MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif)

Washington, DC – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) and a group of Democratic lawmakers who have served in the U.S. Armed Services sent a letter to Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter.  The letter urged Israel to take all available measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while continuing its efforts to defeat Hamas.  Co-leading this effort with Rep. Panetta are Reps. Seth Moulton (MA-06), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Pat Ryan (NY-18), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), and Eugene Vindman (VA-07).

In the letter, the Members, all recent veterans of the war on terror, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stressed that Israel has both a strategic and moral obligation to prevent harm to civilians, particularly children.  They also emphasized that expanding the flow of humanitarian aid could weaken Hamas’s ability to exploit food scarcity as a weapon. 

“As veterans of America’s counterinsurgency campaigns over the last 25 years, we believe Israel has a responsibility and moral obligation to actively prevent harm to civilians, particularly children,” the lawmakers wrote.  “If food is abundant and easily available, it will deny Hamas the ability to use it as an instrument of coercion.  Not just restoring aid, but providing far more aid than in the past, will show the Palestinian that their future is protected not by Hamas but by the international community, and it will help pave the way to a ceasefire that includes the return of remaining hostages and, ultimately, a long-term political solution for lasting peace in the region.”

The letter expresses support for recent increases in humanitarian aid into Gaza and calls for those efforts to be expanded.  It also emphasizes that boosting aid can serve both humanitarian and strategic goals.  Those goals include reducing Hamas’s leverage over the Palestinian population, laying the groundwork for a ceasefire that includes the return of hostages, and fostering a durable plan for peace.

This latest effort builds on Rep. Panetta’s long record of pushing for humanitarian relief in Gaza.  In recent weeks, he co-led a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging greater oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations and funding, and issued multiple statements calling for an immediate truce, release of hostages, and reforms to ensure safe, direct-to-civilian aid delivery.  He has consistently raised concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza in national media, and co-led efforts to provide $1.8 billion for the Food for Peace program to address global hunger crises, including in Gaza.  Since 2023, Congressman Panetta has organized and led multiple congressional letters, statements, and meetings with U.S. and foreign officials to expand aid corridors, increase transparency, and promote a long-term political solution while upholding Israel’s right to defend itself.

The full letter to Ambassador Leiter can be found here and below.

Dear Ambassador Leiter, 

As longtime supporters of Israel, we write to express our serious concern with the dire humanitarian aid situation in Gaza and implore Israel to take all available measures to alleviate the human suffering. The growing number of civilians suffering from acute hunger, dehydration, and preventable illnesses is undeniable, and as veterans of America’s counterinsurgency campaigns over the last 25 years, we believe Israel has a responsibility and moral obligation to actively prevent harm to civilians, particularly children.

Recent reporting has shown harrowing scenes of innocent starving children and desperate crowds swarming aid trucks, which has prompted President Trump to voice his concerns and call on Israel to allow the flow of aid into Gaza. We are happy to see reports of Israel allowing in additional aid in recent days. We believe this is a step in the right direction that should be expanded.

Food scarcity has provided Hamas an opportunity to weaponize aid for profit and control. We urge Israel, instead, to flood Gaza with humanitarian aid. If food is abundant and easily available, it will deny Hamas the ability to use it as an instrument of coercion. Throughout over twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, when we admittedly learned many lessons the hard way, we almost never saw insurgents using food as a weapon because we helped ensure it was always in ample supply. We strongly believe Israel would benefit from adopting a similar strategy especially since it will take away leverage from Hamas. 

We remain steadfast in our support of Israel’s right to defend itself and want Israel to defeat Hamas. Hamas’s barbaric acts started this conflict and continue to further the plight of the Palestinians. We are also united in our shared commitment to respect civilian life and the laws of armed conflict, two values Hamas violates daily. Not just restoring aid, but providing far more aid than in the past, will show the Palestinian that their future is protected not by Hamas but by the international community, and it will help pave the way to a ceasefire that includes the return of remaining hostages and, ultimately, a long-term political solution for lasting peace in the region.

Thank you for your leadership, and we welcome continued dialogue and cooperation on this matter.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05)

Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), Co-Chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement on the meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“Donald Trump gave Putin exactly what he wanted today. He was welcomed onto U.S. soil, his lies about the invasion were given free airtime, and he made demands that went uncontested because President Zelenskyy was excluded from the meeting. Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin—literally—and he walked away with a green light to continue his conquest.

