Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Editor’s note: As he traditionally does around this time every year, Brian Greenspun is turning over his Where I Stand column to others. Today’s guest is Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who before winning election to the Senate in 2018 was the U.S. representative for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District from 2017 to 2019.
For the past few years, Nevadans have faced inflation and rising costs, forcing many hardworking families to make tough decisions as high prices strain their budgets.
Families have had to consider having a parent stay home to care for their children, losing out on a second income, simply because they can’t afford child care costs. Seniors have had to ration life-saving medication or skip taking them altogether due to the incredibly high cost of prescription drugs. And many Nevadans have experienced the high costs of everyday items like rent, gas, groceries and much more.
No Nevadan should face the impossible choice of which essential they can live without. That’s why I’ve been working in Congress — with both Republicans and Democrats — to find commonsense solutions to lower costs, create good-paying jobs, and improve the lives of Nevadans.
A recent report labeled our state as a “child care desert,” highlighting the high cost of child care as a “huge concern” and finding it to often be more expensive than college tuition. That’s unacceptable, and it’s hurting families. I’m working in a bipartisan way to lower child care costs and give families more affordable options. My bipartisan Small Business Child Care Investment Act recently passed out of committee in the Senate and is one step closer to becoming law. This bill will give nonprofit child care providers — like churches, YMCAs, and Boys and Girls Clubs — access to federal resources that are currently out of their reach. In turn, this will help expand the number of available child care providers in communities across Nevada and lower costs in the process.
In traveling across Nevada, I’ve also heard from many seniors about the high cost of prescription drugs. Regina Milner, a Las Vegas patient advocate who testified during a field hearing I chaired last year on the Inflation Reduction Act, says she takes over 20 medications, including insulin, to manage her illnesses. She shared her story about how she sometimes couldn’t take necessary medications because of how expensive they were.
The good news is that Nevada seniors like Regina can now get their lifesaving prescription drugs at a lower price. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, we capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. And, we were able to ensure that Medicare can finally negotiate for lower prices. This is saving seniors’ hard-earned dollars and making sure they can afford life-saving medications.
This legislation is also pushing private companies to lower medication costs for all Nevadans. In the last year, some private companies have followed Medicare’s lead and announced they were also capping the costs of insulin, providing much-needed relief to Nevadans without Medicare.
This also builds on the work we have taken in Congress to stop surprise medical billing. No Nevadan should face the burden of unexpected medical bills when they should be focused on getting healthy after receiving emergency medical care. During my time in the Senate, I helped pass a law to protect hardworking Nevadans against these surprise medical bills and increase transparency in the health care system.
Another concern I hear over and over again from Nevadans is the lack of available, affordable housing. Nevada’s communities are facing a crisis caused by the demand for housing outpacing the available homes and apartments, which is leading to skyrocketing prices. Lowering housing costs for Nevada’s families starts by expanding affordable housing options across the state, and that starts by increasing the land available to develop for more housing projects. That’s why I’m working with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and our Nevada delegation to make more land in our state available for housing and economic development, while also preserving more public lands.
Lowering costs is one important step to providing relief for Nevada families, but it’s not the only one. With inflation and rising interest rates, our middle class families have been getting squeezed for far too long and it’s time we give them more breathing room and peace of mind. That’s why we need to lower Nevadans expenses by cutting taxes for the middle class.And I’m working with my colleagues to do so by reenacting or expanding several key tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, and increasing the amount of money families get to keep.
While we work to cut costs for Nevada families, we also need to make sure they have more opportunities for good-paying jobs. Because of legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re seeing businesses all over the country reinvest in America’s workforce. Earlier this month, I visited Unimacts, a company here in Las Vegas that manufactures materials for solar panels. Thanks to our historic new climate law, the company has invested in Nevada — bringing clean energy manufacturing jobs from countries like China and Mexico to the United States. And they’re not the only ones. The legislation we’ve passed has empowered more companies to invest in our domestic workforce and bring good-paying jobs back to America.
Middle class families have faced difficult challenges because of rising prices. And while recent data seems to show that inflation is starting to cool off, I know that we still have more work to do to lower costs. Each and every day I will continue working across the aisle and finding common sense ways to make life easier for hardworking Nevadans.
