Versión del boletín en español aqui.
Dear John,
There will be a theme for this newsletter…see if you can find it!
One of the best parts of my job is traveling around our community and talking with our neighbors. I am grateful that August is a time for Members of Congress to be in their districts and even though this time is called “August Recess,” for most members, it’s not a vacation. It is a chance to bring the federal government home to our constituents and to listen to how the federal government can help them best. I have been busy meeting with business owners, local leaders, and community members across Chester and Berks Counties and I want to share what I’ve been up to and what I have learned from them. |
Watch a short recap here! |
On July 30, I hosted my 100th Town Hall. Since I took office in 2019, I have been committed to hosting as many town halls as possible, because providing transparency and accountability for our community about the federal government is my highest priority. I am grateful to everyone who came to the Kennett Library for our 100th Town Hall. It is a privilege to represent a community that is so committed to and engaged in our democracy. I was thrilled to welcome the CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, who joined me in a rich discussion about the Constitution and I am thankful for all of the thoughtful questions from those who attended. You can watch the full recording here. |
Seeing Federal Dollars at Work
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I’ve been proud to advocate for communities and projects across our community, supporting their efforts to receive federal funding for much-needed services and facilities. I had the opportunity to tour a few of these sites and see firsthand how this money is being used. |
Restoring Health Care in Southern Chester County
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Since the closure of the Jennersville Hospital in late 2021, residents of Southern Chester County have been in an emergency health care desert. For years, families in that part of our community have lived in fear of a child falling off a swing, a parent suffering a stroke or any other number of things that would have required a nearly 45-minute-long ambulance ride to Chester County Hospital. This anxiety-filled wait for help was incredibly taxing not only on our neighbors, but also for the limited emergency care providers like Southern Chester County Emergency Medical Services (SCCEMS). Thanks to federal funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act, which I was proud to vote for, two new emergency medical facilities have opened up and our neighbors can finally take a sigh of relief.
Federal American Rescue Plan Act funding helped SCCEMS build a permanent, state of the art facility designed to provide advanced, emergency room quality life support and paramedic services. The lack of emergency rooms in the area created overcrowding at the next closest hospitals, and long drive times without the ability to always provide life-saving interventions led to unfavorable outcomes. This new facility will relieve a lot of that pressure and allow SCCEMS to provide immediate, lifesaving care for patients in Southern Chester County. |
SCCEMS will also work closely with the second new facility, ChristianaCare’s new West Grove Campus, which has replaced Jennersville Hospital. This new community micro-hospital also received federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, and I was able to attend their official ribbon cutting ceremony. The opening of these two facilities will immeasurably improve our community and make sure that our neighbors will be better cared for. |
I was honored to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the revitalization of Ash Park in Coatesville. This beloved park is such a staple of our community, and the revitalization project will not only make it an even better gathering space, but it will also make sure that it remains that way for years to come. The project includes renovating play areas, expanding seating areas, and most importantly, updating critical stormwater infrastructure to reduce the harm caused by flooding. Our community has, unfortunately, |
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experienced significant flooding over the last several years and the strengthening of Ash Park’s stormwater infrastructure will protect the park and surrounding areas from future floods. I am incredibly proud that some of the funding to execute this project was federal money secured by my team, with the support of Senator Casey, through the Community Project Funding program. To learn more about Community Project Funding grants, you can visit my website here. |
Speaking of floods, I also joined Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (PA) and Sarah McBride (DE) for a day focused on water – making sure our communities are better prepared for water-related impacts of climate change like floods, and that they have safe water to drink. Our first stop was the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art, which is just outside of our community in Chadds Ford. Flooding caused by Hurricane Ida, which devastated parts of our community, also damaged all ten buildings at the Brandywine Conservancy campus and the museum is now in the final stages of recovery thanks to federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the time of the flood, Rep. Scanlon and I led our colleagues from Pennsylvania in calling on President Biden to approve then-Governor Wolf’s emergency disaster declaration request to allow FEMA to support recovery efforts. Thankfully, the request was approved, and Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art utilized its federal funding to strengthen the facilities’ infrastructure to be able to withstand future floods. |
From there, Representatives Scanlon, McBride, and I travelled to Wilmington, DE to visit a new water filtration plant that will serve more than 100,000 people living in our region. Veolia’s Stanton Water Treatment Plant, which opened in June, was built specifically to remove toxic forever chemicals from Red Clay Creek and White Clay Creek, which run from our community into Delaware. This facility’s commitment to meeting the highest filtration standards will make sure that everyone in our region has safe, clean drinking water. As our community’s representative in Congress, I have been proud to support several efforts, including the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), to remove forever chemicals from our drinking water. Unfortunately, President Trump has ended critical IIJA |
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federally funded projects and dismantled several environmental regulations designed to reduce forever chemicals in drinking water. I am proud that our region is setting a strong example of doing more to make sure our waterways are clean and safe, and Representatives Scanlon, McBride, and I will work together to defend and support these efforts in Congress. I have a lot more visits across our community over the next few weeks, and I look forward to continuing to share them with you. |
The Latest from Washington, D.C.
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Earlier this week, President Trump hosted a press conference and announced that he was placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police under federal control. He claimed that crime in D.C. is rampant, and that federalizing the police department in D.C. is necessary to make the city safe again. As our community’s representative in Congress, I spend significant time in D.C., and I can tell you that D.C. is a beautiful place to visit and to live. In fact, FBI and D.C. Metropolitan Police Department statistics show that overall crime in our nation’s capital is actually down 26% year to year, with homicide rates down 12%, and robbery rates down 28%. The facts show that federalizing the D.C. police department is unnecessary, and it is important to note that no D.C. leaders asked for policing support. The President’s decision was unilateral and is an obscene overreach of power. It is not, in fact, a good or proper use of our federal resources. It also sets an extremely dangerous precedent for the federal government to take over policing in other cities. The Trump Administration should be working to address crime, homelessness, mental health issues, and skyrocketing prices legally and with Congress. That is what this federal government is for. Instead, they are taking another step toward authoritarian rule of the United States. We also learned this week that the Administration is going to comb through the exhibits, artifacts, informational placards, websites and collections of the Smithsonian to align them with President Trump’s view of “American exceptionalism,” in accordance with his executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” You can read more about this here. I sincerely hope this review ordered by the federal executive branch and not authorized by Congress does not result in the further erasing of our history or facts, as other actions of the Administration since January have done. |
Here's what our neighbors are thinking about this week, based on the calls and emails we've received in our offices:
1. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 2. The firing of Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer. 3. The impact of cuts to Medicaid. |
Serving as our community’s representative in Congress is the honor and privilege of my lifetime and I hope you will reach out about the issues you care about.
As always, please contact my office if you need assistance.
P.S. The theme of this week’s newsletter: what can and should the federal government be doing for you. And what should it not be doing.
Sincerely, |
Chrissy Houlahan U.S. Member of Congress
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