What we are seeing today is not only a lack of political courage — it’s a fundamental betrayal of the people.

It’s not just incompetence — but a cruel indifference to the suffering of our neighbors.

The funding deal that just passed the House is unacceptable.

It formally ends a government shutdown where the majority of Democrats held the line to protect health care access — while Trump and Republicans unconstitutionally fired federal workers, willingly let families go hungry by withholding SNAP funding, and refused to negotiate how to keep health care affordable.

But this plan does nothing to stop health care costs from skyrocketing.

I voted HELL NO, because that is what you deserve from your member of Congress.

I promise you, if every member of Congress had to walk just one day in the shoes of parents struggling to get their kids fed and healthy while keeping the lights on, they wouldn’t have voted for this bill.

But our Republican colleagues are as callous as they are clueless about the everyday struggles of people.

Hungry mothers and fathers wake up every day in this country and scrape together breakfast for their babies while they go without.

They wait for the bus, hoping that they have enough fare to get on it.

They go to work and clock hours, sometimes a second or third shift, and still they can’t make ends meet.

Do these Republicans know what happens when someone opens the mail and sees their insurance is about to double?

There are no bootstraps to pull on. There are no belts to further tighten. They will go without health insurance. They will put off preventative care, and they will pray that they don’t end up in the ER.

There is no deficit of resources in our government, only a deficit of empathy.

Government should provide basic goods and services.

Government shouldn’t abandon people — and it shouldn’t pull the rug out from under hard-working people who fought so hard to get an even footing.

Here’s the damning part of all of this: none of this is naturally occurring.

This is the result of intentional, cruel policy choices.

To each of my constituents, to each of our neighbors, to members of this movement, to the federal workers and SNAP recipients who are reeling from the uncertainty and cruelty of all of this: the hurt and harm you are experiencing is undeniable, and is 100% preventable.

And I’m going to continue to wake up every single day and fight for our government to make different policy choices. Choices that affirm that health care is not a nice-to-have — it is a must-have. That food is not a nice-to-have — it is a must-have. That our people do not have to beg and plead for only the bare minimum — that our government can invest in helping our people thrive.

What happened today is unconscionable. But I choose to still believe that a better world is possible. The fight goes on.

In solidarity,

Ayanna