When the pandemic hit us in 2020, tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs and almost every small business in the country shut its doors. Had Congress not done something big and fast, those jobs and businesses would not have come back. Fortunately, we acted. Today, unemployment in America is lower than it has been in decades, and our main street businesses are thriving again. My team and I helped hundreds of small businesses in our district secure PPP loans to get back on their feet, and in the American Rescue Plan, I secured direct federal aid to our municipalities so they could keep our police, fire, and other services going without raising property taxes.

Now, having saved all those jobs, we have to protect the paychecks that go with them. Because consumer spending recovered faster than the supply chains for the goods we buy, inflation is hurting everyone. Our decision to ban Russian oil — which Democrats and Republicans were united in supporting— has increased the price of gas and food. Getting those costs down is my top priority.

Gas prices require the most immediate action. I have supported a temporary tax on big oil companies’ windfall profits to fund rebates to the American people, and using the Defense Production Act to force refineries back to pre-pandemic production. Oil companies are demanding we give them new public lands that won’t produce energy for years; I want them to use — or lose — the leases they are currently sitting on. I’ve also urged getting much tougher on countries like Saudi Arabia to increase oil production; if they won’t do it, we should withdraw the troops that protect their oil fields.

Read my oped on finding solutions to addressing high gas prices: here. 

A big lesson of the pandemic is that we can no longer be so dependent on supply chains that start in countries like China, which are hostile to the United States. So I helped write a bipartisan bill that will bring manufacturing of critical technologies like microchips, batteries, solar panels, and drug ingredients back home to our country. It’s time to make it in America again.

In 2021, we kept our promise in Congress to lower health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act. I’m working just as hard to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with the drug companies. I also opted for legislation to cap the outrageously high cost families pay for child care, so that parents can give their young children the quality care they deserve while getting back in the workforce.