Dear Editor,

Nancy Pelosi is the greatest Speaker of the United States House of Representatives America has ever had!

Her greatest achievement in my mind is the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid Expansion, just one feature of the ACA, has brought health care coverage to an additional 21 million poor people in the U.S.

Without Nancy the ACA would never have passed. (The Democrats had just lost their 60 seat majority — but not before passing the ACA and sending it to the House. So Nancy had the House pass the Senate version without amending it, which would have sent the ACA bill back to the Senate and foredoomed its defeat.)

Here is a very small list of her current, significant achievements on our behalf:

∫ AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN: This life-saving legislation turned the tide of the COVID pandemic: getting vaccines into hundreds of millions of Americans’ arms, delivering direct assistance to families in need, creating millions of new jobs, supporting teachers, police officers, firefighters, transit workers and other frontline heroes, etc.

∫ INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOB ACT: Speaker Pelosi engineered House passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is strengthening roads, bridges, ports, water systems and broadband access in communities across the country while rebuilding America’s middle class.

∫ INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The House passed with Nancy’s leadership this act which contained the biggest, boldest climate action in history. This law included many House-crafted provisions to accelerate America’s transition to a clean energy future: putting the nation on a path to slash carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030, while creating millions of new jobs and advancing environmental justice.

∫ LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT: Her leadership helped enshrine this law that helps the ability of women to fight against pay discrimination in the courts and ensure they too could participate in the economic recovery.

I could go on and on about Nancy’s achievements, but space is limited.

Nancy was the only female ever to be Speaker of the House. Nancy has been in the House of Representatives for 35 years, serving as Speaker for 19 years. (The Speaker is second in line of succession to the Presidency.)

Nancy has been married for 59 years and has five children and nine grandchildren.

Regrettably Nancy is so reviled that she was the cowardly target of attempted murder that resulted in the near death of her husband.

Nancy receives more death threats than any other government official.

The people of the United States should be grateful for such a courageous, great leader stalwart as Nancy Pelosi.

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville