Every Month is Black History Month in #12thDistrictStrong
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Every Month is Black History Month in #12thDistrictStrong
Dear Neighbor,
Happy Black History Month! It was another week at the Capitol advocating for our neighbors and families in the 12th District on issues from infrastructure to education, I will always have your back and fight for the full services and resources our families need.
Yours in Service,
Rashida Tlaib
Member of Congress
Celebrating Black History Month in 12th District Strong
Black History Month is every single month of the year for our community. It was on our very streets that the fight for Black liberation and civil rights bent the arc of the moral universe in our nation. We bore witness to Dr. King’s first Walk to Freedom, and the transformative work of so many Black trailblazers like Mother Rosa Parks, James Boggs, Rev. C.L. Franklin, and so many others. This Black History Month, and every month, we acknowledge that Black history matters and Black lives matter.
You can watch my speech on the House floor here.
Congresswoman Tlaib Celebrating at Stevenson Elementary school.
Showing Love to Our Veterans: Valentines for Vets
This month in #12thDistrictStrong, we shared the love and appreciation for our veterans with special Valentines cards with the help of our elementary schools from across the district. Thank you to all of the schools that participated: Hillcrest Elementary, Walker-Winter Elementary, Rosedale Elementary, Inkster Preparatory Academy, Carver STEM Academy, Niji-Iro Japanese Immersion Elementary School, Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies School and Highview Elementary. We are grateful to all of our veterans for your service and our amazing students for your help in recognizing them this Valentine’s Day!
Congresswoman Tlaib Passing out Valentine's Day Cards for Veterans from Students.
Bringing the District to D.C.
Meetings with #12thDistrictStrong
Henry Ford College & Wayne County Community College
I met with Henry Ford College President, Russell Kavalhuna and Trustee Irene Watts as well as Wayne County Community College Vice Chancellor Charmaine Hines. Our shared advocacy provides the best tools and opportunities for our students. Thank you for your continued partnership in being advocates for our district.
Congresswoman Tlaib with the Vice Chancellor of Wayne County Community College.
Congresswoman Tlaib with Henry Ford College President and Trustee.
Michigan Department of Transportation in DC!
My team and I had the pleasure of welcoming MDOT Director Brad Wieferich and Michigan’s Chief Infrastructure Officer, Zach Kolodin, to DC to discuss our state’s infrastructure and transportation priorities. In honor of Transit Equity Day, we are reminded of the importance of ensuring that our communities have access to public transit and that our community can secure necessary funding through programs like the Department of Transportation’s RAISE grant to implement projects for our district. I will always continue to speak up for accessible transit for our communities and against hazardous waste being transported through our neighborhoods. Our families deserve access to clean and affordable transportation.
Passing a Farm Bill that Works for All of Us: Meeting with Ducks Unlimited
Our office met with the State Policy Chairman for Michigan Ducks Unlimited along with several of their members and students from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. We discussed the Farm Bill, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, Michigan conservation projects, and more. It is great to meet with Ducks Unlimited every year to discuss the importance of conservation for our natural environments.
At the People's House
Stop Politicians Profiting From War
I introduced the Stop Politicians Profiting from War Act to prohibit Members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from having any financial interests in any company that does business with the Department of Defense and banning them from trading defense stocks. My colleagues continue to funnel billions of American tax dollars to the very same defense contractors that many of them are invested in and taking campaign donations from. The American people deserve representatives who vote in the best interest of our country and our families, not their stock portfolios. It is shameful that some of my colleagues are profiting financially when they vote to support wars and weapons manufacturing. Members of Congress should not be able to use their positions of power to get rich from defense contractors while voting to pass more funding to bomb innocent civilians. The American people deserve better. We are sick of politicians profiting from endless wars.
You can read the full press release here.
Water is a Human Right: The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements
Too many communities – from Detroit to Redford, Flint to Benton Harbor, and across Michigan and the country – are facing lead water contamination crises. I co-led a letter to EPA urging swift action to replace all lead service lines in a decade and get the lead out of our pipes! The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements LCRI - proposed by EPA in late 2023 - is one of the most ambitious and substantive efforts taken by the Administration on health and environmental justice. Key components of the LCRI include full LSL replacement within 10 years; data collection on the location of legacy lead pipes; improved sampling in testing; and lowering the lead action level from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10ppb. These much-needed steps will protect the health of our communities, particularly low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, and provide sustainable, good-paying jobs that provide enormous benefits to our communities.
You can read the full press release here.
