Jahana Hayes represents Connecticut’s 5th District in the United States House of Representatives. The district spans northwest and central Connecticut and includes Danbury, Litchfield County, the Farmington Valley, the Naugatuck Valley, Meriden, and her hometown of Waterbury. She serves on committees of Education and Labor, and Agriculture where she is the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations.
As member of the House Committee on Agriculture, Congresswoman Hayes has pushed to ensure Connecticut’s dairies, greenhouses, and family farms have equitable access to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs and funding. She introduced the Helping America’s Farmers Act, which would provide economic relief to farmers in times of crisis directly from USDA. She has staunchly supported the inclusion of key USDA conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, in Build Back Better and the upcoming Farm Bill. She is a key voice on a committee that disproportionately represents large corporate farms.
The Build Back Better Act helps families raising children; those seeking better educational and employment opportunities; lowers prescription costs, expands affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare; provides paid family leave and addresses climate change. The bill would lower the cost of college and childcare, invest in child nutrition programs to fight against child hunger, expands broadband capacity and affordability for our rural neighbors, help older Americans and individuals with disabilities with home-based care, replace energy inefficient heavy-duty vehicles on the road, and advances improvements in veteran health care facilities. Congresswoman Hayes helped draft legislative provisions, such as the language which would replace heavy duty diesel school buses with zero emission vehicles and ensure high-quality childcare is a universal benefit for all Connecticut families.
Congresswoman Hayes has prioritized making sure racial disparities in health and nutrition spheres are adequately addressed especially for underrepresented or underprivileged families. As the country sees unprecedented attacks on access to voting, the Congresswoman is committed to ensuring all Americans have access to the ballot.
Congresswoman Hayes has supported a multitude of education bills and proposals that would make our classrooms safer and more equitable for students of all backgrounds, and has fought for significant increases to federal education funding to reverse the decades of chronic disinvestment in public education. The Congresswoman has introduced bills that would invest in supports for educators, increasing recruitment and retention to keep teachers in the classroom and diversifying the workforce to meet the unique needs of our communities. She continues to work to improve the quality of higher education, tackle student loan debt, advance educational equity, meet the demand for skilled workers, help public servants, and lower the cost of college.
The Congresswoman has been a strong proponent of commonsense gun laws that keeps our communities safe. She is the Deputy Whip on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. She has supported legislation for universal background checks, community violence prevention funding, and safe storage.
Congresswoman Hayes has centered her work around reducing systemic barriers to healthcare that cause disparities, while increasing access and affordability. She has consistently fought for increased research dollars. In addition, the Congresswoman has fought to lower drug prices and stabilize the Affordable Care Act. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congresswoman Hayes supported legislation that would expand insurance and provide emergency coverage to the millions of individuals who lost coverage.
Congresswoman Hayes has supported legislation that would ban surprise billing for patients, lower drug prices and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid. She is also a supporter of legislation that would increase mental health supports, combat the opioid epidemic, and increase suicide prevention
Congresswoman Hayes has worked to combat homelessness and bolster safe, affordable housing options. In addition to supporting critical appropriations funding each fiscal year, Congresswoman Hayes has advocated for the expansion of protections for renters, landlords and homeowners though the pandemic. She also supports the Build Back Better Act, which represents the single largest investment in affordable housing in our nation’s history. This legislation would help 294,000 households afford rent, upgrade over 1.8 million affordable housing units, and expand programs for several first-time homebuyers.
Congresswoman Hayes was active in the negotiations of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and has consistently championed investments in public school infrastructure, which lead to nearly $550 billion in funds eligible for school infrastructure improvements in COVID-19 response packages. Connecticut received $3.5 billion for federal highway programs, $561 million for bridge replacement, $1.3 billion for public transportation, $53 million for electric vehicle chargers and infrastructure, $100 million to improve broadband coverage, $445 million for water infrastructure and $62 million for airports through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan.
Congresswoman Hayes is a stalwart supporter of the protection of collective bargaining rights. She has supported the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and championed key labor issues like pay equity, workforce development. Throughout the pandemic, she advocated for premium pay for essential workers and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protections for those on the frontlines. She co-led the National Apprenticeship Act, which would create one million high wage apprenticeship opportunities throughout the country and has been a consistent advocate for the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would ensure workers are protected from discrimination on the basis of gender or pregnancy status. The Congresswoman has consistently supported the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would guarantee 12 weeks of paid leave for all Americans, and urged its inclusion in COVID relief and the Build Back Better Act.
Congresswoman Hayes has worked to address mental health among veterans, the quality of care at U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, and military sexual trauma. The Congresswoman has passed legislation to increase VA benefits for Gold Star families, Palomares veterans, and veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits.
As Chair of the Nutrition and Oversight Subcommittee, Congresswoman Hayes has drawn attention to hunger among service members and veterans.
As Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, Congresswoman Hayes is a leader on ending hunger. She has convened hearings on the effectiveness of the SNAP program during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of veteran and military hunger, benefit cliffs, and nutrition distribution programs like The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Throughout the pandemic, she has been a leading advocate for increased SNAP benefits, the expansion of Pandemic-EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer), increased funds and resources to food banks, and streamlined administrative processes to ensure every American who needs nutrition assistance can get it as easily as possible. She urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to move forward with their review of the Thrifty Food Plan, which resulted in a permanent 27% increase to SNAP benefits. She has also introduced the Student Food Security Act, which would eliminate barriers to nutrition assistance for the lowest income college students.
She has introduced 10 bills in the nutrition space, 4 of which are bipartisan. Her legislation would expand automatic eligibility for school meals, streamline access to the WIC program, make the Summer-EBT program permanent and national, and create a $100 million program to promote scratch cooked meals in public schools.
Congresswoman Hayes supported robust funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG). Within these programs, she supported specific set asides for underrepresented business owners, such as women and communities of color. Congresswoman Hayes has supported increased apprenticeship and workforce development funding under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. To tackle increasing input costs caused by supply chain issues, she supported the pilot program to train young people for Commercial Driver’s Licenses included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and voted for the Ocean Shipping Reform Act which would require ocean carriers to adhere to minimum service standards that meet the public interest. Congresswoman Hayes has worked to ensure small family businesses – those that make up the hearts of Connecticut’s communities - have the resources they need to succeed.
Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (CT-05) releases a statement on the inclusion of $9.65M to support 10 Community Project Funding (CPF) requests from CT05 in the upcoming FY2022 appropriations bills. Members were limited to no more than 10 Community Project Funding requests across all subcommittees and there was no guarantee that any requested projects would be funded, however, all 10 projects submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations by Congresswoman Hayes have been included.