Dear John,

Happy New Year, and welcome back to The Weekly Wrap, a recap of the week in Congress and highlights of my work. 

On Tuesday, the House reconvened for the first week of the second session of the 118th Congress. While I returned to Washington ready to pass government funding legislation, I was instead met with the continued dysfunction of the House Republican Majority. Yet again, just one week before government funding runs out, there is no clear path forward to prevent a government shutdown. House Republicans remain more concerned with political theatrics than keeping the government funded. 

More from the week: On Monday, I joined Senator Richard Blumenthal, Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, and Danbury Airport Administrator Mike Safranek for an exciting announcement at Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR).   

Also, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a Subcommittee hearing entitled Lowering Costs and Increasing Access to Health Care with Employer-Driven Innovation. Additionally, I signed a discharge petition to bring the Keep American Safe Act to the floor for a vote. Lastly, I am including an update on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program.

For the full recap, please read below.

Continued Chaos

On November 14, 2023, the House passed the H.R.6363 - Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024. The legislation was agreed to in the Senate and signed into law by President Biden on November 16, 2023. This legislation was a laddered Continuing Resolution (CR), which funded parts of the government until January 19, 2024, and others until February 2, 2024.  

On January 19, 2024, funding for programs authorized by the Agriculture, Energy and Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills will run out, causing a partial government shutdown.

Early last week, Congressional Leadership came to a bipartisan framework to pass a final government spending bill. This agreement resembled the original framework agreed to by House Republicans in May.  Unfortunately, the framework still needs to be written, and a short-term CR is required to avert a government shutdown.   

Yet again, infighting among the House Republican Conference is preventing our ability to keep the government open and working for the American people.

Instead, the House Republican Majority continues to waste time with political theatrics. Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the House Committee on the Judiciary advanced measures to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a subpoena following a partisan investigation into his business dealings.

When a measure to open debate on government funding and to express disapproval of Biden’s actions was brought to the floor by Speaker Johnson, the rule failed. 

Additionally, the House Republican Conference used critical legislative time last week to advance impeachment inquiries into President Biden and several Biden Administration officials, including Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Like many of my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus, I stand ready to advance a government funding legislation that meets the needs of my constituents in the Fifth District of Connecticut.  

Improvements for Danbury Municipal Airport 

On Monday, before heading to Washington, I joined Senator Richard Blumenthal, Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, and Danbury Airport Administrator Mike Safranek for an exciting announcement. Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR) has received a $1.9 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Improvement Program (AIP).  

The Airport Improvement Program provides grants to public agencies — and, in some cases, private owners and entities — for the planning and development of public-use airports included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). 

Currently, DXR serves individual pilots and provides charter service. 

The airport has become a significant economic driver for Connecticut, with an estimated annual impact between $40 and $50 million. The AIP grant funding will be used to revitalize one of two runways at the airport, which will increase the capabilities of the facility.  

I am pleased my office was able to provide a letter of support for the grant application. This federal funding will help create more jobs in Danbury and improve aviation infrastructure in our state.

Lowering Costs and Increasing Access to Health Care with Employer-Driven Innovation

On Thursday, the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions held a hearing entitled, Lowering Costs and Increasing Access to Health Care with Employer-Driven Innovation.  

The hearing examined the ways in which Congress can craft legislation to improve the affordability and quality of health care for working Americans and small businesses. This would benefit Connecticut residents, where we rank 9th in the country for per-person health care spending.  

One approach is to build upon the work of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has improved health care benefits and strengthened consumer protections for more than 178 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced more than 20 million people have selected an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Marketplace plan during the most recent enrollment period. 

While issues with the Affordable Care Act still need to be addressed, the plan is working.   

 The Lowering Costs and Increasing Access to Health Care with Employer-Driven Innovation hearing can be viewed here.  

Keep Americans Safe Act

The Keep Americans Safe Act is gun violence prevention legislation to ban the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of high-capacity gun magazines that hold more than fifteen rounds.  

On Wednesday, I joined my colleagues on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force (GVPTF) in signing a discharge petition to bring the legislation to the Floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.  

High-capacity magazines have been used across our nation with devastating effects. These weapons have no place on our streets and Americans deserve to be safe in their communities. 

To learn more about the Keep Americans Safe Act discharge petition, please click here.

The Clean School Bus Program

On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced 67 recipients for the first Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition. Funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Clean School Bus grant program will help selectees purchase over 2,700 clean school buses in 281 school districts across 36 states, including Connecticut. Specifically, the program will allow districts to replace harmful diesel buses with electric alternatives.   

The announcement builds on my work to support students and protect our environment. Since coming to Congress in 2019, I have been a strong advocate for this program. In 2019, I introduced the Clean School Bus Act to establish a grant program authorized for up to $1 billion over five years for school districts, particularly those with lower-income students, to replace diesel school buses with electric school buses. In 2021, I introduced the Clean Commute for Kids Act to invest $25 billion to replace existing diesel buses with electric buses. 

Additionally, in 2021, I fought for the inclusion of clean school bus funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Biden. This led to the inclusion of over $5 billion for the EPA to administer rebates, grants, and contracts to replace a portion of the nearly 500,000 school buses with more environmentally safe models. 

Just last year, I joined my colleagues in urging President Biden to include at least $300 million in additional funding for clean school buses in his FY24 budget request. I also joined Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and other officials to announce the award of 25 zero-emission school buses to DATTCO Inc. to provide school transportation services for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS). 

This investment will save Connecticut school districts money, create good-paying clean energy jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect people and the planet. It is great to see how these efforts will impact over seven million students across the nation. This is a huge win for our state and our country. 

To learn more about the EPA Clean School Bus program, please click here.  

And that’s a wrap!  

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. As always, please continue to share your thoughts and priorities with me.   

Jahana Hayes

Member of Congress