News from Congressman Mike Levin

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Dear Neighbor,

With all the news coming out of Washington D.C., I wanted to take a moment to update you on the work I’ve been doing for you.

Thank you to the more than 5,000 people who joined my telephone town hall this week. I hosted it to directly answer your questions and concerns. If you missed the town hall or would like to listen to the event, a recording is available on my YouTube page.

Watch the town hall here.

While I am all for a good faith effort to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse in government, that’s not what Elon Musk and DOGE are doing. Instead, they are dismantling federal agencies that provide services Americans rely on and trying to eliminate Congress’s power of the purse.

View my Floor speeches on standing up for checks and balances here and here.

Rep. Levin Reintroduces Spent Fuel Prioritization Act

I remain focused on tackling our District’s top priorities, including addressing the spent nuclear fuel at San Onofre. That’s why I reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would put sites like San Onofre to the top of the Department of Energy’s list for waste removal. The Spent Fuel Prioritization Act would implement new criteria that would directly apply to San Onofre. Because over 9 million people live within 50 miles of the site, the earthquake risk in our region, and San Onofre’s location near Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, it’s essential we do everything we can to move the fuel out of the region as soon as possible.

Read more about the bill here.

At the end of last month, I reintroduced legislation to close a loophole that denies benefits to Purple Heart recipients. The bipartisan Purple Heart Veterans Education Act will ensure that regardless of when a veteran received their Purple Heart, they will be able to transfer unused education benefits from the GI bill to their family. Veterans deserve access to their rightfully deserved benefits, and this bill help us keep our promise to our veterans.

Read more about the bill here.

The Trump Administration is capping costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research institutions, which will have countless negative impacts on medical research and our local economy. Our community is right next door to UC San Diego and UC Irvine, both of whom are at risk to lose millions of dollars in funding. This means groundbreaking work on cures for diseases like Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and more, could be stunted. Not only is this move illegal, but it could have devastating consequences for patients and their families.

President Trump is infringing on Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse. Congress, not the executive branch, has this power to determine how federal money is spent. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I’m not willing to abandon my constitutional duty, unlike some other Members of Congress.

We are taking action to address Elon Musk and DOGE’s unlawful actions by introducing the Taxpayer Protection Act. The bill aims to prevent anyone with a conflict of interest or without the proper security clearance from accessing the federal payment system and sensitive data of millions of Americans.

If you have questions about my work or need help with a federal agency, please don’t hesitate to contact my office. You can send me an email through my website, call my Oceanside office at (760) 599-5000, or call my Dana Point office at (949) 281-2449. For updates on my work on behalf of our communities, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky at @RepMikeLevin.

Sincerely,

Mike Levin

Member of Congress