I have been a long-time advocate of science-based water supply solutions, and I believe water recycling is key to combatting the worsening drought conditions caused by climate change. I am working with local elected officials and leaders to support San Diego’s Pure Water Project. The Pure Water Project will reduce waste water flowing into the ocean, create good paying jobs, and serve as a model for addressing water shortages. Phase One broke ground in 2021. My Ocean Pollution Reduction Act II, which I reintroduced this session of Congress, will give certainty to the future of the Pure Water project and work to further ensure water resources are protected, without weakening environmental standards. My bill will simplify the City of San Diego’s required permitting process to operate the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, solidify the region’s water security, and further cut the amount of wastewater that flows into the ocean from the plant. The rest of the San Diego Congressional Delegation have all joined as original cosponsors of my bill because they understand our need to deploy cost-effective technology to protect our region’s water sources. I also regularly engage with the community on this issue, including a recent meeting with the San Diego County Water Authority to discuss the drought in California, our region's efforts to maintain sufficient levels of water supply, and new clean energy opportunities.

Since coming to Congress, I have supported efforts to reform our broken immigration system and have worked to ensure our southern border is viewed as an opportunity, not a threat. Today, we continue to need federal legal protections for immigrants living, working, and going to school in the U.S. We need to invest in smart, targeted border security and efficient border infrastructure to reduce wait times and ensure economic and emotional needs are met in cross-border traffic. We need to reform the process for recruiting and retaining highly skilled immigrants, in addition to evaluating the labor needs of all our economic sectors in the midst of a nationwide labor shortage. In March of 2020, the House passed the American Dream and Promise Act to provide legal protections for immigrants under the (DACA) program, (TPS) or (DED) status. It would also provide a pathway to citizenship for up to 2.5 million immigrants, including roughly 45,000 Dreamers in San Diego. The House also passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act to create a program for agricultural workers, their spouses and minor children to earn legal Certified Agricultural Worker (CAW) status through continued agricultural employment. Immigrants continue to be our hard-working friends, neighbors and coworkers who have paved a future for themselves here and contribute to our economy. We must keep America’s promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, we have a place for you. Additionally, I introduced the Temporary Family and Visitation Act to establish a new B-3 visa category allowing family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents to visit the U.S. temporarily after demonstrating specific plans and financial support. This will help families reconnect for important events like births and weddings, while also boosting tourism and our local and national economies.

Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our democracy and every citizen with the right to vote deserves access to a ballot. In January this year, I voted to help the House pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Freedom to Vote Act would set national standards for voting access by ensuring safe, secure, and accessible elections for all Americans, among other provisions. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act updates and restores key aspects of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I also voted for the For the People Act in 2021, which would expand automatic voter registration and same-day registration, enhance election security from foreign and domestic interference, end partisan gerrymandering by requiring states to adopt independent redistricting commissions, and more. Lastly, I voted for the Protecting Our Democracy Act to reinforce our system of checks and balances, prevent future presidential abuse, and prohibit foreign interference in our elections. I also support overturning Citizens United and establishing a constitutional amendment to limit money in politics and return to a government of ‘We the People.’

I have a proven record of supporting and enacting legislation to fight the effects of climate change, including bills to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In February, the Biden Administration announced plans to boost clean manufacturing and strengthen our efforts to combat the climate crisis. My USEIT Act, which became law in 2020, will be implemented as part of these actions and will incentivize carbon capture and utilization research and development. It will help move us toward a clean energy economy by reducing dangerous emissions and encouraging the development of new technologies and uses for carbon. My POWER ON Act passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Department of Energy recently announced that the bill will be implemented as part of their “Building a Better Grid” initiative. It will help boost renewable energy usage by modernizing our national grid and building more transmission lines to get renewable energy from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. Additionally, following the IPCC’s recent report calling on us to accelerate carbon dioxide removal to reach net-zero emission goals, I co-introduced the Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act to accelerate the deployment of direct air capture and other carbon removal technologies. This legislation proves the U.S. is serious about leading the world on climate solutions, creating good-paying jobs in the clean energy transition, and developing essential next generation technologies. Finally, I introduced the Build More Housing Near Transit Act to encourage development of affordable housing in transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods. Getting more people off the roads and onto accessible public transportation will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, among other benefits.

Over the past ten years we have experienced some of the worst droughts in California’s history. However, San Diego has been very successful in increasing water sustainability amid drought conditions. From 2007 to 2020, the city’s water usage dropped by approximately 30%. This has been accomplished through a variety of important policies and programs including:

• Lining major canals like the All-American Canal and the Coachella Canal, radically reducing water seepage/loss

• Large investments in monitoring and detection for faults in major pipes, to intervene on water loss

• Incentivizing farmers to use drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation, preserving an estimated 280,000 acre-feet of water 

• Infrastructures for “precision agriculture” including the California Irrigation Management Information System, which gives farmers highly detailed information about water loss to making farming less water intensive

• Purification of wastewater via plants like Pure Water Oceanside. San Diego currently has two other similar plants in the construction phase. 

Supporting and maintaining all of these highly successful interventions will be essential to sustaining Southern California’s water future. Additionally, I support Governor Newsom’s call to ban fracking in California, while further supporting the Green New Deal in transitioning our country to a decarbonized economy fueled by green energy sources.

