Chellie Pingree never anticipated a life in politics. Living on the offshore island of North Haven, Maine, she raised her kids and ran a small business. She served on the school board and as the local tax assessor, a job no one else in town wanted. But in 1991, when she was approached about running for State Senate, she jumped at the chance.
She scored a remarkable upset, defeating a popular Republican, and went on to serve four terms in the Maine Senate. But throughout her political career, from Augusta to Washington and beyond, the lessons she learned on North Haven have always been her guide: Be accountable to your neighbors, and always use your common sense.
Since the beginning of my tenure in Congress, I’ve heard from countless students who feel unsafe at school, parents who fear for their children, and families who’ve suffered devastating losses due to firearms. Gun violence is preventable, and it’s shameful that Republicans in Congress have blocked any legislation that would end this uniquely American crisis.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I fought to include the first funding for CDC and NIH to research gun violence research in two decades and continue to request every year.
In the 117th Congress, these are the bills I voted to pass in the US House:
In this Congress, I have cosponsored the following commonsense gun reforms:
As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I pushed to include critical funding for gun violence prevention in the Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bill recently signed by President Biden. Among other provisions, the omnibus bill: