It is my goal to be both a friend and an ally to Arizona's agriculture industry. I am committed to creating a level playing field for Arizona growers to produce and compete on the world market. In addition, I pledge to protect the rights of consumers to know where their food is being grown and to assist our farmers in continuing to produce the highest quality and most efficiently produced agricultural goods on the world.

I feel very strongly that we have an obligation to provide for our veterans. I believe it is important to recognize the service and sacrifice that the men and women of the Reserves and National Guard have given to our country. The citizens of our nation owe a debt of gratitude to these men and women, and I believe strongly in supporting those who have served our great country, as well as in ensuring that their spouses receive the benefits they deserve.

I have requested funding for the both the Cyberport Port of Entry project in Nogales, AZ and the San Luis II Port of Entry project in San Luis, AZ. These new state-of-the-art facilities will enhance the economic development in the area, as well as all of Arizona, and improve border security by making border traffic processing more efficient.

I will seek full cost recovery to communities and jurisdictions burdened by federal mandates and responsibilities, such as law enforcement and detainment, health care, and education. Funding for adequate border infrastructure improvements such as transportation needs, waste water treatment systems, solid waste facilities, and Fire and Emergency Response equipment is a high priority.

I support Adult Education Job Training designed to accommodate seasonal employment. Programs are needed to advance literacy, job readiness, and Basic Education, including GED and English language acquisition. Incentives are needed for college graduates to return to border and rural communities upon graduation.

I believe the Bush Administration's budget proposals reflect a misguided sense of priorities and a deliberate neglect of the social problems that the federal government should be addressing. Reduced class sizes, preservation of our natural resources, universal access to health care, and infrastructure improvement are all urgent needs which are neglected in the Bush budget. I will work to change this and to put our attention and our spending where it should be focused. We must act to increase the health and well being of people in our country and around the world.

Fully funding education is absolutely necessary to improve the quality of life for every child in the country. Public education is one of the most valuable resources in our country. We can strengthen public education by providing adequate funding and keeping that funding in the schools. I do not support voucher programs that take money out of our public school system. I will support responsibly and non-discriminatory legislation that assists schools in the education of students with special needs. Early childhood education and development programs are proven to be so valuable that I will advocate for universal pre-kindergarten. In addition, Head Start’s comprehensive approach to childhood development has effectively helped millions of children in poverty grow up to have a successful future. By increasing access and quality of higher education, we will subsequently provide a better education for the nation’s children.

The issues of importance for me are as varied as the needs of the environment in this country. The most critical fight is the immediate need for Congress to provide intervention and balance to the Administration's policy agenda to dismantle and render useless the environmental gains and regulations that currently exist in protecting our air and water quality, endangered species and their habitats. We must be vigilant in promoting adequate financial resources for the management of our National Parks and public lands. Our wildfire policies must provide adequate funding for fire wise protection of our forest communities and not be a vehicle for the deforestation of our National Forests.

I believe that access to quality healthcare is a basic human right. I will not support attempts to privatize public health programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP. Children’s access to healthcare is vital, because healthy children make healthy adults. Seniors should not have to choose between their prescription drugs and putting food on their table. I support responsible and effective prescription drug coverage programs.

Generic drugs should be made more easily available through legislative remedies that address the inappropriate amount of control played by big pharmaceutical companies in prescription drug access. This would include restricting deceptive or inaccurate advertisements by the pharmaceutical industry.

Mental health problems are a legitimate health concern and deserve parity in healthcare coverage. I support innovative remedies that would help fight the ailments that people around the world fight every day, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and many others.

National Security is a Federal responsibility. Since 9/11 our federal government has initiated numerous mandates for the protection of our country. These mandates come with significant costs associated with implementation. I am committed to working with my colleagues in congress to provide adequate funding through outright grants, matching funds, and other forms of direct aide to states and local communities to assist those efforts to meet these federal mandates. We must also be vigilant in protecting our way of life and the freedoms that we all enjoy from overreaching zealousness that attempts to curtail the rights and freedoms for which so many of our country’s men and women have fought and died to defend.

One of the most complex issues facing America today is the question of immigration and border policy. As the son of a migrant worker who entered this country through the infamous Bracero Program and who toiled long and hard on southern Arizona’s ranches, I am committed to the creation of sane and just immigration laws and border policy.

