Getting Results for New Hampshire

As a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Hassan passed into law critical bipartisan legislation to improve benefits for service members and veterans, strengthen VA services, and expand veterans’ access to health care, including mental health care. Senator Hassan worked with Republicans to pass comprehensive legislation, which is now law, to expand VA health care to more veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service, and previously led other successful bipartisan efforts to secure benefits for Vietnam War veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during their time in uniform. Senator Hassan has also consistently supported pay raises for US troops and fought for passage of the “Forever GI Bill” to expand educational opportunities for veterans. And she successfully pushed the Biden administration to ensure that more service members can use the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Additionally, Senator Hassan led the successful bipartisan push to return the POW/MIA Flag to atop of the White House – a priority that Granite State veterans raised with her. She continues to work with both parties on legislation to help veterans transition into the civilian workforce and to support rapid search-and-rescue efforts to help locate at-risk veterans when they go missing or are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Senator Hassan played a critical role in negotiating the bipartisan infrastructure law — securing more funding per capita for New Hampshire than states such as Massachusetts, New York, and California. Even when skeptics said passing an infrastructure law would be impossible, she worked across party lines and got it done. The law will repair roads and bridges, ensure that Granite Staters have safe drinking water, expand high-speed internet, build clean energy infrastructure, help protect our coastal communities from climate change, and strengthen cybersecurity. Senator Hassan directly negotiated a number of provisions — including strengthening funding opportunities for passenger rail projects that could connect Nashua, Manchester, Concord and other communities to Boston.

Senator Hassan has a long record of fighting for New Hampshire small businesses. In the Senate, she successfully worked to double the federal research and development tax credit and extend it to more startups and small businesses, building on her work as Governor. She also helped pass COVID-19 relief to assist small businesses in rehiring and reopening and expanded it to support businesses that started during the pandemic. Senator Hassan is standing up for American manufacturing and worked across party lines to pass legislation, which is now law, that will secure our supply chains, bring down costs, build an economy that can outcompete countries like China, and strengthen our national security.

Senator Hassan has a long record of working to lower health care costs and protect coverage for Granite Staters. She was a deciding vote to save the Affordable Care Act, preserving protections for pre-existing conditions and securing affordable, quality health care for thousands of Granite Staters. She took on Big Pharma and successfully passed a law to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices after hearing from Granite Staters who are struggling to afford their prescription medication. The law also caps out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare. She led the push to stop insurance companies from using “Gag Clauses” that kept pharmacists from informing patients about cheaper payment options. And Senator Hassan stood up to health care companies and worked with a Republican senator to pass landmark legislation to ban the absurd practice of surprise billing.

After an extreme majority on the the Supreme Court took away a woman’s fundamental freedom by overturning Roe v Wade, Senator Hassan is working to stop the push by anti-choice extremists to ban abortion nationwide. When the New Hampshire Executive Council defunded Planned Parenthood, Senator Hassan led efforts to provide federal grants to Planned Parenthood — ensuring that many Granite Staters could continue to access affordable and quality reproductive care. She is a sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enshrine Roe v Wade into law and ensure that a woman has the freedom to decide how and when she wants to start a family. Senator Hassan also worked to lift the domestic Gag Rule put in place by the Trump administration, which prevented women from accessing important health services at family planning centers. And she helped pass bipartisan legislation to reduce maternal deaths in rural communities.

Senator Hassan is going after Big Oil and working to build a clean energy economy. The Inflation Reduction Act includes important measures that Senator Hassan supports to expand the clean energy economy and end our dependence on Big Oil and foreign countries. The bill also includes a bipartisan measure that Senator Hassan pushed for to provide a tax cut to households that make energy efficient home upgrades. She helped negotiate key provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure law that invest in clean energy and support domestic battery energy storage development and deployment — technology that is critical to expand clean energy. She introduced the NET METER Act — which was signed into law — to help states expand their net metering programs and lower costs for consumers. She supported the Clean Energy for America Act to invest in America’s clean energy infrastructure and create thousands of clean energy jobs. 

Senator Hassan chairs the Homeland Security Emerging Threats Subcommittee, where she is working with Republicans and Democrats to strengthen our national security and keep Americans safe. She has stood up to China by passing into law the CHIPS and Science Act, which will help strengthen our national security by investing in American manufacturing and working to ensure that we don’t rely on countries like China for critical goods, including military equipment. She also passed legislation, that is now law, that targets the importation of illicit fentanyl from China, protects the U.S. military from buying compromised equipment from the Chinese government, and invests in cutting-edge quantum research to ensure that American military technology stays ahead of China. She worked across the aisle to secure funding to help houses of worship in New Hampshire and across the country protect themselves from terrorism and strengthen counterterrorism coordination at the Department of Homeland Security. She led a successful push to provide a Cybersecurity Coordinator in New Hampshire and every state and worked with a Republican to ensure that the National Guard could help protect schools, local communities, and businesses from cyberthreats. In the bipartisan infrastructure law, Senator Hassan secured a $1 billion cybersecurity grant program for states and local governments.

