Quality healthcare must be available to all–not a privilege for the affluent. It’s a sad fact that healthcare is still far too expensive and way too complex for those with greatest need to easily access. We can and must do better. We’ve made some progress by passing a law to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and cap annual prescription drug costs. That’s a great beginning but there is certainly much more work to do.

In June 2020, the House of Representatives passed HR 1425, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, which would have amended Obamacare by establishing an Improve Health Insurance Affordability Fund to reduce health insurance premiums and greatly expand access to insurance coverage. The Act died in the Senate, however.

In Congress, I will work to enact the enhancements and benefits that would have been provided by HR 1425, so that affordable health insurance can be obtained by all who need it. I also will support other, pending legislation, such as HR 3775 (the State-Based Universal Health Care Act of 2021, that would assist individual or groups of states to provide their residents with affordable health insurance through state-administered–rather than Federal—programs), and HR 5742 (the Equitable Health Care for All Act, which would prohibit discrimination in delivery of health care based on race, religion, or similar attributes).

We also need to recruit more health care professionals to bolster services in our urban areas, and to provide much-needed support to rural and under-served communities. Such recruiting, together with funding to establish more federally qualified health clinics, will greatly improve the overall quality of health care. No one should be forced to accept poor medical care simply because they happen to live in a rural or less affluent community. In Congress, I will support pending legislation aimed at improving health care in such areas, such as HR 7383, the Improving Access to Health Care in Rural and Underserved Areas Act.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the recent Supreme Court decision eviscerating Roe v. Wade, ended the fifty-year nationwide guarantee of a woman’s right to choose whether or when she will have children. As a result, whether this fundamental right is available to any woman is now a game of chance, depending on the state in which she resides, as well as her socioeconomic status. This is simply not acceptable. All women should be able to make their own decisions on their reproductive health.

It’s no secret that the majority of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court ruling. A woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body and when (or whether) she will become a parent is deeply personal. It is a choice that should be made between a woman and her physician—not by politicians.

In defending reproductive rights and privacy, I will support and fund initiatives that increase access to family planning, invest more intentionally on critical maternal healthcare initiatives and increase availability of Plan B and emergency contraceptives. I will also advocate for federal legislation, such as guaranteeing the right of free choice to all women regardless of their economic status and state of residence. It’s high time these issues were determined once and for all, and in a manner that eliminates the threat of dilution and manipulation.

As Congresswoman, I will work tirelessly to preserve hard-won reproductive rights, and protecting those threatened or affected by abortion—related prosecutions.

I wholeheartedly support comprehensive immigration reform that contains a pathway to citizenship and focuses on family reunification. I will advocate for an approach that doesn’t saddle families with exorbitant fees or with the burden of providing documents that are difficult to secure. In other words, the policy shouldn’t be so stringent and expensive that it limits the amount of people who can apply.

I will work with labor and immigrant’s rights advocacy groups to establish funds that can assist applicants with legal services and application fees. 

As a Congresswoman, I will work to ensure that our local law enforcement, health services, courts or social welfare offices keep their commitment to not cooperate with ICE. 

We need to support frontline workers, small business owners, immigrant entrepreneurs, and young people. I will work with local chambers of commerce to promote Federal programs that can assist their business with technical support and access to capital. And I will listen carefully to see what the barriers are to them accessing support and capital. These policies have always been a priority for me as a local elected official and I will continue to expand on them in Congress. 

We are bearing witness to our country’s—and the world’s—climate  crisis. As one who represented a community that is designated as a “heat island,” I implemented several initiatives to meet the challenge head—on. I am a former board member for the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California, and a leader in building man-made wetlands to reverse the effects of heat islands and protect our aquifers. It is very clear we are in a state of crisis, and time is running out.

We are on the poised at the point of no return. If we do not meet our goals, then our future looks dismal. We must meet our  2030 target reductions for  greenhouse gas emissions by 55%, codify carbon neutrality, and work diligently on our clean energy future. Otherwise, we and our r children will suffer dire consequences. 

While climate change is making headlines, we also face assaults on the environment that have presented challenges for decades. One of those challenges arises from extraction of fossil fuels, particularly spent oil wells. In protecting our local communities from the effects of those wells, such as the Inglewood Oilfield, my long-term goal as Congresswoman will be to decommission and repurpose them as open space.

