What we focus on matters!
The journalists cover the constant chaos. We aren’t hearing about Congress people standing up. Here are only a few of the many bright spots:
Washington, D.C., July 11, 2025 — Murphy Demands Answers From DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Trump Administration Efforts to Dismantle FEMA
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security demanded answers from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is responsible for protecting Americans before, during, and in the aftermath of natural disasters. Murphy’s letter comes in the wake of President Trump’s threats to illegally phase out FEMA and public reporting that Noem’s pick to lead the agency, David Richardson, has been a “no-show” in responding to the devastating floods in Texas that, to date, have killed more than 120 people.
“The steady stream of misinformation you and others within the Administration have repeatedly regurgitated regarding FEMA’s past efficacy has made it clear that you and President Trump are hellbent on bringing the agency’s mission to a grinding halt. For nearly four decades, FEMA has been singularly focused on helping people before, during, and after disasters. But under your leadership, it has become an ineffectual and inefficient shell of its former self as the country reels from the tragic fatal flooding in Texas and is in the thick of a hurricane season that is predicted to have an above-normal number of storms,” Murphy wrote.
Murphy rebuked the Administration’s notion that states could effectively administer disaster response without federal coordination…
Washington, D.C., July 3, 2025 — Whip Clark: “Republicans Are on the Verge of Making Our People Even Poorer, Sicker, and Less Free.”
Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) took to the House Floor to denounce Republican’s betrayal of working Americans ahead of the final vote on their Big, Ugly Bill.
“As we are here in the early morning hours, 60% of the families in this country cannot afford the basics. 60% of Americans cannot afford that first rung of the American Dream. This is an existential failure of the wealthiest nation on earth.
“And now, with this Big, Ugly Bill, Republicans are on the verge of moving that dream further out of touch, of making people sicker and poorer.
“We hear the message: if you do not have great wealth, you do not matter to the GOP. If you vote for this monstrosity, you are condemning families to poverty. You are condemning seniors and veterans in this country to hunger. You are condemning children to sickness without treatment. You are voting to enrich billionaires at the expense of what makes us American: our freedom to build a better life for our families.
“The American people overwhelmingly oppose this bill, and they will not forget if you sell them out, sell out their freedom, this Independence Day.”
Washington, D.C., July 3, 2025 — Jayapal Statement on the Big Bad Budget Betrayal
U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), a Member of the House Budget Committee, released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Big Bad Betrayal Bill 218-214:
“This is a cruel, horrific betrayal that will leave Americans poorer and sicker. It will throw 17 million Americans off health care and increase health care costs for everyone. It will shutter over 300 rural hospitals, close over 500 nursing homes, and defund Planned Parenthood clinics that provide cancer screenings and basic reproductive care. It will slash food assistance for millions of hungry families, the largest cut in the history of the SNAP nutrition program. It will make electric bills more expensive in every single state, make it harder to pay for college, and substantially weaken our public schools. It will kill over a million good-paying jobs and destroy our planet for future generations. It will supercharge ICE’s kidnapping and disappearing of people of all legal statuses, giving $45 billion more to ICE to pad the pockets of the for-profit industrial prison complex that is detaining immigrants without due process. It will explode the deficit by trillions of dollars—all so that Republicans can give $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest millionaires and billionaires.
“The Big Bad Betrayal Bill is the largest ever transfer of wealth from poor and working people to the richest, and every single district and state—red, blue, and purple—will feel the effects. Under this legislation, the poorest Americans are dealt the biggest blow. Policies that are supposedly going to help working people—labeled “no tax on tips or overtime”—are instead another betrayal, structured to give very little help to very few people and set to expire in two years. When you add in the massive Medicaid and SNAP cuts, poor and middle class Americans will go backwards, not forward.
“Everything in this bill is structured to lift up the wealthiest millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. Those tax cuts are permanent, not temporary, and they amount to gold bars while poor and working Americans get breadcrumbs. Every Republican who voted for this bill in the House and the Senate sold out their constituents to make their billionaire donors richer and to bend the knee to Donald Trump. Thanks to Trump, Republicans, and this bill, people will die.
“The role of government should be to even the playing field for ALL Americans, to help Americans thrive, not just survive, and to create genuine opportunity for poor and working people. This bill does the exact opposite. I voted HELL NO and will never give up the fight to stand up for my constituents who deserve so much better.”
Washington, D.C., July 9, 2025 — On Senate Floor, Klobuchar Stands Up in Support of Public Broadcasting
On the Senate Floor, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D – Minn.) defends public media and foreign aid. A bipartisan Congress has already approved funding both, however the Administration is attempting to clawback that funding.
“… Public Broadcasting reaches nearly 99 percent of Americans. 99 percent with programming they don’t have to pay for delivering educational programming for our kids, coverage of local news stories and life saving emergency alerts …
“We have long agreed on a bipartisan basis to support the more than 1,500 local and regional public TV and radio stations throughout the country…I think we must continue this support.”
Watch the full floor speech as Sen. Klobuchar fights the cuts to lifesaving public media.
