Jan's Plans & Pans - August 28, 2022

Ahead of Labor Day, I was thrilled to welcome Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to Chicago to tout the Biden administration's efforts to help hardworking labor workers and retirees get the pension funds they deserve. The American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law last year, created a Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program to avert the immediate multiemployer pension crisis threatening the retirement security of workers, retirees, and their families. The program protects failing pension plans that were either already insolvent or projected to run out of money this year and restores prior benefit cuts so that retirees are made whole.

This past week, I also visited the Rogers Park Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) location where I spoke with providers about the influx of patients in the months following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Before Roe was overturned, PPIL scheduled abortions for around 100 out-of-state patients each month. In the first week after the ruling, the number of abortion patients scheduled from other states increased to around 800 patients. This month, PPIL saw more out-of-state abortion patients than ever before with nearly 30% of those abortion patients traveling from another state.

This month, I have hosted multiple events highlighting the importance of Social Security and Medicare. Social Security is not an entitlement but an earned benefit. There are 125,179 Social Security recipients in the 9th Congressional District who rely on this crucial program. Republicans are not even trying to hide it anymore; they want to cut Social Security and rob you of your hard-earned money. I am fighting to protect Social Security and expand it to help even more Americans.