On Monday, August 1st, I will be hosting a Public Safety Community Forum with local police to hear about the impact of crime on public safety, and discuss solutions to support our local law enforcement and keep our Tri-Cities communities safe.

Over the past decade, China has slowly been buying American farmland, but in recent years it has risen sharply. This is a direct threat to our nation's national security AND our food security.

This week, I led 20 of my colleagues in writing a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack demanding information about the USDA's data and reporting process on foreign purchases of domestic farmland. We need transparency and we need to ensure this Administration is upholding the laws we already have in place.

I will never stop fighting for our farmers and rural America!

It is no secret that the rollout of the new Electronic Health Record system has been a failure. Veterans have been harmed due to dozens of cases being lost. Additionally, I have heard directly from healthcare employees at VA clinics in Central Washington how difficult it is to use the system, and how they're concerned our veterans are not receiving the care they need.

This week, during a Congressional hearing, I questioned officials from the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) and urged them to immediately address the problems with the rollout and the harm it is causing to veterans in Central Washington and other sites across the country.

We owe it to those who sacrificed so much for our country to give them the best possible care, and unfortunately, they are not getting it. The VA must act now to provide veterans with the life-saving care they deserve.

Our dams are crucial to our way of life in Central Washington, and they provide so many benefits—from agriculture, transportation, and navigation, to irrigation, tourism, clean energy, and more!

Breaching the dams would be devastating to our communities.

I will continue to fight to protect our dams for the people of Central Washington. That is why I am hosting a Community Rally to SAVE OUR DAMS on Monday, August 1, 2022, at Howard Amon Park in Richland. I invite you to join me as we fight to protect the lifeblood of our communities.

Due to the burdens caused by the failed rollout of the VA's Electronic Healthcare Record system, VA clinics in Central Washington are struggling to stay afloat. This has caused healthcare providers to not spend adequate time with their patients to treat them efficiently and correctly. The system and its flaws have interfered with veterans’ abilities to receive timely and essential care.

This is unacceptable and we need to quickly reverse this failed system to provide our veterans with the best care possible. The medical centers should not choose between staffing up to safely treat veterans and blowing their budgets.

That is why I joined my colleagues in writing a letter to VA Deputy Secretary Donald Remy calling on the VA to provide additional resources to help local medical centers manage the additional workload created by the failed implementation of the new electronic health record system. 

We cannot leave our medical centers behind, and more importantly, we cannot continue to allow our veterans to receive inadequate care over a failed system. I will continue to fight for our Central Washington veterans and make sure they get the care they deserve.