Welcoming the First Lady to the District and Other Updates

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.

Welcoming the First Lady and Cabinet Secretaries to Our District for National Apprenticeship Week

On Monday, I had the honor of welcoming First Lady Jill Biden, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to our district as part of National Apprenticeship Week. During our visit to Rolling Meadows High School, we discussed the importance of providing American students and workers of every age with skills-based education and training, also called career and technically education (CTE), to prepare them for good-paying, in-demand jobs that do not require a four-year degree.

I was especially grateful for the opportunity to host the First Lady and cabinet secretaries on this visit because strengthening career-training pathways, including career and technical education, has been one of my foremost priorities since entering Congress. In my first term, I authored and shepherded into law the bipartisan Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which expanded and reformed our nation’s career and technical education system for the first time in more than a dozen years. But we still need to do more to build on that progress. That’s why, earlier this year, I joined some of my colleagues in introducing the Gateway to Careers Act which would establish a grant initiative supporting new programs for community college and CTE students. While a four-year college isn’t for everyone, a high-quality post-secondary education needs to be, and that’s why I’m so committed to strengthening and expanding CTE, apprenticeships, and skills training to ensure that every American, regardless of whether they go to college, can build a rewarding career and a middle-class life.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi with, from left, First Lady Jill Biden, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at Rolling Meadows High School.

My Investigation Into Organ Procurement Organizations

Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) are the entities in our health care system responsible for overseeing the transfer of organs from donors to recipients - ensuring that when organs are given, they get to the people who need them to survive. Unfortunately, a range of government and independent studies have found that OPOs are failing in this responsibility. While roughly 100,000 Americans are waiting for potentially life-saving transplants, and between 17 and 20 die waiting for an organ each day, OPOs are performing below federal standards, paying their executives exorbitant salaries, and engaging in a range of questionable financial activities unrelated to their mission of saving lives. That’s why, as Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, I launched an investigation into the OPO system in 2020, demanding answers on failures, corruption, and waste while leading a bipartisan hearing to hold OPO executives accountable.

Last week, I began a new phase in my investigation, partnering with Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) in writing to 11 of the largest OPOs in the country requesting information related to their data collection process that could begin to address the inaccuracies or gaps within the data that they previously submitted to my subcommittee. Our investigation has already found that not only are OPOs not recovering enough organs, but also that the data these groups use to locate necessary organs may not even be accurate or complete. Data we received from OPOs in May of 2021 showed a disconnect during the three steps used by organ transplant groups— referral, approach, and authorization— that often leads to potentially large numbers of usable organs going to waste. The problems my subcommittee found in reviewing the data the OPOs previously submitted largely echoed those that were identified by a past United States Digital Service (USDS) study, which found major record-keeping and data use issues in the entities, potentially leaving healthy, needed organs unused. You can read my letters to the OPOs here. I also sat down with CBS This Morning recently to discuss the findings of my Subcommittee report. You can watch the news story in full by clicking the image below.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi speaks to CBS News on his Subcommittee’s investigation into organ transplant systems (Click the image above to watch the full report).

Stay Updated Through My Social Media Accounts

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.

Warm Regards,

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.