This week on The Rebuild, Gary and I talked with Representatives Nikki Budzinski of Illinois and Amelia Sykes of Ohio to talk about something that’s affecting every family in America: affordability. From housing supply and grocery prices to energy costs, childcare, elder care, and even tariffs, we dug into the New Democrat Coalition’s newly released Affordability Agenda and what it would actually take to lower costs in red, blue, and purple districts alike.
The Conversation
Tahra Hoops
Hi, everyone. Welcome to The Rebuild. I’m one of your hosts, Tahra Hoops, along with Gary Winslett. And today we have not one, but two incredible guests joining us: Representative Nikki Budzinski of Illinois and Representative Emilia Sykes of Ohio.
Rep. Budzinski is the Vice Chair for Policy of the New Democrat Coalition. She represents Illinois’s 13th Congressional District, where she leads on issues like trade policy, keeping groceries affordable, and supporting childcare and elder care, with prior experience working closely with labor and manufacturing stakeholders to support domestic production and local economies.
Representative Sykes represents Ohio’s 13th District, centered in Akron, and chairs the New Dems Housing Task Force, where she works on housing affordability. She was just tapped to chair a bipartisan Problem Solvers working group on tariffs, trade, and competition. So she’s at the forefront of efforts to ensure fair trade and lower costs for our communities.
Representative Budzinski, Representative Sykes, welcome to The Rebuild. How are you both doing today?
Rep. Budzinski
Great, thanks for having me.
Rep. Sykes
Fantastic. Thank you for having us. Looking forward to the conversation.
The Affordability Agenda Overview
Gary Winslett
Yeah, we’ve been looking forward to it. Both of you have been working on what the New Democratic Coalition is calling the Affordability Agenda. It’s basically a set of policies to lower costs for everyday people. Representative Budzinski, can you give us the big picture? What’s this agenda all about?
Rep. Budzinski
Yeah, thanks for that question. This was a real member-driven process. I want to first start out by saying the New Dem Coalition—we’re the center-left coalition in the House Democratic Caucus, 115 members strong. We all take on different kinds of roles within our policy platform. And as Congresswoman Sykes mentioned, she leads our housing effort.
The Affordability Agenda, which includes housing, actually has five pillars to it. And we’re really proud of this, as it was a member-driven process that puts forward policy prescriptions that, on day one when we take back the House majority in November and in January, we can lead on and make happen to bring down costs in this country for working people.
As you all know, this was a commitment that President Trump made on day one, and he has failed at doing that every day ever since then. The New Dems have put forward our Affordability Agenda in five key areas: housing, healthcare, utility prices, goods and groceries. And fifth, we address issues around family care, whether that’s childcare or elder care, that need to be addressed as core affordability issues.
What we’ve outlined in our plan—we really believe these are winning messages and winning policies in red, blue, and purple districts. So it’s been a real team effort from our coalition, and we’re very excited that tomorrow we’re going to be rolling out those policies.
Tahra Hoops
We’re super excited for the release to come out. I love how you mentioned “when we win the House” because I’m like you — I’m going to be optimistic about these midterms. I believe Democrats are finally centering on messaging, and the policies you’ve highlighted in this agenda will help us get there.
Housing Affordability
I’d love to dive into specifics. Representative Sykes, as chair of the Housing Task Force, you’ve released the housing affordability agenda. Would you talk about that? What policies interest you the most? What might be overlooked?
Tahra Hoops
Would you be able to talk a bit about that? What policies interest you the most? What are some that might be overlooked to others?
Rep. Sykes
Well, it has been a great pleasure working with Rep. Budzinski and the New Dems to put together this task force and a group of policy proposals that, when we take the House, we can introduce and start working on day one because we have been working on it now. So we are the definition of prepared and ready to lead.
When you think about housing, it is the majority of most families’ budgets. Some financial advisors and planners will say that your housing should only be about 30% of your total budget. But many people are seeing it upwards of 50 to 60% because prices continue to rise.
