MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06)

AURORA — Today, Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO-06) joined city officials and library leaders to celebrate the expansion of Martin Luther King Jr. Library, a project made possible thanks to federal resources secured by Crow.

The renovation, which fully doubles the library’s available space, was made possible through a $2.5 million investment secured by Congressman Crow. With this renovation, Martin Luther King Jr. Library is able to build out its physical footprint, adopt new technology, and expand youth programming, continuing to connect the Aurora community with public space and critical resources like computers and employment support.

“By bringing home federal investments for Colorado, we’re expanding opportunities for our community. This investment isn’t just about a building—it’s about ensuring every family in Aurora has public spaces to learn, stay connected, and access the critical resources they deserve,” said Congressman Crow.

“This expansion will revitalize the way the community can access free resources,” said Ginger White Brunetti, Director of Library and Cultural Services at Aurora Public Library. “The space is vibrant and encourages learning and creativity while providing a welcoming space for everyone. I’m excited to see what the community can create here and am grateful to Congressman Crow for fighting to make it happen.”

Throughout his time in Congress, Congressman Crow has fought to connect Coloradans with critical community resources. This year alone, he has successfully helped local residents reclaim more than $30 million from the federal government. Since his first term, Congressman Crow has brought more than $643 million back to his community. 

###

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Angie Craig (MN-02)

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Agriculture Angie Craig pressed grocery delivery service and technology company Instacart following reporting that the company used customers’ sensitive personal data and artificial intelligence (AI) to inflate grocery bills and charge different prices for the same products based on their ability to pay.

In a letter to Instacart CEO Chris Rogers, Rep. Craig blasted the technology company for exploiting families’ financial data to charge higher prices in the midst of a nationwide affordability crisis and demanded transparency about the scope and implications of any pricing experiment the company has previously conducted.

“Americans are facing an affordability crisis, and your use of artificial intelligence to scam the average family of four out of $1,200 annually is alarming.” Rep. Craig wrote. “Food is not a privilege; it’s a basic need. Your services are a lifeline to individuals with mobility issues, families, caregivers and folks in rural communities or food deserts.”

Rep. Craig cites that at a Target in St. Paul, MN some shoppers saw their grocery bill total vary by more than $5 for the same items. Researchers found that Instacart repeatedly showed customers different original prices for the same discounted items – using an AI-driven algorithm to inflate savings for some shoppers and not others.

“Big Tech’s weaponization of our data to increase profits on essentials, like groceries, is at best, a horrific breach of trust and at worst, illegal,” Rep. Craig wrote. “The practice of charging my neighbors different prices for the same groceries at the same store is unacceptable, especially when families are being squeezed from all sides.”

You can read the full text of the letter here.

###

 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Angie Craig (MN-02)

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Angie Craig today announced legislation that would lower prescription drug prices for Americans and hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for price gouging consumers.

The Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act would build on her work on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to lower prescription drug prices for America’s seniors by expanding price negotiations so that more Americans can afford their medication.

Specifically, the bill would:

• Extend the historic drug price negotiation program enacted through the IRA to all Americans with private insurance;
• Stop drug companies from raising prices faster than inflation by ensuring that the inflation rebates enacted under the IRA also apply to individuals covered by private health plans;
• Strengthen the drug price negotiation program to deliver more savings to the American people by increasing the annual number of prescription drugs selected for negotiation from 20 to 50.

The Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act was originally introduced by Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Richard E. Neal (MA-01) and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03).

“Since day one, lowering health care costs for Minnesotans has been one of my top priorities in Congress – and that starts with lowering the price of prescription drugs,” said Rep. Craig. “We made major strides in the Inflation Reduction Act to cap the price of prescription drugs for seniors, but we now must expand these cost savings to every American. I’m proud to support this legislation to build on the progress we made through IRA and hold Big Pharma accountable for price gouging hardworking Minnesotans.”

Since entering Congress, Rep. Craig has been a leader in the fight to lower prescription drug prices. Last month, Rep. Craig introduced her Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would build on her work to make insulin more affordable by capping the price of insulin for Americans with private insurance. In 2022, the provision of Rep. Craig’s bill that capped insulin copays at $35/month for Medicare recipients was signed into law as part of the IRA.

