Grace Meng

Since the 2016 Presidential Election, our country has seen a disturbing spike in the amount of hate crimes against the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, immigrant communities, and communities of color. We’ve also seen an increase in activity with white nationalist and white supremacist groups. 

Grace has been fighting to stop these acts of violence rooted in hate through efforts to create better opportunities for community dialogue, protect houses of worship, and track more useful hate crime statistics. 

Grace also understands that civil rights go much further than protecting communities from hate crimes, and that many communities, especially communities of color, disproportionately face systemic hurdles in their everyday life, especially within our criminal justice system. Grace has advocated for criminal justice reform, specifically to change the system to become more restorative and humane, rather than punitive. 

Equality and justice are pillars of our country, and Grace is committed to fighting for equal rights and protections for all.  

As a daughter of Queens small business owners, Grace knows firsthand the critical role that small businesses play here in the borough, state, and country. Small businesses bring valuable investment, innovation, and jobs to our communities. Grace is committed to supporting small businesses and creating high quality, good-paying jobs that can actually support families.

Labor unions are the best way to rebuild the middle class, and they organize and collectively bargain for the workers that they represent to help secure better wages, working conditions, and worker protections. The labor movement is why we enjoy 40 hour workweeks, 5 day workweeks and more workplace norms that we take for granted.  

Grace believes that the American Dream can still be achieved in today’s America, but that the odds are currently stacked against today’s average worker. That’s why she helped fund a Small Business Development Center in Queens, supports an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and cosponsors legislation to expand worker protections, making it easier to join a union and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions. 

Good education is a human right and everyone should have access to a quality, affordable education from early childhood to college. Education empowers our youth so that they can have a more prosperous future and economy than we have today. Grace has fought to secure the strongest possible funding for public education, as well as advocate for policies which address the crippling student loan crisis, address college affordability, and support college-to-career programs. 

As a parent of two younger boys in public school, and as a graduate of a public university herself, Grace understands just how important access to affordable higher education can be in achieving both economic and personal success. 

Grace is committed to empowering our students. She has secured tens of billions of dollars for federal student aid programs, led efforts to improve student success at community colleges, and is working to fix our nation’s student debt burden. Grace has also been a leader on making sure FAFSA applications are accessible to non-English speaking families. 

The number one existential threat to our humankind and our planet is climate disaster. Unfortunately, we are already seeing climate change’s effects, and we must take action.  

Grace understands these issues, and her leadership is guided by facts and scientists. It’s why she’s a supporter of the Green New Deal, which will revolutionize our nation’s approach to the climate crisis while also addressing many intersecting issues like infrastructure, jobs, and housing. 

President Trump and his administration have fought to undo environmental protections from the moment he was inaugurated. They’ve undermined our ability as a nation to lead by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement; placed individuals in charge of the EPA who have strong ties to the industries they’re supposed to regulate; and constantly try to cut the EPA’s budget which would lead to numerous programs being unfunded and put public health at risk. 

Grace has fought against these attacks and believes in strengthening environmental protections. Grace cares deeply about protecting our planet, and knows we need big, bold, progressive ideas in order to do it. 

We live in an extremely unstable world today, where the landscape seems to constantly be changing. President Trump has repeatedly cozied up to our enemies, while alienating our allies. 

For decades, the United States has been rightfully called the leader of the free world, but under this President’s leadership our position as a leader has never been more in question. That is why Grace has worked hard to advocate for a common-sense foreign policy utilizing diplomacy and economic sanctions to hold these nations accountable while keeping our nation and our allies safe.

Gun violence is an epidemic that is hurting communities across our country. It seems like no space is safe — not schools, places of worship, concert halls, or homes — yet, Republicans would rather listen to the special interests over the voices of the people they serve and have blocked any meaningful, common-sense gun reform legislation from being enacted into law. 

That hasn’t stopped Grace from doing all that she can to fight against the NRA and far-right politicians who are putting politics over people. 