“Decisions about the future of Ukraine cannot be made without Ukrainian involvement. Any effort to end this war must include Ukrainians at every stage of negotiation. Ukrainian land is not Donald Trump’s or Vladimir Putin’s to give away.

“Putin understands only one thing: strength. The United States under President Trump is weak. Trump has never stated who he wants to win the war in Ukraine. He has backed Putin in the UN. He has demanded concessions from Ukraine. And he has allowed Putin to ignore six different deadlines without repercussions. 

“Our credibility as a nation is at stake. Our allies around the world are questioning America’s commitments to peace and democracy. This meeting between the leader of the free world and a ruthless dictator only shows the world that the values of democracy and freedom are negotiable.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Sharice Davids (KS-3)

In case you missed it, the Sunflower State Journal reported that health insurers providing coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges for 200,000 Kansans are seeking rate increases for 2026. Across the nation, insurers are requesting average premium hikes of 18 percent, and because Congressional Republicans have refused to extend the enhanced ACA tax credits, premiums in Kansas could rise by $708, leaving thousands at risk of losing coverage.

These premium increases come as Congressional Republicans passed an extreme budget law that gave billionaires massive tax breaks while raising health care costs for millions of hardworking families. This disastrous choice, which Representative Sharice Davids voted against, could force children, seniors, people with disabilities, and single parents to choose between putting food on the table or accessing the care they need.

Davids has been a consistent advocate for protecting ACA tax credits and making health care more affordable. She supported legislation to extend these critical premium reductions and supports making them permanent, ensuring that Kansans — especially those with chronic conditions, small business owners, and families — can keep their coverage and avoid devastating cost increases.

Read more in the Sunflower State Journal: Insurers seeking rate hikes for Kansas ACA coverage; key tax credit set to lapse

“Health insurers that provide coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges for 200,000 Kansans are seeking rate increases for 2026, reflecting a trend seen nationally with the future of an enhanced tax credit to offset premium costs in doubt.

[…]

“Health care think tank KFF reports that for 2026, the median proposed premium increase for 312 insurers nationally is 18%, about 11 percentage points higher than for 2025. KFF reports that it is the largest rate change insurers have requested since 2018.

[…]

“The rate increases come at a time when the enhanced premium tax credit to cover the cost of premiums on the exchange is set to expire by the end of the year if they’re not extended by Congress, potentially causing millions to fall off the insurance rolls.

[…]

“Since the enhanced tax credits were approved, enrollment in the ACA exchanges has skyrocketed. Last year, Kansas set a record for the number of people enrolled in an insurance plan available from the Affordable Care Act.

[…]

“Those numbers are expected to drop off with the elimination of the tax credit. KFF estimates that between 41,000 and 68,000 Kansans will drop off the rolls over the next decade because of the loss of the enhanced tax credit coupled with rules that are intended to strengthen the eligibility determination process.

“If the enhanced subsidies are not renewed, the premiums for people enrolled in an ACA plan would increase by more than 75% nationally on average, with people in some states seeing their payments more than double, KFF reported.

[…]

“U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, meanwhile, cosponsored a bill in 2023 to extend the enhanced tax credit.

“‘Federal Republicans refused to extend health care premium cuts for hardworking Kansans, yet gave billionaires tax breaks in their extreme budget — driving premiums up by $708 a year for Kansas families and limiting access to care,’ Davids said in a statement.

“‘That means children, seniors, people with disabilities, and single parents could be forced to choose between putting food on the table and getting the care they need,’ she said. ‘That’s plain wrong, and I’m pushing for bipartisan solutions because this affects every Kansan, no matter their political party.’”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Sharice Davids (KS-3)

Projects would improve roads, public safety, water access, and education throughout Kansas’ Third District

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02)

Bill establishes tariff baseline, ensures U.S. is not dependent on competitors for strategic goods

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (43rd District of California)

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) released the following statement in response to Donald Trump’s decision to invoke Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC.

“Trump is continuing to advance his racist agenda against Black folks. He is now using his executive privilege to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, claiming he’s doing this to reduce crime, even though statistics show crime is at a 30-year low. He’s invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. This emergency authority allows the president to take control of the MPD for up to 30 days during a declared emergency. There IS no emergency! If it’s not about crime, then what is it about?

