Dear Community Member,

People in California’s 19th Congressional District want healthcare that is affordable and accessible, not masked federal officers lurking in parking lots of big box stores or in our streets targeting, harassing, and, as we witnessed recently, harming community members and American citizens. This Administration’s priorities are backwards because it is more focused on funding the Departments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) than lowering costs for healthcare.   

Clearly, this Administration’s deportation policy is going well beyond targeting felons and gang members. Instead, ICE and CPB officers, many who appear to be recently recruited, rushed through training in 47 days, poorly trained, and unprofessional, are injected into communities without body cameras, which is leading to violent and deadly confrontations. That is why I continue to call for an independent investigation into the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis for transparency and accountability, the removal of Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary Noem, and impeachment proceedings based on the Congressional investigations in the House Committees on Homeland Security and Judiciary. 

In the meantime, people must be aware that the current funding for the Administration’s deportation policy and operations of ICE and CBP already is being provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). That legislation was passed on a purely partisan basis by the Republican majorities in the House and Senate and signed into law by the President in July of last year. That law currently is allocating over $165 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which oversees ICE and CBP training and operations, including $75 billon specifically for ICE. 

Yet, the OBBBA also provided the largest cut in history to Medicaid and failed to reauthorize the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs) for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Because of the OBBBA, it is estimated that over 20 million people will have their healthcare costs increase, around four million will lose healthcare insurance, and in our 19th Congressional District, costs of healthcare will go up for over 30,000 people. The ePTCs for people subscribing to the ACA cost approximately $25-35 billion per year. That means that the $75 billion increase to the ICE budget could pay for almost three years of lower healthcare costs.  

Despite the current funding already allocated for ICE per the OBBBA, Congress recently passed, and I voted for, a bipartisan bill to fund three years of the ePTCs for the ACA. However, the Senate has yet to take up this bill and the Administration is not doing anything to shore up our healthcare system.

I also support the Healthcare Reinvestment Act, which would rescind the $75 billion of funding currently being provided to ICE under the OBBBA. That bill would redirect those taxpayer dollars away from ICE and to the ePTCs for the ACA so that we can do something to extend those tax credits and lower healthcare for millions of Americans. Despite the Administration’s and the House and Senate majorities’ insistence on funding for DHS and resistance to reducing prices for healthcare, we will continue to fight to constrain ICE and ensure that your tax dollars go toward keeping our healthcare costs low.     

I continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to address skyrocketing health insurance premiums for American families. A bipartisan group of 35 House members, including myself, recently introduced a bipartisan framework that called CommonGround 2025. This bill would include a two-year extension of the ePTCs for the ACA with targeted modifications, guardrails to prevent fraud and abuse, an extension of open enrollment, reform of the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) system, and my legislation, the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act, to update Medicare payments for inflation so more people can have access to local doctors. More work must be done to prevent people from losing healthcare in the short-term, and bipartisan work in the long-term to reduces costs of healthcare.

Follow me on facebook, x, or bluesky to keep updated on our work to hold the Administration accountable and increase affordable and accessible healthcare for working families. I look forward to working together in our continued fight for the values and service to the people of California’s 19th Congressional District.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Panetta
United States Representative
19th Congressional District, California