Nanette Diaz Barragán was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2016, becoming the first Latina ever to represent California’s 44th Congressional district.
Born in Harbor City and growing up in its surrounding harbor communities, Nanette’s humble beginnings shaped her interest in issues that matter locally: environmental and health justice, immigration reform, strengthening the economy and affordable and accessible education.
As the youngest of eleven children raised by immigrant parents from Mexico, Nanette knows about the challenges that many low-income minority families face firsthand. Her father, a local tv repairman, instilled in her a strong work ethic and influenced her love for baseball (in particular, for the Los Angeles Dodgers). Her mother, who only completed the third grade, cleaned homes, cared for others and worked in factories to make ends meet. Nanette learned from her parents the values of hard work, and obtained her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her Juris Doctor from USC Gould School of Law.
Education is a great equalizer and the foundation of the American Dream. Every child, regardless of their zip code, should have access to a free, quality education. The federal government must continue to play a key role in boosting education standards and closing achievement gaps so that all children receive a strong and equal foundational education.
We must also ensure that higher education is accessible for everyone and affordable so that young college graduates aren’t crippled with debt. As a product of public schools and as someone who benefited from federal higher education programs, I am committed to preserving and expanding these opportunities. I support legislation to allow students to refinance existing student loans at the same rate being offered to new borrowers. I also support measures to make college more affordable to low income students.
My district is one of the most polluted districts in the nation, where the sight of refineries and urban oil wells next to homes and baseball fields are a common occurrence. Unfortunately, this is all too normal in communities of color, which routinely endure immense environmental injustices. It takes immense strength to fight polluted air and water in places where the contamination is profound and the injustices are deep.
Due to limited resources and lack of political power, communities of color are often where you will find industrial facilities and air and water contamination. Members of Congress, as well as environmental justice activists from all parts of the country, must unite to both increase awareness and pursue policy change.
A clean environment is about more than environmentalism. It’s about breathing in clean air and drinking uncontaminated water. It’s about new technologies and creating new jobs for the 21st century. Instead of risking the public health of the frontline communities across the country, we should be focused on transitioning to a clean energy economy by electrifying our transportation system and ramping up our use of renewables. We can’t have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness unless you also have environmental justice. These issues go to the core of who we are as a nation.
America is suffering from an epidemic of gun violence, and California’s 44th District is one of the communities most profoundly affected. Many in Congress seem satisfied offering thoughts and prayers and holding moments of silence instead of actually doing something. I will not be silent.
Congress must take all reasonable steps to both understand gun violence in America and examine the changes necessary to deter future threats. I support legislation to eliminate the prohibition on gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control. It’s unconscionable that the agency has been effectively barred by Congress from researching injuries and deaths related to firearms. I also support closing loopholes in the national firearm background check system, and banning devices that turn a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun, like we saw in the horrific shooting in Las Vegas.
Healthcare is a fundamental right. Throughout my time in Congress, I have consistently fought on behalf of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has provided affordable health care coverage for approximately 20 million Americans since its enactment in 2010. Thanks to the ACA , insurance companies can’t discriminate against those with pre-existing medical conditions. Thanks to the ACA, families can keep children on their health insurance plans until they turn 26 years old. And thanks to the ACA, Medicaid coverage has been expanded in California. While the ACA is not perfect and needs to be strengthened, it has saved lives and expanded coverage to those in need.
Almost 120,000 people have gained coverage in the 44th congressional district alone due to the ACA. The State of California has insured nearly 5 million people which means that 91% of all Californians have health care coverage. Millions more Californians have directly benefitted from the ACA’s efforts to strengthen current healthcare laws and will no longer have to fear losing their healthcare as a result of a change in work circumstances or an unforeseen diagnosis.
Congress should work to improve the ACA where improvements are needed. Instead, Republicans are busy trying to gut its most important provisions. I will fight to preserve and strengthen health care reforms that make quality, affordable health coverage accessible to all.
