Hi friends, how are you?
Over the last few weeks, one of our biggest priorities in Washington has been working on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024 - a routine military spending bill that sets our defense policies and funding limits for the year.
It’s an important bill for many reasons - but in short, it’s a yearly opportunity to address the needs of our service members and military families and meet the national security challenges of the 21st century with real solutions.
Republicans could have passed the bipartisan package we passed in Committee. But instead, they hijacked this bill and riddled it with extreme policies from their right-wing wish list - things like restricting abortion access, cuts to necessary transgender health care, and eliminating diversity programs.
This is serious to me - partly because I sit on the House Armed Services Committee, but also because I’m proud to represent San Diego - the largest military community in the country. I hear firsthand about their struggles to make ends meet and find affordable housing and childcare. And it’s not just our military members who suffer - when we pass laws that go against our values, we hurt our national security by making it that much harder to build international coalitions with our allies, and call out bad actors.
It’s why I voted no - and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to reverse some of these provisions in the coming weeks.
But look, this is also another reason it’s imperative for us to retake the House in 2024 - if we had a Democratic majority, we could pass an NDAA that we’re actually proud of - one that’s not riddled with GOP culture war’s top hits.
And what’s more, we could also be doing the important work of codifying abortion rights, preventing gun violence, addressing climate change, and all the other priorities that are currently being ignored by the House’s GOP leadership.
I’ll proudly keep pushing on these issues from inside the Capitol, but I’m going to need your help if we want a shot at making real progress. Are you ready to flip the House in 2024?
If so, I hope you’ll sign your name and let me know that you’re all in to retake our Democratic majority next November.
Thanks for everything.
-Sara