Access to enough clean water, for ourselves as well as future generations, appears to be increasingly uncertain. Proposition O, California’s clean water bond, is an example of how to bundle together funding to protect water quality, increase water conservation, protect the environment, and create more open space. As a member of Congress, I will push hard for enacting initiatives like this that protect the rivers, lakes, beaches and oceans, reduces flooding and uses neighborhood parks including man made wetlands to decrease polluted runoff, capture clean up and reuse storm water.

There are many viewpoints regarding the root causes of inflation in this country. As Congresswoman it will be my responsibility to further the federal government’s efforts to reduce inflation. We must make our case to the people while simultaneously using economic data to slow its march toward interest rate increases, recession, and economic stagnation.

My hedge against inflation will be the dogged pursuit of increased employment with jobs that pay a fair, livable wage. A strong labor market is a critical antidote to the negative effects of inflation. As one who already has extensive workforce development experience, I know how to mobilize a network of targeted employment centers to put more people back to work.

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, a key component of President Biden’s agenda, is precisely the type of multi-pronged approach we need at this critical time. It promises to attack inflation by increasing revenue and lowering the Federal budget deficit, while protecting Medicare recipients from catastrophic drug price increases and capping insulin prices. It also addresses our critical climate and environmental issues, by funding clean energy and “green” technologies that will create thousands of well-paying jobs. Lastly, it promises to revitalize the American manufacturing sector by bringing outsourced jobs home where they belong.

I wholeheartedly support this landmark legislation and President Biden’s efforts in these critical areas. As Congresswoman, will push for similar measures designed to strengthen our infrastructure and provide a fair, level playing field for American workers.

Our current housing crisis has been decades in the making, and responding to it has been my top priority. I have aggressively worked with non profit housing developers to build housing and to develop policies to expedite construction. If you’re serious about helping people and achieving true social justice we have to meet people’s basic needs.

We’re way behind on production of housing for people starting out with their lives – for millennials who are facing the prospect of not doing as well as their parents or for a population that is living longer and might need more housing with support services on site. From my perspective as an executive director for a small nonprofit that engages in infrastructure and economic development projects, we should be bundling economic development incentives to streamline everything from a state perspective. That way, you not only reform their process for incentivizing people to come in and build housing, but you also do it in a way that mobilizes a very effective economic development strategy that doesn’t take away local control. It’s not about needing to be the alpha dog in the situation, but to get housing built.

For nearly two decades, from inside and outside the system, I’ve continued to push for more housing. I’ve been the voice that said we’ve got to build more, we need to move faster to get people off the street and into emergency, transitional and permanent housing. As councilwoman, I built 5670 units with great urgency. I have the knowledge to continue to respond in the midst of a crisis that is still ongoing. I can do much more.

I have always seen the homeless challenge as multifaceted. It is a public health, mental health service, human resource, housing, and a basic human rights challenge both for the homeless and those coping with the issue.

Most importantly it is a countrywide issue. For us to impact the homeless population it is going to take a huge effort that must include full government engagement in the issue. As one of the greatest examples of expedited construction, The Star Apartments, was built on top of an existing county building. Site control was made quicker. Through means of traditional and non traditional construction techniques the building was constructed and ready for occupancy in record time. Portions of the building were constructed offsite in a modular fashion and then brought to the location at 6th and Wall and put in place.

The creation of good public policy is a foundation and a place to begin. Nothing gets done in a vacuum. The only way to be relevant is to listen to what people say, understand what they need and make an all out effort to fulfill their dreams. The feedback I get from communities and opinion leaders is invaluable. I have the lived experience to bring dreams into reality based on a background of action in planning and land use, legislative development, community organizing, finance and a deep well of understanding of social issues.

The development of good public policy is a constant evolving process that should be fueled by the passion to always do better.

As an example I coauthored Proposition O, a clean water bond, which was designed not only to protect the environment and our water source but to rebuild our infrastructure. It enabled me to create a multi use facility that brought 2 wetlands that I developed in South Los Angeles where previously there was blight now sits two wetlands at Slauson and Compton and the other at for the benefit of communities in those areas.