I am dedicated to ensuring that everyone in my district has access to affordable housing. At a time when the stock of affordable housing is in decline, families spend an increasing amount of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. It is essential that Congress take actions to support, preserve, and build affordable housing. As a strong advocate for public housing residents, I support efforts that combine housing market-driven solutions, federal support and state and local initiatives.
I support legislation to protect seniors from foreclosures, make Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance more affordable, and I back a sense of the Congress that homelessness in America should be eliminated.
The City of Los Angeles has the nation’s largest population of chronically homeless people. This is unacceptable. I introduced the Housing Homeless Veterans Act to address our veteran homeless problem by directing housing vouchers for homeless veterans to areas of the country where they are needed most. As a member of the Congressional Homelessness Caucus I will continue to work to address this growing problem.
We need to continue the post-recession economic recovery started under President Obama’s administration. While unemployment is at its lowest level since the Recession of 2008, we must continue to work so that the recovery touches everyone. I will fight for economic policies that strengthen California’s working class.
Americans have struggled with stagnant or falling wages for decades. I am a strong supporter of equal pay provisions and a staunch defender of worker’s rights. I will continue to advocate for a pro-labor agenda, including raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour and ensuring Davis-Bacon Act protections remain in place.
Eighty percent of all international trade passes through our nation’s ports. Trade is incredibly important to our region and our local economy. But for too long trade deals have benefited big business at the expense of U.S. workers and our environment. I will fight to ensure that trade agreements are transparent and reflect our national priorities. We need agreements that benefit working families, raise wages, and keep good paying jobs here at home, as well as provide environmental safeguards and health protections.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I believe in ensuring that our country is equipped to meet our myriad national security challenges. I am working to secure our nation’s critical infrastructure, including our ports, and to address unique vulnerabilities.
Cyber threats and attacks are becoming increasingly common, sophisticated and damaging. We must make dramatic investments and improvements to our cyber defenses. I am focused on building an effective cybersecurity program across the federal government.
Our seniors deserve health and financial well-being in their golden years. We must honor the promises the Social Security system made to workers and retirees. Maintaining the integrity of this safety net is a national priority. Without Social Security income and Medicare coverage, many seniors would fall into poverty—an unkind reward for a lifetime of work.
It is vital that we honor the promises our Social Security system has made to our nation’s workers and retirees. Maintaining the integrity of this vital safety net must be a national priority, as Social Security income is necessary for seniors no longer in the workforce. At a time when President Trump and Republicans in Congress have signaled a desire to dismantle many Social Security protections—forcing seniors to negotiate their own health and retirement benefits—it is imperative that we continue fighting to preserve the guaranteed benefits our nation’s seniors depend on.
I am fighting to preserve and strengthen healthcare reforms that make quality, affordable healthcare coverage accessible to all of America’s seniors. The care and services provided by Medicare and Medicaid are often the only resources available for senior healthcare. Seniors deserve to have a dignified retirement, not to have their access to healthcare and basic income programs cut out from underneath them.
I am proud to represent more than 16,000 veterans living in California’s 44th District. Our veterans answered the call to defend our democracy and freedom, and in return we must honor them and their families by ensuring they have all the tools and resources necessary to succeed in civilian life. As a member of the bipartisan Congressional Military-Veterans Caucus, I will continue to ardently champion for America’s veterans, active duty personnel, and their families.
Our service members make tremendous sacrifices for our country, but too many don’t get the support they need when they return home. I introduced the Housing Homeless Veterans Act to address our veteran homeless problem by directing housing vouchers for homeless veterans to areas of the country where they are needed most.
Many assume that joining the military means an automatic guarantee of citizenship. It does not. I am passionately working to address the growing issue of deported veterans. My legislation, the Veterans’ Pathway to Citizenship Act, grants lawful permanent resident (LPR) status to any current or former member of the Armed Forces, and provides guidance and resources so that service members can more easily obtain citizenship. Anyone who risks their life to fight for our country should be granted citizenship.
