Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States has entangled itself in war and occupation throughout the Middle East and North Africa. As of 2018, we are currently involved in military action in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in these countries have been killed either as collateral damage from American strikes or from the instability caused by U.S. interventions. Millions more have fled their broken countries, contributing to the global refugee crisis.

Before the pandemic, over 30 million people in the United States were without health care, with another 75 million classified as underinsured. Now as a result of COVID-19 there are approximately 40 million people who have just lost their jobs, and, along with it, their employer tied healthcare coverage, in the midst of a pandemic. This is why Alexandria is calling to provide Medicare access to those without insurance for the duration of this pandemic.

Medicare for All uncouples healthcare from your job.  It allows everyone to receive quality care that is affordable at the hospital, pharmacy or doctor’s office. It will cover primary, mental, dental, vision, women’s health, and emergency room care in addition to prescription drugs.

We pay 70% more in costs because of insurance companies, billing costs, hospital administration, and drug companies.

A national healthcare system has stronger buying power and can negotiate lower prices for drugs and medical equipment as well as curb the astronomically high administrative salaries.

Moreover, this pivot towards a national system unburdens thousands of companies that are saddled with onerous health insurance payments for their employees.

Under Medicare for All, Americans are far more likely to engage in preventative healthcare measures, like annual physicals, or to see the doctor before an illness progresses.

Medicare for All will improve long-term health by reducing underlying health conditions, which are both the main contributors to COVID-19 hospitalizations and more common in lower income communities both urban and rural.

This term in Congress, Alexandria has cosponsored 47 bills related to healthcare, including: 

Women’s Health Protection Act (H.R. 3755), which prohibits governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services

Medicare for All Act (H.R. 1976), which would guarantee healthcare as a human right

Prescription Drug Price Relief Act (H.R. 2148), which would prevent price gouging of brand-name prescription drugs

Alexandria introduced legislation – The Place to Prosper Act – to incentivize local governments to promote affordable housing in their communities by offering additional funds to local governments that advance the public interest by taking measures such as streamlining permits and timelines to accelerate the building of affordable housing, and prohibiting landlords from rejecting a rental application on the basis of the applicant’s source of income. Alexandria is also calling for a permanent repeal of the Faircloth Amendment, so that cities can start expanding their public housing options. Lastly, Alexandria advocates for substantive Low Income Housing Tax Credit and permanent funding of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

In a just society, our public housing should be a source of pride and a place of comfort, safety and stability for residents. It’s up to us to make it happen.

New York City’s public housing buildings are notorious for uninhabitable physical conditions, like mold from water leaks, poor ventilation, mites from dirty and old carpeting, and pest infestation. NYCHA apartments are plagued with faulty elevators, crumbling infrastructure, and sometimes, no water, or worse, yellow water. This has to stop. We need to invest in repairing our current public housing units and envision a brighter future for public housing in the United States.

Alexandria has called for $70 billion in funding to fix our nation’s crumbling public housing system. But that is not enough. Alexandria also called for an additional $10 billion specifically dedicated to remove lead from public housing. In addition to the repair funding, Alexandria also introduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, which would create 32,552 jobs per year in New York City and transition the entire public housing stock of the United States into safe and habitable zero-carbon homes.

Rent increases have outpaced wage increases, leaving families struggling to afford groceries, healthcare, clothes, or school supplies. The Place to Prosper Act, introduced by Alexandria in 2019, curbs rent increase for landlords who own 5 or more properties to just 3% of the preceding year’s rent or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, whichever is greater. This creates clear guidance for both sides on what to expect and ensures families are not displaced because of large rent increases.

To protect tenants and their rights, The Place to Prosper Act guarantees tenants legal counsel during eviction proceedings, providing $6.5 billion annually for legal services. This levels the playing field against well funded landlords and prevents meritless evictions.

Ensuring Rental Access to Lower Income Renters 

The Places to Prosper Act also prohibits landlords from refusing to rent to federal assistance tenants, cracking down on discrimination against low-income renters. 

