Legislative Recap: What You Might Have Missed
Committee Activity
House Judiciary Committee — Oversight of the Bankruptcy Code, Part 1: Confronting Abuses of the Chapter 11 System
America’s bankruptcy code is broken — far too often the system works well for folks at the top but doesn’t provide adequate support to those most in need.
Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code is no exception to this rule. Through tricky corporate restructuring and a notable lack of regulation, we’ve seen debtors skirt their financial responsibility to their creditors and even seek to prevent their creditors from seeking other forms of relief.
Looking at how we can reform Chapter 11 to prevent this type of corporate abuse is essential to ensuring the victims of corporate malfeasance, sexual abuse, and other crimes are able to seek and be awarded an adequate financial award.
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security — A Fine Scheme: How Court-Imposed Fees and Fines Unjustly Burden Vulnerable Communities
Court-imposed fines and fees can land people in an endless cycle of debt, in which those who cannot afford to pay costs immediately face harmful consequences like the suspension of government-issued IDs, like driver’s licenses. It makes it harder for Americans to go to work to pay off their debts and places an unnecessary burden on law enforcement, essentially forcing police to act as debt collectors rather than expending resources elsewhere.
To correct this failed policy, I introduced the Driving for Opportunity Act. This legislation would further incentivize states to correct the failed policy of suspending driver's licenses for unrelated offenses by repealing the federal mandate to suspend driver’s licenses for certain non-driving-related offenses and authorizing targeted grants to states that repeal laws suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines and fees.
House Admin Committee — Election Subversion: A Growing Threat To Electoral Integrity
Election subversion and voter suppression go hand in hand. Both pose serious threats to our democracy. It was great to speak to experts about how Congress can act to protect election integrity and election officials.
Other Legislative Activity
Joined President Biden at the White House while he signed a bill I helped lead to increase funding for crime victims into law
I was so honored — and excited — to be invited to the White House for the bill signing, along with bipartisan members of the House and Senate who led the bill and hard-working victim advocacy groups.
Read about this exciting day here:
Check out our press release on the bill:
Here is what else you might have missed
Hosted a roundtable with local economic development leaders
A strong economy and having good-paying jobs available for our residents is the foundation for everything else we want to see happen in our communities. I am always eager to hear from local economic development leaders about how we can build towards economic success.
Welcomed my colleagues to the Philly Shipyard
It was a great honor to welcome my colleagues from the House of Representatives to PA-05 last week to experience our storied shipyard and learn more about the program being run here to build National Security Multi-Mission Vessels for the United States Maritime Administration.
