ICYMI: On Pulse of NH, Pappas Continues Push to Lower Costs for Granite State Families
MANCHESTER, NH — In case you missed it, Congressman Chris Pappas joined the Pulse of New Hampshire’s Morning Information Center with Mike Pomp to discuss how the affordability crisis, proposed federal funding cuts, and conflict abroad are hurting Granite Staters’ budgets. As costs continue to skyrocket under reckless tariffs, senseless war, and corporate greed, Chris Pappas is focusing on delivering relief for New Hampshire families — a commitment he will take to the U.S. Senate.
Listen to the full interview here and read key quotes from Congressman Pappas below:
“…This was a war of choice, and it’s a war that the President shouldn’t have launched in the first place. He did it without leveling with the American people, without making the case for why this was important for our national security interests. I believe that this action has made our country less safe and has caused great damage to our own economy and the economy of our allies all around the world.”
“We need Congress to step up to the plate. I’m going to support a war powers resolution this week that makes it clear that it’s the American people, through their elected representatives, that should be making decisions about when we go to war. And I think this action hasn’t helped our own national security, it’s raising costs for folks right here in New Hampshire, we see gas around $4 a gallon home heating oil that has gone through the roof this winter. That’s not helpful at a time where everyone’s living through a cost of living crisis.”
New Hampshire’s Child Care Crisis and Efforts to Lower Costs
“The Rochester Child Care Center receives support from the city of Rochester, from the school district, and they do incredible programming, both after school programming as well as in their child care center. They have nearly 100 employees, and the message was clear — they can’t turn around and charge families more to be able to open more spots and serve more families, because people are already paying far too much for child care. They also need to invest in the workforce and are struggling to pay people the kind of living wages and good benefits that the folks who are well prepared to do this work need. So it’s a real struggle to keep child care operations moving forward.”
“This is an important issue in terms of building out the workforce. We need to be lowering costs for families, and I do think we need some federal support for child care centers to be able to expand, to pay their workers what they’re owed, and to make sure we’re supporting families along the way.”
Republican Threats to End the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
“[LIHEAP] helps people who are struggling, who are working hard, but are having trouble paying their energy bill, and it provides assistance for folks — especially during those winter months — who are seeing high electric costs, high home heating costs, to be able to keep the lights on and keep their energy on. What we don’t want to have happen is for people to be unsafe, to be going through the winter where they might not have heat, they might not be able to provide the right environment for their young kids. So this program has been in place for decades. It’s a lifeline for tens of thousands of families in New Hampshire.”
“I visited with the folks in Dover at Strafford County CAP, who administer this program locally, and they know the difference that it makes. It just makes no sense to me that the President would propose to nearly double the budget for the Department of Defense, taking it up to nearly $1.5 trillion while gutting a program that provides thousands of families with really basic support that I think we all want to make sure that everyone has across our state.”
“So we’re fighting on a bipartisan basis to defend this program. I’ve led efforts to call on the appropriators in Congress to fully fund our commitment to LIHEAP, and that’s important not just for energy bills. There’s also a weatherization component of it too — it helps families be able to weatherize their homes and become more energy efficient, so that they’re ultimately using less energy. So really smart from an economic standpoint, and something that we’ve got to continue to make sure there’s bipartisan support for in Congress.”
Legislation to Ban AI Price Gouging
“The way technology is developing, and the way AI is being used by big corporations, it’s being used in a way that is making people pay more in certain settings for the same product… We want to make sure that there’s fair pricing across the board, that no Americans are being gouged by big corporations that are seeking to use technology and our own data against us.”
“We need some important guardrails established in Congress to make sure that we’re ultimately ensuring that the American consumer isn’t paying the price here. So this looks just to re-establish some fairness to go after a scheme that I think is predatory in nature, and to make sure that we’re doing everything possible to keep costs low, whether that’s addressing the tariffs that are raising prices in the grocery aisles and making sure that we’re putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking New Hampshire families.”
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