Although most of the Place to Prosper Act focuses on rental properties, it is also important to continue to provide mortgage relief to homeowners during and after the pandemic. Alexandria supports extending tax benefits to working and middle-class homeowners so that they too can secure housing.

This term in Congress, Alexandria has cosponsored 17 bills related to affordable housing development and homeowner protections, including: 

Affordable Housing and Area Median Income Fairness Act (H.R. 7739), which would increase the affordable housing supply, lower rents for affordable housing, and update calculations of area median income that are threshold markers for federal housing assistance

Housing Inspection Accountability Act (H.R. 8476), which would require the Department of Housing & Urban Development to submit annual inspection reports of all federally subsidized housing. This bill was created after the fire in The Bronx building that killed 17 people in early 2022. That building had failed inspection 6 times and received citations.

Green New Deal for Public Housing (H.R. 2664), which would bring $172 billion in renovations to the existing 950K public housing units across the country, directly improving living conditions for the over 2 million residents living in them

Housing Infrastructure Act (H.R. 4497), which would authorize HUD to provide grants, programs, and support related to affordable housing preservation, including first generation down payment assistance and FHA-insured mortgage assistance for homeowners

The IRS estimates that undocumented people pay over $9 billion in withheld payroll taxes annually. Undocumented people continue to work and support this country, and they also suffer from the same economic insecurities as many U.S. citizens today. 

This term in Congress, Alexandria cosponsored 23 bills supporting immigrants and their families, including:

Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1929 (H.R. 8433), which would grant stronger protections for undocumented people who have been in the country for more than 7 years 

9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act (H.R. 5700), which would provide a path to citizenship for nearly 2,000 immigrant workers and volunteers who assisted with clean-up and search-and-rescue efforts at Ground Zero

Higher Education Dream Act (H.R. 4815), which prohibits colleges and universities that receive federal student aid from discriminating against applicants based on their immigration status, including charging out-of-state tuition to students who would qualify as residents of the state

QUEER RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

As the Vice Chair to the Congressional Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Alexandria is dedicated to ensuring equal rights and protections for the LGBTQIA+ community in all aspects of life.  

Alexandria is is committed to:

Making schools safe for LGBTQIA+ students through proper accommodations.

Granting asylum to refugees fleeing persecution due to their sexuality or gender identity.

Restoring open service by transgender people in the military.

Ending discrimination in health care.

That’s why she voted for the federal “Equality Act” that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in jobs, housing, and public accommodations. These fights are especially important for young LGBTQ+ people, who - due to a combination of parental rejection, foster care discrimination and abuse, and lack of acceptance in their communities - make up 40% of homeless youth even though they are only 7% of of the youth population. The Equality Act passed in the House of Representatives but has been blocked in the Republican-controlled Senate. It is long overdue.

EXPANDING PROTECTIONS FOR LGBTQIA PEOPLE OF COLOR

Despite substantial gains since the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, there is much work that remains, and Alexandria will work shoulder-to-shoulder with the LGBTQIA+ community to get it done -- especially to end the appalling epidemic of violence against transgender women of color and to fund meaningful options for them in terms of housing, jobs, and education. This stark inequality has become all the more clear during the recent uprisings in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as LGBTQ activists have shifted their focus to black and brown siblings in the community, and continue to highlight the phrase “Black Trans Rights are Human Rights.” Not only do trans women of color face high rates of violence from the police and courts, but they are facing violence and being murdered this year at a higher rate than we’ve ever seen. LGBTQIA+ individuals continue to face legal discrimination in areas such as housing and healthcare, where they are legally denied protections, and it is black, brown, and indigenous queer and transgender individuals who often face the brunt of these discriminations. We are fighting to guarantee housing and healthcare are human rights for everyone, and that will not be true until oppressed communities are defended, specifically including the LGBTQIA individuals in those communities.

