Dear Friends,

I hope you are enjoying a holiday season full of comfort and joy as we come to the end of 2025. As we began the year and ushered in the second Trump Administration on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I could not help but ask the question Dr. King pondered in the final year of his life: “Where do we go from here: chaos or community?”

Within hours of the inauguration, the Administration unleashed chaos, enabled by Congressional Republicans. As a result, the American people still face rising costs of housing, groceries, child care, health care and more as Republican policies make things worse. The Administration exacerbated increasing energy prices by canceling clean energy and energy efficiency programs authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act and paused projects across the country, including the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. Millions of Americans face the prospect of losing their health insurance in 2026 as Republicans pushed through the largest Medicaid cuts in American history while refusing to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits that expire at the end of 2025. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees were forced out of their jobs, the vital services they provide decimated through workforce and funding cuts.

Through all the chaos, I focused my energy on building community. Whether it was responding to developments in the district like the Richmond water crisis, votes in the House that do nothing to address the cost of living, or celebrating wins in Virginia beyond, I shared resources and amplified the stories of those in my district. I’m thankful for all those who made their voices heard to me and my office this year and invite you to continue doing so in 2026. You can find a more thorough recap of my work in 2025 here.

We also lost two pillars of the Richmond community over the past two weeks: Rev. A. Lincoln James and William “Bill” Martin. Pastor James served as the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church of Richmond for 45 years, touching countless lives as a faith and community leader. Bill served as the Director of the Valentine Museum in Richmond for 32 years, helping uncover untold stories of Richmond’s past. Both were dear friends.

I joined 12 On Your Side to discuss the impact Bill Martin left and the legacy we must work to uphold.

Keep reading for a recap of the legislative week of 2025.

SPEAKER JOHNSON REFUSES TO ACT BEFORE HEALTH CARE COSTS SKYROCKET FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS 

For months, I have sounded the alarm about the devastation and havoc that the expiration of the ACA enhanced premium tax credits will wreak on millions of Americans. These are more than abstract numbers — they’re our friends and neighbors, people who just want to know they can afford to get the care they need when they need it without going bankrupt. These concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears.

For the fifth week in a row, I anchored the Congressional Black Caucus Special Order Hour sharing stories of people who will be affected by the tax credit expiration.

The stories keep coming. Stories like the one from Bobby Connor, a constituent in Brunswick County who paid $34 a month in 2025 for his health insurance under the ACA. In 2026, his plan was set to go to $92 a month with his enhanced premium tax credit. Now, without them, his premium will jump to over $1,700 a month.

Yet House Republican leadership continually refused to address the expiration of the ACA tax credits, even with some moderate Republicans clambering for an extension. Finally, a majority of House members signed a petition to force a floor vote on a three-year extension that would give people the much-needed relief they need to start looking and planning ahead. How did Speaker Johnson respond? He canceled the last day of votes without bringing up that bill, forcing us to go home with no guarantee that people will be able to afford their health insurance next year.

Instead, Republican leadership passed their own version of a health care bill that fails to address the tax credits and recycles failed ideas from their prior efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. Once again, Congressional Republicans showed a clear preference for permanent tax breaks for billionaires on the backs of the American people, forcing millions to make impossible choices between paying for health care or other basic necessities. I voted against the Republican health care bill and spoke against it on the House floor.

The good news is that the House must vote on the three-year extension bill when we return in January. Until then, keep the faith.

A NEW HERO REPRESENTS VIRGINIA IN STATUARY HALL

In 1864, Congress passed legislation establishing National Statuary Hall, inviting each state to donate two statues representing distinguished residents in the U.S. Capitol. In 1909, Virginia donated a bronze sculpture of Robert E. Lee. In 1934, Virginia donated a statue of George Washington, a bronze replica of the marble Jean-Antoine Houdon statue in the rotunda of the Capitol of Virginia. 

At the suggestion of former Representatives Donald McEachin and Jennifer Wexton in 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing a commission to recommend whether the Lee statute should be replaced by a more appropriate representative of the Commonwealth. On December 16, 2020, that commission unanimously recommended that the Lee statue be replaced with a statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns. Exactly 5 years later, I joined the Johns family, the Virginia delegation, and Virginia officials to unveil the new statue. 

Johns’ extraordinary story began on April 23, 1951 when the 16-year-old student of Robert Russa Moton High School led a student walk-out and strike to protest the deplorable conditions of her school in segregated Prince Edward County. Barbara’s idealism, planning and persistence ultimately inspired NAACP lawyers Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill to file a lawsuit at the federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine. This case, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, became one of five cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school segregation as unconstitutional. The Davis case was the only student-led case of the five. 

Barbara’s story has always inspired me with the power one person can have in fighting injustice and changing the world. She now serves as one only three Black women represented in Statuary Hall. 

MY BRIGHT SPOT: REP. ROBERT GARCIA CLOSED OUT THE YEAR ON MOMENTS WITH MCCLELLAN

For the final Moments With McClellan of 2025, I joined my classmate and Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia from California’s 42nd District!

We discussed our shared love for comic books (especially Superman), maintaining control over a very divisive Oversight Committee, gift-giving and more. Watch the full episode below!

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