Weekly Newsletter 8.27.23
August is nearly over, as students across the District are back in school. Congress remains in recess for a few more weeks, and my staff and I have been busy across the District. Last week, district activities focused on health care, the environment, and climate action, as I continued celebrating the one year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, toured the Richmond VA Hospital, and thanked volunteers for their efforts to clean plastic pollution from the James River. Here is a recap of those events and more that you might have missed last week.
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THIS WEEK IN THE DISTRICT
Protect Our Care Bus Tour Stops in Richmond Last week, Protect Our Care’s “Lower Costs, Better Care” national bus tour came to Richmond for its 30th and final stop to discuss how lawmakers can continue to build on the progress of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by “driving down” health costs through both state and federal policy. I welcomed Care Force One to the Fourth District to spotlight how the IRA is already helping Virginians save money on health care. Among other cost-saving provisions, the landmark law:
I also highlighted some of the work I led in the Virginia General Assembly, including the law establishing Virginia’s Health Benefits Exchange, which will be rolled out this fall later this year and will provide affordable health care to over 300,000 Virginians. You can watch the entire event here. The bus traveled from New Hampshire to California -- over 8,000 miles and 16 states -- with elected officials, storytellers, and advocates to demonstrate how the Inflation Reduction Act is already driving down health care costs by thousands of dollars a year, with even more savings on the way. The tour kicked off as the GOP war on health care ramped up, with House Republicans seeking critical health care cuts and Republican presidential candidates ignoring health care altogether in their first televised debate.
Image  Virginia League of Conservation Voters Celebrates Biden-Harris Administration Clean Energy Investments Yesterday I joined Virginia League of Conservation Voters, IBEW Local 666, local and state elected officials, and advocates to celebrate the clean energy provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the IRA. Together, these laws passed last year comprise a significant portion of the Biden-Harris Administration's clean and affordable energy accomplishments. The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that public and private sector investment driven by these laws will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1 billion tons in 2030. Together, they put the United States on a path to reach an ambitious climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. DOE projects that the IRA alone will save American families $27-38 billion on their electricity bills from 2022-2030, and recently launched an Energy Savings Hub to help consumers, renters, and homeowners save money on their energy bills by tapping into the programs in the Inflation Reduction Act. And in just its first year, the IRA has created over 170,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs and is projected to create over 1.5 million additional jobs over the next decade.
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Richmond Veterans Administration Medical Center Tour The Fourth District is home to three facilities that are part of the The Central Virginia Veterans Administration (VA) Health Care System: The Richmond VA Medical Center, The Emporia VA Clinic, and The Henrico County VA Clinic. Last week I visited the Richmond VA Medical Center for a briefing with senior leadership and discussion of how Congress can help address staffing shortages so they can better meet the health care needs of our veterans. We also discussed the critical role the Richmond VA Medical Center plays in the Central Virginia VA Health Care System’s medical research program, which operates with a $7 million annual budget and draws from a panel of 37,000 patients to conduct inpatient and outpatient studies on numerous conditions, such as heart failure, diabetes, cholesterol and lipid disorders, infectious diseases, cancer, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injury. I also toured the spinal cord injury unit and prosthetics lab and talked to patients about how cutting-edge technology is improving the quality of life for veterans with spinal cord injuries and amputations.
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Biden-Harris Administration Officials Visit Chickahominy Tribe to Meet with Virginia Tribal Leaders Last week, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeymo and Treasurer Chief Lynn Malerba came to the Fourth District to visit the Chickahominy Indian Tribe to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic investments in Tribal nations. During their visit, the Treasury leaders toured the Tribal Health Clinic, met with a family that has received support from the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), and toured the Tribe’s re-acquired ancestral territory. Treasury officials then convened a roundtable of leaders from the Commonwealth’s seven federally-recognized tribes to discuss each tribe’s economic goals and challenges, and how they are using federal funding to support economic development in the region. My District Director, Charity Howell, attended the roundtable to learn more about how my staff and I can best support the tribes now that I am in Congress.