Last Congress, Rep. Craig also introduced the Emergency Access to Insulin Act to help Americans without health insurance afford insulin. This bill would expand emergency insulin access, lower costs for those without health insurance and take additional steps to hold drug companies accountable for price gouging Americans.

During IRA negotiations, Rep. Craig stood with House progressives, refusing to support the bill until it included provisions to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Rep. Craig also cosponsored the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act last Congress.

###

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Angie Craig (MN-02)

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative Angie Craig released the following statement on her vote against the Republican-led National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“While I appreciate my Democratic colleagues’ work over the past few months to strip the original House version of some of its most egregious Republican poison pills and implement important provisions, like a well-deserve pay raise for our troops, I am still deeply concerned that this bill abandons our country’s LGBTQ+ veterans and servicemembers, immigrants and civil servants. 

“By including language that would expand the Trump Administration’s authority to use the military to enforce immigration laws, Republicans have rubber stamped the President’s dangerous immigration agenda and disregard for due process. Not to mention, by failing to restore collective bargaining rights to the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce, they have doubled down on the President’s attacks on federal workers and turned their back on our nation’s civil servants.

“These provisions don’t make our country safer, nor do they implement necessary checks on the President’s executive power – power he has used to undermine our global standing and violate the civil rights of those who have dedicated their lives to defending our freedoms. I am not enabling this President’s anti LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant and anti-worker agenda, and I am certainly not signing off on a blank check to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to continue putting our national security and servicemembers at risk.”

###

 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42)

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-41) voted along with a majority (312 to 112) of the House of Representatives to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. The NDAA includes critical national security program authorizations and policy provisions. Rep. Calvert serves as the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee, which provides funding for our national security programs through the defense appropriations bill.

“The NDAA advances critical national security policies that are essential for achieving our defense goals,” said Rep. Calvert. “The bill takes care of our most precious national security assets, our servicemembers, by giving them a 3.8% pay raise as well as authorizing funding increases to build or make upgrades to barracks, family housing, healthcare, and childcare facilities. To ensure America has the defense manufacturing capabilities necessary to win a future conflict, the bill establishes a Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network. As China continues to outpace the US in manufacturing capacity, it is past time to address this glaring capability gap.”

The following provisions were supported by Rep. Calvert and included in the FY26 NDAA:

Industrial Base & Small Business

• Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network (CRMN): Establishes a model for a broader network of dual-use manufacturing firms capable of rapidly shifting from commercial to defense production when needed. Modeled after existing programs like the Air Force’s Civil Reserve Air Fleet and the Navy’s National Defense Reserve Fleet, the CRMN aims to establish “ready-to-scale defense production” to address the crisis of offshored defense manufacturing.
• Project Spectrum: Formally establishes Project Spectrum to help small and medium businesses meet cybersecurity and acquisition requirements and stay in the defense supply chain.
• Small-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industrial base: Creates a small-UAS industrial base working group to map capacity, fix fragile supply chains, and scale domestic drone production.

Homeland Missile Defense – Golden Dome 

• Golden Dome: Updates national missile defense policy to support a next-generation “Golden Dome” shield against ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic threats to the homeland.
• Enduring oversight: Requires recurring Golden Dome architecture reports to Congress until fully fielded.

Shipbuilding & Shipyard Modernization

• Maritime industrial base strategy: Requires the Navy to adopt a data and AI-driven strategy to fix cost and schedule problems in surface and submarine shipbuilding.
• Design & automation: Mandates standard design metrics and a pilot for automated shipbuilding technologies to shorten construction timelines.
• Authorizes $26 billion in shipbuilding funding for the construction and support of:
  • The third Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Submarine and advanced procurement for future submarines
  • One Virginia-class Submarine and advanced procurement for future submarines
  • Advanced procurement for future DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers

Supporting Allies

• Australia, United Kingdom, United States (AUKUS) Improvement Act: Embeds the AUKUS Improvement Act of 2025 in the NDAA, easing defense trade and co-development with Australia and the U.K.

 

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

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today questioned expert witnesses before its Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government at a hearing entitled “Partisan and Profitable: The SPLC’s Influence on Federal Civil Rights Policy.”

