Weekly Newsletter, 10.15.24

Fall is here, and after finally passing legislation to extend current government funding through December 20th, Congress recessed until November 12th. As mentioned in prior newsletters, for weeks, House Republicans tried to tie the funding bill to the SAVE Act, which would impose burdensome proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote that amounted to a modern poll tax that would restrict voting for American citizens. I joined Laura Coates on SiriusXM POTUS’s The Laura Coates Show to share my thoughts on the situation in the House. Ultimately, House Democrats provided the votes necessary to pass a funding bill without the SAVE Act. 

Here is what else you may have missed.

IN WASHINGTON 

House Passes NASA Reauthorization Act with Several of My Priorities

Prior to recess, the House passed The NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (H.R. 8958). The bill provides support and direction for NASA’s civil space activities, including directing human space exploration initiatives; maximizing utilization and productivity of the International Space Station; investing in new technologies to ensure American leadership in space innovation; and cultivating scientific discovery. You can read this fact sheet and section-by-section summary of the bill for further details. 

The final version of the bill included three provisions that I championed: 

1. The Celestial Time Standardization Act – H.R. 8958 incorporated my bill directing NASA to lead the development of a celestial time standard to improve our ability to conduct space exploration. While we standardize and synchronize time on Earth using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the Moon and other celestial bodies need their own timing standard due to differences in gravity and other factors. The Celestial Time Standardization Act will solve that issue and establish a coordinated lunar time. 
    
2. The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response to Operations (ACERO) Act – H.R. 8958 incorporated my bipartisan legislation with Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA-27) to codify and expand the existing ACERO Project at NASA to enhance the use of manned and unmanned firefighting technologies. This provision will help firefighters protect communities through new, innovative technologies. 
    
3. Chincoteague Well Replacement – this provision authorizes NASA to enter into an agreement with the Town of Chincoteague to reimburse costs associated with replacing PFAS-contaminated drinking water wells near the Wallops Flight Facility in Chincoteague. PFAS has been shown to cause adverse health impacts, including increased risks of cancer, obesity, and more. 

The bill now awaits Senate action. 

House Science Committee Advances Several Bills

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee advanced a slate of bills to advance research and technology development in artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear energy, and natural disasters. The committee advanced the following four bills on a bipartisan basis: 

1. H.R. 9671, the Department of Energy (DOE) Artificial Intelligence Act, provides updated guidance for DOE’s activities in developing advanced artificial intelligence systems to carry out its national security, energy, and scientific discovery missions. 
    
2. H.R. 9710, the Small Modular Reactor Demonstration Act, gives direction and guidance to DOE to create demonstration projects and empower research on small modular reactors and micro-reactors. 
    
3. H.R. 9720, the AI Incident Reporting and Security Enhancement Act, directs National Institute Standards and Technologies (NIST) to use existing vulnerability management processes to account for AI vulnerabilities. 
    
4. H.R. 9723, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program Reauthorization Act, reauthorizes and revamps NIST’s program to improve collaboration and research on the effects of climate change on windstorm behavior. 

H.R. 9723 incorporated by amendment my H.R. 9771, the Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for the Long Term (BUILT) Act. My bill helps address the risks to infrastructure integrity caused by climate change and environmental conditions. As we look to the future, we must ensure we take the necessary steps now to understand and promote climate resiliency. You can read a fact sheet and see my remarks on this bill below. 

New Bills to Strengthen the Child Care Industry and Lower Costs 

The United States faces a serious child care crisis, as working families contend with exorbitant costs and limited child care and early childhood education opportunities. Too often, parents – most often mothers – do not participate in the workforce because the cost of child care is untenable. We know that 80 % of the brain develops by age three, and 90% of the brain develops by the age five. As a result, early childhood education and quality child care set the foundation for our children’s future academic success as well as a thriving economy.  

I joined Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Jimmy Gomez, Brittany Pettersen, and Jill Tokuda in a to introduce two new bills to help expand access to affordable childcare: 

1. The Child Care Infrastructure Act – directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to assess early child care and learning facilities to understand the impact of the child care crisis and our ongoing needs. The bill establishes a grant program to award states with federal funds to construct or renovate new or existing child care facilities. 
    
2. The Child Care Workforce Development Act – authorizes HHS to administer a student loan repayment program of up to $6,000 annually for five years for early childhood educators working for providers eligible to receive Child Care Development Block Grant funding. This bill will incentivize more Americans to pursue careers in child care and early childhood education. 

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Read more about these bills here, and watch our press conference about them here. As a member of the Pre-K and Child Care Caucus, I will continue fighting to address the child care crisis and provide working families with some financial relief. 