Image  As a state senator, I also represented the Chickahominy Tribe, and had a close working relationship with the state-recognized tribes. Earlier this year, the Virginia Tribal Nations honored me with their Tribal Champion Award for my work to create The Virginia Indigenous People’s Trust Fund, and legislation in 2022 and 2023 requiring state permitting agencies to consult with them when evaluating permit applications and reviews relating to environmental, cultural, or historic resources that potentially impact tribal interests. Unfortunately, the consultation bill stalled in the House of Delegates. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in Congress.
Image  We Love You Foundation Ocean and Waterways CleanUp Campaign Comes to Richmond Over the weekend, volunteers from We Love You Foundation came to Richmond for a cleanup event at the James River Park System. This event was part of the foundation’s Oceans and Waterways Cleanup Campaign, which seeks to reduce plastic pollution by mobilizing volunteers to clean their local shorelines and educating people about plastic’s harmful effects on human health, marine life, and climate change. At least 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean annually, threatening human health and contributing to climate change. While public policy is an important part of the solution to the growing global crisis of plastic pollution, community-based volunteer efforts to clean our waterways are equally important. I stopped by the clean up to meet and thank the volunteers for their efforts, which are part of We Love You Foundation’s goal to restore ecosystems impacted by plastic pollution by cleaning the entire 2,200 mile long East Coast shoreline.
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Solidarity with Richmond-Area SAG-AFTRA Members You’ve probably heard that Hollywood is at a standstill as a result of the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but did you know Virginia is impacted by the impasse as well? Virginia has a thriving film industry, and was ranked by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the top ten best filming locations in the United States in 2020. The film industry annually contributes close to $1 billion to Virginia's economy and over $30 million in state and local tax revenue. It also accounts for over 5,500 full-time equivalent jobs. Over the weekend, SAG-AFTRA members from the Mid-Atlantic Region gathered in Henrico County for a rally in support of a contract that takes into account the rise in streaming media and artificial intelligence. Here is an overview of what SAG-AFTRA seeks. Here is the response from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). I attended the rally to show my support for SAG-AFTRA’s fight for a fair contract that provides better pay, a fair share of residuals, and addresses concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on their profession.
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THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON
Amicus Brief Filed With the U.S. Supreme Court Last week, I joined 169 lawmakers in an amicus brief led by House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chairman Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) urging the Supreme Court to reject the Fifth Circuit's decision in the Rahimi case. Influenced by the Supreme Court’s radical new framework for evaluating Second Amendment challenges in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the Fifth Circuit totally disregarded Congressional authority to prohibit firearm possession by an individual with a domestic violence restraining order. You can read the amicus brief here.
Biden-Harris Administration Launches New Student Debt Relief Efforts In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for 43 million borrowers, the Department of Education announced new automatic discharges for 804,000 borrowers who qualify for $39 billion in student loan relief as a result of fixes to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans implemented since April 2022. In Virginia, 21,560 borrowers are eligible for over $1 billion in discharges. In addition, last week the Biden-Harris Administration launched the most affordable repayment plan ever created – the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, and kicked off an outreach campaign to encourage eligible borrowers to sign up for the plan. The SAVE Plan is estimated to save the typical borrower around $1,000 a year. Tens of millions of Americans will be eligible to save money by enrolling at www.studentaid.gov/save, lowering their monthly plans in advance of payments resuming later this fall. Learn more about the SAVE plan here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Upcoming Mobile McClellan My next Mobile McClellan will be held on Wednesday, August 30th from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at Southside Plaza, Richmond. For assistance with a federal agency, stop by to talk with my constituent services staff. Please RSVP here.
District Town Hall Meeting Join me for my first in-person district Town Hall Meeting on September 6th from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at the Massey Library Technology Center’s Lipman Auditorium at the J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College Parham Road campus. Please RSVP here. |