July 2022: Join Our Town Hall 

Dear friends,

It’s Black business week here in Minneapolis. If you’re looking for some Black businesses to support, you can find a guide here. Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. This week, I hosted a Coffee and Kulan discussion with my colleague Rep. Troy Carter to discuss small businesses and ways we can uplift minority owned businesses. In case you missed it, you can watch the video here.  

Join Our Town Hall  

This Thursday, August 4 at 6pm CT, our office will hold an in-person town hall to update you on what’s happening in Congress. I look forward to answering your questions. You can register here.
 
Banning Assault Weapons 

Today, the House is set to pass legislation to ban assault weapons. Not only are we witnessing a tragic increase of horrific mass shootings, but our communities are experiencing daily gun violence that rarely makes the headlines. That’s why I am proud to vote yes to get weapons of war out of our communities. The Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 would prohibit the sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. 

Passing Two Bills Out of Committee to Stop School Lunch Shaming

This week, the House Committee on Education and Labor today passed two of my bills in the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act. In 2020, I was proud to introduce and pass the MEALS Act to ensure 30 million kids got free and reduced-price school meals during the pandemic. Now, this legislation is set to expire at the end of September. This week’s mark-up moves us one step closer to a future where school meals are protected for children and families in need. This is our opportunity to address child hunger with the urgency it deserves, and I look forward to making this bill a reality. You can read more here.

Calling for the Impeachment of Clarence Thomas 

Yesterday, I participated in a press conference calling for the impeachment of Justice Clarence Thomas. For the past three decades, Clarence Thomas worked in tandem with his wife from the bench to decide cases that were in lockstep with his wife’s political pursuits. Our failure to hold him accountable will further delegitimize the Court and will embolden other justices to act in lockstep with his actions. Clarence Thomas is too compromised to sit on the Court and that’s why I was the first Member of Congress to call for his impeachment. You can watch my speech here.

Fighting for Justice and Accountability for the Family of Shireen Abu Akleh  

Shireen Abu Akleh should be alive. I was proud to join the family of Shireen Abu Akleh and my colleagues in the call for an independent U.S. investigation into her murder. We must keep speaking out until we get justice and accountability. You can watch my speech here. 

In service,

Ilhan Omar