Category: Issues

Women’s Rights

Since I was first elected to Congress, I have proudly championed policies that directly address the shameful disadvantages women still face in the workplace, in healthcare, and in other areas.

Women making their own health decisions

On June 24, 2022, the far-right Supreme Court majority voted to strike down Roe v. Wade and overturn nearly 50 years of precedent that guarantees safe and legal abortions, despite Americans’ broad support for abortion rights. What comes next is a wave of oppressive anti-abortion laws in more than 20 states — home to roughly half the country’s population — that will target women and infringe on their constitutional right to critical reproductive health care.

That’s why I voted to pass H.R. 8296, the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), and H.R. 8297, the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, two critical bills that will protect a woman’s right to an abortion, as well as a person’s constitutional right to travel across state lines for the purpose of obtaining a lawful abortion.

The Women’s Health Protection Act would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States and would block the barrage of state bans and restrictions on abortion intended to impede or outright deny access. The bill would overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson and protect a person’s freedom to make decisions about their own reproductive health care and a health care provider’s ability to provide the full range of reproductive health services, including abortion. The Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act prohibits any person from restricting or impeding a person’s constitutional right to travel across state lines for the purpose of obtaining a lawful abortion.

Also by overruling Roe v. Wade, the Republican-controlled Court has called into question the constitutionality of contraception and the other rights that stem from the right to privacy guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment. In doing so, the Court has provided a roadmap for future courts to reconsider and overrule the right to contraception and other fundamental rights in the future.

I voted to pass H.R. 8373, the Right to Contraception Act, to protect the rights of individuals to obtain contraceptives and for health care providers to provide contraceptives and information related to contraception. It ensures that neither states nor a hostile Republican administration can limit people’s access to contraceptives or the ability of health care providers to provide contraceptives and information related to them.

Ending the wage gap and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work

One of my top priorities is ensuring that women are paid and treated fairly at work. Women who do the same work as men deserve to be paid the same, period. Women who do better work than their male colleagues deserve to be paid more. Pay scales shouldn’t grade on a curve.

Unfortunately, Congress has yet to put this simple principle into law. As a result, today the average woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by the average man for the same work. Even worse, the average Hispanic woman earns 54 cents for every dollar the average white male makes. It’s not enough to call this unacceptable. It’s un-American, and we need to fix it.

That’s why I am a proud cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would require employers to demonstrate that wage differentials are based on factors other than sex, bans firms from retaliating against women who raise concerns about their wages, and strengthen penalties for equal pay violations.

Guaranteeing paid maternity leave

Study after study has shown that a mother’s presence following childbirth is essential to a newborn’s health and development and that women who receive paid maternity leave are more likely to keep working and seeing future wage increases. In addition, providing mothers with a source of income during their time off would boost the economy and help families avoid medical debt. That’s why I cosponsor the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of partial income when they take time off for their own serious health conditions, including pregnancy and childbirth recovery; the serious health condition of a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner; the birth or adoption of a child; and/or for particular military caregiving and leave purposes.

Campaign Finance Reform

The current campaign finance system has failed the American people, plain and simple. As a result of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Citizens United vs FEC, an already powerful class of wealthy contributors and corporations were granted even greater influence on elections and public policy. This corrupt system leaves Americans locked out of a process too expensive for them to participate in. The end result is a country in which special interests have taken control over our democracy. As a member of Congress, I have fought to restore the sanctity of our democracy by giving the power back to the American people, where it belongs.

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was an unprecedented interpretation of the Constitution that has many severe consequences for our democracy as we know it. This decision granted corporations access to dump enormous amounts of secret money into “Super PACs” in exchange for political favors. In short, corporations are buying politicians and waving campaign contribution checks to get what they want.

The Citizens United decision undermined our democracy by granting extensive constitutional protections to corporations. I believe that the best way to maintain the integrity of our political system and ensure that every American’s voice is heard in November is to fully overturn Citizens United with an amendment to the Constitution.

Until we gain enough support for such an amendment, we must take pragmatic steps to limit the ability of special interest groups to affect election outcomes. That’s why I support restoring the individual’s voice during election season, encouraging participation in the political process, and diminishing the impact of super PAC and dark money.

I support strengthening the voice of everyday American voters by providing a $25 My Voice Tax Credit for campaign contributions. and making individuals just as powerful as big donors by establishing the Freedom From Influence Fund to match contributions from everyday Americans at a ratio of six-to-one. This gives candidates the incentive to seek out small donors instead of begging for the contributions of powerful special interests. And, protecting every American’s voice from being drowned out by wealthy and well-connected donors by providing citizen-funded candidates with additional publicly matched funds within 60 days of an election.

In my opinion, our democracy works best when all Americans, regardless of income, are able to voice their opinions by voting. That means one person, one vote; not a class of people using their wealth to have a disproportionate effect on elections. It means a political system that requires the participation of all Americans, not one where politicians speak behind closed-doors, begging for the contributions of the wealthy in exchange for political favors. Change is still possible but we have to act as quickly as we can. With your help, we can stand up to corporations and the billionaire class by telling them that our democracy is not for sale.

Gun Safety

Since the tragedy at Uvalde, the mass gun violence epidemic has continued to proliferate across the country with individuals using assault weapons legally purchased to kill people at hospitals, parades, and festivals. These tragedies are preventable, and we can help stop them by reducing the availability of the high-powered, semiautomatic guns that have made mass murders a horrific commonplace in our society.

Gun Violence Prevention and Mental Healthcare Expansion

I voted to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act legislation that will protect America’s children, make our schools safer, and reduce the threat of gun violence across our country. This legislation is one of the most significant steps Congress has taken to reduce gun violence in decades, giving our law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to prosecute gun traffickers.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expands background checks for individuals under the age of 21 purchasing firearms and prevents individuals who have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or felony in dating relationships from purchasing firearms for five years.

It provides $11 billion for mental health services, including increased funding for the Medicaid Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic program, increased funding for school-based mental health programs, investments in pediatric mental healthcare services, and provides $2 billion for community-based violence prevention initiatives.

Also, it provides $750 million for state grants to implement crisis intervention order programs, also referred to as red-flag laws, that would allow authorities to confiscate firearms from individuals who have been determined by a court to be a significant danger to themselves or others. The grants could also be used to support mental health courts, drug courts, veterans courts, and extreme risk protection orders.

Assault Weapons Ban

Eight of the ten deadliest mass shootings in recent American history have involved an assault weapon that would have been banned for purchase under the previous assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, including mass shootings. That’s why I strongly support reinstating the Assault Weapons Ban.

Researchers estimate that if we still had a federal Assault Weapons Ban, we would see 70 percent fewer mass shooting deaths. In 6 out of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in recent American history (Orlando, Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Parkland, El Paso, Uvalde), the gunmen were able to legally purchase the assault weapons from a licensed dealer – in some cases weeks—before the shooting.