In the News
FRESNO, California (KGPE) — The US Postmaster announced the United States Postal Service will suspend operational changes until after the November election.
The decision came down shortly after valley congressmen held a press conference downtown to support the Delivering for America Act. The legislation would give $25 billion to the USPs and not allow for changes until after the pandemic.
"We need it," said Valley Resident Annette Simon. "We count on it. We need it."
Blaming President Donald Trump for attempting to manipulate the election by slowing the postal service, two Valley congressmen vowed to fight for the mail.
Standing in front of the post office in downtown Fresno, TJ Cox and Jim Costa, both Fresno Democrats, said they are returning to Washington later this week to support a party plan to fund the post office and prevent further reductions of service.
Costa said that cuts to the postal service puts "Americans health and safety at risk."
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Standing outside the Downtown Fresno Post Office, Congressmen Jim Costa and TJ Cox said the post office serves a vital role in America and should not be cut, especially in the middle of a pandemic.
"Nearly 100 percent of veterans' prescriptions arrive through the mail," he said. "So a delay in those prescriptions is a delay in health care. And I'm not going to put our veteran's health at risk, right? For a political ploy by this administration."
WASHINGTON – The National Park Service is pleased to announce more than $3.1 million in Japanese American Confinement Sites grants that will fund preservation, restoration and education projects throughout the country. The 22 projects funded will help tell the stories of the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor by the nation of Japan in 1941.
A series of coronavirus outbreaks in meat packing plants have lead workers and lawmakers to call for improved working conditions.
Last week, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, shut down a pork processing plant in South Dakota that accounts for up to 5 percent of production after more than 500 of its workers were infected and one died from COVID-19.
"With this legislation, I'm trying to make a commitment at the federal level that we're gonna put our shoulder to it and we're gonna lean forward," said Costa.
Costa considers it essential the federal government makes the same commitment, referring to President Donald Trump.
Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) today introduced a federal bill, H.R. 5805, that would reauthorize a program to invest in high-speed rail projects throughout the country. The High-Speed Rail Corridor Development Act of 2020 would authorize $32 billion in federal funds for projects in federally designated high-speed rail corridors.
The half-century-long push to open a public medical school in the San Joaquin Valley gained additional steam Wednesday.
Reps. Jim Costa (D–Fresno) announced a new bill, the Expanding Medical Education Act of 2020, to help finance the construction of medical schools.
The bill prioritizes regions with a population of more than 1,000,000 that do not have a medical school in operation. It would provide up to $10 million in matching grant funds to a prospective medical school.
Costa announced the bill alongside Rep. TJ Cox (D–Fresno) and Asm. Adam Gray (D–Merced).
The House of Representatives will soon vote on two articles of impeachment. Based on the facts I've learned over the last two months — and after carefully listening to constituents who both strongly support and oppose the president — I will vote for both articles.
This saddens me. It's not why I ran for Congress, or why I serve today.
I know my decision will disappoint President Trump's supporters in the Valley, many of whom I consider friends.
Congressman Jim Costa has hit out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over his failure to impose stricter gun control laws following a shooting in his California constituency of Fresno which left four people dead.
McConnell is once again receiving backlash in the wake of another mass shooting in the country after he blocked a Senate vote passed by the House in February which would require full background checks on all people trying to purchase a firearm.
Nearly every member of the House Democratic Caucus signed onto a letter demanding an independent investigation into two fatal shootings carried out in the span of a week by officers at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We are calling for immediate independent investigations into both of these deaths, without interference,” the lawmakers wrote, referring to the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Guerrero in Maine.