Madeleine Dean

Rep. Dean understands that decision-makers need the most up-to-date data in order to govern effectively. For this reason, she introduced H.R. 3989, the Improving Justice Programs through Science Act of 2019. This bill would create a Science Advisory Board (the Board) at the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) within the Department of Justice. The Board would be responsible for integrating scientific knowledge into crime-reduction efforts. It would also guide the OJP’s grants, programs, and activities through research, data, and evidence.

PREP Act

Rep. Dean knows that education can be a pathway to opportunity. Along with the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07), Rep. Dean introduced H.R. 2635, the Promoting Reentry through Education in Prisons (PREP) Act in the 116th Congress. The PREP Act ensures that incarcerated individuals receive the educational opportunities they need to successfully reenter their communities after completing their sentences — while also reducing recidivism. She will be reintroducing this legislation.

Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act

Rep. Dean is an original cosponsor of H.R. 1620, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. In the 25 years since VAWA’s original passage, domestic violence has decreased by 63%. H.R. 1620 expands protections for young victims, survivors without shelter, and LGBTQ people; the legislation also prevents “intimate partner” homicides by prohibiting those convicted of dating violence from possessing firearms. 

The bill passed the House and included Rep. Dean’s amendment from the 116th Congress which improves cross-agency collaboration to ensure that federal departments can coordinate on the prevention of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, as well as share best practices for supporting victims.

George Floyd Justice in Policing 

Over the past year, America has seen a social justice reckoning with the tragic killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans. The need to reform law enforcement practices and our criminal justice system is way past due.

That is why Rep. Dean is pleased to be an original cosponsor of The Justice in Policing Act which will make meaningful reforms, including: 

establish a national standard for the operation of police departments;

mandate data collection on police encounters;

reprogram existing funds to invest in transformative community-based policing programs; and

streamline federal law to prosecute excessive force and establish independent prosecutors for police investigations.

She joined her colleagues in passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and looks forward to continuing to advocate for its passage in the Senate.

 

As a member of the Financial Services Committee — and the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy and the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion — Rep. Dean works to transform our economy to create quality jobs and serve everyone.  

Trade

Rep. Dean understands the  importance of ensuring a stable, predictable climate for business. She opposes misguided efforts to implement trade barriers like those seen under the previous administration.

Rep. Dean closely watched the negotiations surrounding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — sometimes known as “NAFTA 2.0.” She was pleased to see labor and environmental protections included in the final package. In the 117th Congress, Rep. Dean is working to enforce the standards and commitments made in the USMCA — so that no workers are hurt by exploitative loopholes or bad actors.

COVID-19

Rep. Dean was eager to find solutions to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She led legislation to stimulate the economy for people and small businesses. 

Notably, Rep. Dean introduced the Payments for the People Act with Rep. Cartwright (PA-08) which would give direct checks to working families on a quarterly basis. This forward-thinking proposal would ensure that, in times of economic crisis, no American is left behind. Rep. Dean also re-introduced the Restore America’s Main Street Act with Rep. Kilme (WA-06) which would provide unrestricted direct cash support to small businesses. 

Fair Wages

Rep. Dean is an original cosponsor of H.R. 603, the Raise the Wage Act, which would ensure that all Americans are paid a fair wage of $15 per hour. Rep. Dean is also an original cosponsor of H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would ensure equal pay for equal work, protect workers against retaliation for discussing pay with colleagues, and provide more robust remedies for workers in cases of gender-based pay discrimination. Both of these bills have previously passed the House. 

Pensions

Rep. Dean cosponsored H.R. 397, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019, also known as the Butch-Lewis Act.  This legislation — which passed the House — would create a fund to help multiemployer pensions at risk of becoming bankrupt or already bankrupt to gain relief and time to become solvent again.

Labor

Rep. Dean is a lifelong supporter of organized labor. She is an original cosponsor of H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act — an especially important bill given the previous administration’s attacks on workers.

Business

Rep. Dean is focused on ensuring that businesses have access to the capital and resources they need to succeed and remain competitive in a global economy. In the 116th Congress, Rep. Dean voted for H.R. 3311, the Small Business Reorganization Act, which helps to facilitate the financial reorganization of small businesses. The bill became law in August 2019.

As a mother, grandmother, and former professor at LaSalle University, Rep. Dean supports high-quality, equitable, affordable education for all.

Debt and Student Loans

Since 2006, student debt in America has nearly tripled; almost 45 million borrowers owe $1.6 trillion. The average borrower owes close to $33,000 and pays nearly $400 per month in debt service. Rep. Dean knows first-hand how these costs constrain opportunities for young people and their families.

Rep. Dean also recognizes that confronting the student debt crisis means addressing fundamental questions about how much an education should cost, who can attend college, and how students will pay their debts over time.

