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Dear Friend,
After another busy week in Washington, I’m back home in eastern Connecticut. Here with an update on a cliff for our health care system, the need to protect medical research, and more from the week. As always, thanks for starting your weekend here with me.
A Partisan Bill Ignores the Cliff for Health Care
We’re on the verge of a health care cliff. If Congress does not extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, health care premiums for millions of Americans will go up by thousands next year. For example, a young family with one child in New London could face an over $2,000 annual increase in their health care premiums and a 60-year-old couple in Enfield could see their premiums increase by thousands of dollars per month if the ACA tax credits expire. You can use this calculator to determine the impact on your coverage.
We are 11 days from the end of the fiscal year. Congress has a clear obligation to avoid this health care cost hike by passing a clean bill that continues the ACA tax credits that have been on the books since 2021. Unfortunately, today, the House majority leadership chose to barely pass a “go it alone” hyper-partisan bill which eliminates Affordable Care Act tax credits. 137,000 Connecticut residents will take a direct hit with increased premiums if these tax credits expire.
This afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson's bill was swiftly voted down 44-48, in the Senate, failing to even get a simple majority, let alone the required 60 votes for passage. The message is clear, Speaker Johnson must do his constitutional duty and negotiate a compromise that will get sufficient bipartisan support to become law. I won't stop fighting to avoid a man-made health care cost hike.
Rallying for Medical Research
When you think of National Institute of Health (NIH) research, you might picture scientists with microscopes and test tubes. In reality, a big part of NIH research involves direct care for people fighting diseases like cancer. Unfortunately, since President Trump took office this year, his administration has leveled indiscriminate cuts to NIH research on cancer and other disease under an order cutting any projects in with the words “diversity, equity, and inclusion”.
This week, I had the honor of welcoming advocates with the group Rally for Medical Research, including Old Lyme’s Sarah Craig, who receives treatment for late stage lung cancer through NIH research programs. Sarah joined me to discuss her experience and explain how cuts to NIH funding are impacting real patients right now.
The threat to cancer research doesn’t stop at budget cuts. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has now put mRNA vaccines in his crosshairs under the belief that the vaccines are somehow a threat to public health. In reality, mRNA vaccines led to the COVID-19 vaccine and are now a promising tool to fight cancer. But because of Secretary Kennedy's termination of research funding, Sarah can't access the mRNA vaccine research trial that she has been waiting for.
Thank you to Sarah for coming to Congress with a clear message for lawmakers: fund medical research!
Protecting Support for Small Farms
Eastern Connecticut farmers continue to come to Washington to urge Congress to protect farming businesses. This week, I met with a group of farmers, including Ben Sellew, Vice President of Prides Corner Farms in Lebanon, who expressed frustration with the Trump Administration’s cancellation of USDA Rural Energy for America Program grants. Farms across Connecticut’s 2nd District have used this grant program to invest in energy infrastructure and significantly lower their operating costs.
Now, on top of tariffs that raise the cost of farming supplies and cuts to agricultural research that helps farmers protect their crops from pests, another program has been shut off by the administrations knee-jerk reaction against solar energy. Farms keep us fed, and at a time when food costs continue to increase, cutting off federal support they rely on sends everyone in the wrong direction.
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| Meeting with farmer advocates from AmericanHort, including Ben Sellew, Vice President of Prides Corner Farms in Lebanon (to my right). |
Keeping Politics Out of Public Service Loan Forgiveness
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program has always been bipartisan. It was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2007 with the aim of rewarding Americans who commit to careers in public service including military service, with forgiveness on their student loans. The program has not lived up to that promise. My office has heard from many people in public service professions who worked hard and followed the rules but were still denied PSLF due to a lack of guidance and clarity from the Department of Education, the government agency which runs the program.
Now, the Trump Administration and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon are attempting to redefine which public servants are eligible for PSLF on the Administration’s own politics. That’s unacceptable and does not match the intent of Congress when it made PSLF law.
This week, I called out Secretary of Education McMahon for politicizing this patriotic program. We made a promise to nurses, teachers, police, and more public servants. I will continue fighting in Congress to make PSLF more transparent, fairer, and easier for America’s public service workers.
Thanks for taking some time to read my update. If we can be of any assistance, don't hesitate to give my Norwich office a call at (860) 886-0139.
Sincerely,
Joe Courtney
Member of Congress
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