May 13, 2023
Dear Friends,
While each day in Washington is an eventful one, this week was particularly buzzing with activity. Along with the numerous hearings, meetings, and votes came developments with ramifications that could long echo throughout our communities. Within a 72-hour period, we saw the end to the federal COVID-19 public health emergency after more than 3 years, the most ambitious proposal yet to curb pollution in the energy sector, a civil case in which a jury found a former President liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and the indictment of a sitting Member of Congress.
Throughout this inundation of headline stories and political posturing, I’ve always worked to cut through the noise and do the hard work of driving federal action that serves the people of our Capital Region and beyond and addresses our nation’s most pressing issues.
One of the most critical of these issues, which Congress has failed to address for years, took a spotlight this week: our broken immigration system.
With the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency and the consequent expiration of Title 42—a Trump-era law that enabled the U.S. to turn back migrants seeking asylum—all eyes have been trained to the southern border. Democrats and Republicans both agree that our current system does not work, for immigrants or for our border communities. But instead of seizing the opportunity to join Democrats in negotiating a reasonable, responsible solution to the issues we see at our southern border today, Republicans are advancing a cruel, extreme approach that will only serve to hurt our economy, tear apart families in need, and exacerbate the chaos at the border.
Complex problems like immigration reform require comprehensive, compassionate solutions. But the bill advanced by House Republicans this week proposes only the same draconian approach that has failed for decades. Their bill, H.R. 2, would reprioritize Trump’s flawed border wall and effectively end asylum in the United States by preventing anyone who travels through a third country or crosses between ports of entry from seeking asylum—even unaccompanied children and those fleeing political persecution. More family separations are not the answer. We cannot move forward with legislation that seeks to address this humanitarian crisis using only the blunt instruments of cruelty and fear.
While Democrats will never agree to many of the regressive policies in this bill, make no mistake, we are ready to work with Republicans to find the commonsense, long-term fixes that Americans demand. Just this week, we unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2023, a proposal that would modernize our immigration system to effectively manage the border while keeping families together and strengthening our labor force to grow our economy.
For any immigration reform to be effective, we need legislation that provides more pathways to citizenship, strengthens our labor market, provides critical resources to our southern border, and addresses the root causes of migration. The U.S. Citizenship Act does just that, by:
- Creating an earned roadmap to citizenship for undocumented individuals
- Prioritizing smart border management, with designated processing centers and additional penalties for smuggling, trafficking and money laundering
- Targeting root causes of migration with increased assistance to reduce endemic corruption, violence, and poverty
We are ready to reach across the aisle to find real solutions to our nation’s challenges. I have long acted on that belief in bipartisanship, and in recent weeks I’ve worked alongside some of my Republican colleagues to deliver policies that benefit all Americans. Just last week, I joined my colleague Brian Fitzpatrick to introduce the Community Mental Wellness & Resilience Act, which will tackle our nation’s mental health crisis head-on by establishing a new grant program to support community-based initiatives that address mental health issues stemming from major traumatic events. And thanks to our bipartisan efforts on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, transformational funding continues to pour into our communities to fix our roads and bridges, make needed repairs to our crumbling water systems, and drive our clean energy future.
These measures show just how much we can accomplish when Democrats and Republicans work together to find serious, workable answers to the problems our families and communities face. It is my fervent hope that we can address our broken immigration system and the debate over the debt ceiling with this same bipartisan spirit.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates, announcements, and recommendations. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:
- Watervliet Arsenal is holding a job fair NEXT WEEK:
- WHAT: 2023 Job Fair
- WHEN: Friday, May 19 from 9:00AM to 3:00PM
- WHERE: Watervliet Arsenal, Building 125, 1 Buffington Street, Watervliet, NY 12189
- Interested job seekers must pre-register by May 15 to attend.
- Instructions on registering and submitting resumes can be found HERE or at Employment (army.mil)
