This
year
has
been
a
whirlwind.
Much
of
my
first
year
in
the
Senate
has
focused
on
protecting
and
expanding
important
federal
investments
in
Maryland,
fighting
to
stop
the
total
repeal
of
the
Affordable
Care
Act,
and
raising
the
alarm
about
a
tax
plan
that
will
hurt
millions
of
middle
class
families
and
saddle
every
American
with
the
costs
of
an
even
bigger
national
debt.
I’ve
also
introduced
legislation
on
a
wide
variety
of
issues
important
to
Maryland
and
our
country
to
increase
funding
for
Chesapeake
Bay
clean-up
efforts,
to
ensure
that
middle-class
workers
not
just
CEOs
see
bigger
paychecks,
and
bipartisan
legislation
to
strengthen
sanctions
on
North
Korea
with
the
goal
of
denuclearizing
the
Korean
Peninsula.
But
my
work
in
the
Senate
is
about
more
than
legislating
it’s
about
helping
individual
Maryland
families.
This
year
alone,
I
have
responded
to
over
315,402
of
your
letters
and
calls,
and
my
office
has
helped
over
4,000
Marylanders
navigate
the
federal
bureaucracy,
including
working
on
behalf
of
veterans,
Social
Security
recipients,
and
others
to
obtain
the
support
they
earned
or
the
help
they
needed.
We
also
conducted
workshops
to
help
families
with
financial
planning,
and
we
succeeded
in
helping
consumers
who
had
been
unfairly
treated.
This
work
doesn’t
often
make
headlines,
but
it
is
vitally
important.
While
this
has
been
a
tumultuous
year,
I
have
been
heartened
by
the
tremendous
rise
of
citizens'
grassroots
participation
in
our
political
process.
I
am
reminded
of
the
saying
"it
is
better
to
light
a
candle
than
to
curse
the
darkness."
I
am
grateful
to
have
the
opportunity
to
serve
as
your
Senator,
and
I
look
forward
to
working
together
in
the
year
to
come.
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