In Washington, Grace has:

Funded research to prevent firearm injury and mortality research. 

Secured funds for the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to improve the agency’s oversight of gun dealers. 

Joined the House Democratic Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to support and pass common sense, life-saving gun control reform. 

Cosponsored and passed legislation to mandate background checks for all gun sales and close the “Charleston Loophole” —  which allows for the sale of a firearm to proceed if the background check can’t be completed within 3 business days.

Introduced the “Responsible Body Armor Possession Act” which would help keep military-grade body armor out of the hands of criminals.

For too long, Americans have struggled to afford health care bills and many have gone financially bankrupt — this must stop. Grace is fighting for  all Americans to have access to health care and to trust that when they need coverage, they will not pay outrageous amounts for life-saving medications.

Grace is a founding member of the Medicare for All Congressional Caucus, and is a proud original cosponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019. This life-saving legislation would expand the Medicare program to ensure every American has access to health care with comprehensive benefits. It would reduce our spending on health care while improving patient care.

Grace is fighting for housing justice for everyone in Queens, because she believes everyone deserves affordable, clean, and safe housing. Our city is in the midst of a housing crisis and we’re desperately in need of affordable housing units in all five boroughs. It’s unconscionable to house New Yorkers in conditions that could be potentially harmful to their health, yet that’s the reality for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. From a lack of hot water and heat to lead poisoning to broken elevators and lighting, it’s inhumane to house people in these crumbling conditions.

Grace has introduced the Pathway to Stable and Affordable Housing for All Act which would effectively end homelessness and housing poverty. In addition to this bold effort, Grace has also introduced the Housing is a Human Right Act which would authorize $300 billion over the next decade for crucial housing infrastructure that would help families in Queens. She has passed laws to help keep public housing units warm in the winter, and championed lead test and removal. Grace supports $32 billion in federal funds to fix the conditions at NYCHA housing.

The United States of America is built on the backs of immigrants from around the world. This has always been the story of our country since its founding.

Queens is home to more cultures and languages than any other place in the world, and has been rightfully dubbed “the world’s borough.” Grace believes that whoever comes to our nation, regardless of immigration status, should be treated with both dignity and respect.

As the daughter of immigrants, Grace understands how difficult life can be for immigrant communities, and that these communities are critical for our collective success . It is why she just introduced the New Deal for New Americans Act. This legislation creates a national office for new Americans, and will provide opportunities for immigrants to succeed and contribute to the growth of our economy.

Unfortunately, this President has used violent rhetoric and demeaned immigrants from the moment he started his campaign in 2015. In the face of Trump’s bigotry, Grace is proud to support and empower our country’s immigrant communities. She supports creating a pathway for the nearly 800,000 DREAMERs to receive lawful permanent resident status, ending family separation at the border, and opposes efforts to increase funding for President Trump’s ineffective border wall proposal.

Grace is committed to standing up for and protecting the rights of senior citizens here in Queens and across the nation. That’s why she’s fighting to safeguard Medicare and Social Security to ensure that seniors can live out their lives with both the dignity and respect they deserve. 

She’s also been proactive in combating the rise of scams and fraudulent crimes, which often target our vulnerable senior population and can cause victims to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Grace knows our government must protect those who’ve spent their whole lives helping build this nation. 

Grace knows that our nation would not be where we are without the bravery and sacrifices of our veterans, and their families. Grace will always ensure our veterans’ health, stability and wellbeing are top priorities. She is fighting for critical funding and programs to provide the necessary support and care our veterans deserve. From ensuring education and work opportunities to addressing the opioid epidemic; from ensuring women veterans receive the specific care they require to ending homelessness — addressing these issues is the least we can do for our veterans for their service to our nation.

Grace has led and supports efforts that get all our veterans coverage for all service-connected injuries. She has demanded the Department of Veterans Affairs ends any delay in housing and education benefits that veterans receive under the GI Bill.