Dear Friend, This week was Congress’ first week back in session after the August District Work Period, and my colleagues and I are already hard at work representing your interests in the ‘other Washington.’ On Wednesday and Thursday, House Democrats passed three bills to better protect our precious environment and natural resources: The Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act of 2019, the Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act, and the Arctic cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Ac...
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Dear friend, To wrap up my ‘Suzan Shows Up’ tour of the region, I spent this past week on the issue of economic security. Issues such as food insecurity and child hunger, affordable child care and access to reliable transportation options all impact the economic security of millions of hardworking American families. I celebrated the groundbreaking of Sound Transit’s Lynnwood Link Extension project, which will expand the Seattle area’s light rail system into Snohomish County, reducing vehicle mil...
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Dear Friend, Women’s rights are under attack from the Trump administration. Recently, Planned Parenthood withdrew from Title X funding because of the administration’s new gag rule which forbids clinics receiving Title X funding from referring patients to abortion providers. Last week I joined Governor Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, King County Executive Dow Constantine, PPGNHI CEO Chris Charbonneau, patient advocates, and many others to rally in support of Planned Parenthood’s decision n...
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Dear Friend, Last week I continued my #SuzanShowsUp tour of our beautiful region. I was fortunate to spend so much time learning about the great things people are doing in our community, and to tell you about what we’re doing in the “other Washington” to help improve people’s lives. On Thursday, I joined Senator Maria Cantwell to rally in support of our bill, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019, which would expand and strengthen the Affordable Housing Tax Credit to produce more...
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Dear friend, Last week, I met with groups and organizations to discuss innovation and other topics that are affecting us here in Washington’s first district. I was excited to see how hard our communities have been working to innovate and improve various areas of our lives. I spoke with the Eastside Police Chiefs about innovative technologies like facial recognition, radar communications systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that would aid in law enforcement modernization. I visited Alpha T...
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Dear Friend, You may be pleased to know that today the House of Representatives voted to end the cruel practice of horse soring by passing H.R. 693, the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act. Horse soring is the use of devices to cause injury to the front feet and limbs of horses with the intent of inflicting pain as horses step down. This forces horses who have been sored into a high-stepping, unnatural gait known as ‘The Big Lick’ to obtain an unfair advantage at horse shows. Although the Hors...
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Dear Friend, This week, I joined my House colleagues in passing two important pieces of legislation: the Middle-Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act, which would repeal the “Cadillac Tax,” and the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. These bills would benefit hardworking American families by putting more money back in their pockets. The Cadillac tax was a well-intentioned tax on the most expensive health care plans. Ideally, this tax would have put downward pressure on health plan costs but will instead ...
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Dear friend, I spent last week back home in Washington’s first congressional district. It was important for me to celebrate the anniversary of our country’s independence by working to address one of our country’s most urgent and contentious issues: immigration. To better understand how the current immigration system has impacted our community, I listened to the stories of dozens of immigrants who live and work in WA01. I heard from a dedicated employee whose work visa extension was denied withou...
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Dear friend, Our nation has seen the LGBTQ community take important strides in the fight for full equality. During the past two decades, the Supreme Court has issued three landmark rulings on June 26th that helped curtail LGBTQ discrimination, affirm the dignity of same-sex couples and move our country toward a more perfect union: 1. Lawrence v. Texas (June 26, 2003), in which the Court ruled that states could no longer criminalize the private conduct of same-sex couples. This ruling invalidated...
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Dear Friend, Every child deserves a fair shot at success. Today, too many parents are facing difficult realities as they try to raise a family. Stagnating wages, higher housing costs, and student loan debt are making it harder for parents to give their children the opportunities they need to succeed. In Washington state, approximately 226,000 children live below the poverty line. That’s why I, along with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introdu...
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