As part of her commitment to keeping Granite Staters safe, Senator Hassan is focused on ensuring secure, orderly, and humane borders. Senator Hassan helped pass the INTERDICT Act and the STOP Act to crack down on illicit fentanyl and drug trafficking over the border. She has taken multiple trips to the Southern border and heard from border agents and other law enforcement about the tools and resources that they need – which is why she worked across party lines to secure billions of dollars for law enforcement to support increased border security personnel, technology, and physical barriers where needed. She was proud to help secure $3 billion for more border patrol agent stations as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law which she helped negotiate. Senator Hassan will continue to push for additional action to secure the border, support law enforcement, and break the power of drug cartels.

Senator Hassan is committed to tackling the mental health and substance misuse crisis that has hit New Hampshire hard — and she has gone directly after drug companies for their role in the crisis. Senator Hassan proposed bipartisan legislation that was signed into law to help ensure that law enforcement has the tools it needs to better target and detect fentanyl and similar synthetic drugs. Senator Hassan has repeatedly secured significant increases in funding for New Hampshire to help combat and treat substance use disorder. Senator Hassan has long championed the need to ensure access to medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder, and as a result of her efforts, the Biden administration last year lessened restrictions to this treatment.

For years, Senator Hassan has been proud to stand with law enforcement in New Hampshire and across the country. As Governor, she secured increased funding for law enforcement in each of her budgets and signed into law tougher penalties for trafficking fentanyl. As Senator, she has strongly opposed efforts to defund police departments and voted to hire 100,000 new police officers nationwide. She also led efforts to deliver more funds to police to help combat the opioid crisis. Senator Hassan led bipartisan efforts to expand suicide prevention and mental health services for law enforcement officers and worked across party lines to declare a National Police Week. During the pandemic, Senator Hassan led a successful bipartisan push to provide compensation to the families of officers who died from COVID. Senator Hassan is committed to always supporting law enforcement — even when it means taking on members of both parties — in order to help keep New Hampshire communities and our country safe.

Senator Hassan serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where she has worked to make education more affordable and accessible. She has successfully increased Pell Grants and proposed legislation that would reduce the burdens of student debt. During the pandemic, she worked across party lines to secure aid to help keep New Hampshire schools open — and led efforts to ensure that schools across the country would reopen and stay open. She has also taken on predatory lending that targets students and joined with Republicans to successfully stop the previous administration’s cuts to rural and low-income schools. She is pushing for bipartisan legislation that helps more students earn college credits while still in high school and has pushed to lower costs for early education by strengthening Head Start. She has stood up against efforts to undermine public education — including taking on Betsy DeVos for pushing policies that would have harmed public schools. And she has worked with a Republican to increase mental health resources for young Granite Staters and help prevent youth suicide. Senator Hassan will continue to work to ensure that every child has access to quality K-12 public education and has the support that they need to live to their fullest potential.

Senator Hassan has helped pass laws that will cut hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful government spending. For her work to eliminate wasteful spending and save taxpayers’ hard-earned money, she was named a “Fiscal Hero” by the Fix the Debt organization. Senator Hassan helped pass legislation to reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, including by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The Senator also led bipartisan efforts to save taxpayer dollars by closing a loophole in the Medicaid program. 

Senator Hassan also worked across the aisle to double the research and development tax credit that small businesses and startups use. This builds on her work as Governor, when she signed legislation doubling New Hampshire’s research and development tax credit and extending it permanently — helping New Hampshire small businesses grow and encouraging entrepreneurship. When the pandemic hit, Senator Hassan worked across the aisle to lower taxes for New Hampshire small businesses by extending the Employee Retention Tax Credit — and expanding it to support startups. She successfully passed bipartisan legislation to cut taxes for small businesses and for new businesses that opened during the pandemic. Senator Hassan successfully worked to repeal taxes on the spouses of fallen service members, including the “Widow’s Tax” and the “Kiddie Tax,” saving those military families tens of thousands of dollars per year. She also pushed for legislation to protect Granite Staters who telework from paying unconstitutional out of state taxes.