So what we’ve been focusing on are a couple of things. We narrow our provisions into buckets of affordability, accessibility, and getting rid of red tape.
Affordability is about supply. There is just not enough housing to meet the need. So we have to make sure that there are single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartments, high-rises, mobile homes—whatever people want to live in—we need to start building it and putting it out so folks can live there.
Now, that’s a more long-term solution, but in the meantime, we look at down payment assistance, tax incentives that allow people to want to sell their homes and get other people into homes, and the Homes Act, which I introduced. It looks at things like how many parking spaces you need, what the permitting process looks like—things that slow down the process to get to our main issue, which is supply.
We were very comprehensive and thoughtful when putting this together to address supply, affordability, cutting red tape, and getting people into homes they can afford and like being in.
Gary Winslett
Can I just say, Representative Sykes, how much I appreciate that you are so involved in this? Sometimes there’s this narrative in housing discourse that it’s only coastal cities having affordability problems. And they are—but it’s not only them. Ohio is too expensive. Where I live in Vermont is too expensive.
Rep. Sykes
That’s such a great point, Gary. Sorry to interrupt you. And I know Rep. Budzinski knows this because we’re Midwestern cities. And one of the best parts about the Midwest is that we have a lower cost of living. But even with that, the amount of money that people are making and taking home is starting to become very challenging for them to enjoy the low cost of living that most people enjoy in the Midwest, which makes us so favorable. Even if you don’t get a beach or sun all year round, we can at least help you afford where you live, and now once that’s a problem it becomes very difficult to attract and keep people in our communities.
Energy Independence & Utility Costs
Gary Winslett
I agree. So next, I’d kind of like to turn to energy, which is another area where it hits families really hard when the electricity bill is higher than you’re used to or gas prices at the pump are too high. Representative Budzinski, I know you’ve been involved in energy policy for a while, and the New Dems have put out this new energy independence and security framework. What do you see as the key to making energy more affordable?
Rep. Budzinski
Well, energy and generating more energy is one of the five key pillars in our Affordability Agenda. It’s how we bring down utility costs. I would tell you, in my district alone, since this last summer, I’ve heard from constituents that they’ve seen their utility prices spike by up to 24 to 25%. So this becomes a very critical affordability issue.
For the New Dems, we think a couple of things. And I’d highlight two points that are in our agenda in particular. One, this administration—the Trump administration—eliminated a lot of the really critical clean energy tax credits that communities all across the country were taking advantage of to build a new clean energy economy, to generate more energy, to get it on the grid, to bring down costs. So the Trump administration, by eliminating those investments in clean energy tax credits, actually hurt our ability to address affordability and bring down utility prices, something we as New Democrats would like to see brought back when we take back the majority.
The second is exactly what Congresswoman Sykes said about housing. We’re for cutting red tape. We’re for cutting bureaucracy. We’re for building faster and bigger, and doing that now. And I think as it applies to addressing our housing challenges, it equally applies to energy projects.
I am an all-of-the-above energy supporter, which means that we need to bring and build all types of energy, including renewable and clean energy. Obviously, as a coalition, we believe we want to get to a 100% clean energy transition. That’s going to take time. But in order to accomplish that goal, we’ve got to get out of the way and allow these bigger projects to be built.
The other thing I would say, as it relates to building these clean energy projects, that’s been challenging is you see the Trump administration actually cut off projects that are almost 80% built. It makes absolutely no sense. So you look at Rhode Island and the offshore wind project, Revolution Wind. The Trump administration, even though this project had been 80% built to generate more energy, to get it on the grid, to bring down utility prices, tried to cut and eliminate that project before completion. It was challenged in court, and now they’re back to building it.
But this is common sense. We should allow energy projects, once they’ve been permitted, to be fully built. And we need to make it easier in the permitting process for these projects to come online.
