Dear Neighbor:

I wanted to share with you an update on some of my work over the past two months for the people of Maryland’s Eighth District and to address the challenges facing our nation. It remains a surpassing honor to serve as your Representative in Congress.

As always, I encourage all of my constituents across the Eighth District to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you need help with a federal agency and want to request my assistance, please complete the online request form here, and my District Office will be in touch.

All Best,

Jamie Raskin

Rep. Raskin’s January and February in Photos

Saluting New Leadership in Maryland

In January, Wes Moore made Maryland history as our state’s first Black governor, and our new lieutenant governor, Aruna Miller, also opened a new chapter in our history as the first immigrant to serve in statewide office in Maryland. I have been delighted already to work with Governor Moore to strengthen Marylanders’ quality of life in the Eighth District and beyond.

Legislative Accomplishments

I am proud to have introduced several important bills in January and February to protect reproductive freedom, make our communities safer, and help consumers, while continuing to build on the legislative successes of the last Congress.

Defending Reproductive Freedom

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking the constitutional right to abortion care, abortion bans have proliferated at the state level. This February, I joined with Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas and Marilyn Strickland of Washington to reintroduce our Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which protects the constitutional right to travel across state lines, including to access reproductive health care services like abortion. You can read more about our right to travel legislation here.

Advancing Gun Safety Solutions

Source: Criminology & Public Policy

Mass shootings and daily gun violence are shredding the American social contract. In the absence of comprehensive public safety solutions, gun violence continues to ravage our communities. In January, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and I led in introducing the Handgun Permit to Purchase Act, legislation to create a federal grant program to incentivize handgun licensing requirements at the state level. Research from Johns Hopkins finds that states with in-person handgun licensing requirements had a 56% lower risk of mass shooting than states without handgun licensing laws.

I also introduced the ATF Improvement and Modernization (AIM) Act with my colleague from Virginia, Rep. Don Beyer. This bill, with a Senate companion introduced by Senator Van Hollen, aims to improve the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) ability to crack down on gun violence and the illegal use of firearms. You can read more about the Handgun Permit to Purchase Act and the AIM Act here.

Protecting the Rights of Airline Passengers

In February, I reintroduced the Cash Refunds for Flight Cancellations Act along with my colleague Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Senators Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. American travelers continue to experience rampant airline cancellations, with refund complaints significantly above pre-pandemic levels. Despite the stress and inconvenience that airlines have caused travelers, many airlines continue to withhold refunds and offer only credits or vouchers instead of a full refund. Our bill would help restore civility and decency to air travel by providing consumers an enforceable right to a full cash refund when airlines cancel or significantly delay their flight. You can read more about the Cash Refunds for Flight Cancellations Act here.

Promoting Research on Social Media and Technology on Child Development

I’m elated to report that last Congress, my bipartisan legislation, the Children and Media Research Advancement (CAMRA) Act was signed into law, directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the effects of social media and technology on children’s health and wellness. My Senate co-author, Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and I are eager to see NIH swiftly implement this exciting research initiative, and we thus continue to urge NIH to fast-track this critical research with the $15 million in funding we helped secure in the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus. You can read more about our efforts and the CAMRA Act here.

Conducting Responsible and Effective Oversight for the American People

As Ranking Member of the newly renamed Committee on Oversight and Accountability, my goal is to ensure that the government is delivering on its promises to the American people through responsible oversight and commonsense legislation, and I continue to advocate working in a bipartisan fashion to carry out this responsibility in a serious, even-handed manner. Although the Republican majority sets the topics for the Committee’s hearings, I lead my Democratic colleagues in presenting facts and evidence to allow us to legislate intelligently and effectively, ferreting out waste in pandemic relief programs, protecting freedom of speech, ensuring appropriate handling of presidential and classified records, investigating the corrupting influence of foreign entanglements on public officials, improving our immigration system and more. The Democratic members serving on the Committee and I aim to serve as a Truth Squad against propaganda and misinformation. For more on my work as Ranking Member, you can visit the committee’s website here.

Celebrating Local Heroes of the Eighth District

To kick off our 2023 class of Local Heroes, I recognized outgoing Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh for an exceptional career championing equity, prosperity and climate action across our state. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for this passionate lawyer for the people.

At the first hearing of the January 6th Select Committee, America met four brave law enforcement officers, including Sergeant Aquilino Gonell of the United States Capitol Police, who defended our Congress and our democracy against savage mob violence and insurrection. On the two-year anniversary of the attack, I recognized Sergeant Gonell as a Local Hero to acknowledge his remarkable service to our nation.

Sergeant Aquilino Gonell is also recognized as Speaker Pelosi’s State of the Union guest in February 2023

With their sustainable company Eat the Change and countless other projects to promote organic farming, improve food access and more, MD-08's own Julie Farkas and Seth Goldman are uplifting our people and protecting our planet.

My discussion with Ambassador Susan Esserman reveals how she spreads hope for human trafficking survivors in Maryland and beyond through pro bono legal work and as director of the University of Maryland SAFE Center for Human Trafficking Survivors. If you are aware of human trafficking, please contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1 (888) 373-7888 and know that there are experts who can help; and you should never put yourself at risk by trying to intervene on your own.

I also recognized MoCo mom Melissa Ladd for her advocacy on gun safety and violence prevention and her unflagging service to victims of gun violence in Maryland and across the nation. Her segment is on my YouTube channel as well.

Following an alarming string of antisemitic vandalism incidents in our community, I invited Local Heroes Ron Halber and Guila Franklin Siegel of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington to discuss their work defending the Jewish community and all targets of racism in Montgomery County and beyond.

Reverend Timothy Warner is bringing local memory and history to life with the Emory Grove redevelopment project, a revitalization of an historic African American community in the Eighth District. His poignant reflections during Black History Month remind us of the rich and complex history all around us.

Did you know that February is Library Lovers’ Month? Thanks to great librarians like Dianne Whitaker, our libraries represent a vibrant crossroads of our community life.

Welcoming Maryland Secretary of State Susan Lee to the State of the Union

I was honored to host Maryland Secretary of State Susan Lee as my guest to President Biden’s State of the Union address in February. Her appointment to serve as Maryland’s Secretary of State is historic and a recognition of Secretary Lee’s decades of public service and experience at the local, state and national level. In her prior role as a Maryland State Senator, she championed efforts to improve consumer privacy, end gun violence, strengthen victim services, and combat identity theft, and saw to passage more bills than any other State Senator from Montgomery County. In Congress, I worked with then-State Senator Lee to address racial profiling of Chinese American scientists and scholars by federal agencies, and document patterns of discrimination. Don’t miss my full discussion with Secretary Lee on Local Hero here.

Celebrating my Class of 2027 Service Academy Nominees

As a Member of Congress, I have the privilege of nominating exceptional young Marylanders to our nation’s service academies. The opportunity for a fully funded education and the honor of attending a service academy make these nominations highly competitive and each year, I look forward to seeing how the commitment to service and country is well-represented all across our district. This past month, I celebrated my Class of 2027 nominees with a virtual meeting and presentation. You can watch a video of our celebration and view a slide show of my nominees’ exceptional accomplishments and credentials on my website.

Increased Passport Processing Times

A seasonal increase in passport applications has increased application processing times to 10-13 weeks for routine processing and 7-9 weeks for expedited processing. If you are planning to travel abroad and will need your passport this summer, I highly encourage you to submit your application immediately. To learn how to apply for a passport visit Need a Passport.

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