END THE CRIMINALIZATION OF LGBTQIA+ IDENTITIES

Alexandria stands with LGBTQIA+ individuals who continue to be targets not only of societal violence, but also police violence for simply being who they are. LGBTQIA+ individuals face higher incarceration rates and are over-policed more than the general population, particularly if they are members of multiple oppressed communities, and it is especially true that people with trans- and gender-expanding identities are harassed and assaulted more by police than cisgender people. While in prison, transgender persons are often treated horrifically, housed with the wrong gender, or thrown into solitary confinement at higher rates simply for being trans. Alexandria stands with her queer siblings who face this violence.

Further, Alexandria believes that all workers deserve respect for their labor, including sex workers. She knows that sex workers, who are often queer and transgender women of color, are often criminalized not because of their line of work but because of the color of their skin. By criminalizing their labor, politicians are in fact criminalizing survival. Despite facing some of the highest rates of sexual violence, queer sex workers are the targets of legal violence in the form of legislation such as SESTA/FOSTA, which Alexandria thinks should be repealed, and the EARN IT Act, which she opposes. These bills do nothing to help protect children or women from sexual violence; rather, they perpetuate violence, and are simply an excuse to further oppress LGBTQIA+ individuals.

AOC is working to: 

Prohibit all discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation in places of public accommodation by supporting the Equality Act.

Make sure that transgender and genderqueer individuals receive the healthcare that they need, which is why all healthcare is covered by Medicare for All.

Build LGBTQIA-affirming housing and shelter programs

Repeal SESTA/FOSTA and implement real protections against sexual violence against the LGBTQIA+ community.

End the criminalization of LGBTQIA+ identities, particularly the criminalization of queer and transgender black and brown women

Alexandria strongly supports: 

H.R.6637 - Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2020

H.R.6308 - Housing is a Human Right Act of 2020

H.R.4101 - Build Local, Hire Local Act

H.R.3509 - LGBTQ Data Inclusion Act

H.R.3114 - Every Child Deserves a Family Act

H.R.2775 - Protecting LGBTQ Youth Act

H.R.5 - Equality Act

H.R.3570 - Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2019

H.R.2312 - Elder Pride Act

H.R.1777 - Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act of 2019

H.R.223 - Hate Crime Victim Assistance Act of 2019

H.Res.124 - Expressing opposition to banning service in the Armed Forces by openly transgender individuals.

H.Con.Res.98 - Supporting the goals and ideals of GLSEN's 2020 Day of Silence in bringing attention to anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) name-calling, bullying, and harassment faced by individuals in schools.

H.Res.1014 - Encouraging the celebration of the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month.

H.Res.465 - Expressing support for the designation of June 26 as "LGBTQ Equality Day".

H.Res.388 - Supporting the goals and ideals of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.

H.Res.722 - Supporting the goals of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

No sector of our population has been hit harder by COVID-19 than those over the age of 65, particularly those living in long-term care facilities.

Nursing homes are meant to be safe places for the elderly population to receive residential care and age gracefully. But, all too often, that’s not the case. Across the country, about a third of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred at nursing homes and adult care facilities.

One way to address the lack of quality long-term facilities is to enable our seniors to age at home. Alexandria supports expanding Medicaid to include home health care, so seniors can stay in the homes they love and age in place. 

Alexandria also believes we should continue to build affordable housing complexes for low-income seniors - like the HANAC Corona Senior Residence in Queens. The Corona Senior Residence is a model for the country to follow because it is one of the largest low-income senior housing developments in the nation to meet Passive Housing Institute Design Standards, which cut energy consumption by up to 90%.

The Congresswoman also believes we must protect, strengthen, and expand Social Security and Medicare  -- and increase access to affordable prescription drugs. She is fighting to ensure that wealthy individuals pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security as middle class and working families. And, she’s working to end price gouging and monopoly practices by pharma companies.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid expansion;

A living wage, training and safety equipment for elder-care professionals; and

The freedom of choice for elderly people to age with dignity, and comfort.