I think another point I want to make, as we’re talking about affordability and bringing down utility prices, is that by doing this, we’re creating a lot of good-paying jobs, a lot of good-paying union jobs in particular. Union members, building and construction trade workers, are building the clean energy economy. So when we’re investing in energy projects, when we’re bringing down utility prices by generating more energy, we’re also creating new jobs in our economy.
It’s really win-win-win, and it’s something that the New Dems are leaning into as part of our Affordability Agenda.
Gary Winslett
Yeah, I mean, to your point on wind, this is something that’s really frustrating about the Trump administration, which is that this is an American energy resource that they’re strangling for seemingly no reason. Texas has oil. Iowa’s got wind. Illinois has wind. This is American energy that provides good jobs, and it’s just baffling to watch them.
Right, it is. And you look at a state like Texas, Gary, where now over 50% of their energy that is generated is renewable energy. I mean, this is the future, but it’s also the present. It’s right here. We need more projects like that to come online, and that will then help us bring down utility prices.
Tahra Hoops
It’s funny that you said “for no reason,” Gary, because Trump has stated the reason why he does not want wind projects. He doesn’t like the way they look when he goes golfing. He is putting aesthetic preferences over jobs for Americans and modernizing our grid, which has been faltering for quite some time.
We’re reaching energy scarcity. And when it comes to scarcity, you can’t just redistribute your way out of that. It becomes a supply issue. So the fact that we are stopping these projects is self-inflicted. I’m grateful for the courts—it’s five-zero, he’s losing these cases, and wind projects are going back to being built—but time is money, and we’re dragging our feet.
As a Zoomer, it worries me about our future as we continue to see energy prices rise while rent is going up and food costs are going up. So I’m very glad to see you working on an Affordability Agenda with a focus on energy because it’s clearly impacting all Americans.
Family Care & Childcare
One other area that affects people’s wallets is the care economy—the cost of childcare, the cost of elder care. That’s not a sector you can automate. Costs will continue to rise, so we need to figure it out. Gary and I hear from many guests that childcare is one of the number one straining costs when building a family. For some, it’s almost as much as college tuition, which is mind-boggling.
How are you thinking about lowering costs for families during this time?
Rep. Sykes
Again, when we talk about the affordability, it’s always easy to say this one is so high, this one is so high, they’re all too high and every family is trying to make everything make sense and they’re juggling and they’re doing a great job, but they shouldn’t have to because there’s a lot that we could do. Now, child care is one of those areas, as you mentioned, is also eating a lot of people’s budgets and it’s making people make really different decisions about their life choices because if people want to start a family, they want to be able to care for their family and have a comfortable way of life.
Tahra Hoops
Mm-hmm.
Rep. Emilia Sykes
There is no way to keep that child cared for with quality daycare or early childhood education. It’s going to delay or prohibit people from even engaging in family planning and building a family. And that’s something that we need to be mindful of, especially as our population doesn’t seem to be keeping up with other countries. One of the things that I’ve always admired was the information I got from constituents and one constituent back when I was in the state house always said to me that people don’t need more programs, people need more money. And so the bill that I’ve introduced that I’m really excited about multiple times is the Lower Your Taxes Act and it expands the Earned Income Tax Credit which allows for people to get more money when they earn money, get it, earned income tax credit, right? So this is an incentive to get people to work and they can keep of their money and then also that bill expands the Child Tax Credit to what we saw during the pandemic where folks got the money directly paid to them and it is paid for because it increases corporate tax rates and make sure that those really greedy corporate profiteers are paying their fair share and as we know many of them are paying fewer and a lower percentage than any of us on this on this call or who are listening to it even pay. So the Child Tax Credit was really remarkable because it helped lower child poverty by half. And once it was gone, those numbers went right back up. But it also gave families the ability to decide how they needed to spend that money. If it was for housing, if it was for school supplies, if it was for a new appliance, it allowed the families to decide what they needed to do. And it gave them the money to have the agency over, which is again, people don’t need the programs, they need more money. And so that is a way to get people their money back. And the Lower Your Taxes Act is a great way to help support folks.