IN THE DISTRICT 

Virginia Delegation Receives an Update on Postal Service Issues

As you may recall, for over a year, I have worked with Senators Warner and Kaine to address significant delays in mail delivery through the US Postal Service Richmond Distribution Center. These efforts have included constituent casework, letters to regional and national USPS leadership, and the Office of the Inspector General, a meeting with Postmaster Dejoy, and a tour of the Richmond Distribution Center itself.

Last week, I joined Senators Kaine and Warner and Rep. Spanberger for a briefing from Postmaster Louis DeJoy and regional USPS officials on their progress addressing mail delays. We also heard about the efforts they are taking to ensure the timely delivery of election mail, including ballots.  You can learn more about our meeting in the Richmond Times-Dispatchor CBS6-WTVR. 

I am encouraged by USPS’s progress to improve mail delivery and steps to prioritize and ensure the timely delivery of ballots. However, I encourage voters to not wait until the last minute to request or mail in your absentee ballot. Remember, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 25th. Ballots must be postmarked by November 5th and received by November 8th at 12:00pm ET. You can also vote in person now until November 2nd. You can find more information here. 

VCU Symposium on Improving Black Maternal Health Outcomes

The United States faces severe maternal and infant health crises, as women here are three times more likely to die during childbirth or postpartum than any other high-income nation in the world. Those rates are even worse for Black mothers, who are three times more likely than white mothers to die during childbirth. I know the risks firsthand, as I nearly died giving birth to my daughter, who was born 9 weeks prematurely and had to spend six weeks in the NICU. To discuss my work as a policymaker to address the maternal health crisis, I joined Virginia Commonwealth University’s Symposium on Improving Birth Outcomes for the Black Community.  

Countless factors contribute to our maternal health crisis and its disproportionate impact on Black women, including: 

• Lack of access to quality, affordable, culturally competent health care, including comprehensive reproductive health care; 
   
• Health disparities in cardiovascular disease or 
   
• Environmental injustices like air pollution, PFAS, and other toxic chemicals; 
   
• Lack of education and support systems surrounding pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period; 
   
• The exorbitant cost of child care; and 
   
• The lingering impacts of 300 years of slavery and Jim Crow. I’m fighting every day in Congress to advance policies that address these intersectional crises and improve health outcomes for every American. 

I’ve worked to address these disparities through public policy since my days as a state legislator, when I championed passage of the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act and extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months. Now in Congress, I am working as a member of the Black Maternal Health Caucus to pass the Momnibus Act.

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Virginia Tribal Education Consortium Annual Conference Commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the Racial Integrity Act and the Indian Citizenship Act

Long before Europeans arrived on the shores of Virginia, several tribes of Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan speaking people had lived here for thousands of years. Today, eleven state-recognized tribes remain, seven of which have gained federal recognition. Gaining federal recognition was not easy, however, due to a dark stain on Virginia history that occurred 100 years ago. 

In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly passed The Racial Integrity Act, which was designed to preserve white racial purity by banning interracial marriage and intermingling of races. The law required persons to be categorized as "white," "colored," or "mixed," and defined a white person as one “with no trace of the blood of another race,” except “persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian." One of the Act’s main proponents, Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, enforced it as head of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912-1946. His racist belief that “there are no native born Virginia Indians free from negro intermixture,” and his authority to determine racial identity by physical features and family names led to the erasure of Virginia Indian identity. As a result, Virginia tribes had difficulty proving an unbroken lineage, one of the requirements for federal recognition as a sovereign nation. 

The Supreme Court struck down the Racial Integrity Act in its 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision. However, the law remained on Virginia’s books until I carried legislation in 2020 repealing it. Learn more about how this odious law impacted Virginia Tribes here

Today, the seven federally recognized tribes collaborate through the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium to build the leadership capacity to support academic excellence, cultural awareness, and historical accuracy. I was honored to join VTEC for its annual conference to discuss the profound impact of the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, as well as the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which declared Indigenous persons born within the United States to be U.S. citizens. The conference focused on the resiliency of the Virginia Tribes as they reclaim their identity 100 years after Walter Plecker sought to erase it. 

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REMINDERS 

Veteran of the Year 

Do you know a veteran living in Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District who continues to give back to our community? I encourage you to nominate them for my annual Veteran of the Year Program. This program is an incredible opportunity to celebrate the service and sacrifices of our Commonwealth’s veterans. Nominees must be honorably discharged veterans from any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. For more information or to nominate someone, visit my website. 

Congressional App Challenge 

Calling all students interested in STEM! The 2024 Congressional App Challenge is open, and my office is accepting submissions between now and October 24th, 2024. Open to all middle and high school students, the competition tasks students with developing an original application written in any programming language. For more information, including rules, eligibility, and submission guidelines, please visit my website. 

Sincerely, 

Jennifer L. McClellan