Rep. Dean has tackled repayment challenges by introducing the Private Loan Disability Discharge Act. This legislation was developed in response to outreach from a constituent. A woman in Pennsylvania’s Fourth District was struggling: her daughter had become totally disabled and was therefore discharged from her debt obligations. As a cosigner of the loan, however, this mother was held responsible. Through the Private Loan Disability Discharge Act, cosigners will see their debt obligations discharged if a borrower becomes totally disabled. This bill was included in the  National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which passed the House  in September 2021. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a health emergency, but a severe economic downturn that hurt people in uneven ways. Rep. Dean led efforts reflected in the CARES Act and subsequent legislation to provide a moratorium on payments for federal student loan borrowers. She sought additional relief for young people saddled with debt.

Rep. Dean introduced legislation to eliminate $10,000 of student loan debt for all borrowers — federal and private loan holders. She has also signed on to efforts urging the Biden Administration to forgive up to $50,000 in student loan debt for all borrowers.  

Free Community College Through the America’s College Promise Act

Rep. Dean understands the powerful role of community colleges in expanding opportunity and preparing students for fulfilling careers. Alongside Rep. Andy Levin (MI-09), Vice-Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, she reintroduced H.R. 4212, the America’s College Promise Act of 2019, in the 116th Congress. This bill will create new partnerships with state governments and provide two years of tuition-free access to community college programs that lead to a degree or industry-recognized credential. This legislation will also expand pathways to minority-serving institutions.

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, Section 27

 

Rep. Dean believes that the protection of our planet and environmental stewardship are some of the government's core responsibilities. That is why she introduced H. Res. 410 which recognizes the 50th anniversary of the ratification of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment, outlined above.

She values our natural spaces and supports efforts to preserve vulnerable species. She also recognizes that environmental considerations are deeply entwined in other areas of policy — including public health, the economy, and our national defense.

Climate Change

In Congress, Rep. Dean supports legislation to boost America’s investments in renewable energy, fund green infrastructure, and reengage in global agreements to combat climate change. She is also a leading voice in the fight for a stronger, better-funded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Rep. Dean is proud to cosponsor H.R. 9 — the Climate Action Now Act — which passed the House in May 2019. This legislation would keep the United States in the Paris Agreement and require the President to develop a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28%.

In the 117th Congress, Rep. Dean is leading the climate discussion as a cosponsor of the THRIVE Act. This transformational legislation would put over 15 million people to work in family-sustaining, union jobs across the economy — from care work to manufacturing — to drastically cut climate pollution by 2030 and advance gender, environmental, Indigenous, economic, and racial justice, with particular attention to Black and Indigenous people.

Additionally, Rep. Dean was an early cosponsor and leader for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This bill would place a rising fee on carbon pollution that will get America to net zero emissions by 2050. Revenue from the fee would be distributed evenly to all Americans as monthly payments

Clean Water

Rep. Dean seeks to ensure that everyone has clean water — a fundamental human right. Specifically, she is working to combat the spread of per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which affect the drinking water supplies of millions of Americans.

Rep. Dean is a founding member of the PFAS Task Force — a bipartisan group working to combat water contamination through legislative solutions.  

Rep. Dean has led bipartisan efforts to end the contamination of our water. She led a letter with more than a dozen Members of Congress to fully fund a nationwide study on the impact of PFAS contamination in Fiscal Year 2020 so that our communities will have the necessary information to make informed decisions about their health and water quality. Rep. Dean also introduced the Toxic PFAS Control Act to list and regulate PFAS chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). This bill would phase out PFAS by banning the manufacturing and processing of these chemicals, while also requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate their disposal; and

Please see our PFAS Page for more information on her work on PFAS and its health impacts

Conservation

Rep. Dean believes we must work to protect our natural spaces, wildlife, and natural resources for future generations.

Gun violence rates in America are hundreds of times higher than in other industrialized countries — and it’s time we must work immediately to change that. To that effect, Rep. Dean’s very first in congress bill — the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act — addresses a new danger: plastic guns that are undetectable to metal detectors or other detection devices. 

Additionally, Rep. Dean has been integral to the House passage of several life-saving bills, including H.R. 8, which would require universal background checks, and H.R. 1446, which would close the Charleston loophole. Unfortunately, the Senate has yet to act on this legislation.

And to ensure guns do not end up in the wrong hands, Rep. Dean has worked to improve The National Instant Check System, known as NICS. Currently, NICS only allows 3 days for gun purchase eligibility checks. To allow for more time for proper vetting, she introduced The Background Check Point of Contact Act of 2021. This legislation allows the state 10 days to investigate a person's eligibility to buy a gun. And, if after 10 days eligibility cannot be determined, the system defaults to denying the gun purchase.

Defending the Affordable Care Act and Expanding Care

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid expansion have meant health coverage for tens of millions of Americans — including more than a million Pennsylvanians.

Since her first day in Congress, Rep. Dean has fought to defend the ACA against a lawsuit and repeated attacks from the former administration — including voting to pass H.R. 987, the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act.

With the American Rescue Plan — Rep Dean helped improve the ACA by expanding Premium Subsidies. In Pennsylvania, this has resulted in an average net premium reduction of more than half — from $168/month to $85/month. 

Rep. Dean will continue to fight to ensure we make the premium subsidies permanent — reducing the cost of healthcare for all Americans — while continuing her push to open accessible healthcare options for all.

The Opioid Crisis

Rep. Dean is working hard to address the opioid crisis and America’s broader drug overdose epidemic, which now claims 70,000 lives each year. This fight is also personal to her — her son, Harry, is in long-term recovery from substance use disorder. Rep. Dean knows the pain addiction can cause a family, but also the hope that accessible, affordable, and widespread treatment can give.

As a member of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Taskforce, and she speaks regularly about the importance of destigmatizing substance use disorder and increased funding for treatment and recovery services and has introduced a number of legislative initiatives, including:

The Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act: This bill closes a loophole in the Orphan Drug Act, which allowed companies to claim exclusivity for opioid treatment despite expecting a large financial return. This bill passed the House in the 116th and the 117th Congresses.

The End STIGMA Act: This bill would authorize the federal government to make grants to colleges and universities to establish programs to educate about substance use disorder, decrease stigma around the disease, and connect students to recovery and treatment resources near them.

Community Center Mental Health Screening Act: This bill authorizes new funds for Community Health Centers on the front lines of our communities. The grants would allow health centers to establish mental and behavioral health screening practices to help patients get diagnosed and treated for mental health issues.

Mental Health and Suicide 

Rep. Dean is keenly focused on America’s suicide problem. In her first seven months in office, she partnered with Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14) to pass the STOIC Act, which allocates funds for suicide prevention efforts in police departments across the country. The bill was signed into law on July 25, 2019.

Women’s Reproductive Health

Rep. Dean unequivocally supports women and their right to make intimate medical decisions in consultation with their doctors. Safe, accessible, and quality reproductive healthcare is a fundamental right for women, and as such she is a co-sponsor and voted to pass H.R. 3755 — the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021 — which protects a woman’s ability to determine whether and when to bear a child – and defends the rights of healthcare providers to provide reproductive health services.

Rep. Dean is also a co-sponsor of the H.R. 556 — the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act which would prevent any president from unilaterally imposing the Global Gag Rule

The men and women who don our country’s uniform deserve our full support — during their service and beyond.

Throughout her time in Congress, Rep. Dean has worked on dozens of bipartisan veterans’ bills — getting results for veterans on healthcare, housing insecurity, and key benefits across the board. This includes passing legislation to correct a decades-long injustice to Blue Water Navy Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and getting them the benefits they deserved. 

Rep. Dean has also cosponsored legislation to address the challenges of homelessness and suicide among our veterans — as well as to help returning servicemembers transition from the battlefield to the classroom and continue to be leaders in their community.  

In addition, we have launched the Women Veterans Task Force to make sure that more than two million women veterans have access to healthcare, benefits, and resources they have earned. 

And with more women, LGBTQ, minority, and Native American veterans than ever before, we are legislating to ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs is ready to care for our increasingly diverse community of veterans.

Fair Debt Collection Practices for Servicemembers Act

Rep. Dean has introduced legislation to address abusive debt collection practices affecting members of the military. Our servicemen and servicewomen make extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf. The last thing they need is harassment from manipulative debt collectors who take advantage of their service. This bill Prohibits a debt collector from conveying any threats to a servicemember or commanding officer including to have the servicemember’s rank reduced or to have the servicemember’s security clearance revoked. 

PFAS Exposure

Perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals are linked to a range of health consequences, including certain types of cancers and impaired immune system performance. The chemicals have long been used in a range of consumer products, and the military continues to use aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) in firefighting training exercises. Across the country, these chemicals flow from military bases into community water supplies, exposing tens of millions of people to health risks.

In Pennsylvania’s Fourth Congressional District — Montgomery and Berks Counties — the epicenter of the PFAS problem is Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove, where unchecked contamination continues to harm surrounding municipalities. In May, Rep. Dean toured the base with members of the Congressional PFAS Task Force and witnessed this ongoing contamination.

From day one of her term, Rep. Dean has worked closely with other Members of Congress to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish an enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level for PFAS — an essential element in any effort to protect our servicemembers, veterans, and communities.

Along with Rep. Andy Kim (NJ-03) and Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, (NM-02), Rep. Dean has also introduced H.R. 4295, the Protect Our Military Children Act, a bill that will require the Department of Defense to carry out blood testing services for children living at military facilities and track levels of PFAS chemicals.