But the final thing I’ll say here is you probably all heard the big fight around the one big beautiful bill, the One Big Ugly Bill, the reconciliation bill, whatever you want to call it. It was a disaster. And the trillion dollars that it is taking out of Medicaid is so problematic because half of the children in this country are born via Medicaid program and so many children across this country use Medicaid to get their health care. And with a trillion dollars of cuts across the program, It’s going to hit children’s hospitals and doctors offices who care for children as well as those women and families who are relying on it to pay for their birth care and Extended care and then when we want to get to the other end of the spectrum It is also the leading payer for long-term care. And so again, we’re still not fully aware about how this is going to impact people because Some of these rules haven’t gone out yet. Some of the states haven’t quite figured it out. And then because of the Paygo Act, is a $500 million cut to Medicare. These are for older adults. These compounding effects are just too much for Americans to bear. And it is why we thought it was so important as New Dems to get ahead of this affordability crisis, to start sharing with the American public what we are going to do in order to make their lives easier and better and more affordable. And we are ready on day one to roll these things out. And we are going to keep our promises, like what we heard from this administration because we have the ideas, we’re ready to roll them out, all we need are the gavels.
Gary Winslett
So I wanted to highlight one thing you said there about the Medicaid cuts and we still don’t really know I know a lot of the rural hospitals in Vermont are really worried because there’s this like extra money that got given to rural hospitals, but it’s totally swamped by all of the Medicaid cuts and it’s like it’s really bad like, you know a lot of rural areas like like where I live like Healthcare access is a challenge and losing rural hospitals is like a big deal so I, I kind of wanted to just highlight that. The other thing that you mentioned that I really wanted to underline is one of the great things about the Child Tax Credit is, you say, families can use it how they want. Like some families want two people in the workforce and they use it at a center daycare. Some people want one of the parents working part-time and then they use a daycare two days a week. Some stay at home. And the great thing about the CTC is that it’s all good. Like your family gets to decide like how you want to use that.
Rep. Sykes
And they know better than we do. They know how they need to spend the money much better than we do. And we need to give them that opportunity.
Tahra Hoops
Yeah.
Gary Winslett
100%.
Rep. Budzinski
I was just gonna add in addition to helping families keep what they’ve earned. I also just wanna mention as a part of the family care kind of platform we have, we do support Universal Pre-K and I also think Paid Family Medical Leave is just two policy points. So I just wanted to add in addition to what Congresswoman Spikes shared that is a part of it as well that I thought would be invaluable tools. We also speak a little bit to elderly care. We talk a lot about childcare and the importance of that, but I also just want to emphasize our plan includes elderly care as well, because that’s also when we talk about caregivers. And I know in the state of Illinois, one in six adults is actually a family caregiver. They’re juggling a job, maybe childcare, and maybe a parent living in their home. It’s a lot of pressure. So I just want to just lastly quickly mention we do address that in our plan too.
Grocery Prices & Tariffs
Gary Winslett
Oh, for sure. When I talk to my friends and relatives about the cost of living, rising cost, one of the things that I noticed that people are just really consistently frustrated by is high grocery prices. You have to eat, not like you can do without, you know. We’ve touched on this a bit, but with Congresswoman Sykes, since you’re working on this with the Problem Solvers Caucus, what do you think we need to fix to help bring down high grocery prices?
Rep. Budzinski
Mm.
