Schneider Highlights 2021 Accomplishments

DEERFIELD, IL – Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) released his reflections reflect on the last year serving the Tenth District in Congress.

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Highlights of the year include:

• Returning $3,483,129 to constituents through his casework team (Get help with federal agencies here)
• Awarding 89 local organizations $188,312,745 in grants
• Assisting more than 2000 constituents struggling with federal agencies
• Passing the American Rescue Plan (ARP) in March and jumpstarting the strongest economic recovery in history
• Vaccinating more than 200 million Americans against the ravages of COVID
• Passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest national investment in infrastructure ever
• Cutting taxes for families, and cutting child poverty in half
• Writing and passing into law expanded leave protections for families that have lost a child

The document reflecting on the year's work can be found here.

Schneider's cover letter in its entirety follows:

To the Tenth Congressional District of Illinois:

After a long year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the work of Congress in general, and my team in particular, as we serve the Tenth District. Among Congress's key achievements this year are:

Passing the American Rescue Plan (ARP) in March and jumpstarting the strongest economic recovery in history. ARP put money in the pockets of working families, and helped struggling small businesses keep their doors open. The economy is now growing at its fastest rate in 40 years. We added 6 million jobs this year, wages are up, and unemployment claims are at their lowest level since 1969. With the rapid growth, and the challenges of the pandemic, we are also working to reign in inflation and beginning to see positive effects of our efforts. For example, gasoline prices are down 18 cents from November's peak.

Passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest national investment in infrastructure ever. This bipartisan achievement will rebuild our local roads and bridges, replace lead pipes in millions of homes, and create millions of good-paying jobs. Illinois has already received significant money from this historic piece of legislation.

Vaccinating more than 200 million Americans against the ravages of COVID. ARP funded vaccination programs in Lake and Cook counties and across the state. At this time last year, less than 1% of Americans were fully vaccinated. Today, 61% of all Americans are fully vaccinated, which is especially important as we navigate the new Omicron variant.

Cutting taxes for families, and cutting child poverty in half. Thanks to the Child Tax Credit expansion in the American Rescue Plan, we put more money every month in parents pockets and cut child poverty in half nationwide. In the Tenth District alone, more than 124,000 children and their families benefitted from these monthly payments.

Build Back Better Agenda: The House-Passed Build Back Better Act contains many bold, transformative initiatives, including the largest ever investment in taking on climate change, providing preschool for all American children, expanding access to health care for millions of Americans and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. And all of this is responsibly paid for. There remains much work to get the bill through the Senate, and much is also likely to therefore change. But I remain committed to pursuing every possible option for delivering these needed investments to our communities.

In addition to these major nationwide accomplishments, in the pages that follow, I've assembled a list of many of the items I and my team have worked on this year. I remain focused and addressing the priorities and needs of the Tenth District, while continuing to seek opportunities to reach across the aisle and build bipartisan consensus. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the bills I introduced this year had Republican support. And it's why I was excited to help create the bipartisan SALT Caucus committed to bringing relief to the working families adversely affected by the cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes

I am enormously proud of what we have achieved so far. But I also know we still have much more work ahead, including bolstering our already strained health care system to beat back the latest COVID wave, accelerating our national and global response to a rapidly warming climate, and investing in our children's future to ensure the United States is always prepared to lead on the global stage. We also have to finally act on immigration reform and strengthen both Social Security and Medicare. And of course, we need to protect and preserve the very foundation upon which our democracy stands—ensuring every citizen can confidently and safely cast their vote and know that their vote is accurately counted.

On these matters, and so many more, I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and continuing the work in the new year.

Wishing you a healthy and happy 2022,

Brad Schneider

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