| Congresswoman Susan Wild is a mother, attorney, public servant, and a dedicated member of the Greater Lehigh Valley community for more than 30 years.
The daughter of a journalist and a career Air Force officer, she was born at Wiesbaden Air Force Base in West Germany, and spent her childhood on Air Force bases across our country and around the world-an experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to the families that serve and sacrifice alongside our servicemembers. After years of moving around, she finally found a place to call home when she settled in the Lehigh Valley to start her family. Susan built a successful legal practice in the Valley while raising her two children, Clay and Addie, and later became the first woman to be appointed Allentown's City Solicitor. In November 2018, she made history again when she was elected as the first woman to represent Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Susan's legislative priorities include lowering prescription drug prices, expanding Medicare, supporting labor and education, addressing the climate crisis, and supporting PA-07's thriving manufacturing sector, to continue to grow PA-07's economy to bring more good-paying jobs to our community. She serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Education and Labor Committee, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Susan has shown her commitment to providing bipartisan leadership and working across the aisle by working on legislation with both Republican and Democratic colleagues. In addition to her committee work, she is a Vice Chair of the Labor Caucus and a Co-Chair of the Climate Change Taskforce in the New Democrat Coalition.
She is a respected leader in Congress on lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Susan led a letter of frontline Democrats urging that Medicare finally be allowed to negotiate the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs and that the lower negotiated rates be available to everyone, not just those on Medicare. She fought for and secured crucial changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to address drug costs. She led 27 freshman House Democrats in a letter calling for negotiations to be re-opened so changes could be made to protect consumers from excessive increases in drug prices as well as to strengthen labor standards and environmental terms. With these improvements secured by Susan, the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers endorsed the USMCA and it was ultimately passed into law by a huge bipartisan majority vote in the House of 385 to 41.
Since the loss of her long-time partner to suicide in May 2019, Susan has become an outspoken advocate for mental health and suicide prevention initiatives both federally and locally. Since joining Congress, she has introduced legislation including the Greater Mental Health Access Act, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, and the Enhancing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Through Campus Planning Act - all legislation to expand access to mental health care.
Susan has been a leading advocate for Pennsylvania workers, retirees, and families. She strongly supported the Butch Lewis Act in the 116th Congress and helped ensure a long-term solution as part of the American Rescue Plan Act to protect the pension benefits that many union workers and retirees earned with a lifetime of work. In the 117th Congress, she led more than 200 Democrats in the House to call for strong labor standards, like paying a prevailing wage, for any federal investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
In addition, she has fought to bring home hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education funding to ensure every child and student in the Lehigh Valley receives a world class education, she has championed efforts to lower the cost of higher education so every person can afford to access a college degree or job training program, she has advanced several pieces of legislation to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect so all our children have a safe childhood, and she has championed efforts to make child care more affordable and available so children and working parents can thrive.
She knows that representing the people of PA-07 is an extraordinary privilege, and Susan is committed to delivering results for our community. As an independent-minded Member of Congress, her focus is on serving all her constituents-regardless of whether they identify as Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or none-of-the-above. Rep. Wild believes that mindless partisanship has no place in a functioning government-and she's doing her part to put an end the harmful "us vs. them" attitude by working with both Democratic and Republican colleagues to find common ground and get things done. That's why 77% of the bills she has introduced and cosponsored are bipartisan bills. And over 65% of the votes she has cast during her time in Congress have been bipartisan votes. Susan is proud to be independently rated as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress by the Lugar Center. In fact, she ranked among the top 12% of bipartisan members in either party in the Lugar analysis.
Susan chose the Lehigh Valley as her home more than 30 years ago, after a lifetime of moving all over the country with her military family. Her children were born and raised here and the Valley is truly her home. Susan is a leader driven by her passion for the Lehigh Valley, and her dedication to serving the its people. She is committed to fighting for equality, affordable health care for all, an economy that benefits every member of our community, and reforming our political system to return government to the American people. For her, representing PA-07 in Congress is the honor of a lifetime, and she thanks her constituents every day for entrusting her with this responsibility. |