I strongly believe we need to improve our national infrastructure, and I would pay for these investments by reversing the Trump cuts for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. I would also consider imposing a windfall profits tax on the major oil companies. I believe that we must end subsidies to oil and fossil fuel companies, including any direct funding or tax giveaways that rig the game in favor of fossil fuels compared to more sustainable energy sources. I also believe that the Department of Defense and other agencies should prioritize the hiring of veterans, particularly as we consider large-scale improvements to our nation’s infrastructure.

I believe that every American should have access to affordable, quality healthcare, and that nobody should have to choose to pay for rent or groceries, instead of seeing a doctor or paying for a prescription.

I would like for our nation to work towards achieving a Medicare for All type healthcare system, but in the meantime, I believe that we must work to repair and strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I also believe that many ideas to improve the ACA must be explored, including the implementation of a “public option,” early buy-in to Medicare coverage within health insurance marketplaces, and the hiring of new full-time federal enrollment assisters to help Americans enroll.

Over the past twelve months, I have:

• Supported and voted for H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which establishes a fair prescription price negotiation program, protects the Medicare program from excessive price increases, and establishes an out-of-pocket maximum for Medicare part D enrollees.

• Co-sponsored legislation to ensure that individuals with pre-existing conditions receive the healthcare they need, increase coverage accessibility, and improve affordability, including H.R. 1884, the Protecting Pre-Existing Conditions and Making Health Care More Affordable Act of 2019.

• Co-sponsored the bipartisan Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019, to repeal the excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage. This bill became law at the end of 2019.

• Co-sponsored the bipartisan Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act, to improve the quality, health outcomes, and value of maternity care under the Medicaid and CHIP programs by developing maternity care quality measures and supporting maternity care quality collaboratives.

• Supported and co-sponsored a variety of legislation to protect reproductive healthcare for women, including the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Woman Act of 2019, to ensure affordable abortion coverage and care for every woman, and the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2019, to protect a woman’s ability to determine whether and when to bear a child or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide reproductive health care services, including abortion services.

• Successfully advocated for $41.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the 2020 appropriations package.

• Co-sponsored the Mobile Health Record Act of 2019, to promote the ability of individuals with Medicare and Medicaid to access their personal medical claim data, including their providers, prescriptions, tests, and diagnoses, through a mobile health record application of the individual’s choosing.

• Supported the bipartisan House resolution Supporting the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and its Sixth Replenishment.

• Co-sponsored the bipartisan Protecting Access to Wheelchairs Act, to protect Medicare recipients’ access to complex rehabilitative manual wheelchairs.

• Worked to address the devastating impact addiction has had on our country, and currently serve on the House of Representatives’ Freshmen Working Group on Addiction to address the opioid crisis. 

• Co-sponsored legislation including H.R. 2482, the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2019, to ensure that individuals receive the addiction treatment they need.

I am the grandson of Mexican immigrants on my mother’s side. Having not graduated high school themselves, my grandparents sent all five of their daughters to college. At age 50, my grandfather, Rosendo Bringas, became an American citizen, and it was among the proudest days of his life.

I want to preserve the values and aspirations of so many immigrants like my grandparents, who dream of the uniquely American opportunity for self-improvement. I believe that immigrants should be treated with dignity and respect.

Over the past twelve months, I have:

• Proudly co-sponsored H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, to protect our DACA recipients. 

• Supported and co-sponsored several pieces of legislation to prevent family separation at the border, and help families who had been separated reunite, including the Keep Families Together Act, the Reuniting Families Act, and the REUNITE Act. 

• Supported and co-sponsored the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act of 2019, the Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody Act, and the Homeland Security Improvement Act.

• Opposed efforts to ban entry into the United States on the basis of race or religion and co-sponsored the NO BAN Act.