March 21, 2026

Dear Friends,

Three weeks after Donald Trump’s reckless decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iran, the costs of his foolish misadventure are already piling up. Thirteen U.S. servicemembers have been killed in action in the Middle East, with at least 200 more wounded. More than 1,300 Iranians — including at least 175 children in a single attack on a girls’ school — have lost their lives in U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, in addition to hundreds more noncombatants killed in Lebanon, Israel, and elsewhere in the region. And after weeks of fighting, billions of taxpayer dollars spent, and untold death and destruction unleashed, our military forces are no closer to achieving a single concrete objective.

Trump’s war in Iran isn’t just costing the lives of our soldiers and countless innocent civilians. It’s also costing American taxpayers at least $891 million per day — adding insult to injury for American families still struggling to make ends meet amid the affordability crisis. After Republicans spent months claiming our nation simply couldn’t afford to provide health care and food assistance benefits for the millions of Americans cut off by their “Big, Ugly Bill,” they have stood by silently as Trump shovels tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into the bottomless pit of another endless war in the Middle East.

With the money already spent on this senseless war, Republicans could have funded a wide range of initiatives that would have actually brought benefits to the American people, including:

• Providing Medicaid coverage for more than 2.3 million people for a full year
• Offering a year of free Pre-K for more than 1.4 million children
• Building over 73,000 affordable housing units
• Feeding more than 2.5 million families through SNAP for a year
• Funding the entire U.S. pediatric cancer research budget for 74 years

But instead of shifting funding to any of these worthy programs, Republicans are now laying the groundwork to fulfill the Pentagon’s request for another $200 billion in taxpayer funds to continue this conflict with no end in sight. Let me be clear: I will vote no on any additional funding for this war that never should have been started in the first place, and I’ll call on my colleagues to join me in that position.

Another consequence of Trump’s reckless war has been an uncontrollable surge in gasoline and home energy prices. Even before the conflict, this administration’s disastrous energy policies were already leading to higher costs for families across the nation — with the average New York family spending nearly $200 more on home energy bills in 2025 than in 2024. Now, with Trump’s war causing massive disruptions to energy production and shipping, prices have soared even higher. This week, the average national gas price in the U.S. rose to $3.84 a gallon — up more than 30% from just a month ago — and home energy costs have skyrocketed at a similar rate. Americans need action to drive these costs down and make life more affordable, and I’m working to deliver just that.

We have the tools to power our nation with abundant, reliable, American-made clean energy. But for too long, U.S. energy policy has been geared toward boosting the profits of energy producers at the expense of energy consumers. This week, I joined more than 100 of my Democratic colleagues to introduce the Energy Bills Relief Act — new legislation that takes a family- and consumer-focused approach to ensure Americans have access to the cheapest, most dependable sources of energy on the market. Among other provisions, this bill would:

• Reinstate tax credits for home and system-wide energy improvements that were ended by Trump and his administration
• Incentivize utility companies to lower bills by making their systems more efficient
• Ensure that facilities like data centers are paying their own energy costs — not passing them on to taxpayers
• Provide financial assistance to families to make sure their power isn’t shut off
• Crack down on price gouging, so energy companies can’t take advantage of consumers to boost their profits

I urge my colleagues to join me in advancing this legislation and delivering a new energy policy that puts American families first.

When Donald Trump took office, he promised to cut energy costs in half and keep our nation out of foreign wars. It took him less than 15 months to break both of those pledges — with catastrophic consequences for our nation and for the entire globe. But amid all these lies and broken promises, I will always keep my promise to fight for your family and for an America we can all afford.

As always, thank you for reading.

Your friend,

DID YOU KNOW?

My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations from governments and agencies. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:

• On Tuesday, April 7^th, RCAP Solutions is hosting a free workshop in Schenectady for operators of small municipal water systems.
  • RCAP is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide this training for operators of systems located in municipalities with populations of less than 10,000 people that also serve less than 10,000 people.
• This hands-on event will help train water operators in the skills needed to conduct a water loss audit to identify and manage system leaks and other water losses.
• Water system personnel from management and finance are encouraged to attend the workshop so their systems can ultimately address water losses collaboratively.
• The workshop will be held from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM on Tuesday, April 7^th at the Rotterdam Elks Lodge, located at 1152 Curry Road, Schenectady, NY 12306.
• This event is free to attend, but online registration is required.
  • To RSVP for the workshop, click HERE or visit https://tinyurl.com/waterlossNY