America must send a clear message that we support Israel and the Jewish people here at home and abroad. This week, the House passed three bills to support our greatest friend and ally in the Middle East. Our legislation provided emergency relief funding to the Israelis, sanctioned foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas, and condemned anti-Semitism on college campuses. I was proud to vote for all three of these critical pieces of legislation on the House floor. 

Sunday marks the end of daylight savings time (DST) for 2023, which means it's time to set your clocks back an hour. Daylight savings became federally established more than 50 years ago, and has been controversial ever since. Some states, such as Hawaii and Arizona, keep standard time all year long, opting to bypass daylight savings time altogether. 

There is a bill in the House, the Sunshine Protection Act, that would establish daylight savings time as the new, permanent standard time. I am a cosponsor of this bill, but I want to hear from you: 

Navigating the federal permitting process is often confusing, frustrating, and slow. We must cut bureaucratic red tape from this process so we can better utilize domestic energy resources, deploy rural broadband, and create more jobs in the Valley.

This week, I introduced H.R. 6011, The Right of Way Application and Transparency Accountability Act. This legislation requires federal agencies to notify applicants that their application is complete within 60 days. Notifying applicants about the status of their right-of-way application in a timely manner is a basic step that will make the permitting process more efficient and transparent.

You can read more about H.R. 6011 here.

This week, I was proud to introduce a bipartisan resolution to designate November 12, 2023, as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) Awareness Day. CJD is a rare brain disease that causes a rapid decline in a person’s cognitive health and often leads to death within only a few months after the onset of symptoms.

Raising awareness about CJD is personal for me. Longtime Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall passed away from CJD in 2018 after only a few weeks of symptoms. Mayor Hall was a beloved member of our community and a dear friend of mine. It was truly an honor to introduce this resolution to raise awareness about the disease and honor Mayor Hall’s legacy.

You can watch me speak on my resolution here

Online dating has become incredibly common over the last few years – over 55 million Americans reported using an online dating service in 2022 alone. But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that more than $1.3 billion was stolen from victims of online dating scams in just the last year. Unfortunately, our seniors are the ones who are most at risk and who report the highest number of losses in romance scams. 

That’s why this week, I reintroduced the Online Dating Safety Act. This bipartisan legislation would require dating service providers to send a fraud ban notification to users who have interacted with a person removed from the app for fraudulent activity. While no bill can stop all criminals, this is an important first step toward protecting people online from predators and scammers. This week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce also voted to move this legislation out of committee and to the House floor. I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this commonsense, bipartisan legislation forward. 

You can read more about my bill here.

This week, I had the pleasure of welcoming the Kern County Tribal Honor Flight to the United States Capitol. Being able to thank these patriots for their service in person is one of the best parts of my job, and it was an honor to welcome them to the People’s House.

While I’ve been in Washington, members of my team have been out across the Central Valley meeting with stakeholders and leaders in our community. Recently, my team attended the Bakersfield First Responder Recognition Day Ceremony. Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Valdez, who survived a gunshot to the head in the line of duty, received the First Responders Youth Appreciation Award and a recognition of his service from my office. Thank you to all our first responders across the Valley!

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