Our speaker for the LWVE annual Legislative Luncheon, held on August 19, 2025, was our US Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky. First elected in 1998,  Schakowsky is serving her 14th term. Initially, she was a state representative in Illinois, but she has now spent 27 years in Congress! 

Representative Schakowsky began by raving about her office’s constituent services. She said, “I treasure the ability to help people every day.” Schakowsky expressed concern for people about to lose their health care and stated that we must demand that basic life-saving medicine be made available. She strongly believes that medical research needs to be restarted. She also lamented that food grown in our District and scheduled to be shipped overseas was, instead, burned.
 
She also said that she was quite worried about immigrants. She is a first generation American whose parents came from Lithuania and Russia. It is very concerning, she said, to learn that immigrants are being arrested when simply walking down the street. 

Schakowsky told us that many of her Republican colleagues are scared; they get calls from people stating: “We know where your children go to school.” 

She also expressed concern about the fact that she and 15 Congressional colleagues were locked out of the Department of Education building earlier this year when they went to inquire about educational funding. She stated that police were ready to arrest the group, despite being shown their Congressional ID cards.

Schakowsky believes that protests around the country help get the message out, and she encouraged audience members to protest and to write postcards, stating “We have to fight.”

At the end, Jan was roundly cheered for her exceptional service in Congress for so many years.

Marin Ubersox, the winner of the League’s 2025 ETHS scholarship, attended the luncheon and participated fully in the discussion.