Mary from Michigan: “I’m a hospice nurse who works four days a week. My son, Michael, was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old… These politicians don’t care about people like my son. They would rather that people like my son would just die. They don’t think that he contributes to society or is worth anything. But as his mom, I know that is so, so, so, wrong.”

Pressley Also Introduced Amendments to Strengthen CFPB, Expose Harmful Impact of DOGE

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – In the House Financial Services Committee’s markup of the Republican reconciliation bill, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) condemned the bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid and shared the story of Mary Marinelli, a 70-year-old hospice nurse from a Republican district in Michigan whose family depends on Medicaid to care for their autistic son. Congresswoman Pressley also introduced several amendments to the legislation to strengthen the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and expose the harmful impact of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Congresswoman Pressley’s amendments to the reconciliation bill would:

• Ensure the CFPB remains fully funded so that it may continue returning billions of dollars to consumers by charging risk-based assessments to the largest banks and non-bank financial companies, including big tech payment providers and payday lenders
• Ensure the CFPB remains fully funded by changing its funding structure so that any company found to have violated a consumer financial protection law since 2010 would pay annually to fund the CFPB through an annual assessment.
• Conduct a study on the types and amounts of sensitive data that DOGE has been provided access to, and to assess whether such information sharing has undermined data privacy, competition, cybersecurity or other financial stability considerations.
• Conduct a study to evaluate the damage and risk posed to our financial systems by DOGE cuts, as well as the concerning impacts on consumer and investor protection

Republicans rejected every amendment proposed by Pressley and her Democratic colleagues.

A transcript of the Congresswoman’s testimony on behalf of Ms. Marinelli is below and the video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Condemns Reconciliation Bill, Shares Heartbreaking Story of Family from GOP District at Risk from Medicaid Cuts

House Financial Services Committee

April 30, 2025

Democrats have been sounding the alarm on the hurt and harm this Republican bill will unleash. 

In my district, the Massachusetts 7th, I’ve been holding town halls, listening to my constituents who oppose this bill for many reasons, but especially the Medicaid cuts.

Republicans were told to not host town halls, and they definitely haven’t been listening to the people in their district. It’s gotten so bad that people living in Republican districts are now reaching out to my office to have their voices heard.

Here is a letter from a constituent of Rep. McClain’s, who sits on this very committee. These are the words of Mary Marinelli:

“I’m a hospice nurse who works four days a week. My son, Michael, was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old. He’s non-verbal. He cannot be left alone and needs to be supervised 24/7. Through Medicaid, my youngest son, Sean, gets paid to be a caretaker for Michael, which really helps us out. 

“When Michael became 18, he got on Medicaid and Medicare. It pays for his medication, treatment, hospital stays, and allows us to do some different therapies with him. He’s also on Social Security, which he started receiving at the age of 18. It gives us extra money, about $900 a month, to take care of him. 

“I am 70 years old. I am still working as a hospice nurse four days a week. If they take Medicaid away, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’d have to get a second job. I received a letter on Friday. They want me to come into the Social Security office to talk about Michael’s benefits. They’ve never done that before, and I was in despair all weekend, worried about them taking away his benefits. 

“I don’t know how we would function without Medicaid. It’s already stressful enough, even with these services. I can’t imagine how much worse things will get. It would be a death sentence. 

“As a nurse, I can talk about a lot of different angles to this, the physical ramification of patients falling more between the cracks. These politicians don’t care about people like my son. They would rather that people like my son would just die. They don’t think that he contributes to society or is worth anything. But as his mom, I know that is so, so, so, wrong. 

“Michael is a wonderful person who brings so much. I don’t know what I would have done without Medicaid.”

I don’t know if Rep. McClain is here and has anything to say to Mary, her constituent, communicating to you through me. 

Silence.

The American people do not support this bill, and that includes those living in Republican districts.

Mr. Chair, I’m grateful for the reconciliation survival kit that you gifted to members. I only wish I had one for the American people.

I yield back.

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