SENATE UPDATE: What We’re Fighting For 

Over the last several months, much of my work has focused on pushing back against the abuses, corruption, and lawlessness of the Trump Administration. 

Every day brings new challenges, from attacks on our democratic institutions and constitutional rights to rising costs that continue to squeeze working families. At the same time, events around the world remind us that decisions made in Washington have profound consequences both for Americans at home and many abroad. 

That is certainly true of the illegal war with Iran. 

Since the beginning of this conflict, I have opposed President Trump's unauthorized war of choice and pushed for Congress to reclaim its constitutional role in decisions about the use of military force. Recently, I went to the Senate floor to support another War Powers Resolution aimed at preventing further escalation and helping move us away from a wider regional war. 

This conflict has left the United States worse off than before it began. Fourteen American servicemembers have lost their lives, thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and families here at home have paid the price through higher costs and economic uncertainty. 

As I've said repeatedly, when you're in a hole, stop digging. 

While we face these daily challenges both at home and abroad head-on, I've also been focused on another question: what comes next? 

While it is important to continue fighting back against Trump's abuses of power and reckless actions, it is equally important that we continue advancing ideas that address the challenges Americans face every day. People want to know not only what we're against, but what we're for. 

At its core, the challenge facing our country today is not just Donald Trump's lawlessness. It is that too many Americans rightly feel like the economy is rigged against them – and in favor of billionaires and special interests.

Families are working harder than ever, but struggling to keep up with the cost of housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries, and electric bills. Meanwhile, some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals continue to benefit from rules that allow them to accumulate more wealth and power while everyone else treads water or falls further behind. 

We need to change that. We need to take on powerful special interests, lower costs for working families, and build an economy that rewards work over wealth.

That is the lens through which I'm approaching much of my work in the Senate. Here are a few of the fights I'm leading to move our country forward.

A Tax Relief Plan that Puts Money Back in Working Americans' Pockets, Paid for with a Surtax on Millionaires

Across the country, millions of Americans are working hard every day for their paychecks but are still struggling to make ends meet. Families are being squeezed by rising costs – from groceries and housing to health care and childcare – and too many people simply do not have enough income to cover those basic expenses. 
 
I understand that challenge, and I have a plan to do something about it. 
 
It’s called the Working Americans Tax Cut Act, legislation designed to help working people keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. The idea behind the proposal is straightforward: Americans who are earning just enough to cover their basic living expenses should not have to pay federal income tax, and workers who make just above the median cost of living should be able to keep more of the money they earn. To pay for this plan, my bill implements a millionaire surtax – requiring those making more than a million dollars annually to pay a surtax on the amount of their income over a million dollars. 
 
If your paycheck amounts to a living wage, you should be able to live off it – not have it taxed away. Twenty Senators have joined me to cosponsor this effort. 
 
Under this plan, over 130 million Americans would receive tax relief: 

• A single worker earning $50,000 per year would typically keep about $2,500 more of their income. 
• A typical family earning $95,000 per year would keep about $6,000 more of their paychecks to help cover household expenses. 

This proposal addresses one side of the affordability challenge that many Americans are facing today. While we must continue working to lower costs, we also need to make sure families have enough income to meet those costs. 
 
Unlike the Trump-Republican tax law – which directed nearly 75% of its benefits to those in the top 20% of incomes and almost 50% to the wealthiest 5% – our proposal focuses tax relief on those who need it. Virtually every dollar of tax relief under this plan goes to the other 80% of working Americans and middle-class families. And unlike Trump's tax law, which exploded the national debt while rewarding those at the top, this legislation is fully paid for by ensuring that the wealthiest Americans contribute more towards our shared prosperity. 

Ensuring Big Corporations, Not Consumers, Pay the Bills for Data Centers

Across Maryland and throughout the country, some of the richest corporations on the planet are rapidly building massive data centers that consume extraordinary amounts of electricity. Increasingly, these power-hungry facilities are driving up the electric bills of families living in the same region. 

Although they are not the only factor causing electricity prices to rise, these new data centers are creating higher energy demand and new infrastructure needs, the costs of which are ultimately getting passed on to you – the consumer. Indeed, in just a few years, consumers in our region have had to pay for about $28 billion in additional costs due to data centers – including $21 billion in capacity costs and $7 billion in transmission costs. By 2028, the average household in the mid-Atlantic grid region (PJM) – the nation’s largest electric grid serving 67 million Americans in 13 states, including Maryland – is projected to see their energy bills increase by $840 per year due to the increase in capacity costs alone. That does not include the added charges to consumers of higher transmission costs. 

That's why I introduced the Power for the People Act. My legislation would require data center developers – not working families – to pay for the infrastructure and energy costs their projects create. It would also help protect grid reliability, encourage cleaner energy development, and support good-paying, union jobs. 

