The Suburban Caucus: Working for families in suburban America

When we first restarted the Suburban Caucus four years ago, suburban communities were already on the rise. Young families were looking for a better quality of life. There was no way of knowing how much more important these communities would become as our nation dealt with an unprecedented pandemic just two years later. As our homes became our refuge from the uncertainty of the world and for many a workspace as well, more and more people left the cities in search of a suburban lifestyle with space to grow and more confidence their children will be safe in their front yards.   

But now suburban America is under attack. Inflation is at its highest level in 40 years, and skyrocketing prices are wreaking financial havoc on hard working American families. The price of groceries, gas, prescriptions, and childcare make every day living a struggle for many Americans. School systems across the country have been in the news for their inability to reopen, burdensome mask mandates and questionable curriculum. Law enforcement officials are vilified, and no justice comes to criminals who openly smash and grab from small businesses. The murder rate is at a 25-year high, and for the first time, we lost 100,000 Americans to overdoses in just one year. All these things threaten our way of life and the future for the next generation.

Instead of tackling these important issues, Democrats would rather focus on overhauling the entire election system and taking that power out of the hands of the states and into the unwieldy hands of the federal government. They won’t even address the horrific state of our border, with millions of illegal immigrants flooding across, and many bringing with them fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. Instead of taking a targeted approach, congressional Democrats have voted to spend $4.7 trillion of your taxpayer dollars to appease liberal interest groups. The result is grocery bills that get higher with each trip and $5 gallons of gas that sap your paychecks every day.

As members of Congress who represent suburban communities, we advocate for common-sense policies that positively impact the quality of life while limiting government overreach and excessive spending. Our constituents want what Americans have wanted for decades: good opportunities for their children, accessible and affordable health care, financial security, and stable and safe communities. 

We have introduced legislation that does just that. Our platform gives parents the flexibility to save more money for childcare and incentivizes educators to keep children in school. We promote bills that seek to lower the cost of prescription drugs, including insulin, encourage long term care insurance, and extend telehealth services that became a lifeline over the past two years. We endorse bills that allow Americans to keep more of their paychecks and keep the government from recklessly spending taxpayer dollars that leads to runaway inflation. And finally, we support bills that address the opioid crisis and improve policing practices while supporting those who put their lives on the line every day.

The Suburban Caucus and our members are dedicated to making these proposals a reality and advocating for commonsense solutions to everyday problems that face our families and our loved ones. We are committed to doing the hands-on work that needs to be done to discover problems, find working solutions, and help ease your way of life, especially during this incredibly difficult time in our nation.

Ann Wagner represents Missouri’s 2nd District and is the chair of the Suburban Caucus, French Hill represents Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jackie Walorski represents Indiana’s 2nd District, Rob Wittman represents Virginia 1st District, Mariannette Miller-Meeks represents Iowa’s 2nd District.