The American dream is what my parents sought for themselves and for their children, just as many others do, to have a better life and to contribute to this beautiful nation we call home. As a daughter of immigrants from Mexico and with family members who are DACA recipients, seeing the deportation of hard-working and peaceful families hits home for me– it continues to breakdown communities and undermines who we are as Americans.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am focused on national security measures that make us safer. Not on ways to further divide us. The type of wall proposed by President Trump is a boondoggle that will do nothing to stop drug cartels or terrorists. Instead, our energy should be redirected to reforming our anachronistic immigration policies so that it addresses the needs of the country.
Nearly 200,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients live in California, where they have gone to college, taken out mortgages and started businesses. Immigrants are an integral part of the California workforce in a range of occupations, and they have contributed tens of billions of dollars in taxes. They do not deserve to live in fear and uncertainty with the threat of exile hanging over their head. We must honor our promise to beneficiaries of the DACA program who are American in every way except by their passport.
In America, we believe that individuals write their own destiny, and we provide people the tools to become their best selves. Giving DREAMers a permanent path to citizenship is the tool they need, and one that I have been relentlessly fighting for in Congress. Ultimately, we must address the immigration status of DREAMer’s parents too. We should approach immigration laws in a fair and humane way, consistent with our values. As workers, business owners, taxpayers, family members, and neighbors, immigrants are an integral part of California’s diverse and thriving communities and make extensive contributions that benefit all.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I believe in ensuring that our country is equipped to meet our myriad national security challenges. I am working to secure our nation’s critical infrastructure, including our ports, and to address unique vulnerabilities.
Cyber threats and attacks are becoming increasingly common, sophisticated and damaging. We must make dramatic investments and improvements to our cyber defenses. I am focused on building an effective cybersecurity program across the federal government.
The Port of Los Angeles, known as America’s Port, is the busiest port complex in the western hemisphere and is the heart of Southern California’s economy.
I am proud to have this vital, dynamic transportation hub in my district. The Port serves as a gateway to trading partners in Asia and the distribution point for goods sold across the nation. Nearly 35 percent of all container goods that reach the United States pass through the port’s gantries.
As your representative and as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, a priority for me is ensuring that the Port has resources so that it maintains its efficiency and global competitiveness.
Los Angeles also suffers from some of the worst traffic in the nation, a source of air pollution and lowered quality of life. Many parts of the 44th congressional district are underserved by public transportation options. I am committed to making sure these benefits are more widely shared.
Skin color and social economic status should not influence outcomes in our justice system. I am resolved to improving criminal justice policy so that it is truly fair and blind to race. While working in the White House and then at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the late 1990’s, I focused on racial and social justice issues. I am bringing this experience to Congress to ensure that the criminal justice framework functions as a stabilizing—and not a divisive—force in the community.
Congress must continue to focus on the pervasive use of racial profiling, ways to improve law enforcement interaction with the community, and providing adequate health care for inmates. I have championed legislation to require sensitivity training for law enforcement officers, pushed for a comprehensive approach to combating AIDS in prisons and called for an end to racial profiling.
The “tough on crime” policies of the 1990s have wreaked havoc on communities of color. Once out of prison or jail, those who have served their time continue to face obstacles that prevent them from properly reintegrating into society. They must work every day to overcome the stigma commonly associated with former-inmates and surmount near-impossible barriers to access housing and obtain employment.
America is suffering from an epidemic of gun violence, and California’s 44th District is one of the communities most profoundly affected. Many in Congress seem satisfied offering thoughts and prayers and holding moments of silence instead of actually doing something. I will not be silent.
Congress must take all reasonable steps to both understand gun violence in America and examine the changes necessary to deter future threats. I support legislation to eliminate the prohibition on gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control. It’s unconscionable that the agency has been effectively barred by Congress from researching injuries and deaths related to firearms. I also support closing loopholes in the national firearm background check system, and banning devices that turn a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun, like we saw in the horrific shooting in Las Vegas.