As a candidate motivated by removing corporate influence from policymaking, I promise to work with vulnerable communities impacted by unjust water allocation by the CVP, which favors corporate agribusiness over clean water supplies to communities. People must always come before profit. Water should not be used as a commodity, and I will uphold a platform that ensures access to clean water as a fundamental human right. In doing so, I will fight to protect indigenous populations and their land: I oppose all current and planned drilling operations on such sacred land. I also promise to promote additional labor protections for farmworkers, including their efforts to unionize, affirming the history of unions as integral to the U.S. environmental movement. I will also support efforts such as the development of community water committees tasked with bringing community clean water access challenges to a forefront, elevating community voices in CVP water allocation decisions, and improving monitoring of groundwater contamination.

Diversity of supply is critical to upholding the goals outlined in the 1992 Central Valley Improvement Act which elevated fish and wildlife protection and restoration as the primary purpose of the federal Central Valley Project. We cannot continue to deplete critical fresh water sources such as those of our headwaters, rivers, and fisheries - habitats home to endangered species. More concretely, I will evaluate the proposed reforms set forth by the CA Water Impact Network (C-WIN). 

Finally, I will aim to fund greater research and investment in desalinization technology. Current desalinization technology remains untenably expensive and has other negative environmental impacts on ocean wildlife. However, desalinization is likely the most reliable ecological solution to mass water shortages in the coming decades of the climate crisis. It will need to be robustly funded and researched to make it more financially and environmentally viable.

We need immigration policies rooted in our common humanity and values — after all, we are a country of immigrants. We must abolish ICE and stop the mass deportations tearing families apart. We cannot be the country of family separation and forced sterilizations. We must protect DREAMers and ensure that the 11 million undocumented Americans have a path to citizenship.

Our current immigration system is complex, cumbersome and inefficient. Law-abiding people who want nothing more than to pursue the American dream are met with a myriad of requirements that are confusing and inconsistently enforced. For those who are here already, whether legally or not, we can create a single, unambiguous path to citizenship that respects their dignity while allowing them to integrate with our society. 

Spending resources on casting out otherwise law-abiding immigrants because of the way they came into our country is wasteful and uncompassionate. Ensuring a clearer path for immigrants and compassionate treatment for the migrant workers who quietly prop up our economy will make our nation safer, more prosperous, and more just.

States are rapidly passing laws to increase barriers to voting and suppress the vote. The right to vote in a free and fair election is the core of democracy, and if we fail to preserve it, we will lose everything this country stands for. I will fight furiously to enact automatic voter registration, eliminate voter suppression laws, and remove unnecessary barriers to voting. I wholeheartedly support the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — two bills that will help us ensure free and fair elections, both of which enjoy overwhelming support from the American people. 

I also support a constitutional amendment to reverse the effects of the supreme court decision Citizens United, which has allowed a ballooning of undisclosed corporate money, including foreign money, to act as political “speech.” We need to create laws that protect the integrity of our elections from Super PACs, foreign corporate influence, lobbyists bundling campaign contributions, and opaque inauguration committees. Free and fair elections demand complete transparency, particularly with regard to money.

Climate change is the defining crisis of our time, and our actions to mitigate its effects will determine the future of the human race and civilization as we know it. In light of this crisis, I support the Green New Deal, which will not only protect our planet and our nation from the perils of climate change, but also inspire a new generation of American innovation and job creation. 

The Green New Deal is a 10-year mobilization plan that transitions the U.S. to clean and renewable energy by 2050, upgrades our infrastructure, and addresses the broader consequences of climate change. The world scientific community says we have all the tools in place to cut our carbon emissions in half by 2030 – the only thing getting in the way is politics. We cannot allow that to remain the case. If elected, I would actively work to help pass the Green New Deal to reduce American greenhouse gas production, and manage the impact of current and past emissions on our nation’s land and citizenry.

Southern California is very sensitive to water shortages and San Diego leaders have enacted the Pure Water project that will use recycled water to provide 40% of the regions’ water by 2035. This is a model that should be used in other cities.  

I support a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and legalizing undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for a long time. I support improvements to our student visa and employment program so we can have talent from around the world here. As a scientist I worked alongside many foreign students who struggled with the system. I will also advocate for closer relations with Mexico and other countries in our region to improve the social and economic conditions that cause people to emigrate or seek asylum.

I strongly believe that people should be given a voice in their country and that political leaders should be held accountable for their actions. I support the For the People Act and would advocate for its passage. I would push to increase voter participation through policies such as national vote-by-mail and automatic voter registration. I would protect the vote by ensuring the safety of election workers and the fairness of elections. I oppose gerrymandering and closed primaries, and support ranked-choice voting as a way to give voters of all parties greater say in elections. I would replace the electoral college with a national popular vote.

I support the Green New Deal, a comprehensive program to address the climate crisis by transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. I support this because we have waited too long to act on the environment, and must take strong action. I recognize that the GND will have a tough time passing this Congress, so I will also advocate for other legislation aimed at: decarbonizing our grid, increased use of electric cars and solar panels, expansion of carbon offsets, and supply chain sustainability. I believe that the fossil fuel industry is an impediment to action on the environment by influencing members of Congress. I will work to confront the influence of money in politics and improve government ethics.