District Round-up 02.15.26
Dear Neighbor,
Thank you for reading my District Round-up. As your candidate for Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District, it is my honor and pleasure to deliver to you where I’ve been and what issues I’ve tackled in the past week. Criss-crossing the counties of Adams, Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Cumberland, and Somerset gives me great opportunities to meet with voters, hear what is on your hearts and minds, and the chance to voice my fight for Everyday Americans. If you would like to contribute to my campaign, please donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/beth-farnham-for-congress-1
Petition season is upon us! If you would like to sign or circulate petitions for Democratic candidates so we can appear on the ballots in Pennsylvania, please reach out to your local Democratic committee. The more signatures for candidates beyond our required totals (mine is 1000), the better! If you don’t know your county committee, please visit this website to find them. https://www.padems.org/county-parties/
Many thanks to all who came out on Saturday to the Love Your Neighbor demonstration hosted by Hanover for Progress.
It was a great event of learning more about the candidates and standing up for our neighbors instead of punching them for their heritage at a fraternal club like two Hanoverians did a few weeks ago.
Together, we #ChooseDemocracy and neighborly love!
On February 11th, John Joyce voted, along with the majority of Republicans, for the SAVE Act which passed the US House of Representatives.
This wildly painful, awfully stupid, and deeply un-American legislation basically disenfranchises married women who took their husband’s last name and do not have a passport to prove their citizenship as required to register. Whether these women are registering due to a change of address, name change, change of political party or because they were unjustly removed from voter rolls, the fact is, the SAVE Act will bar them because their names do not match those on their birth certificates which does count as proof of citizenship for those who haven’t changed their names since birth, i.e. men.
Except in 5 states of which Pennsylvania is not one, Real ID will not satisfy the proof of citizenship, only a current passport or certain military ID, nor will a marriage certificate which supplies the chain of reason for the name change be permitted in conjunction with a birth certificate and driver’s license, as far as I know. Since passports cost $130, plus more if one is also posing with minor children, this will effectively be a poll tax on women, especially those in rural areas struggling in this economy. Additionally, Republican-controlled states cannot be trusted not to kick off women and other minorities from the voter rolls unjustly causing their need for re-registration in the first place.
Lastly, all of this nonsense is due to the false claim that somehow non-citizens were voting. It is, and has been, illegal for non-citizens to vote, but rural married conservative women swallowed that lie hook and sinker.
And now their ability to vote, and that of many of other people who need to register for any number of reasons and don’t have a passport, hang in the balance for the US Senate to decide. Because if you can’t register, you can’t vote. And the SAVE Act will take immediate effect if it is signed into law.
So if you care about a large swath of voters not losing the right to vote, even if many of them don’t seem to care right now, please call our terrible senators Fetterman and McCormick because they are our last hope.
And if married women lose the right to vote, the Republicans in Congress will look for a new group to disenfranchise.
Convince our Congress to #ChooseDemocracy instead.
Many thanks to volunteers Deb Martinez, Angie and Chris Somma, and Evelyn D’Elia for volunteering yesterday and taking photos at the Shippensburg Ice Fest. It was a great day for LOVE and Democracy.
And, in case you missed it, here is my take on AI Data Centers.
| Legislation | Joyce’s vote | US House Result | How Beth would have voted | Rationale for Beth’s vote |
| H J Res 72 – Relating to a national emergency by the President on February 1, 2025 | No | Passed | Yes | Agree with Rep. Bacon that Trump’s unjustified tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada “have been a ‘net negative’ for the economy and are a significant tax that American consumers, manufacturers, and farmers are paying.” and that “Article I of the Constitution places authority over taxes and tariffs with Congress for a reason, but for too long, we have handed that authority to the executive branch. It’s time for Congress to reclaim that responsibility.” |
| S 1383 – Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act | Yes | Passed | No | Suppresses the votes of married women especially whose names do not match those on their birth certificates by requiring passports as proof of citizenship instead, in the event of registration for change of address, name change, change of political party, or unjust removal from voter rolls. Cost and burden of passport is virtually poll tax with disparate impact against women. |
| HR 1531 – Pressure Regulatory Organizations To End Chinese Threats to (PROTECT) Taiwan Act | Yes | Passed | Yes | Requires Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to exclude China from the Group of Twenty; the Bank for International Settlements; the Financial Stability Board; the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; the International Association of Insurance Supervisors; and the International Organization of Securities Commissions, if China poses threat to Tawain or US interests. |
| HR 6644 – To increase the supply of housing in America, and for other purposes | Yes | Passed | Yes | Expanding available finance programs for affordable housing. Restricts veterans’ disability benefits from being considered as source of income. |
| H J Res 142 – Disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in approving the D.C. Income and Franchise Tax Conformity and Revision Temporary Amendment Act of 2025 | Yes | Passed | No | OBBBA decreased DC’s “overall stability and revenue streams of economic base” and the decoupling was allowable through Home Rule. |
| HR 4090 – Critical Mineral Dominance Act | Yes | Passed | No | Sweetheart deals to foreign mining corporations is contrary to American interests and security. Nor should we violate our protected public and tribal lands to do it. |
| HR 7148 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 | Yes | Passed | No | Because there has been no correction of masked agents of I.C.E. using lethal force for imaginary reasons, I.C.E. must be abolished. It is unconscionable that the United States keep supplying funding to masked agents of the state who murder Americans on our public streets with no accountability. This is contrary to ideals born of the American Revolution. |
| HR 3123 – Ernest Peltz Accrued Veterans Benefits Act | Yes | Passed | Yes | Living dependents of the veteran who died deserve the pension payment that was destined to him/her, yet unpaid. |
| HR 980 – Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025 | Yes | Passed | Yes | Requiring only VA Counselors had been burdensome. Agree that veterans should have ready access to educational and vocational counseling services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on campus at institutions of higher learning by any licensed professional. |
If you’re like me, you love this country as much as I do and work to make a positive difference. In the midst of this Constitutional Crisis, please consider reaching out to your local Democratic committees or Democratic candidates so that we can strengthen our Democracy instead of letting it slide into fascism.
We don’t just #ChooseDemocracy, we choose Pennsylvania, we choose The United States of America, we choose Humanity and I am deeply glad to work along side you.
Sincerely,
Beth
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