Friend,

The first 6 weeks of 2020 have been a historic time for democracy—good and bad.

Let’s start with some good news, because we could all use some of that.

The House passed two bills I introduced that will help marginalized people:

• The Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit & Protecting Consumers Act, which will safeguard people's credit reports from predatory or fraudulent activity, medically necessary debt, and debt related to domestic and financial abuse.

• The Representative Payee Fraud Prevention Act, expanding protections to federal retirees who are victims of fraud, including nearly 40,000 Michiganders. This bill holds people accountable for scamming retirees out of their earned benefits.

And the House passed three bills with amendments I introduced to expand human rights:

• The landmark PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act to strengthen workers’ rights, including the right to join or form a union, included my amendment ensuring that people get timely notice for union elections.

• The Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act included an important amendment to protect federal employees from age discrimination.

• The PFAS Action Act included an amendment to ensure that funding and resources for toxic PFAS chemical cleanup go first to the most-impacted frontline communities, including in Michigan’s 13th district.

More good news:

• We launched our re-election campaign for Congress, and Amo Bernie Sanders (“Uncle” Bernie in Arabic) endorsed us!

• Amo Bernie also got the most votes in Iowa’s primary caucuses, a strong sign that our movement is growing for a truly representative government that serves all of us. We can win if we put in the work. It’s on to New Hampshire next! If you’d like to volunteer for Bernie, get started here.

• In Congress, a number of progressive Representatives launched the People’s Housing Platform, a groundbreaking set of policies that declare housing as a human right and lays out a plan for how we can end homelessness and create safe, affordable housing—including by ending tax giveaways to wealthy investors who displace our neighbors.

• And in Michigan’s 13th district, hand-in-hand with local leaders and legislators, we successfully pushed Michigan’s environmental regulation agency to make Fiat Chrysler address residents’ air quality concerns.

Together, we’re ensuring that our government works for the people and stays #RootedInCommunity in 2020 and beyond. You deserve nothing less than the best!

Unfortunately, that means we’re also working hard to fight divisive right-wing policies and corruption.

Shamefully, Senate Republicans acquitted Trump, enabling dictatorship and authoritarianism, condoning abuses of power and corruption, and letting down our democracy and our Constitution.

While Trump will forever be an impeached president, we must rise up and resist the hate, corruption, and blatant disregard for truth. One way you can get involved is by signing up for regular calls with By the People.

Since acquittal, Trump has flaunted his corruption even more blatantly:

• The Washington Post just exposed how Trump is charging taxpayers up to $650 a night for each Secret Service agent who travels with Trump every time he visits one of his properties. He is literally profiting at our expense. Share the news on Twitter here.

• Right after Trump’s press secretary said his opponents should pay a price, he fired two brave witnesses from his impeachment trial: Purple-Heart-winner Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union George Sondland. As with other public servants, they took an oath to uphold the Constitution. But for doing their duty and telling the truth, they were punished by this lawless president. This clear retaliation, following the ousting of other impeachment witnesses, is unacceptable.

We deserve better.

It’s up to us to resist Trump’s politics of hate and fear mongering for the rest of his time in office, and beyond. It’s up to us to replace Trump and his allies with leaders who truly represent us—up and down the ballot. It’s up to us to create a better democracy and country where we all belong.  

Here are just some of the ways we’re fighting the Trump administration's agenda in Congress:

• We demanded that the Department of Homeland Security stop the dehumanizing practice of collecting DNA from detained immigrants.

• In recent months, I’ve asked the EPA to investigate and clean up multiple hazardous sites in Michigan’s 13th district.

• And now, as Vice-Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Environment, I’ve joined Subcommittee Chair Rep. Harley Rouda in requesting an EPA investigation of a chemical leak at Marathon Petroleum’s Detroit facility, which hospitalized people last fall.  

• We also sent a letter to Marathon’s CEO, demanding more information about the chemicals emitted and actions taken to mitigate and repair the problem.

One of many corporate polluters in Michigan’s 13th district, Marathon, has violated clean air standards over and over. That’s why a few days after Marathon’s chemical leak last September hospitalized people, we brought the Subcommittee on Environment to Detroit for a field hearing about air and water pollution, where residents spoke about their increased risk of cancer, inability to breathe at night in their homes, and other ongoing health problems.

We need to ensure that marginalized Americans are heard and represented in Congress. That means bringing people’s voices to D.C., but it also means bringing Congressmembers to our districts.

Although we’re up against a corrupt White House and elected officials who are in the pocket of huge corporations, I have hope for our growing push for transparency and accountability. I’m excited to share more with you in the months ahead.

And I promise you: We won’t let up. If you can, please chip into our re-election campaign to make sure we can keep up the fight together.

Always serving you,

Rashida