I'm a new Member of Congress, and sometimes the rules of this place are truly confounding to me. I want to tell you a quick story. (1/8)
One of my constituents came to me recently - she has cancer, and needs a bone marrow donor - quick! (2/8)
Her community is organizing bone marrow registration drives to help find a match for her, and for other people of South Asian descent, who are under-represented in bone marrow registries. (3/8)
I called the House Ethics Committee to see if my office would be able to promote the bone marrow drives being organized across the country for this purpose. Their answer: nope. (4/8)
It violates House Ethics rules for House members to promote private events, even for non-profits, and even to save the lives of our constituents. So I won't be promoting this event using my official House accounts or resources (because I can't). (5/8)
I'm telling you this because I want the American people to know how backwards our Congressional rules can be. (6/8)
I'm not allowed to promote bone marrow drives. Meanwhile, it's fine for politicians to spend hours and hours a week soliciting corporate PAC money. And it's fine for a politician to leave office and become a lobbyist for the industry they once oversaw. (7/8)
I understand the rules and I'm going to follow them. I also get why rules have to be strict because they could be abused. But for outsiders like me, sometimes this place just doesn't make sense. Lots of rules, not a lot of justice. (8/8)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I came to Washington on a mission to grow representation for working families, crack down on special interests, hold government accountable, and help Californians get the resources we deserve. (1/6)
Together, we’ve made a lot of progress—but the fight is not over.
We need to continue to lower costs for Americans, push housing prices down, and make it easier for our neighbors and kids to have a fair shot. (2/6)
During my six years in Congress, I’m proud that ten of my proposals to boost accountability in the Pentagon, lower drug costs, protect our planet, improve mental health care, and more became law.
My office also returned $25 million to O.C. families and closed 8,000+ cases. (3/6)
In the wake of Hurricane Helene—and with the looming threat of Hurricane Milton—we ought to reflect on how Congress can best provide the tools and resources to help us prepare for and recover from disasters.
Project 2025 would take away many of those tools. A brief 🧵 👇
Project 2025 would decimate America’s disaster response. It would:
-Eliminate grants and loans that help Americans prepare for and recover from disasters
-Gut @NOAA and the National Weather Service
-Make it harder for @FEMA to respond to every disaster (2/7)
And just last week, reports highlighted what we already knew about Donald Trump—that he only looks out for himself.
When Orange County needed help after a wildfire, Trump refused to approve disaster aid until he saw how many Republicans lived in OC. (3/7)
The justices rigorously questioned the government's lawyer. This is a good thing. In criminal cases, the burden of proof is on the government, and our Court should press the government on its use of power, especially in prosecutions. (1/5)
The government’s lawyer, Elizabeth Prelogar, was masterful. Coming from another branch of government, I appreciated the opportunity to see this impressive Biden appointee in action. (2/5)
Despite many questions on whether the statute at issue covers certain Jan. 6 defendants' conduct, I predict the government prevails. The statute applies to those who corruptly obstruct, influence, or impede official proceedings. These defendants did exactly that on Jan. 6. (3/5)
Each year, my office puts together an End of Year Report, so Orange County families can see how I’m representing them.
As we ring in the #NewYear this weekend, here are some of my favorite accomplishments of 2023 ⤵️ (1/9)
My job is to help Orange County families, and I'm grateful to work with such an effective team. We introduced dozens of bills, took hundreds of meetings, responded to thousands of messages, and delivered millions owed to Californians by federal agencies. (2/9)
The infant formula crisis devastated our supply chain and hurt families. This year, I teamed up with @RepLisaMcClain to hold corporations and @US_FDA accountable. Our bill would add new safeguards to keep contaminated formula out of grocery stores. (3/9) wsj.com/health/healthc…
Drug companies and their enablers keep trying to convince the American people that lowering drug prices is somehow bad for patients. I’ve debunked these myths over and over. Here are some highlights 🧵
First Republic Bank was taken over by @FDICgov and sold overnight—the third bank failure in two months. I’ll dive deeper into what Congress can do, but first let me say this: Americans' money in the banking system remains safe and deposits up to $250,000 are fully insured. 🧵🔽
These recent bank failures were avoidable.
The Fed’s report on #SiliconValleyBank's collapse pointed to bank mismanagement and the 2018 rollback of financial safeguards, among other issues.
I wrote two bills to prevent this from happening again. (2/5)
In 2018, Congress overturned banking regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. I called it out at the time for exactly what it was—catering to Wall Street. I’ve introduced the #SVBAct to restore these critical protections. (3/5)