Rep. Emilia Sykes
Tariffs! Our farmers are screaming at us about how the markets have closed for them, how it’s so much more expensive to get product for themselves and their farms, and those costs are being spread out. I mean, you name it, it has some type of foreign component, whether people like it or not, it is the reality of where we are. and in a state like Ohio where we trade back and forth with Canada, sometimes some of these raw materials go back and forth across the border five, six, seven, eight times. They’re getting taxed because that’s what a tariff is, tax each time they cross the border. And they’re not absorbing. They, as in these corporations, are not absorbing the cost. They were able to earlier in the year, but now that the inventory is not there, they have to pass it off. So if you already felt like your costs were high, they’re only getting higher because these tariffs are withstanding. and our farmers are struggling, our manufacturers are struggling, and when you think about grocery, it’s not just the food product, it’s the packaging, it’s the transport, it’s all of the parts and access that is required in order for you to get your food. So the grocery store, every time I leave the grocery store, am... with how much everything costs and everything just keeps going up and up and up and I appreciate the grocery stores trying to put little yellow and red stickers to lower the cost. It’s just not working. I mean I think they’re trying but you know they’re not it’s just not working and so the the net cost that it is to produce all these different products They just keep going higher and higher and higher and people are saying the tariffs are creating untenable situations, unaffordability, but for some reason Trump is just holding on to those things for dear life and it is making all of our communities suffer.
Rapid Fire Questions
Gary Winslett
I would love nothing more than for that to be the party line on tariffs from now through November. That is just perfect. We like to wrap up with a couple of rapid fire questions. Just a little lighthearted thing if you don’t mind. So I guess we’ll start with representative Basinski. Outside of housing, what is something that you think is too expensive?
Rep. Budzinski
Beef, I would say just adding what Congresswoman Sykes said at the grocery store. mean beef alone has gone up by over 15%. You know, I serve on the House Agriculture Committee and we’re always trying to figure out how we help families get healthy foods, fresh fruits and vegetables. We don’t grow bananas here. Those costs are going up, beef is going up and we have a president who would rather allow more Argentinian beef to be imported into the United States and to support our cattle ranchers. And so I just, I’d say beef would be my answer.
Tahra Hoops
I agree with you there. Why tariff bananas? Why do we do these things? It just makes no sense at all. As you mentioned, this is just something he has refused to let go of. One of Powell’s recent meeting statements said, inflation should only go up once if there are no more tariff increments. I’m like, that’s a big if you are holding onto. I would not rely on that. Representatives, I’ll pass that same question to you, and we’ll jump in for our last couple of ones.
Rep. Sykes
I’m gonna stick with dairy, but a little bit different because I have a sweet tooth. Ice cream. Our dairy farmers are struggling big time. Many of them are family farms and beyond just the tariffs, just many of the policies. But I love ice cream. I love all things that are sweet and sugary. But we’re also seeing the cost of dairy, the milk, the eggs. That’s not dairy, obviously, but it’s a part of the ice cream and it is one of those things. I wish ice cream was a little less expensive.
Gary Winslett
Are you sure you represent Ohio? Cause I feel like you would fit in with the Vermont caucus right now really well.
Rep. Emilia Sykes
Dairy farm in my district, so I’ve got to think about those kinds of things too.
Gary Winslett
That’s great. So I want to ask you about maybe some more unorthodox policy ideas. So I got this idea that I would love Patriots Day, which is the day that commemorates the Battle of Lexington and Concord. It’s in April. Every year, the whole of Massachusetts gets the day off. It’s Marathon Monday. It’s great. I would love for that to be like a federal holiday. So I’m curious, do you have any of your own sort of unorthodox ideas that you think would actually be really great that people would like?
Rep. Budzinski
I don’t know if it’s totally unorthodox, but I know in the Midwest, I’m sure Congresswoman Sykes agrees, like getting a year-round E15, you’re getting that done is something that would help us in the Midwest. I think a lot of people don’t know what that is, but we grow a lot of corn, which means we create a lot of ethanol. And there’s a way for us to increase the amount of ethanol that is within our, at the gas pump, which actually supports our growers and does bring down costs at the gas pump. It also has a lower carbon emissions. So again, it’s one of those like triple wins. We talk a lot about it in the Midwest, but on the coast, they talk about it a little less, but it’s something that’s a policy initiative that would make a real difference, I think, for our growers.
