LOWELL — Massachusetts is full of old infrastructure due to its age relative to most other states, and for our many bridges the wear and tear of age is felt even more with thousands of vehicles crossing them every day.
Bridges are one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure found in most municipalities across the state, and for many years they have been among the most overlooked for maintenance and replacement. Topping that list for many in Greater Lowell is undoubtedly the Rourke Bridge, the 40-year-old “temporary” bridge spanning the Merrimack River between Middlesex Street and Pawtucket Boulevard.
The loud, unsettling bridge has been something of an albatross for the region for most of its existence, with countless attempts to replace it failing to cross the starting line. In 2025, thanks in large part to officials like U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, and a $252 million federal investment, shovels finally met the ground to build the replacement.
For Trahan and the 3rd Congressional District, 2025 was a year that brought many challenges, but as she put in her end-of-year review, “it has not slowed our commitment to delivering real results.” The Rourke Bridge was just one of the many accomplishments from this year she chose to highlight in the report.
This was Trahan’s seventh consecutive year representing the 3rd District since she was first elected in 2019. Every year her office puts together a report highlighting what she accomplished over the last year, what bills she filed, the constituents she has helped and her continuing priorities.
“I believe deeply that every household in our Commonwealth should have access to the tools they need to thrive. That means good jobs with family-sustaining wages, the chance to buy a home in the community they cherish, the health coverage they need, and confidence that when someone falls ill, the hospital they rely on will still be there to care for them,” said Trahan in her opening letter to the review. “These priorities shape my decisions when I vote on the House floor, craft legislation, or question witnesses during committee hearings. My focus is always on how each action will improve life in the district I was born in, raised in, and that my husband and I are now raising our family in.”
Throughout the calendar year, Trahan filed 15 pieces of legislation covering a range of issues, one-third of which she filed with a Republican co-lead. Most recently she filed H.R.6823, which is a bill “To direct the Secretary of Defense to establish a pilot program to facilitate the development of certain traumatic brain injury diagnostics for members of the Armed Forces.”
Another includes H.R.1442, the Youth Poisoning Protection Act, which would ban the sale of consumer products containing high concentrations of the meat-curing chemical sodium nitrate. This bill passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives April 29, but currently remains in the Senate.
Beyond the bills, Trahan’s office closed more than 1,000 requests for assistance from constituents, and she attended at least 443 events, constituent meetings, town halls and visits within the district this year. On top of that, her office answered 56,375 emails from constituents and fielded more than 15,323 constituent phone calls.
On health care, Trahan highlighted how she and every single Democratic member of the House pushed back against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act championed by elected Republicans and President Donald Trump this summer, which ultimately passed with no Democratic votes.
“To finance sweeping tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest one percent, the bill strips $1 trillion from Medicaid and another $189 billion from SNAP,” said Trahan’s report. “As many as 12 million Americans could lose their health care and more than 200 hospitals could be forced to close. I fought this bill for 27 hours during its committee markup and then for another 36 hours when it came before the full House.”
Simultaneously, without Republican support, Affordable Care Act tax credits are set to expire at the end of the calendar year, which is expected to lead to significant price spikes for more than 20 million Americans enrolled in ACA plans.
“More than one million Massachusetts residents rely on MassHealth, and many are now facing steep premium increases at the end of the year,” said Trahan’s report. “This is the direct result of Republican leaders refusing to extend the tax credits that help families afford coverage through the Affordable Care Act. I have taken this fight directly to my Republican colleagues and to the President because 300,000 Massachusetts residents need relief to keep their health care next year.”
All of this comes after the 3rd District lost Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer in 2024 as a result of the Steward Health Care crisis.
Housing is right up there with health care when it comes to issues on the minds of voters these days, and Trahan highlighted new housing she is helping to produce with federal investments, including $12 million for a 48-unit development in Methuen, $11 million for safe, affordable housing projects in Lawrence, and support for agencies and nonprofits like Community Teamwork Inc. in Lowell that provide housing assistance.
“Too many young adults and families are being forced to make impossible choices about where they can live, work, and raise their children. While most housing policy is crafted at the state and local level, I have focused on delivering the federal resources needed to build more homes, making existing housing safer, and reducing costs for families across the Third District,” said Trahan.
The start of the year was most notably marked by the introduction of the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk. DOGE had a stated goal of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in government spending, but Trahan and other elected Democrats have accused DOGE of gaining access to sensitive records from government agencies “without a specific purpose.”
“I led the effort in Congress to stop these abuses and worked to secure court orders blocking unauthorized access to Americans’ private information, because I believe that no official should be able to exploit government databases for personal or corporate gain,” said Trahan.
One thing DOGE did accomplish, Trahan said, was to expose “just how outdated our federal privacy protections have become.”
“The main law governing how the government handles personal information was written in 1974, in the days of file cabinets and mainframe computers,” said Trahan. “To ensure Americans’ data is protected in a world shaped by artificial intelligence, vast data collection, and untrustworthy government officials, I launched an effort to modernize the Privacy Act of 1974. I plan to introduce comprehensive reforms to the Privacy Act in 2026 to strengthen Americans’ privacy rights and better guard against future abuses.”
One of the bills she filed this year was a reintroduction of the DELETE Act, which would require the creation of an online portal through which Americans can submit a request to have data brokers erase any of their personal data it has collected, and to stop collecting any more.
“By giving people a simple, effective tool to reclaim their privacy, the DELETE Act curbs a shady industry that profits from tracking individuals without consent and strengthens Americans’ ability to control what happens to their most sensitive information,” said Trahan.
As we enter the bitter cold of the winter months, Trahan highlighted her efforts to increase federal funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program used by 300,000 Massachusetts residents, and her opposition to the Trump administration’s attempts to end ongoing clean energy projects in the state.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, and thus eliminating the nationwide right to abortion access for women, Trahan has been supporting the Women’s Health Protection Act. The bill would restore abortion rights for all women, even in states that enacted their own abortion bans after the Supreme Court ruling.
“I have been fighting for this bill since Roe fell, and I will keep working to ensure that every person has the freedom to make their own health care decisions, no matter where they live or how much they earn,” said Trahan.
In her report she also reiterated her commitment to “protecting and strengthening Social Security for seniors and families who rely on it.”
“This vital program ensures that hardworking Americans can retire with dignity, put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, and afford their lifesaving medications,” said Trahan. “I strongly oppose any attempts to cut benefits, and I support the Social Security 2100 Act, which would increase benefits, improve cost-of-living adjustments, and expand access for children and dependent family members by closing loopholes that allow the top one percent to avoid paying their fair share.”
Now more than two decades into the era of social media, and with more knowledge about its impacts on children, Trahan highlighted her own push to hold social media platforms accountable when it comes to kids’ safety.
“When Meta planned an Instagram for Kids, I led the successful effort to stop it. I pressed Meta again after investigations showed Instagram serving sexual and exploitative content to users who engaged with material featuring children, and I demanded answers when the company attempted to launch its risky Friend Map feature,” said Trahan.
In the same vein, Trahan co-sponsored the App Store Freedom Act with Republican U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida.
“For too long, a few dominant app stores have dictated what apps families can access, how those apps function, and what data they collect. My bipartisan bill tackles that by giving parents real choices about the tools and protections they want for their children,” said Trahan.
The full 2025 end-of-year report from Trahan, with all the dollar amounts, votes, highlights and future priorities, can be viewed at trahan.house.gov/report.
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