilities.
So, this is a Day of Action for Social Security. Last week, we had a day of action to save Medicaid. These are related. These are related because there will be action for Medicare and the rest.
But understand what we’re up against, and I think you know this, that’s why you’re here. They are saying Social Security is a scam. Imagine that. Imagine that.
Okay, so let’s talk about nine decades ago, in the depths of the Great Depression, half of America’s seniors lived in poverty. In poverty.
Instead of resting, retirement only brought uncertainty and hardship. President Roosevelt said, “There is no tragedy in growing old, but there is tragedy in growing old without means of support.”
By signing Social Security into law, he established a pillar of financial stability that has stood for generations.
Today, it safeguards the well-being of millions—tens of millions—of Americans, whether they are retired or living with a disability. You all know this. Social Security is one of our nation’s greatest legislative accomplishments and one of the most widely supported.
In San Francisco alone, more than 100,000 residents receive $196 million in Social Security checks per month—$196 million, hard earned.
Donald Trump, and co-president Musk are spreading lies about Social Security, calling it a “Ponzi scheme” and a “scam.”
Musk’s DOGE is putting benefits at risk and Republicans in Congress want to end Social Security as we know it. No matter what they say. They’re fighting to hike the retirement age, slash benefits and push privatization. All to give tax breaks to billionaires.
I know they talk about fiscal responsibility? Yet, they’re willing to give tax breaks to billionaires with nothing to offset—you know we want to feed children and they say, “how are you going to pay for it?”
But tax breaks for the rich don’t need to be offset—that’s just plain wrong.
I was just telling this story. A few Saturdays ago, which was our Day of Action for Medicaid, I was at a wedding in Scranton, Pennsylvania, of my college roommate and maid of honor at my wedding.
It was like a family wedding for me, for her grandson. That’s where I participated in the day of Action. We had this big thing in Scranton. It was so exciting. They didn’t expect that I would be there. We didn’t tell them before I decided that I would be there. We didn’t tell them. I bring it up because I go the wedding, and I do not know bride’s family. So I am with the groom’s family.
After the wedding, before I had a chance to visit the families, they came to me. They were very nice and complimentary, so that was good. Then the grandmother came up and said, “What are they doing with my Social Security!?”
This is at the church. “I paid into that. That’s my money!”
I said, “Let’s go. Let’s go to the rally for that.” It was so indicative to me that people know. They have to know what is happening.
Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With it, you can accomplish anything; without it, practically nothing.”
In order for public sentiment prevail. People have to know. So this has to happen. Drumbeat. Drumbeat. Drumbeat. A constant drumbeat. This is what they are doing.
Some of you were part of our strategy in 2006, when the then-President wanted to privatize Social Security. That was our fight. We had not won since 1992, This is 2006. Beginning in 2005, we started organizing events against privatizing Social Security. In one day, we had 200 events on this.
I had a good rapport with the President. Today, it’s a different story. We are talking about a patriotic American versus someone who uses words like “scam” and “Ponzi scheme.”
He [President Bush] said “You keep saying I want to privatize Social Security and that’s not really so. I just want to partially privatize it.”
And I said “Mr. President—that’s good enough for me.”
Everyplace you go, we will have a positive team to talk about our plan for Social Security. And we won for the first time since 1992. Not to talk politics but civics.
So we want them to have their hands off. That was our whole theme on Saturday in the rain in Pennsylvania.
Christine was at the one here, but all over the country, millions of people participated. Hands off our Medicaid.
But we want hands off our safety net—Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food for our children.
They are saying we can’t really do our budget unless we can find an offset with the food so we will have to cut the food. SNAP. The safety net. So, this is what we are up against among other things.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California
San Francisco — Yesterday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined Senate and House Democrats in filing an amicus brief opposing President Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). FTC Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya are duly appointed, Senate-confirmed Commissioners at an independent federal agency created by Congress. Trump’s illegal attempts to terminate them threaten the integrity of independent federal agencies and the FTC’s ability to enforce civil antitrust law and protect the public from fraudsters and monopolists.
