Dear Neighbors,

I hope this message finds you well. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please contact my office by calling (847) 413-1959, emailing me at [email protected], or sending a message through my website at https://krishnamoorthi.house.gov/contact/email. For more frequent updates, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Last week, I was proud to introduce the bipartisan Opportunity to Compete Act with Congressman John James (R-MI) to ensure that workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) rather than earning a bachelor’s degree receive fair consideration in hiring. While automation and other technical advances in hiring have made application screening easier for employers, they have also contributed significantly to the trend of requiring degrees for jobs that previously did not require them.

As American workers and employers seek to meet the rapidly changing needs of the 21^st century, we must strive to eliminate any discrimination against workers who meet every qualification for the jobs for which they apply to, except for having a bachelor’s degree.

Our bipartisan legislation will tackle this problem by ensuring prospective employees are evaluated based on whether they have the relevant skills and experience to do the job, rather than if they hold a four-year degree.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this legislation passed and signed into law swiftly.

This week, I voted with 411 of my bipartisan House colleagues on a resolution condemning Hamas's brutal attack on Israel and calling on Hamas to safely release all hostages. I support the Biden Administration and its continued efforts to obtain the hostages and to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. While current efforts are underway to reopen the Rafah crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt to allow for the safe evacuation of civilians and allow additional aid in to help Palestinians, I wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week requesting his immediate help in ensuring the safe evacuation of several of my constituents and their families who are currently in unsafe situations in Israel and Gaza. 

I encourage you to read this story from the Daily Herald on my office’s efforts to assist Elgin native Emilee Abuhamad Rauschenberger -  the niece of Elgin City Council member Carol Rauschenberger – and her family, who have been among the hundreds of Americans trapped in southern Gaza. My office and I have been in close coordination with the State Department to speed up the safe exit of those in harm’s way in both Israel and Gaza, and of both Palestinian and Israeli descent.

I welcome the news that the State Department has worked with Egypt, Israel, and the United Nations to allow some aid to go through Rafah, and I am committed to ensuring additional aid currently on standby on the Egyptian side of Rafah be allowed to enter into Gaza as soon as possible.

Additionally, I applaud the efforts by the Biden Administration to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas. I was particularly heartened by the release of Natalie and Judith Ranaan—who are from Evanston, Illinois—on Friday, and the release of Nurit Yitzhak and Yocheved Lifshitz yesterday. I am urging the Biden Administration to continue its efforts in earnest to ensure the safe exit of Americans, hostages, and other civilians in Israel and Gaza who wish to depart.

On Friday of last week, President Joe Biden announced his request for supplemental funding from Congress, a move that includes support for critical domestic programs, including childcare, nutrition assistance, public health, research and development, and national security, while also helping the United States provide the necessary security assistance to Israel, support Israeli efforts to secure the release of hostages, and provide humanitarian aid to civilians impacted by the war in Israel and in Gaza.

This supplemental funding request includes many priorities that affect us directly and serve our community’s needs. The Biden Administration requested additional funds to strengthen the American Connectivity Program, an initiative to provide free and discounted high-speed internet for households, ensuring broadband access is easily accessible for everyone. The Administration also requested funds to keep more than 220,000 childcare providers open and stable at a time when many face closure because of financial difficulties. This support would help buoy a system that cares for as many as 10 million children across the nation.

I look forward to working with the Biden Administration and my House colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come to a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement to fund the government and invest in critical national priorities—including our national security.  

Less than two weeks remain before the November 1^st submission deadline for middle and high school students to register and submit their applications for this year’s Congressional App Challenge. In 2015, the House of Representatives launched the Congressional App Challenge to promote engagement in computer science among young people by creating an opportunity for middle and high school students to compete with peers by creating their own applications for computers, the web, tablets, phones, or other devices. I encourage all interested students in our district to participate, whether individually or in groups of up to four. The winner will be featured online at CongressionalAppChallenge.us and the winning app will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. To participate, please submit your design here by 11:00am CT on Wednesday, November 1^st.

If you are unable to make it to our district office in Schaumburg, our staff is available at mobile office hours throughout the district. Share your concerns, questions, issues and get help navigating federal agencies at convenient locations across the district.

Our Next Pingree Grove Office Hours: Tuesday, November 7th: 12:00pm – 4:00pm at the Pingree Grove Municipal Center at 555 Reinking Rd, Pingree Grove, IL RSVP HERE.

We will continue to hold additional office hours in Pingree Grove on the first Tuesday of each month, with the next being on December 5^th.

Our Next Wood Dale Office Hours: Tuesday, November 21^st: 10:00am – 1:00pm in the Wood Dale Public Library at 520 N Wood Dale Rd, Wood Dale, IL RSVP HERE.

We will continue to hold additional office hours in Wood Dale on the third Tuesday of each month, with the next being on December 19^th.

Our Next Des Plaines Office Hours: Tuesday, December 12^th: 9:30am – 11:30am in the Des Plaines Public Library at 1501 Ellinwood St, Des Plaines, IL RSVP HERE.

The best way to stay up to date on these issues beyond our newsletter is through my social media accounts, which I update multiple times each day. You can follow my Twitter here, my Facebook page here, and my Instagram here. Thank you for staying engaged in our community.

P.S. I always enjoy hearing from constituents, so feel free to comment and share my social media posts! Here are the links: Twitter here, Facebook page here, Instagram here and Threads here.