WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Congress wraps up another year, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., said 2025 delivered tangible results for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, from protecting rural mail service to putting more money back into local pockets.
Bergman said he helped secure just under $6 million in federal funding for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District in 2025, targeting small businesses, farmers and rural infrastructure.
“We delivered just a little under $6 million for rural communities, for access for several Michigan projects,” Bergman said.
He said the funding helped strengthen economic resilience across the district.
“It basically enabled our small businesses and our farmers to do what they do and provide the economic resilience,” Bergman said.
Bergman said his focus this year was keeping the local economy moving, particularly in rural communities where every dollar stretches further. That effort included protecting services many residents rely on daily, including mail delivery.
“There was a move by the Postal Service to shut down the processing center in Kingsford, and we fought that,” Bergman said.
After community pushback and packed public meetings, the plan was reversed, keeping jobs in the region and ensuring continued mail service.
“We got that reversed,” Bergman said. “So the mail delivery goes on.”
Another major priority for the former Marine was veterans’ issues.
“Protect the veterans’ rights, protect their information, protect their health care, and hold the Veterans Administration accountable,” Bergman said.
With rising health care costs still a concern, Bergman said addressing affordability and reducing fraud remain top priorities.
“We’re now living with roughly year 15 of the ‘unaffordable care act,’ so the system is broken and it’s not providing the affordability of health care,” Bergman said. “Ensuring that people who need things like Medicaid, that it’s there for them, because they are that population it was designed for 60 plus years ago.”
Bergman said one of the most significant achievements of the year came over the summer, when President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law — legislation Bergman played a key role in crafting.
“We’re the ones that crafted the framework for the Working Families Tax Cuts Act,” Bergman said. “Folks in the First District are going to see that they have more money in their pockets based upon the working families tax cuts, and it was meant for working families.”
Bergman said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now commonly referred to as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, is expected to lower costs and boost paychecks in 2026 while ensuring essential services remain available to those who need them.
“We need to continue to reduce and eliminate the wasteful, fraudulent costs,” Bergman said. “That’s where we, I believe as a Congress, needs to really focus on the budget side — what programs are funded or not funded, need to be created, need to be eliminated. That’s what I see in the next year.”
