Dear Neighbors,

I hope this message finds you safe and well. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please contact my office by calling (847) 413-1959, emailing me at [email protected], or sending a message through my website at https://krishnamoorthi.house.gov/contact/email. For more frequent updates, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Last week, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol began its public hearings looking deeper into the insurrection against our government. Even after these first few hearings, several key facts are already clear: the attack on the Capitol was not a spontaneous escalation of a peaceful protest. Rather, the attack was planned long before January 6^th and the United States Capitol and Metropolitan Police Officers were even more heroic than we had previously recognized. I was especially moved by Officer Caroline Edwards recounting of her efforts to protect our Capitol and my colleagues inside, even as the area surrounding it became “a war-zone.”

As these hearing continue, it’s critical that Americans learn the lessons of January 6^th to discover the truth of what happened that day, as well as those leading up to it, and why. Central to those issues is the conduct of President Trump and how members of his inner circle engaged with extremist elements and promoted the lie that the election was stolen. Even President Trump’s own Attorney General and top campaign advisors told him categorically that there was no large-scale fraud, and that he had lost the election. It’s essential that our nation comes to terms with the insurrection of January 6^th, brings all those responsible to justice, and ensures nothing like it can ever happen again.

This week, as Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, I held a hearing and released a report on how the Seresto flea and tick collar, a product that has been linked to more than 2,500 pet deaths while harming thousands more, is still available on the market, despite regulators knowing the risks. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the agency charged with ensuring that such products are safe, has known of the dangers of the collar to pets and humans since at least 2015 but has failed to act.

The EPA rushed through Seresto’s approval process, then discovered that “Seresto ranked #1 by a wide margin” in terms of total reported safety incidents. But despite that, neither the EPA nor Seresto acted, even though regulators in Colombia Australia, and the European Union required additional warning labels. The risks even led the Canadian agency regulating the safety of such productions, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, to ban the sale of the collar in that country in 2016.

I have called upon the EPA to initiate Notice of Intent to Cancel proceedings, which will ensure a thorough and comprehensive study is completed on Seresto’s collars and access the risks that come with the product. In the meantime, I am renewing my call for Elanco to voluntarily remove their products from the shelves and recall all collars that are still in use until such a study can be accomplished. This will protect pets from further harm and ensure the safety of everyone, including the pet owners.

Last week, I had the great honor of joining House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional delegation at the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. As the only member from Illinois to attend with the delegation, it was a great honor to represent everyone one of my fellow Illinoisians at the only meeting between the national leaders of the North and South American continents. Illinois’ biggest export partner is Canada, with $17.7 billion in goods being shipped there from Illinois every year. It was a privilege to discuss the continued future of this partnership with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while also taking part in several other meetings and roundtables with other national leaders such as Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness and U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry. It is critical the countries in the Americas work together to address the region’s shared challenges, such as the causes of migration and the pandemic, while also capitalizing on our shared opportunities, like pushing for inclusive international trade and promoting renewable and green energy policies that are essential for everyone in the coming decades.

The best way to stay up to date on these issues beyond our newsletter is through my social media accounts, which I update multiple times each day. You can follow my Twitter here, my Facebook page here, and my Instagram here. Thank you for staying engaged in our community. 

P.S. I always enjoy hearing from constituents, so feel free to comment and share my social media posts! Here are the links: Twitter here, Facebook page here, and Instagram here.