Opposing $17.6 Billion in Funding a War on Children
The Israeli government has already killed over 27,000 people, 11,500 of them children, in the genocide in Gaza. My colleagues attempted to send another $17.6 billion of our tax dollars with no conditions attached to Netanyahu’s extremist government to drop more bombs on innocent Palestinians. While this republican bill did not pass this week, they’re already hard at work to find new ways to funnel your tax dollars to Netanyahu. I will continue to relentlessly demand a lasting ceasefire and that our government ends its support for this horrific slaughter.
Impeachment Vote for Secretary Mayorkas
While the impeachment vote for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas did not pass this week, this MAGA Republican vote to impeach the first cabinet secretary in nearly 150 years, was another partisan political stunt. They have no real solutions. They have no interest in addressing the need for comprehensive, humane immigration reform. We should be focused on protecting Dreamers, expanding work permits, modernizing legal pathways to citizenship, reducing USCIS backlogs, reuniting families, and welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers, NOT impeaching Secretary Mayorkas or funding Trump’s border wall.
Combatants for Peace
I had the opportunity to meet with Combats for Peace, an organization of former Palestinian and Israeli combatants who organize for non-violent strategies towards ending the illegal occupation and securing peace, equality, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians. It was great to learn more about their advocacy and to hear from them about the need for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
Congresswoman Tlaib with Combatants for Peace.
Committee Meetings
Financial Services Committee: Calling Out the Risks Posed by Shadow Banks
Nonbank financial companies like American International Group (AIG) and Lehman Brothers played a large role in the 2008 financial crisis. In the ensuing economic fallout, employment fell to 51 percent for low and moderate-income households in Metro Detroit. The median home value for low and moderate-income households plummeted by 53 percent. Countless families lost their homes to foreclosure.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, another financial crisis emerged—and again, overleveraged shadow banks contributed to market volatility. The risks posed by such companies have not abated. Today, nonbanks provide 60 percent of the credit for the U.S. economy. I pressed Treasury Secretary Yellen to provide appropriate oversight of nonbank financial companies and ensure that the Financial Stability Oversight Council is taking into account the potential risks these firms present to our communities.
Committee on Oversight and Accountability Business Meeting
This week the Oversight Committee held a markup where we debated and voted on several bills. They included one bipartisan bill to improve voting by mail and another that would improve federal agencies ability to deliver services to the public, both of which I voted in favor of. I also voted in support of H.R. 6283 – the Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act, a bill that takes decisive steps to rein in an abusive industry of middlemen known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PMBs), who are partly responsible for the high cost of prescription drugs and are actively working with big corporate pharmacies to run family-owned, local pharmacies out of business.
Legislation Working for YOU!
One of the key ways we advance good policy for our district is by cosponsoring bills and cosigning letters. Here’s an update on a few of the bills and letters we have supported recently:
Legislation Cosponsored
● The Abortion Care Capacity Enhancement and Support Services (ACCESS) Act: Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, obstacles to access abortion services have grown increasingly more common as clinics have stopped offering abortion services or have closed their doors altogether. In the first 100 days after Roe was overturned, over 60 clinics in 15 states stopped providing abortion services. Additionally, roughly half of U.S. states now have laws that restrict or ban abortion services. The ACCESS Act would carry out a grant program to increase capacity to provide abortion services and other sexual and reproductive care.
● The Baby Food Safety Act: This bill authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to set limits for toxic elements via “Administrative Order.” Additionally, the bill requires the FDA to propose and finalize rules for lead, inorganic arsenic, cadmium, and mercury within a legally binding timeframe.
● The Freedom to Move Act: This bill introduced by Rep. Velazquez (NY) would invest $70 billion in the Public Housing Capital Fund, which would help fund overdue repairs to maintain and upgrade our public housing stock.
● The Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act: This bill would permanently ban domestic horse slaughter and the export of American horses abroad for that purpose. According to a 2021 national poll, an overwhelming 83% of American voters oppose the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and for good reasons. The horse slaughter industry incentivizes horse theft, predatory behavior, and fraud. In one recent case, a vet student took more than 50 horses to slaughter after telling their owners she would provide the animals with a good permanent home. Horse owners should not have to live in fear that their trusted equine partners may be one bad sale away from the slaughterhouse.
Congressional Letters
● Supporting Guidance to Lower Drug Prices: This letter asks the Biden Administration to strengthen, finalize, and implement the draft interagency guidance to the Bayh-Dole Act which is critical to reducing the costs of drug prices for families and American families.
● Concerns for 2024-2025 FASFA and SSN: This letter to the Department of Education expressing the deep concerns about the rollout of the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This letter specifically urges ED to expeditiously resolve the current issue facing students whose parents do not have a Social Security Number (SSN). As a result of changes to the FAFSA application, tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others with legal status – who are eligible for financial aid regardless of their parent’s legal status – are unable to submit their forms.