The brief was led in the Senate by Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Cory Booker (NJ), Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (IL), Commerce Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (WA), Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN). Co-Chairs of the House Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse (CO-02), in conjunction with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), and Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (NY-12) are leading the brief in the House of Representatives. 251 Congressional Democrats signed the amicus brief.
In Slaughter v. Trump, a case filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the unlawful attempted firings of FTC Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya, the congressional amicus brief argues:
1. The Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor makes clear that Congress has the power to create independent multimember agencies like the FTC and provide removal protections for FTC Commissioners;
2. Throughout our nation’s history, Congress has created independent agencies with multimember boards or commissions whose members enjoy removal protections, like the Commissioners of the FTC, and this established practice has been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court; and
3. Constitutional text and history support Congress’ constitutional authority to temper the President’s exercise of removal.
The full brief is available here.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (7th District of Washington)
SEATTLE, WA – U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Ranking Member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, is calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to provide answers to the discrepancies in the immediate reports of the death of a detained immigrant in Yuma, Arizona. From initial information provided by Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), some welfare checks that had been logged never actually occurred, and others could not be verified.
“Any death is a tragedy, and it is very concerning that it appears CBP protocols were not followed in this case,” wrote Jayapal. “Border Patrol’s detention logs note there were four different welfare checks or meals provided to the woman, however, Border Patrol later admitted to CBP OPR that they ‘did not conduct the welfare checks documented in the detention logs.’ It is imperative that you not only conduct an investigation into this incident but also examine this issue more broadly.”
According to CBP OPR, the woman was taken into custody in California after it was determined that she had overstayed a B1/B2 visitor visa. Agents transferred her to Arizona, where she was detained. CBP OPR confirmed that camera footage showed the woman creating a noose and tying it around her neck, yet no medical response occurred for over an hour, raising serious questions over whether CBP personnel are following their own policies and protocols.
Jayapal has been a leader in the effort to end the use of private, for-profit detention centers and to instead substantially reduce reliance on detention and use humane community-based alternatives to detention. She has led calls to DHS to urge the closure of facilities with records of abuse and has also worked to push accountability and transparency at these facilities. She has also conducted significant oversight over the Northwest Detention Center in Washington State.
Jayapal is the sponsor of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, transformative legislation that would overhaul the immigration detention system by ending the use of for-profit, private detention facilities, repealing mandatory detention, and protecting the civil and human rights of immigrants.
Jayapal originally raised the alarm on this death immediately following the report from DHS.
The full text of the letter can be read here.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Aumua Amata (Western Samoa)
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata released the following statement in celebration of Flag Day 2025, which marks 125 years of American Samoa’s official relationship with the United States.
“Flag Day is a wonderful tradition in American Samoa, and this year has added significance as the 125th Flag Day. Our forefathers in 1900, led by our Matai chiefs of the time, came together in agreement with the U.S., and raised the U.S. flag on Tutuila Island. Just four years later Manu’a also joined the U.S. in 1904. Together, these decisions changed the course of our history, and secured generations of potential opportunities that our people can choose.
“Because of this, we are today part of a great and free country that is a worldwide influence for the cause of freedom, constitutional democratic government and elections, human rights and dignity, all of which we cherish. We honor the people of the U.S. for generations of exceptional charitable giving throughout the world in times of severe need and disasters, supporting emergency response both publicly and privately with a generous spirit.
“For more than 80 years, since the U.S. entered World War II, the nation has had enormous leadership responsibility within the free world, that depends on a strong, mobile military backed by a powerful economy. Especially since World War II and before, American Samoa has been part of that story with a strong tradition of patriotic service, and we honor our many Veterans and Service Members for their distinguished part in making our Flag Day special.
“Our Flag Day is a tradition that is uniquely ours, as we celebrate in the Samoan way, honoring our ancient culture and language, while the reason we celebrate is American, honoring our deep patriotic ties to the United States. God bless American Samoa and the USA!
“Have a happy and historic 125th Flag Day!”
