IMPORTANT UPDATES from CONGRESSMAN SMUCKER

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I want to share with you updates from Washington, important vaccine information, my thoughts on the partisan COVID-19 stimulus. It is critical we remain vigilant against COVID-19 and continue to practice CDC guidelines. You can always visit the dedicated coronavirus page on my website for additional information.

As we continue to battle COVID-19 and start to vaccinate more Americans, I want to once again thank our brave frontline workers. Their commitment to keeping our nation safe has not stopped.

I enjoy hearing from you and responding to questions from your emails, phone calls, and letters. If you would like to share your concerns or opinions with me, or if you have questions about legislation or specific votes, you can send me an email here.

COVID-19 Vaccines
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine has received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is the third approved vaccine in our arsenal to combat COVID-19. 

Operation Warp Speed, the combined public-private effort, was a miracle of modern science. We should be reminding ourselves that we went from not even knowing a thing about COVID-19 to mass-producing effective vaccines within the span of a year. For more information on how to get vaccinated, York and Lancaster Counties have websites to help you find a vaccination site and to check eligibility.

Economic Impact Payments
If you qualified for and still have not received the additional $600 in direct payments, the IRS’s website has answers to commonly asked questions related to this stimulus. If you did not receive the full economic impact payment, you may be able to utilize the Recovery Rebate Credit when filing your 2020 taxes. With the deadline for filing taxes quickly approaching, there are tools for free tax filing assistance sites for people that need it utilizing the VITA locator tool. If the VITA tool is not available for you, the IRS has the Free File program to help you file your taxes.

Pennsylvanians Deserve Answers 
Residents of senior living facilities, their families, and all Americans deserve answers. I joined my Pennsylvania GOP Congressional colleagues in asking Pennsylvania Attorney General Shapiro what he is doing to ensure the public has been provided accurate data about the tragedies caused by Gov. Wolf’s and former Sec. Levine’s malfeasance.

This week during a House Budget Committee hearing, I joined Rep. Chris Jacobs (NY-27) in holding Governors Andrew Cuomo and Tom Wolf accountable. Just like New York, Pennsylvania officials took measures that were in direct contradiction with existing federal guidance. Gov. Wolf, Shapiro, and Sec. Levine must be held accountable; Pennsylvania deserves transparency. View my full comments below. 

Partisan Wish List
In the early morning when most Americans were asleep Speaker Pelosi pushed H.R. 1319 through the House. This $1,900,000,000,000 ($1.9 trillion) legislation is not a stimulus plan, and it is not “COVID-19 relief.” It is a highly partisan wish list, rather than a targeted and temporary approach to help get individuals back to work, children back in classrooms, and crush COVID-19. Both parties came together five times to support ongoing aid to families, small businesses, and our healthcare heroes, but now Speaker Pelosi and congressional Democrats are choosing a push aside their Republican colleagues.

They have lost sight of the priorities that we can all agree on and the relief that needs to be provided. Along with the 1.4 million job-killing minimum wage hike and $86 billion private pension bailout shows the American people that this bill is not about defeating COVID-19.

This legislation sends money to places that it does not need to go. Ways and Means Committee Republicans released an analysis that nearly one-third of the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund provided to state and local governments to combat the pandemic remains unspent. This bill also sends stimulus checks to individuals who never experienced job loss or financial impacts during the pandemic. In fact, Ways and Means Committee Democrats blocked my amendment to incentivize the hiring of long-term unemployed individuals. At the same time, this underlying legislation may pay individuals more to be unemployed than they would earn while working.

On Friday, during a House Rules Committee hearing on the $1.9 trillion package I asked questions of my Democrat colleagues: Where are the jobs? Why does only nine percent of $1.9 trillion goes to public health programs to fight COVID? Watch my comments below.

After using soaring language to call for unity in his speech at the inauguration, President Biden’s calls for unity ring hollow. Their “go-it-alone” approach, which advances their partisan wish list, is simply wrong and does not serve the American people well.

Congress could do much better than this bloated, greedy, and hyper-partisan $1.9 trillion spending wish list. I voted no. View my full statement on my website.

Congressional Art Competition 
Each year the U.S. House of Representatives hosts the Congressional Art Competition. High school students within a member’s district can submit a piece of artwork, the district’s winning piece gets proudly put on display in the U.S. Capitol. To learn more visit my website.

American Space Innovation
This week NASA landed the newest Mars rover, Perseverance on the red planet. Learn more about Perseverance, the mission, and photos from Mars on NASA’s website. 

Here to Help
If you have any questions or issues with a federal agency, please know that my office is here to assist you. You can call our district or Washington, DC offices for assistance or visit my website for any issue with a federal agency or department.

To stay up-to-date on my work in the district and Washington, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also check out my YouTube page where there are 100+ videos, many of which are direct responses to your questions.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Smucker
Member of Congress