I hosted Ranking Member Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, in San Diego to hear directly from local military child care providers and military spouses about the challenges providing and finding care. The child care waitlist for military families in San Diego is 4,000 spots long! If you’re worried about your child’s well-being, you can’t focus on your mission – so this directly undermines our military readiness and our ability to recruit and retain the very best for our Armed Forces. That’s why I’m pushing to expand access to military child care and support our providers.

Ranking Member Smith and I also met with military leaders and industry partners and learned more about our military’s capabilities and shipbuilding needs. I will keep fighting to ensure that our military budget and priorities prepare us to respond to and address the challenges of the future.

Our service members have served and sacrificed for our country – and the least we can do is ensure they have access to the mental health care they need. I’m so thankful for facilities like the Balboa Naval Medical Center that provide this vital care to our service members and ensure our military readiness. 

I loved reading to the “little lemons” at Lemon Grove School District’s Early Childhood Education Center! The early years are so important for children's future success, so I will continue to advocate for federal investments in child care and early learning programs. 

I’m glad that Congressman Juan Vargas, Congressman Mike Levin, and I received an update from folks at the Otay Mesa temporary processing center. I’ll keep pushing for immigration reform that protects our borders, addresses the root causes of migration, and treats people humanely. 

There is nothing that makes me happier than spending time with kids! So it was great to celebrate with kids, families, and providers at the grand opening of MAAC’s North Campus Early Learning Center in Chula Vista. I’m so glad that even more kids will benefit from their care and this incredible space to play, grow, and develop a lifelong love of learning. 

The Congressional Art Competition is open to all high school students in California's 51st District. 

The winner of our district's competition will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol. 

For more information and to apply, click the image below. The deadline for submissions is April 21st and the winning piece will be displayed in the Capitol!

We all know how important it is for parents to be involved in their kids’ classrooms. But last week, Republicans put forward H.R. 5 – a bill that doesn’t give all parents and guardians the tools for constructive involvement and unfairly empowers a very narrow set to dictate what all students learn about. It would increase book bans and censorship while undermining local control and teacher autonomy. And on top of that, it fails to address school safety or the nationwide teacher shortage. That’s why I’m proud that I voted against this bill.

Click below to watch my speech on the House Floor opposing H.R. 5.

Our service members and military families should have safe housing, affordable child care, quality health care, and enough food to eat – but for too many, these basic needs are out of reach. 

In San Diego, the Basic Allowance for Housing barely covers the cost of rent. And yet, it’s counted as income – making it look like service members and their families, who are struggling to put food on the table, earn too much money to qualify for SNAP or CalFresh benefits. It’s shameful that we’re failing to provide the very basics to those who have served and sacrificed so much for us. 

That’s why I helped introduce legislation to help ensure that more service members and military families are food secure. I will keep pushing in Congress to give our service members and their families the care, resources, and services they have earned and deserve.

Anyone willing and able to serve our country should be able to serve authentically. But discrimination of all kinds, especially against the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, prevents our military from recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and weakens military readiness. As our military faces recruitment and retention challenges, we need to ensure that our policies reflect our military’s values of equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

That’s why I’m so proud to introduce the Ensuring Military Readiness Not Discrimination Act, which will ensure that no President can enact discriminatory policies in the military with the stroke of a pen or a tweet.

My staff in San Diego is here to help if you need assistance with a federal agency, like small business loans, immigration challenges, issues with Social Security or Medicare, VA benefits, and more!

You can also call our San Diego office at (619) 280-5353. And, as always, please encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to subscribe to this newsletter so I can provide them with timely updates.
 
For weekly news, you can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at @RepSaraJacobs.

Warmly,