Friends,

I’ve introduced several pieces of legislation this year that I feel very strongly about — from last month’s LEGACY Act and the re-introduction of the My Body, My Data Act to the Delete DOGE Act and the Protect U.S. National Security Act — and I’ve been grateful for your support on these initiatives.

Today I want to take a moment to address a question I sometimes get when talking about new legislation, which is… Why? With Democrats in the triple minority, what’s the point?

Well, there are a few reasons, but I’ll start here:

Just because my party is in the minority doesn’t mean I abandon my responsibility to introduce, sponsor, and champion legislation that would help my constituents and people all across the country. We need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes, we’ve been fighting tooth and nail against the bad faith actions of Trump and House Republicans, but we also need to preempt their attacks on our most basic rights with good legislation.

Not only that, but legislation like the Protect U.S. National Security Act and the My Body, My Data Act ought to enjoy bipartisan support! They likely won’t – we know today’s GOP isn’t exactly eager to govern at all, let alone work across the aisle – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Introducing good legislation points out Republicans’ hypocrisy directly and holds them accountable in real time. Moderate Republicans can’t claim to support foreign aid or data privacy (in the case of my two bills) in theory but fail to support legislation that would protect it in reality.

But one of the other important reasons to do this work *now* is so we’ll be ready to hit the ground running as soon as we regain the majority. Putting in the work now – thinking creatively about the issues we’re facing, coming up with solutions and drafting the legislation, working to get buy-in from our colleagues, constituents, and advocates – will pay off after the midterms.

So that’s what I’m doing. But the other piece is, of course, making sure we actually DO retake the majority. That’s where you come in – can you pitch in today to support our Democratic efforts to flip the House next year?