By U.S. Senator
Tammy Baldwin
U.S. Senator
Tammy Baldwin
Across this city, I meet Milwaukeeans who are working hard to not only make ends meet but to also tie our communities closer together and build a stronger city.
You can see the fruits of these efforts in every neighborhood. Near my office on North Ave., I met some young Milwaukeeans who were spending a weekend day on a city-wide clean-up. They were young, but they were determined to make their city a cleaner, safer place. In the south side, I met a father who is empowering other families to move and up and out of poverty, showing that when we care for our neighbors, all of Milwaukee benefits.
We all know someone in Milwaukee who is doing great things, and we need to make sure they have the community support they need to continue moving Milwaukee forward—but it just can’t be left up to them.
Flat-out, Washington needs to start working for Milwaukee. We need Congress to start being a better partner and step-up by supporting efforts that will help Milwaukee families across this city.
I’ve been pushing Washington to do just that by standing up to powerful special interests who keep on getting their way and fighting for commonsense reforms that will make an impact right here in Milwaukee.
We can create good-paying jobs and closing the skills gap faced by Wisconsin workers. At the WRTP-BIG STEP job training center in Milwaukee. I announced landmark workforce development legislation that would scale up Wisconsin’s apprenticeship programs and provide more people with the skills they need to land good-paying jobs. And working with Community Advocates on Wisconsin Ave., I authored the Stronger Way Act—a bold effort to fight poverty and combat unemployment. Learning from success stories in Milwaukee, my bill would create new partnerships to support local transitional jobs programs and raise working families’ incomes by helping them keep more of what they earn.
We need to make health care affordable for all Milwaukeeans. When I was nine, I came down with a serious illness and was labeled as a child with a “pre-existing condition.” My grandparents who raised me couldn’t find me any insurance, at any price. I took those lessons to heart and worked with President Obama to make sure the Affordable Care Act allowed kids to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they are 26 years old and guaranteed no one is denied care because of a pre-existing condition like diabetes, cancer or asthma.
We must confront the addiction crisis in Milwaukee. Earlier this year, I met with a young woman in Sherman Park to hear what it was like to grow-up as her father struggled with addiction, alcoholism and homelessness. I was incredibly moved and told her she was not alone in this fight. My mother struggled with mental illness, physical illness, and addiction to prescription drugs. It’s up to all of us to confront the stigma around addiction and mental illness and bring greater support to local treatment, prevention, and recovery efforts. This week, the Senate is working on a bipartisan bill to invest in our fight against addiction, and I’ll continue to move this effort forward.
And Washington needs to get real on what it means to reform our criminal justice system. Working across party lines, I’ve helped introduce the bipartisan Fair Chance Act. This bill would “ban the box” to help formerly incarcerated people secure steady jobs, support their families, and strengthen our communities. For far too many Milwaukee families, this is the difference between a cycle of poverty and rebuilding lives to strengthen our city.
These are just a few of the ways to help people who are already working hard to build a better Milwaukee, but powerful special interests are standing in the way each and every time. It’s going to take all of us coming together to achieve real progress, so I urge you to stand with me and every single person in Milwaukee who is working to make a difference. Sign-up to join our campaign at tammybaldwin.com/take-action and make sure that Washington starts working for Milwaukee.