Senator Hassan is dedicated to ensuring that individuals who experience disabilities are included in our communities and counted in our country’s success. Senator Hassan first entered public service in order to ensure that people like her son, Ben — who experiences severe cerebral palsy — would have the same opportunities all parents want for their children. As Governor, she signed legislation banning paying workers with disabilities subminimum wages — becoming the first governor in the country to do so. In the Senate, she introduced bipartisan legislation to support students experiencing disabilities as they transition to college and secured more funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the American Rescue Plan. She is pushing for legislation to strengthen protections for students experiencing disabilities from sexual assault on college campuses. Senator Hassan is also fighting to expand in-home care and support services for seniors and individuals who experience disabilities and to make transportation, housing, and voting more accessible. She is leading efforts to enact tax incentives that would encourage employers to hire more individuals who experience disabilities in order to help build a stronger and more inclusive economy.

Senator Hassan believes every American — regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation — deserves to be a full and equal citizen in our democracy. Senator Hassan has a long record of standing up for the fundamental rights of LGBTQ Americans. As a state senator, she led efforts that helped New Hampshire become one of the first states to pass marriage equality. As Governor, she signed an executive order banning discrimination against transgender state employees. In the Senate, she stood up against the Trump Administration’s efforts to ban transgender service members from the military. Senator Hassan is pushing for the Equality Act in order to make anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans the law of the land. She is also pushing for legislation that would ban conversion therapy nationwide and introduced a bill to protect LGBTQ students from bullying on college campuses.

Senator Hassan has worked to support our seniors so that they can retire with the dignity that they have earned. She is strongly opposed to efforts to privatize or cut Medicare and Social Security — and has a long record of fighting to strengthen both programs so that every senior can have the quality of life they deserve. Senator Hassan spearheaded successful bipartisan efforts to reauthorize the Older Americans Act to fund critical support services for seniors, like Meals on Wheels. She was one of the deciding votes to save the Affordable Care Act — protecting older Americans from paying an “age tax” that could have dramatically increased their premiums. Senator Hassan was a part of the successful effort to pass bipartisan legislation to allow for hearing aids to be purchased over the counter. Senator Hassan has repeatedly led efforts to crack down on scammers who target seniors, and helped lead bipartisan efforts to help detect and treat Alzheimer’s and dementia. During the pandemic, Senator Hassan worked to ensure that seniors struggling to stay afloat automatically received their stimulus checks. Senator Hassan was proud to be recognized by AARP for her leadership on behalf of America’s seniors, and will continue to lead on efforts to support seniors, including efforts to provide quality, affordable in-home care for the millions of Americans who want to age at home.

Senator Hassan has been a leader in strengthening New Hampshire’s workforce and ensuring that Granite State workers and small businesses have the tools they need to succeed and thrive. She introduced the bipartisan Gateway to Careers Act, which would expand job training programs and remove barriers to entering the workforce by connecting workers with support for housing, transportation, and child care. When the pandemic hit, Senator Hassan introduced bipartisan legislation to increase the amount of tax-free educational assistance employees can receive so they have the skills and education needed in a rapidly changing economy. She also successfully pushed for critical investments to help New Hampshire health providers and small businesses address staffing shortages through partnering with local colleges and bolstering job training programs. Now, Senator Hassan is working across party lines to pass legislation that would invest in technology and manufacturing jobs so we can build an innovative economy that can outcompete China. Senator Hassan is also working to ensure that workers will be able to retire with dignity by working across party lines to pass legislation to help workers save for retirement and modernize retirement savings systems.

Too often, communities in the North Country and other rural areas do not receive the support and resources that they need and deserve. As Governor and now as Senator, Senator Hassan is proud to be a tireless champion for the North Country and to have delivered for the region in the Senate.

Senator Hassan helped save the Northern Border Regional Commission — and voted to triple its funding — providing millions in investments to strengthen the North Country economy. When Senator Hassan helped negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure law, she stood up for rural Granite Staters every step of the way, securing funds to repair rural roads and bridges and provide high-speed internet access to every corner of the state. Senator Hassan also worked across party lines to protect funding for rural New Hampshire schools, and has successfully passed bipartisan legislation to increase the number of maternity health centers in rural areas.

Inspired by her father’s service at the Battle of the Bulge, Senator Hassan believes that every generation has a responsibility to protect our democracy. In the Senate, she is going after corporate special interests by pushing for legislation that will get dark money out of our politics, stop billionaires from buying our elections, and ensure free, fair and impartially-administered elections. Senator Hassan has stood up to partisan politicians trying to overturn election results by pushing for legislation like the Freedom To Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will protect every eligible voters’ right to participate in our democracy. Senator Hassan has been a leader in fixing our broken campaign finance system to get money from corporate special interests out of our elections. She is pushing for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, supported legislation to end partisan gerrymandering, and pushed to ensure greater transparency for groups that engage in political spending but try to hide their donors.