This is about fairness, protecting consumers, and keeping utility bills from climbing even higher, because Americans should not be forced to underwrite corporate profits. I’m working to stop that from happening and keep utility costs affordable for Maryland families.

Addressing Climate Change and Making Polluters Pay

We’re at a turning point in our fight against climate change. We’re seeing rising sea levels, record temperatures, and extreme weather events. In Maryland, coastal communities along the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore are facing increasingly frequent tidal flooding. In Western Maryland, communities swung from extreme drought to devastating flash floods. 

For decades, some of the largest fossil fuel companies have known about their role in driving climate change while shifting the costs onto taxpayers, communities, and future generations. Direct subsidies to the fossil fuel sector are estimated to cost American taxpayers $29.4 billion annually, while the health consequences of rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change cost Americans more than $820 billion each year in medical bills. 

Families pay the price through rising health care costs, more frequent and severe natural disasters, damage to homes and infrastructure, and the growing costs associated with climate change. Meanwhile, the companies most responsible continue to generate enormous profits. 

That needs to change. That's why I introduced the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act. 

My legislation would require the largest fossil fuel companies – those responsible for the greatest share of carbon pollution – to contribute to a $1 trillion fund dedicated to addressing the costs of climate change. The fee only applies to the heavy hitters: fossil fuel companies responsible for at least 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions between 2000 and 2022. 

The resources from this fund would go towards helping communities prepare for and recover from climate disasters, strengthen critical infrastructure, support the hardest-hit communities, and create good-paying jobs. 

This initiative would be a big step forward in our efforts to tackle some of the worst damage from the climate crisis, because the biggest polluters should pay to help clean up the mess they caused – and those who polluted the most should pay the most, not working families.

Moving Toward Medicare for All

We also need to confront the reality that our health care system is failing far too many Americans. 

Families continue to face rising premiums, higher deductibles, increasing out-of-pocket costs, and barriers to accessing the care that they need. Despite spending more on health care than our peers, we continue to achieve worse health outcomes. 

Devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP by the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” and their failure to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits at the beginning of this year have only made these challenges worse for Maryland families. Hundreds of thousands of Marylanders will be kicked off their health insurance or be priced out entirely because of these Trump cuts, and health care costs are increasing for everyone. At some point, we need to stop tinkering around the edges of a system that is fundamentally broken. 

I have long supported universal health care. A single-payer system would reduce administrative waste, lower overall costs, and ensure that health care dollars are directed toward patients rather than excessive bureaucracy, corporate interests, and profiteering middlemen. 

Health care should not depend on your income, your employer, or your ZIP code. Every Marylander, and every American, deserves access to quality, affordable health care – and that is why I support Medicare for All.

Expanding Access to Affordable Housing

Last month, the House and Senate took an important step forward in tackling our nation’s housing challenges, from increasing the supply of homes to improving access to affordable housing options. Trump may say that tackling housing costs is a “big yawn,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We have a housing crisis in this country as working Americans too often face costs they simply cannot afford. That’s why I supported the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which will help expand housing affordability for both renters and buyers through new programs and critical reforms. But Donald Trump refused to sign this bill – which ultimately became law last week after his inaction – once again showing where his misguided priorities lie. 

Within this legislation, I worked to ensure we’re better upholding our duty to support our veterans – securing the inclusion of two bipartisan bills I authored that will help more veterans and their families secure affordable home loans. 

This package is an important first step, but there is much more to do, and I will continue to fight for affordable housing for Marylanders and for the American people.

Thank You

The immediate task before us is clear: we must continue pushing back against the abuses, corruption, and lawlessness of the Trump Administration. But opposition alone is not enough. Marylanders, and all Americans, deserve to know what we are fighting for. We must let our fellow Americans know what we will do if we are given the chance. The initiatives outlined above are among the many measures I am pursuing, which also include more support for public education and badly overdue and desperately needed campaign finance reform. 

The bottom line is that we should be fighting for an economy where work is rewarded more than wealth and a country where the doors of opportunity are open to all. We should be fighting to lower costs for working families, not cut taxes for billionaires. We should be fighting to ensure that polluters pay for the damage they cause, that powerful corporations cannot shift their costs onto consumers, and that every American has access to affordable health care. 

The challenges ahead are significant, and powerful interests will oppose many of these ideas. But throughout our history, progress has come when Americans organized, spoke out, and demanded a government that works for them rather than for the wealthy and well-connected. I see many of you doing just that across Maryland, and I remain committed to being your partner in this fight. 

As always, thank you for staying engaged in this work. 

Onwards, 
Chris Van Hollen 

To see more on my daily efforts to fight back against the Trump Administration, follow me on: YouTube, Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and X.

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