The Republican majority on the Subcommittee sought to characterize the longtime civil rights organization — founded in 1971 by civil rights giants Julian Bond and Morris Dees, and which historically sued the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups into bankruptcy — as an “anti-Christian” organization. It also suggested it had an outsized and illegitimate influence on the Biden Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

“They (SPLC) used to bring cases, and I still think they do bring cases, that are important,” Congressman Cohen said.

Congressman Cohen also noted that many leaders of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), A.M.E, C.M.E., and Black Baptist congregations are supporters of the SPLC.

See Congressman Cohen’s exchange with the witnesses here.

Witnesses at the hearing were:

• Andrew Sypher, Executive Vice President of Field Operations, Turning Point USA
• Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
• Tyler O’Neil, Senior Editor, The Daily Signal
• Amanda Tyler, Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty 

 

# # #

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

Sought the release of Maryia Kalesnikava, Ales Bialiatski and others in letter to Rubio last month

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

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), the House Ranking Member of the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, today went to the House floor to denounce the Trump administration’s recently published National Security Strategy. In his remarks, he said in part:

“At the end of last week, President Trump published his National Security Strategy. It could have been called his National Insecurity Strategy. To say it’s bad is an understatement. It’s disastrous. 

“During Europe’s largest land war since World War II, the strategy saves its harshest criticisms for our allies, rather than Russia with war criminal Putin, who started the war. The document elevates a strongman leadership model over democratic values, something unheard of in America. It’s focused on spheres of influence and suggests the strongest person in the region gets to decide the rules. These are not American values.

“Previous National Security Strategies upheld America’s commitment to democracy and human rights, strengthened our alliances and countered powerful adversaries like Russia and China. This strategy abandons that tradition in favor of a narrow transactional approach. 

“Notably, the word ‘corruption’ is absent from the entire strategy. It’s well known that global corruption fuels instability, weakens governments and its absence is extremely dangerous and allows bad actors to flourish. The National Security Strategy abandons our allies, our principles and the values that have guided American leadership for decades.”

See the entire speech here.

# # #

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

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) spoke from the House floor and later voted against the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act after three amendments he proposed to better protect the Memphis water supply were rejected by the Rules Committee. The measure passed on a 221 to 205 vote.

Congressman Cohen’s proposed amendments would have:

• Protected Community Drinking Water Aquifers by requiring cumulative impacts assessments, groundwater contamination reviews, and a local public hearing before approving major pipeline or energy projects near a community’s primary drinking water source, such as the Memphis Sand Aquifer
• Restored Oversight and Public Participation for Nationwide Permits by reinstating the long-standing five-year review cycle, removing the bill’s mandate for a permanent nationwide pipeline permit, and ensuring any renewal or reissuance includes a public comment period and an opportunity for a public hearing—safeguards that would have prevented the Byhalia Pipeline from advancing with minimal scrutiny
• Ensured EPA Health Certification by requiring the agency to certify, using the best available science, that the PERMIT Act would not increase exposure to harmful contaminants, elevate risks to pregnant women, infants, or children, or worsen pollution burdens in communities with documented industrial exposure In his floor remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:

“I rise in strong opposition to the PERMIT Act. For more than fifty years, the Clean Water Act has kept toxic chemicals out of our rivers, streams, and wetlands our communities rely on. This bill undermines these protections by shielding polluters from responsibility for toxic wastes like PFAS, lead, mercury, and arsenic…I filed three straight-forward amendments to the bill to protect public health. One to require cumulative impacts and groundwater reviews for projects near community drinking water aquifers, like the one that supplies Memphis. Second, to restore oversight and public participation for nationwide permits, protections that would have prevented the Byhalia Pipeline from being rushed through my district. Third, to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to certify that the bill will not increase exposure to harmful contaminants. Unfortunately, none were made in order by the Rules Committee Therefore I oppose the bill and urge a no vote. Permitting reform should not come at the expense of children’s and seniors’ health, clean drinking water, or communities with a history of industrial exposure.”

See the floor speech here.

# # #

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

Asks whether Senators whose phone metadata was subpoenaed deserve millions from the federal government