Issues

I am a founding member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, because I believe that we must work to prevent and end discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Unfortunately, many people suffer from discrimination throughout their day, whether it is at school, in the workplace, in hospitals or even walking down the street.

Millions of Americans depend upon Medicaid and the state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and I strongly oppose cuts that would reduce benefits.

As the co-chair of the House Democratic Caucus on Aging and Families and the former executive director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens, I am committed to protecting and improving Medicare. I am strongly opposed to efforts to eliminate Medicare's guarantee by privatizing it, leaving seniors and people with disabilities on their own to deal with private insurance companies, and shifting costs onto the backs of seniors and people with disabilities.

As the co-chair of the House Democratic Caucus on Aging and Families and the former executive director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens, I am committed to protecting and improving Medicare. I am strongly opposed to efforts to eliminate Medicare's guarantee by privatizing it, leaving seniors and people with disabilities on their own to deal with private insurance companies, and shifting costs onto the backs of seniors and people with disabilities.

One in 4 adults and 1 in 5 children in the U.S. will experience a mental health disorder this year – yet the majority with diagnosable illness will not get treatment. We have made progress, but we have much more to do.

The United States needs to end its over-reliance on private, for-profit contractors. We have reached a dangerous point where our military and intelligence community literally could not function without these private corporations. At times, the Pentagon had more contract personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan than it had uniformed troops.

I have long been a critic of nuclear power based on my concerns for both safety and cost. The Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan has shown the danger of relying on nuclear power for our energy supply.

As a member of the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, I proposed the elimination of federal guarantees to limit liability in case of nuclear accidents and subsidies for nuclear power plants. I have consistently opposed nuclear power because of ongoing concerns over safety and waste disposal.

Transitioning to clean, renewable fuels is the right choice for our environment and economy. I firmly oppose opening our most sensitive and treasured public lands to drilling. We must be careful not to make shortsighted decisions whose long-term ramifications could be the destruction of fragile ecosystems that can never be restored.