Rep. Sykes
So my policy is food as medicine and instituting food pharmacies where you go to your health care provider and if you have a chronic disease or something that you’re trying to manage, you get a prescription for food so that you can get a... fresh produce. when I was in the state house and even now I’ve been working on increasing food pharmacies. And so work I’ve done has created food pharmacies in three of the hospitals that I represent and patients get a prescription, they go downstairs to the fruit pantry, there’s fresh produce, there’s grains, there’s rice, there’s flour. And sometimes if it’s really robust, they’ll have toiletries. And it allows people to get the food that they need that helps them with their health journeys and helps increase better healthier lifestyles and also just creates, you know, an opportunity for folks to feel well and whole. We know kids don’t learn well if they’re hungry, they don’t go to school if they’re sick, so it’s a way to combine everything in a low impact, low barrier, but also it is very welcoming and a really interesting way to make sure wellness is incorporated into the health care system.
Tahra Hoops
Food is literally fuel and nutrition is such a big part of your health. So I really do love that idea. This will be our final one, but what is your policy or innovation that you guys believe is underrated, is not discussed enough? Representative Bitsudski will start with you.
Rep. Budzinski
I rolled out with End Citizens United, an anti-corruption agenda. I think what’s happening in the White House right now is completely outrageous. There’s a number of really good pieces of legislation to clean up Washington, but the one that I’m working on introducing is on what they call the prediction markets. So right now it’s legal on different prediction market platforms like Polymarket for myself or any of my staff to take wagers on bets that could mean questions that are currently on Polymarket is “Will the United States bomb Iran again?” Like there are questions that because of the work that we do on Capitol Hill, we might be privy to information that would affect a wager or a bet. I’m looking at legislation to eliminate and make that illegal for basically members or our staff to take advantage of those types of polymarket betting with insider information. And I think those are the kind of things that while they sound wonky, actually I think would demonstrate to voters that, you know, we’re trying to clean up Washington and that we really need to be doing that. I think people, at least I know I do, see what’s happening in the White House, the fact that Donald Trump has profited by about 1.5 billion since coming into office on different investments. It’s shady and we need to clean it up and I think the prediction markets could be one area that would be interesting to look
Tahra Hoops
I completely agree. I live in Los Angeles and the amount of billboards here are horrendous. It’s a different story. But one that blows my mind is one from a prediction market company where it asks you to download the app and bet on when the car in front of you will move. I’m like, that is just asking for a traffic accident. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it. Representative Sykes we will end the last one with you. Something you might think is a bit underrated for a policy or innovation.
Rep. Sykes
Yes, I’m certainly going to give you one. So I had a past career as a law clerk for a bankruptcy judge and bankruptcy law is very underrated. Now, most people don’t want anything to do with it and that’s fair. But the system as it’s set up right now allows for large corporations to take advantage of significant and gaping loopholes so that they can avoid liability when they do harm. Think of the Purdue family with opioid settlements and Johnson and Johnson with the tap powder. They’ve been able to try to mitigate their liability to harming their customers through these bankruptcy loopholes. Meanwhile, individual debtors have so many barriers to actually using the bankruptcy code and they can’t do things like discharge their student loan debt, which continues to keep people unable to be financially free. So the bankruptcy code needs 2026 touches to address what’s going on in real life and meet the needs of individual debtors, not just the rich, wealthy corporations who’ve been using it. to avoid liability and keep themselves wealthy.
Tahra Hoops
That’s amazing. And thank you for shedding light on that because bankruptcy law is something that is so incredibly niche. My husband clerked for a bankruptcy judge a while ago. So he will be very happy to listen to that. So I appreciate that. Thank you both for making the time to be here with us. This has been a great episode. Everyone watching, please ensure that you are reading this agenda. It will be linked. We will post it. And we are just very excited to take on the midterms.
