Issue Position: Stamping Out Corruption

Issue Position

-Ensure oversight and accountability for COVID stimulus dollars, including transparency with where CARES Act funding went
-Enact the For the People Act to ensure campaign finance reform with real and enforceable government ethics laws
-Pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizen's United decision
-Close the revolving door of politicians and staff who use their positions of power to get lobbyist contracts to protect big business

While COVID-19 forces longstanding small businesses at the heart of our community to permanently close, the Trump administration has worked overtime to block any transparency around where funding from the CARES Act and government recovery programs has gone -- the latest example of blatant corruption in Washington, D.C.

Today, giant profitable corporations, special interests like the NRA, and highly paid lobbyists wield too much power in our government: dodging needed regulations and preventing reform, cultivating special tax breaks, dumping millions into super PACs to elect their handpicked candidates, and now, in the middle of a pandemic, raiding recovery funds intended to support small businesses and their workers.

Things must change.

I'm not taking corporate PAC or fossil fuel contributions in this campaign because big businesses and fossil fuel giants have enough advocates. Instead, we need more people in government who are accountable to their constituents and working people -- not just the wealthy and the powerful. I've spent my career standing up to special interests, big polluters, and giant corporations. I'm ready to take that fight to the other Washington.

Let's start by turning the For the People Act into law -- ensuring campaign finance reform, requiring real and enforceable government ethics provisions, and enshrining voting rights that bad actors have sought to ignore and trample.

I proudly supported Washington's DISCLOSE Act, increasing financial transparency and taking on "dark money" in local politics. With a federal DISCLOSE Act we can make clear how "dark money" organizations are funded and reduce their power. And we need to get foreign money out of our elections by closing loopholes that allow foreign-owned, foreign-controlled, and foreign-influenced corporations to funnel cash into U.S. elections.

We must work to eliminate inflated independent expenditures and super PACs, along with their undue and unfair influence on our elections. I support passing a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision and make clear that corporations are not people and corporate dollars are not free speech.

We've seen in our own state how fossil fuel giants dumped record amounts -- tens of millions of dollars -- into campaigns to spread lies and avoid paying for the pollution they've wreaked on our communities and planet. Not only is it time to end this electoral influence -- we need to hold Big Oil and other companies accountable for the lies they've peddled for decades. As proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren -- we need a corporate perjury law that prevents big businesses from misleading and lying to government regulators to advance their own interests.

We must expand conflict of interest laws, so that representatives are not personally benefiting from votes they take. Then, let's shut the revolving door and prevent former politicians and staffers from leveraging their positions to take big contracts as lobbyists that protect corporations from accountability or reform, while carving out tax breaks and loopholes that only serve big business. We must reduce the influence of special interests -- no amount of "self-regulation' will lead to the change we need.

Finally, we must empower Americans to use their agency to make change by reinvigorating the Voting Rights Act so that everyone can make their voice heard. While some politicians fight tooth and nail to create new restrictions on voting rights for people of color and prevent access to vote-by-mail during a pandemic -- Washington state provides an alternative: expanded vote-by-mail, automatic voter registration, same day registration, and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year olds. It's time to take those same ideas national.

We must ensure our government is acting in the best interests of the people, and our representatives need to spend less time in call time and more time solving the challenges facing our country. If elected, I will work to revise and reform this system so that we can once again have effective leadership focused on the right priorities at the federal level.

As your Congresswoman, I will reject conflicts of interest and publicly post my daily office meeting calendar, hold regular town halls and constituent coffees, and above all -- be your advocate for a stronger country and community.

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