| Lehigh Valley residents continue to call out Congressman Ryan Mackenzie for voting to make deep cuts to health care and food assistance.
LehighValleyNews.com reports that community members gathered at the United Steelworkers Union Hall on Bethlehem’s North Side last night to talk about how Mackenzie is hurting the community and failing to deliver on his campaign promise to tackle the affordability crisis.
Read key excerpts below:
LehighValleyNews.com: School leaders, advocates contemplate ‘affordability crisis,’ rue funding cuts at Bethlehem event
By Jason Addy | 01/28/26
- Many families across the Lehigh Valley are struggling to make their rent and mortgage payments and making hard decisions about how to spend their money — leading to more “unstable” households, East Penn School Board President Shonta Ford said.
- During the panel session, Aimee Saunders, an advocate with Red Wine & Blue, repeatedly highlighted Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s votes to cut SNAP and Medicaid.
- Mackenzie last May cast an essential vote for the Republican Party’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” to fund President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
- The funding package pushes about 3 million people off SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, and cuts almost $1 trillion in funding to Medicaid over 10 years.
- Emily Gehman, vice president of the Southern Lehigh School Board, said funding cuts forced by Republicans’ funding package have pushed more families into stressful financial situations that “affect a child’s ability to focus in school.”
- Kids “need to be in an emotional state where they’re ready to learn,” Gehman said. “Once you feel safe and fed and healthy, then we can start to talk about multiplication.”
- Zarah Quinn, an advocate with Affordable Pennsylvania, said Tuesday’s event was meant to highlight an “affordability crisis” and show attendees “what happens when our elected officials fail to represent us.”
- “We deserve elected leaders who will fight to make life affordable for us and not give tax breaks to billionaires and hand out billions of dollars to masked agents terrorizing our communities,” Quinn said.
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