No surprise here, John: We’ve known for months before the beginning of the 118th Congress that the House Republican majority would try to move extreme bills forward from the start.

Without missing a beat, they unveiled a rules package this week that obstructs and undermines critical legislation that supports working families across the country. It’s designed to paralyze Congress so that it cannot deliver for the American people.

The GOP House’s first slate of bills include those that would:

• Roll back the $80 billion Internal Revenue Service funding from Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act allocation, cutting the 87,000 jobs it would create over the next 10 years. In effect, the GOP is attempting to hamstring the very agency that keeps mega corporations and dark money special interests — from which many politicians take money and answer to over the American people — in check.


• Permanently ban public funds from going to organizations that provide critical reproductive health care services, another swipe at ending abortion rights. This is a dangerous first step in their ultimate goal to criminalize women seeking the reproductive health care services they need.


• Implement an immigration policy that gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to suspend the entry of immigrants into America. This racist, xenophobic legislation flies in the face of our moral values — it would undo years of immigration progress and severely impact families who come to our country seeking a better life.

We don’t have to remind you that the House Republican conference is extreme in every way. This rules package stems from Kevin McCarthy’s caving to far-right demands in order to secure barely enough votes to gain the Speakership.

As Co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, Lauren plans to counter the disinformation from the committees in the GOP’s rules package and take steps in the House to help blunt the harsh impact of these bills. 

Lauren is focused on ensuring House Democrats are unified, working together, and communicating directly with the American people about Democrats’ priorities that address the needs of working families and deliver meaningful results for the communities in IL-14 and nationwide.

It’s crucial that the Democratic Senate majority continues to stay united to block whatever extreme bills House Republicans can move forward. It’s just as important that our team remains prepared to counter the GOP’s extremism at every turn. That’s why we’re asking:

John, will you chip in $3 (for the three bills listed above), $7 (for the 7 bills in the GOP’s rules package) or more to help us build up the resources we’ll need to fight back against the GOP’s obstructionist, far-right policies? Your support goes a long way to making sure we can protect our rights and deliver results for the American people.

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

Thank you,

— Team Underwood