ICYMI: Shaheen Discusses Foreign Policy, Granite State’s Housing Affordability and Child Care Crises and More on WMUR’s CloseUp
(Manchester, NH) – On Sunday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Adam Sexton on WMUR’s CloseUp to discuss foreign policy, including the national security supplemental funding that was signed into law, as well as Shaheen’s legislative priorities, like her efforts to address the Granite State’s housing affordability and child care crises. The first segment can be found here and the second segment can be found here.
Key quotes from Senator Shaheen below:
The importance of the national security supplemental:
- “I'm delighted that the package finally got done because it's critical to Ukraine and it's critical to send a message to both our allies and our adversaries that the United States can be counted on and that when we make a commitment, we live up to that commitment.”
- “There's funding for our own defense industrial base, which is so critical because as we've given weapons to Ukraine. We have to replace those weapons. So, it's important here in New Hampshire, where we have a lot of companies like BAE that are providing significant weapons to help with this war, but also it helps the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.”
Addressing the housing affordability crisis by modernizing building energy codes:
- “The Department of Energy says that those 2021 building codes, if they're adopted, would save homeowners about $500 a year, about $10,000 in net savings over the life of a mortgage, in addition to making homes more comfortable.”
- “Energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest way to deal with our energy needs. So, in the long-term, it's going to be in our interest to do this and we're going to miss out, sadly, on several million dollars that are there to help municipalities, to help organizations like the Home Builders, to train people on energy efficiency, because the legislature has said they are not going to adopt these energy codes.”
Addressing the child care crisis in the Granite State:
- “Everywhere I've been in the state since COVID, there have been three issues: housing, workforce and child care. And one of the challenges with child care is getting the teachers we need.”
- “We've got to figure out how to provide better wages for child care workers because we know that what happens in the early years of a child's life is absolutely critical to what happens the rest of their lives."
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