Comment: U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen looks back at eventful, busy 2025

By Rick Larsen / For The Herald

As your member of Congress, my job is to listen to your perspectives and experiences and lead legislation and advocacy in Washington, D.C., that improves our communities here in Northwest Washington.

Looking back on 2025, I hosted five town halls with more than 83,000 people attending, watching and listening in total. I had 313 meetings and events in Northwest Washington state and 315 meetings and events in Washington, D.C. I received more than 310,000 messages (2.1 times as many as I received in 2024) and responded to 103,000 of them (2.4 times as many as 2024).

In 2025, my team helped 304 people navigate the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the immigration system and other federal agencies, returning $13.9 million to the people we helped. If you are working with a federal agency and are not receiving an answer in a timely fashion, our office may be able to assist you in resolving the problem or getting more information. You can contact my office here: larsen.house.gov/contact.

In the past year, I led and co-led legislation on a wide variety of issues:

Ensuring health care is affordable and accessible:

I supported legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits and keep insurance premiums affordable for working families.

I am leading legislation to reverse burdensome paperwork requirements instituted in Republicans’ “Big Ugly Law” that will result in thousands of Washingtonians losing access to health care.

I am co-leading legislation to protect seniors from new red tape the Trump administration is implementing in traditional Medicare by repealing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model.

If the Republican health care crisis is affecting you, please let me know by filling out this survey.

Lowering costs:

I co-led resolutions to end the Trump administration’s abuse of tariff and emergency powers.

I voted against the “Big Ugly Law,” which drives up health care costs by slashing Medicaid and taking health care away from more than 22,000 people I represent.

I secured millions of dollars in funding for local job-creating infrastructure projects.

Fighting for veterans:

I held roundtables with local veterans in Everett, Bellingham, Burlington, Oak Harbor and Lummi Nation, and published a report about local veterans’ most pressing challenges and policies to address them.

I introduced legislation to help veterans access transportation to health care facilities.

I introduced legislation to help veterans access fertility treatments and start families.

Improving transportation and infrastructure:

I secured the release of millions of dollars in funding for local transportation projects that the federal Department of Transportation had held up.

I introduced bipartisan legislation to provide the most robust legislative reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and federal disaster assistance programs in decades, which the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has passed.

I introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that, during any future government shutdowns, air traffic controllers and other essential air space safety employees will continue to get paid.

Protecting immigrants in our communities:

I exercised my congressional oversight authority and toured the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Tacoma and met with Lelo Juarez, a union leader held there since March.

I helped secure the release of the Merlos family, who had been detained without access to an attorney in Ferndale.

I, along with my Democratic colleagues from Washington in Congress, am holding ICE accountable to providing humane conditions at the Tacoma facility.

My office is here to serve you and your perspective matters to me. If you are having a problem with a federal agency, or you want to tell me about an issue that is important to you, you can contact my office here at larsen.house.gov/contact.

U.S. Rep, Rick Larsen, D-Wash., represents Washington’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Everett and part of Snohomish County, as well as all of Whatcom, Skagit, Island and San Juan counties.