Weekly Newsletter, 7.28.25
Last week was supposed to be a busy week in Washington as the House wrapped up for the August recess. Instead, the House Rules Committee shut down legislative business on Monday and Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early to avoid a vote on whether the Trump Administration must release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Despite the President’s best efforts, Trump’s relationship to Epstein and the Administration’s about-face on releasing the files have dominated the news and sent the MAGA movement into a tizzy.
The result of this gridlock?
When the House returns to work after Labor Day, we will have 14 legislative days to pass 12 appropriations bills or another continuing resolution to fund the government beyond midnight on October 1st and avoid a shutdown. Meanwhile, I remain focused on addressing the needs of Virginia’s Fourth District.
Read on for more of what you may have missed last week.
FIGHTING FOR ENERGY POLICY THAT PUTS PEOPLE AND OUR PLANET OVER POLLUTERS
As a member of the Energy Subcommittee, I work to ensure we can meet our energy needs without putting lives at further risk. The Trump Administration and House Republicans, however, seem determined to put polluters over people and the planet.
Pipeline Safety
On Tuesday, the Energy Subcommittee held a hearing on “Strengthening American Energy: A Review of Pipeline Safety Policy” — 661 days after the last reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Program expired. In 2004, Congress created the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) to ensure the safety of nearly 3.3 million miles of pipelines across the country. PHMSA plays a critical role in conducting testing during pipeline construction, responding to pipeline failures and implementing necessary corrective action.
During the hearing, I focused on the importance of PHMSA having the necessary workforce and resources to do its job. I also voiced concerns raised from communities across the Commonwealth regarding the Mountain Valley pipeline, including reports of contaminated drinking water from its construction, corroded pipes failing and over 1,500 reports of pollution incidents and violations in Virginia alone since construction began in early 2018.
Pollution Standards
In June, the Trump Administration announced a proposal to weaken Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”). Coal-fired power plants emit mercury and other toxic pollutants that poison the air, soil and water. A powerful neurotoxin, mercury concentrates up the food chain — especially in fish — and is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and young children. Other hazardous air pollutants covered by the standards include nickel, arsenic and hexavalent chromium. These carcinogens impact people living on the fenceline and downwind of polluting power plants, which are disproportionately located in low-income and minority communities.
In 2012, the EPA adopted MATS standards for coal-fired power plants to reduce these toxins. Widely adopted by industry, the MATS standards have been enormously successful, reducing mercury pollution from power plants by 90% by 2021. Building on this success, the Biden Administration expanded the rule to reflect the latest technological advancements in pollution control. The new standards were finalized in 2024 and projected to bring $300 million in health benefits and $130 million in climate benefits by 2037.
The Trump Administration's proposal to roll back the 2024 standards is one of several attacks on climate and health protections that will cause a drastic increase in toxic pollution with zero accountability for those responsible. In response, I led 74 House Democrats to demand that the EPA reinstate the 2024 MATS rule and commit to holding multiple public hearings so affected communities can be heard.
PROTECTING COLLEGE ATHLETES’ NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS RIGHTS
Last week, the Committee advanced the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act (‘‘SCORE Act”) to establish a national framework for college athletes to earn compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness (“NIL”). NIL rights give individuals control over how their identity is used for commercial purposes. Prior to 2021, NCAA policies prohibited college athletes from earning money through sponsorships, endorsements, social media and other business ventures. In response to state NIL laws, a Supreme Court decision limiting the NCAA’s ability to restrict education-related benefits and the potential for legal challenges related to antitrust laws, the NCAA adopted an NIL Interim Policy.
Any national framework must protect student athletes from abuse and exploitation from the NCAA and large athletic conferences while recognizing the differences between large and small athletic programs. Unfortunately, the SCORE Act falls far short of striking this balance. Instead, it shields the NCAA and big athletic conferences from lawsuits and regulatory oversight, prioritizing their needs over real protections for student athletes, despite a history of abuse. What protections it does provide are unenforceable, and it further exacerbates an uneven playing field between men’s and women’s sports.
Virginia has a deep love and respect for college athletics, with a good cross-section of athletics programs. Adopting its own NIL law in 2024, Virginia departed from NCCA’s Interim Policy by becoming the first state to allow a college or university to directly enter into NIL agreements with their student-athletes. The SCORE Act would preempt this and other state NIL laws. While the SCORE Act promises greater recognition for college athletes, the SCORE Act creates a pathway for arbitrary enforcement, bias, discrimination and suppression of economic opportunity for athletes.
The SCORE Act also blocks any college athlete from being recognized as an employee, preemptively blocking collective bargaining rights, workers' compensation, healthcare benefits and any recourse in the case of exploitation. By restricting access to basic labor protections without offering comprehensive economic alternatives, the SCORE Act leaves million-dollar revenue-generating athletes exposed to long-term harm with little to no safety net.
From failing to explicitly include protections for women’s college athletes, to creating provisions that exclude HBCUs and minority-serving institutions, to implementing top-down mandates that preempt progress and set a ceiling rather than a floor for requirements — this bill does more harm than good when it comes to looking out for our college athletes. That’s why I joined all Energy and Commerce Democrats in voting no and will work to improve the bill as it makes its way through the House.
MY BRIGHT SPOT: COMMUNITY FUNDING
As part of the appropriations process, House members can request Community Project Funding (“CPF”) for specific projects within their districts sponsored by state, local and tribal governments; publicly owned entities such as ports, airports and universities (e.g. ports, universities, PUDs, etc.); and certain non-profit entities. For Fiscal Year 2026 (“FY26”), I submitted 15 CPF requests.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved 14 of these requests, totaling nearly $10 million. This funding is by no means guaranteed. For example, last year, Congress passed a continuing resolution extending government funding into 2026 that did not include any CPFs. However, the Committee’s action is a significant first step towards providing federal funding for projects that will spur economic development, create good-paying jobs and modernize our infrastructure systems. Stay tuned for more information as the process continues.
REMINDERS
This Wednesday, July 30, join me for a senior-focused town hall in collaboration with the Chesterfield County Office of Aging and Disability Resources! RSVPs are encouraged but not required.
The Congressional App Challenge is also still accepting submissions! The deadline for submission is October 30, 2025.
We’ve officially entered the August recess period, but I’ll still be hard at work. Keep the faith, friends!