In my Congressional District every year, hundreds of people die crossing the border in search of work to feed their families. This is shameful. These innocent people die as a direct result of cruel immigration laws and unjust border policy. We must never forget that we are a country of immigrants. Immigrant labor built our cities, our railroads and worked in our mines, our factories and our fields. I am proud of our immigrant heritage.

Our immigration laws and border policy must also embody honor and respect for those seeking to enter the United States and for those who are here without documents, contributing nonetheless to our society.

In recognition of the great contribution undocumented people have made and continue to make, I support legalization. We must be true to our democratic principles and legalization, although known by other names over the years, has been a cornerstone of American immigration law since 1924. I also support a program which will allow persons seeking to work lawfully in the United States to do so without displacing or having an adverse impact on American workers. Finally, it is inconceivable that people must wait years and years to become naturalized United States citizens.

I pledge to work to remove the current administrative backlog so these people do not have to wait any longer than one year to become naturalized United States citizens.

I believe the priority of our foreign policy should be to work for peace. I also believe that the only sustainable path to peace is a redirection of our foreign policy and aid programs toward the critical needs in the developing world for education, health care and social empowerment.

I favor a foreign policy based on mutual respect between nations in their political and economic relations and respect for international law. I believe compliance with international law by all nations, including our own, is a necessary condition for the development of peace and democracy.

Our nation has risen to its position in the world due in large part due to the sweat equity of the working men and women of Labor. We have achieved the highest standard of living, the greatest level of commitment to decent wages, benefits, working hours, and workplace protections than any other nation in the world. We have fought long and hard for these standards and now, more than ever, we must be vigilant in our efforts to keep those protections and continue to advocate for the improvement to the quality of our working lives. We must not allow protections for working women and men to be dismantled, cut back, eliminated, or given away in any International trade agreements coming before Congress in a zealous effort to curry political favor with corporate management and their lobbyists. I have and will continue to stand up for working people and their families to thwart any of these efforts to adversely affect workplace safety regulations, collective bargaining rights, affordable health care including prescription drugs, overtime pay rules, and other hard fought employment rights earned by working people in our country.

As an elected official representing much of Southern Arizona, I am committed to working with the entire community, including business interests, to improve the economic and social well-being of my constituents. Though my core issues remain protecting the environment, increasing investment in education, and continuing to create new opportunities for working families, I have found that there are many issues important to my district's business community that are not mutually exclusive to these core goals. I will work actively with representatives of the business community to increase economic development opportunities in Southern Arizona.

Our country needs and deserves a transportation system that incorporates a multi-faceted approach to our nation’s transportation needs. We must build a system that provides for an array of transportation alternatives and that emphasizes public transit, national and regional rail systems, and the enhancement of our national, state and local roadway systems. We need to integrate our transportation systems to serve the needs of our daily commuters while facilitating safe and cost effective approaches to intra and interstate commerce delivery of goods to and through our communities. To achieve these goals, Congress must make a commitment to fully funding the needs of all facets of a comprehensive transportation system during the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

I firmly believe that if Congress is going to fulfill the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribal nations, it must make the governance and economic development objectives of tribal nations its top priority. Among other things, I will push Congress to respond strategically to tribal efforts to diversify their economies by adopting a comprehensive policy of private sector empowerment, a policy that seeks to create enterprise zones and tribal member-owned small businesses on and around Arizona’s reservations. I pledge to to be an aggressive advocate for the seven tribal nations located within District 7, insuring that the Native voices of southern Arizona are heard loud and clear.

Protecting a woman’s right to choose is the cornerstone of women’s independence. I will fight any attempts to attack this fundamental right, while encouraging increased access to contraceptive services. In addition, I hope to increase access to prenatal services to ensure healthy pregnancies. I hope to strengthen VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act, and its implementation in the Department of Justice. I am a strong supporter of rape prevention programs, as well as legislation that offers protection and assistance to rape survivors.

Title IX is an effective civil rights legislation that should be strengthened, not dismantled. Preserving Title IX will ensure women and girls equality in all aspects of education. I will promote welfare reform that adequately addressed the needs of single mothers and their children.

The Equal Rights Amendment is long overdue and if it should pass, it would have a positive effect on all of these issues.