Responding to you
Listening to you is my most important job, because I represent you in our nation’s capital. I’m here to bring your voice to Washington to help get past the gridlock and make government work for you. Understanding your views – even your criticism if we respectfully disagree – is important so I can better serve you.
My office has now replied to 160,000 of your phone calls, letters, faxes, and emails since January 2013. I take great pride in reading your letters and each one makes a difference. Click below to watch me reply to some of your letters personally to learn more about where I stand, and always please feel free to call or write to share your views. Democracy works best when everyone's voice is heard!
- Responding to Sarah from Citrus Heights: Protecting Social Security and Medicare
- Responding to Evelyn from Carmichael: Protecting Planned Parenthood's women and family health services
- Responding to David and Susan from Elk Grove: Preventing gun violence
- Responding to Rita from Citrus Heights: Keeping the Department of Homeland Security open
- Responding to Barbara from Rancho Cordova: Strengthening our Public Schools & No Child Left Behind
- Responding to you about the costs of college and student loan debt
Responding to Sarah from Citrus Heights: Protecting Social Security and Medicare
Sarah from Citrus Heights is one of the many folks who has written to me to share her concerns about Social Security and Medicare. As a doctor who’s cared for countless seniors, I know how important these programs are and the security they provide for families. We must honor the promises we've made to our seniors. That's why one of my first acts as your Congressman was to urge the President and leaders in both parties to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from devastating cuts.
Our seniors have paid into these programs and have earned a secure retirement. This is why I was proud to help pass the historic and bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which is now law. At its core, this bill fixes a broken payment system called the Sustainable Growth Rate that caused financial uncertainty in Medicare for more than a decade and forced doctors to see fewer Medicare patients. If left unaddressed, doctors would have struggled to afford to care for seniors on Medicare. Fixing this broken system was critical for protecting the Medicare guarantee for seniors.
I’ve consistently worked with people in both parties to fight against cuts to Medicare Advantage. This program has a proven track record of improving the health of patients while also bringing down costs for nearly 100,000 seniors in our area. I’ve also opposed cutting benefits and efforts to privatize Social Security, which would put seniors' retirements at the mercy of the next stock market crash.
You can click here to learn more about how I'm honoring our promises to seniors.
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Responding to Evelyn from Carmichael: Protecting Planned Parenthood's women and family health services
Evelyn from Carmichael shared her concerns about ending support for Planned Parenthood's women and family health services. This is a deeply personal issue to me as a doctor, husband, and father of a daughter. I’ve strongly opposed efforts in Congress to end support for Planned Parenthood and will continue to do so.
Planned Parenthood provides critical access to contraception, family planning services, and breast and cervical cancer screenings. I was honored to be the only member of the House of Representatives to receive Planned Parenthood’s Women’s Health Champion award for my work in Congress on behalf of women’s health.
I strongly support making comprehensive health care more available to women. That’s why I introduced the Women’s Preventive Health Awareness Campaign Act in one of my first acts as your Congressman. My bill would help women navigate the health care system and ensure the care they may need, like yearly doctor’s visits, birth control, or breastfeeding support is covered without additional costs. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and catching illnesses early is the best way to stay well and lower costs and my bill is a critical step to help do that.
You can click here to learn more about how I'm fighting for women's equality here.
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Responding to David and Susan from Elk Grove: Preventing Gun Violence
David and Susan from Elk Grove shared their concerns about gun violence with me. While respecting gun owners' rights, I believe we need to come together and agree on common sense steps to keep our communities safe. As a doctor and a public health expert, I’m especially concerned that public health agencies are not researching gun violence. This is something both parties should be able to agree on.
As a father, I do not believe any family should have to fear dropping off their kids at school or at a movie theater. It’s inexcusable that suspects on the FBI’s terrorist watch list can legally buy guns. In fact, an independent government investigation found that hundreds of suspected terrorists on the FBI watch list have legally bought guns over the years. At a time when we face serious terrorist threats, we must close this dangerous loophole to protect our homeland. I’m also supporting legislation to help make sure guns to don’t fall into the wrong hands by strengthening gun safety background checks and limiting large ammunition magazines.
All Americans, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, want to keep their families safe. We need to come together and agree on common sense steps to prevent gun violence that respect gun owners' rights.
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Responding to Rita from Citrus Heights: Keeping the Department of Homeland Security open
Rita wrote to my office to share her concerns about the possibility of a shut down of the Department of Homeland Security in 2015 because of needless partisan politics. Her son works at the U.S. Coast Guard, and she was concerned that a possible shut down of Homeland Security could threaten his livelihood. Watch my response here and see more below:
Threatening to shut down the Department of Homeland Security was the height of irresponsibility – it would have placed our security needlessly at risk while burdening the thousands of people who work hard every day to keep us safe.
I was proud to stand with responsible Members of Congress in both parties to demand full funding for the agency, and I’m thankful that we kept this critical department open.
I also introduced a new bill during this debate with some other Members of Congress, the No Homeland Security, No Pay Act, which would have stopped Members of Congress from getting paid if Homeland Security had shut down. If Members of Congress can’t do their jobs, then they certainly shouldn’t get paid for a crisis they caused. You can click here to read more about the bill.
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Responding to Barbara from Rancho Cordova: Strengthening our Public Schools and No Child Left Behind
Barbara from Rancho Cordova shared her thoughts with me on the No Child Left Behind education law. Congress had a thorough debate on this issue, and I was glad to vote for bipartisan legislation that is now law to eliminate its unworkable standards. Click to play the video below to see me respond to her concerns and learn more below:
As someone who went to California’s public schools, I’ve seen first-hand the great education our schools can provide for our young people. We should support teachers and strengthen our public schools, not undermine them by overly relying on standardized tests that don’t accurately measure student success or how well teachers do their jobs.
Under the new education bill I supported, the Every Student Succeeds Act, states and local school districts will be able to implement what they know works best, instead of a one size fits all approach. It also ensures funding goes to schools that need it and is targeted for at-risk students so all may realize the American dream.
It also means continuing federal investments in key areas such as teacher quality and professional development, after school programs, STEM education, and the arts. Finally, the Every Student Succeeds Act authorizes a new initiative to help states improve early childhood education by investing in innovative preschool programs across the country.
You can click here to read more about my work on education issues here.
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Responding to you about the costs of college and student loan debt
I’ve received many letters from folks in Sacramento County concerned about the skyrocketing costs of college and crushing student loan debt. Click to play the video below to see my response and see below for more:
I went to California public schools from kindergarten through medical school, earning my B.S. and M.D. from the University of California, Irvine, putting myself through medical school while working part-time and taking advantage of federally-funded student loans. I graduated with less than $10,000 in debt. My country made an investment in me, and I’m working to ensure we make that same investment in the next generation so that they can pursue the American Dream.
Far too many students are burdened by huge student loan debts and I am committed to making college more affordable for our students. We need to do more to address student debt and work to bring down the skyrocketing cost of education so that we aren’t pricing students out of the American Dream.
That’s why I voted for the Student Loan Certainty Act, which is now law, to ensure that students can have security and peace of mind as they budget for college. It caps interest rates on federal loans for college students, and also fixes these rates for the life of the loan. I’m also fighting to make sure that we invest in other forms of financial aid such as Pell Grants, which unlike loans, do not have to repaid. And as a co-chair of the bipartisan California Public Higher Education caucus, I helped lead the opposition to a proposed tuition hike for the UC System.
You can click here to read more about my work on education issues here.
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