Trump clearly hates Black people. It shows in his constant attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, his racist assaults on the legacy of John Lewis and his district, and his appalling disparagement of the late Elijah Cummings. He even blamed the devastating Potomac plane crash on “DEI.”

He has repeatedly targeted Black women, including Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, TheGrio journalist April Ryan, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Vice President Kamala Harris, and me.

He joined Elon Musk in attacking the South African government, falsely claiming they deny justice to white Afrikaners, rewriting history, and ignoring Black suffering under apartheid. Musk, seeking a battery factory in South Africa, opposes the 30% local participation requirement, which aims to empower historically disadvantaged Black South Africans. Meanwhile, Trump simultaneously deported Latin Americans illegally and allowed 59 white South Africans into the U.S. without visas or legal processing.

This would be dictator is using confrontational tactics to provoke Blacks, Latinos, and others into a standoff. He is just itching to invoke Martial Law, and yes, even push for civil war. This damaged human being is pushing our country to the edge. Everyone needs to be aware and not fall victim to his lies, provocations, antics, and tactics. He’s just damn crazy!”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Darren Soto (D-FL)

KISSIMMEE, FL — Today, Rep. Darren Soto (FL-09) hosted an event to celebrate 90 years of Social Security and oppose Republicans’ plan to cut benefits while handing out tax breaks for the wealthy. He was joined by representatives from the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans.

“Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 90 years ago, the Social Security program has provided millions in Florida and across the nation with comprehensive retirement, disability, and survivors’ benefits,” said Soto. “Now, President Trump and ‘DOGE’ are taking an axe to the Social Security Administration—cutting staff and services for seniors, and putting Americans’ hard-earned benefits at risk. While Republicans continue to try to slash and privatize Social Security, House Democrats are working to protect the more than 70 million Americans who rely on these hard-earned benefits.”

 “I know how important Social Security is to the over 141,300 Social Security recipients in Florida’s Ninth Congressional District, and I will continue to work to protect Social Security for our seniors, veterans, and children—and defend it against these Republican attacks,” Soto concluded. 

 There are 141,334 Social Security recipients in Florida’s Ninth Congressional District who receive $232 million in monthly benefits, including:

• 101,151 retirees
• 9,800 children
• 7,103 widows
• 4,961 spouses
• 18,319 disabled workers

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)

DES MOINES, Iowa—Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria to discuss President Trump prioritizing safety by cracking down on crime in DC after years of failed Democrat leadership. Leader Scalise also outlined Republicans’ agenda to unleash economic growth, root out waste, fraud, and abuse, strengthen social safety net programs through the One Big Beautiful Bill, and work together to pass appropriations through the House and Senate.

Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full interview. 
On President Trump addressing out-of-control DC crime:“It’s been getting more and more out of control. You’ve got colleagues of mine, members of Congress, who have been accosted, who have been carjacked, who have been beaten. One of my colleagues had one of his interns murdered on the streets of DC just a few weeks ago. This is going on over and over again. I mean, as you saw, they put the National Guard troops in yesterday. They’ve already made arrests for a lot of violent crimes, including homicide. The DC mayor just let this get out of control. And this is our nation’s capital. This is where people come to see their government work, to see the history of our country. And you look at capitals around the world, very few have this out-of-control crime, and President Trump’s doing something about it. I’m glad he is.“It’s embarrassing, Maria. Look, local Democrat elected officials, you see this in every major city in America. They don’t care about the safety of their own people. President Trump does. He ran on safety and security. It’s one of the reasons so many people crossed over and voted for Donald Trump, and he’s delivering. Even if their failed local Democrat leaders won’t keep them secure, President Trump will. He can obviously do it in the nation’s capital. He can’t do it in every city in America. They’re about to elect a socialist in New York who advocates defunding the police. The public doesn’t want that. Democrats don’t want that, but they’ve got a choice to make. Are you going to elect these kind of leaders? But at least Donald Trump is doing something about it to keep people safe, Maria.”On Republicans prioritizing economic growth:“Well, Maria, continuing to getting spending under control is critical. It’s something that matters to us in Congress, on the Republican side, at least. It surely matters to President Trump. You look at what the One Big Beautiful Bill was focused on. It was getting spending under control and putting a stable tax base in place so we can grow the economy. The only way to balance the federal budget is through a two-pronged approach. It’s not through raising taxes. That’s a Democrat approach, and not only increase spending and increase inflation. What you need to do is control spending in Washington and grow the economy.And in the meantime, if you look at the One Big Beautiful Bill, the biggest focus, the biggest area of growth in deficit spending, Maria, is what’s called autopilot spending, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, those mandatory parts of spending. That’s what we focused on, putting work requirements in Medicaid, putting work requirements in SNAP, the food stamp program. That’s going to actually get people who didn’t belong on those programs in the first place off so that they can get back under control and get a normalized growth rate. That helps get you back to balanced budgets.“Yeah, [the debt ceiling was raised] roughly two years. And what that does is save, by the way, hundreds of billions of dollars, because unfortunately, these days, Democrats in the Senate, especially Chuck Schumer, if they’re empowered to be able to control the negotiations on something like debt ceiling, they’re going to ask a king’s ransom and add hundreds of billions of spending in exchange for avoiding a debt crisis. President Trump didn’t want that. Neither did we. That’s why we put it in the One Big Beautiful Bill to take that negotiation off the table so we could focus on controlling spending, getting spending under control. We also did the rescissions bill. Remember that? Getting rid of the USAID, public broadcasting. Look, if you want to go watch public broadcasting, you can pay for it. People that want to watch your show, and a lot of people do, they pay good advertising dollars because it’s a popular show. If nobody’s watching your program, there are too many options today in cable programming to have taxpayers funding to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. We got rid of that wasteful spending, and it’s just the beginning.”On funding the government:“Well, we’re doing our work so that it doesn’t happen, but obviously, it takes two to tango. The House has passed over 60% of all the government funding bills, and the Appropriations Committee, Tom Cole, his members are doing a great job in getting all of those bills out of committee. We finally have a Senate in John Thune who’s willing to move appropriations bills. They’ve started to move a few. There is a negotiation going on, Maria, even during the August recess, where members are talking to each other, Republican, Democrat, House, Senate, to try to get some kind of agreement before the September 30th deadline. Will we get there? I don’t know. That’s going to be up to Democrats to see if Chuck Schumer and his colleagues want a government shutdown. We don’t. That’s why we are moving all of these appropriations bills. When we come back in September, we’ll see if there’s a real negotiation to be had.”On the Socialist leadership of the Democrat party:“Yeah, let’s be honest. Safety is not number two with Omar [Fateh]. It’s last. When you say you want some community organizer to answer the phone instead of a cop, when you call 911 because somebody’s breaking into your house, you’re saying you don’t care about the safety of your own people that you want to represent. That’s going to be a choice the people there have to make. But that’s the direction of the Democrat Party. He, Mamdani, they are the new face of the Democrat Party. They have to admit it. The press in DC says there is no leader in the Democrat Party. There is. It’s socialist like Mamdani and this guy, the Bernie Sanders, AOC wing of the party has taken it over. You want to find a blue dog in DC, you’re better off finding a spotted owl. They don’t exist because the Socialists have taken over their party. People across America, I don’t think they recognize, if you’re in middle America, you can’t imagine, how could Socialism truly take over? It must be just some meme. It’s not. It’s where the Democrat Party is. We have to deal with it in DC because that’s the core of their party there. It’s what’s taking over their big cities. That’s why they’re a failure. “Yeah, Bernie started it, and then others picked up on it, and now it’s taken off like a cancer. They’ve got to confront it. They won’t. We’re going to at least focus on getting the country on track, Maria, for working families.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09)

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) today announced that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will receive a grant of $3,262,585 from the National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for research on cortical mechanisms of innate frequency discrimination under the direction of Dr. Stanislav Zakharenko, director if its Division of Neural Circuits and Behavior.

This is the sixth National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant announced this week going to St. Jude. The total grant funding to the hospital this week amounts to $8,379,755. See previous releases on grants this week here and here.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

“I was pleased to visit St. Jude earlier today to see the amazing work it is performing in so many areas of research on children’s health. After an early dearth of research funding when the Trump administration took office, the more than $8.3 million in six grants for various research projects at St. Jude announced this week is encouraging, and I hope the need for its continuation is realized. The work done by our premiere children’s research hospital is unparalleled, and I commend St. Jude’s leadership, Dr. Zakharenko and the others recognized this week for their heroic and life-saving work.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09)

Follows Monday’s announcement of four NIH grants totaling $2.6 million to the Memphis-based children’s research hospital