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As a son of immigrants, I know what's it like to be seen as different, to be called racist names, and to have my rights infringed upon because of the color of my skin. I'm hard at work to ensure future generations don't have to experience the systemic injustices that generations past have.
Voting Rights I'm an original cosponsor of and voted to pass the For the People Act of 2021 to expand voting rights and registration, eliminate gerrymandering, and limit the influence of dark money in our politics. This package also includes provisions from my bill, the Executive Branch Conflict of Interest Act, which reduces the influence of industry lobbyists on senior government officials and addresses the revolving door between lobbying firms and the government by strengthening and enhancing ethics requirements for federal employees. I'm an original cosponsor of the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. LGBTQ Rights I'm also a cosponsor of and voted to pass the Equality Act to amend the Civil Rights Act and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, housing, public education, the jury system, and more. I'm also an original cosponsor of the Prohibition of Medicaid Funding for Conversion Therapy Act to ban state Medicaid programs from funding conversion therapy practices. Supporting Unions As House Democrats are fighting to protect unions and dismantle "right-to-work" laws nationwide, I'm a cosponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021. Criminal Justice Reform We've seen a renewed call to action to protect our Black and Brown communities from police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd's death. These murders have been countless, and we can't wait for another trending name to take bold action. That's why I'm an original cosponsor of and voted to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021. This bill would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, create a federal registry of police misconduct, restrict the transfer of military-grade weapons to local law enforcement, and end qualified immunity as we know it. An important part of our fight for racial justice is undoing the harm of the war on drugs on Black and Brown communities. In December 2020, I voted to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019 - a bill I cosponsored - to federally decriminalize marijuana. This bill also requires Small Business Administration (SBA) services to be available to cannabis-related businesses, bans the denial of public benefits and immigration protections due to cannabis-related convictions, allows Veterans Administration (VA) physicians to make medical cannabis recommendations, and begins the process of expunging past cannabis-related convictions. I'm also a cosponsor of the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act to restrict the Department of Defense from arming local law enforcement agencies with weapons of war. Another civil rights issue that has become increasing relevant to law enforcement is facial recognition technology. We can't tackle racial injustice without tackling the unknowns of this technology. These programs have been known to discriminate against people of color. I would know, because when I took an ACLU facial recognition test in 2018, I was misidentified as a suspected criminal along with several of my Black and Brown colleagues. In the wake of George Floyd's death, companies like Amazon announced they were placing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition technology, but that's not enough. I've written to Amazon three times asking questions we need answers to, including: who did they sell their technology to, are they marketing this technology to ICE, who does this moratorium apply to, and will they submit their technology for federal accuracy testing? The final weeks of the Trump administration saw a cruel rush to executive more federal inmates than several decades before. The death penalty isn't just unjust, it's ineffective and disproportionately targets Black and Brown people. That's why I'm a cosponsor of the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act to ban the federal death penalty. Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act Emmett Till Antilynching Act FAIR Act H.J.Res.17: A bipartisan resolution to remove the seven-year ratification deadline for an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution. Japanese American Confinement Education Act National Museum of the American Latino Act Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act SAFE Banking Act SHIELD Act Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 |
