Congress Needs to Do Its Job

Friends,

If you have a job, each and every day you're expected to get up and go to work. Congress should be held to the same standard.

I take this to heart and have come to work every day to fight for our community. In fact, just last week I helped introduce several bills to support veterans and first responders.

For our veterans and their families, I helped sponsor the Ensuring Survivors Benefits During COVID Act to ensure that families are able to access benefits from a disabled veteran who passes away during the pandemic. Currently, if a veteran who has a service-connected disability passes away from that condition, the family is awarded additional benefits as the cause of death is listed as service-connected. However, disabled veterans who pass away from coronavirus may have their cause of death listed as COVID-19, even if their service-related disabilities complicated their coronavirus diagnosis. This bill ensures those disabilities are taken into account so that veterans and their families get all the support they deserve.

To support first responders, I also introduced a bill last week to allow volunteer firefighters and EMS workers to access local and state retirement plans. I meet regularly with firefighters and last week met with the Cumberland County Fire Chief's Association to hear directly from them about retirement and other issues. Their feedback is why I introduced this bill because like law enforcement and municipal firefighters, these first responders put their lives on the line to protect us and should be supported.

Working on legislation like this is part of my commitment to you as Fort Bragg's Congressman to never stop fighting for you, our veterans and our community.

Unfortunately, while I have focused on continually putting forward solutions to solve problems, Nancy Pelosi and Washington Democrats have not been interested in showing up for work or doing what the American people need. For months, I have sought to work with my colleagues to pass common sense relief measures that we all agree on. This includes extending the Paycheck Protection Program. This critical program provided 4.9 million loans to save 51 million jobs in our country, including 1.2 million jobs in North Carolina. This program has $138 billion in unspent funds, but Speaker Pelosi has refused to come to the table and pass a bill that can become law to extend the program.

Yet, while Speaker Pelosi has refused to do work to pass more relief measures, last week she instead introduced a new bill to allow for the removal of a duly elected President of the United States through the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution. Not only is this bill a dangerous precedent, it is the last thing Congress should be focused on at this time. This is extremely frustrating, especially for workers and small businesses in our state and country still reeling from the pandemic. This is a time for all of us to work together to solve problems, not focus on radical bills to further divide our country.

While many in Congress refuse to do their job or remain focused on scheming how to remove the president, I will continue working every day for you. It's an honor to be your Congressman and as long as I represent you, I will keep working across the aisle to get things done.

Until next week,

Richard Hudson

Member of Congress