###
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett (USVI)
For Immediate Release Contact: Tionee Scotland
April 15, 2025 202-808-6129
PRESS RELEASE
OFFICE OF CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT HOSTS 43RD ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL ART COMPETITION
St. Croix, USVI – Congresswoman Plaskett’s office held a reception to announce the winners of the 43rd Annual Congressional Art Competition and showcase the artwork of all participating students. The winners were selected from a diverse range of submissions by talented high school students throughout the Virgin Islands. Of the 14 entries, 3 top winners were selected:
1st Place
Contemplation by Henson Barley Jr.
St. Croix Educational Complex High School
2nd Place
Island Vibe by Riyanna M. Sutton
St. Croix Educational Complex High School
3rd Place
Lady in Madras by Ava Daniel
Ivanna Eudora Kean High School
“My team and I would like to extend our gratitude to the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts for their efforts every year towards the success of the Virgin Islands District Art Competition,” said Congresswoman Plaskett. “VICA’s unwavering support of the arts in our community plays a vital role in fostering creativity. We are also thankful for the hospitality of the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, which graciously hosted this reception and provided a beautiful venue to showcase the talents of our young artists. Lastly, thank you to the families, educators, and judges whose dedication helps cultivate a strong foundation for the arts and the preserves our cultural heritage in the Virgin Islands.”
###
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Jesús Chuy García (IL-04)
CHICAGO— Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) issued the following statement condemning the Trump and Bukele administrations for their refusal to return Kilmar Abrego García to the United States after an unlawful deportation:
“What happened to Kilmar Abrego García is a national disgrace and a direct attack on our Constitution. His deportation to El Salvador was not just illegal— it was an authoritarian abuse of power. Donald Trump is openly defying the Supreme Court and trampling on due process by coordinating with a foreign government to sidestep the rule of law.
“Let’s be clear: Trump’s side conversation with Bukele about kidnapping U.S. citizens and shipping to foreign prisons, caught on a hot mic, is more than reckless— it’s an unconstitutional threat. It’s a glimpse into the dangerous, lawless future he’s plotting, one where immigrants are a test run into stripping the rights of everyone without trial and operating detention camps off the books.
“Kilmar must be returned to his family immediately. The Supreme Court has spoken. The Constitution must be upheld. No president is above the law.”
# # #
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Gregory W Meeks (5th District of New York)
April 12, 2025
| Trump Tariffs Hurt American Families |
|
Economic expertise isn’t Trump’s strong suit. His 90-day pause on some tariffs hasn’t stopped the chaos in the markets or the danger posed by his sweeping, global trade war. Trump has only created more risk and uncertainty for American families. Costs are going up—and so is the likelihood of a recession. I explained this on CNN Anderson Cooper 360 °. |
| Congressman Meeks Introduces Legislation to Stop Trump Tariffs |
|
President Trump is abusing the National Emergency Act (International Emergency Economic Powers Act or IEEPA) to bypass Congress and increase taxes on Americans. That’s why I introduced a privileged resolution to end these new tariffs. Congress must act within 15 days. But instead of joining forces with Democrats to lower costs for Americans. Republicans ran scared and blocked it—delaying any action until the end of September. Make no mistake: that vote means they now own these taxes and all the damage they have and will continue to cause. |
| Rep. Meeks Op/Ed on Trump’s Disastrous Tariffs Featured in MSNBC |
|
Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs are raising costs for hardworking Americans, hurting small businesses and tanking retirement savings. The average American household will pay $5,000 more per year for everyday necessities. Local retailers who depend on imported products could see their costs rise and because of the price increase, customers will be responsible for footing the bill. Read more, here. |
| Share Your Story: How Have You Been Impacted by President Trump’s Executive Orders? |
|
I’d like to hear from my constituents about how the Trump administration’s actions have affected you and your loved ones. Over the past few months, we’ve witnessed mass layoffs across government agencies, executive orders impacting various issues, threats against immigrants, potential tariffs on neighboring countries, and much more. Please complete the form here to explain how these actions are affecting you and the organizations, nonprofits and businesses you support. |
|
Sign up for my newsletter to get updates on this issue and others! |